Bimbo Protocol

Browser lacks capabilities required to play.

Upgrade or switch to another browser.

Loading…

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "114 Dovehurst">> The ground floor is one long room again, the way it was built to be, with forty chairs stacked against the wall and a radiator that works. <<elseif $player.unlocks.renovated>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg" "114 Dovehurst">> Plastered, wired, and swept. It smells of new paint and old water. It is not finished but it is no longer condemned. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg" "114 Dovehurst">> Four floors of somebody else's ending. The stairs are sound, the roof is not, and there is a stud wall on the second floor that is nine inches out of true with every other wall in the building. <</if>>\ <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[HQ Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[HQ Activities]]>>\ <<if $player.fame gte 15>>\ <h2>Clients</h2> <<include [[HQ Clients]]>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.archive>><<PNav "Archive">><</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.gym>><<PNav "HQGym">><</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.studio>><<PNav "HQStudio">><</if>>\ <<PNav "Dovehurst">><<PNav "Sublet">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg" "Dovehurst Street">> It was a Tuesday in the last week of June and the car was parked on the wrong side, half on the crossing, engine running, with a driver in it who had done this before. She got out of the back. Forty-five, no coat because it was warm, a bag she carried like it had nothing in it. She did not look at the tyre place or at Sorel Print or at you standing in your own doorway with a box of chairs. She had come for the meeting. Camille's third report had gone in on the Friday and had said the thing they wanted it to say about somebody, and the somebody was not you, and Adrienne Kessler had got in a car. "$player.firstName." "You could have called." "I did call. You said no, and then one of my Guides resigned on a Friday night by email at eleven o'clock with a two-line resignation and no notice, and I have had four of those in six years and I remember all of them." She stopped six feet away, which was deliberate. "I came to see the room. I want to see the room she resigned for." You did not say anything, because you had been waiting for this since a Tuesday in March and now that it was here it was only a woman on a pavement. She looked past you. Through the open door, down the forty-one feet of hall to the back, the chairs stacked four deep, the radiator, the paint. Then she stepped back to take it in properly. And her eyes went up, the way everybody's eyes go up when they step back from a building, up the brick, to the door head, and to the cast-iron numerals above it that somebody had bothered to paint once. <hr> [[Wait|Act One End]]

<<run AddEvent("Player", "ActOneEnd"); AddFame(2); AddHours(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg" "114">> "One." She said it out loud, which she would not have wanted to. "One. One. Four." Her hand went to the bag strap and stopped there. The driver's window was down and the engine was running and neither of those things changed. For eleven seconds Adrienne Kessler stood on Dovehurst Street and did the arithmetic that a woman does when a disposal schedule she signed without reading turns out to have had an address on it. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ "Four thousand dollars." Very quietly, to herself first, and then to you. "You wrote forty testimonials for my company in February. In March you closed on this building." "Yes." "You bought it with our money." "I bought it with mine. Four of eighteen was yours." "Four of eighteen." She said the numbers back the way an auditor does, and you understood, standing there in the warm evening in front of your own door, that you had handed her the only sentence in this whole thing that is easy to say to a judge. "You understand that I now have a paid engagement, an invoice, a payment, and a purchase. In that order. Twenty-nine days apart." "I came here to see a room." She was already turning. "I'm going to go and be extremely calm about this for about a month." <<else>>\ "How much did you pay for it?" "Eighteen." "Eighteen thousand dollars." "It was on a sheet taped to the door. It had your signature on the deed." She was quiet for a moment. "Yes. It would have." And then, and this is the part you did not expect and did not enjoy, she laughed once, short, entirely without pleasure, at herself. "Four years. Every quarter it came round on the schedule and every quarter I signed the schedule." She looked up at the numerals again. "I sat in that room. Second floor, front, over the street. Eleven months." "I know." "You don't, but you will." She got the door of the car open and stood in it. "I'm not going to do anything this week. I want you to know that it isn't mercy. It's that I do this properly and properly takes about a month." <</if>>\ The car pulled off the crossing and went left onto Fourth and the street was just the street again, and the box of chairs was still in your arms, and there were nine reels behind a wall upstairs and you had opened five. <hr> <div class="p-title">\ <div class="p-title__mark">BimboProtocol</div>\ <div class="p-title__sub">End of Act I · version $versionLabel</div>\ <div class="p-title__rule"></div>\ </div> <h4>0.2</h4> She knows. Act II is what she does about it, and what it costs Camille Ostrowski, and the four reels behind the timber. Everything you have built is saved. You can keep playing, the sessions, the meetings, the building, the tapes you have, and 0.2 will pick up your file where this left it. <hr> Thank you for playing. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">><<PNav "Dovehurst">><<PNav "Sublet">>

<<set _any to false>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia and not $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Nadia · Tuesday 19:00 · <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>114 Dovehurst<<else>>Sorel Print<</if>></div>\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip and not $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Pip · Thursday 16:00 · <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>114 Dovehurst<<else>>Coffeehouse Nine<</if>></div>\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille and not $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Camille · Sunday 11:00 · Flatiron</div>\ <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen")>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Weekly meeting · Friday 18:00 · <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>114 Dovehurst<<else>>The Long Hour<</if>></div>\ <</if>>\ <<if TapesLeft() gt 0>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item"><<print TapesLeft()>> tape<<if TapesLeft() gt 1>>s<</if>> still to work through.</div>\ <</if>>\ <<if not _any>>\ <div class="p-agenda__item">Nothing booked.</div>\ <</if>>

<<run $player.unlocks.archive to true; $player.tapes.found to 5; AddHours(3)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg" "The archive">> It came away in one sheet, because it had been screwed and not nailed, which meant whoever built it had expected to take it down again. Behind it, a room. Not a cavity. A room, four feet ten by nine, with the original window bricked up and a light fitting on a length of flex that somebody had taped to a joist, and a floor that had been swept. Shelves on the long wall. A tape deck on the bottom shelf under a dust sheet that had been folded, not thrown. Nine reels in flat card boxes with the dates written on the edges in a hand you had seen photocopied four hundred times, and five of the nine were sitting out where a person could reach them and four had been pushed to the back behind a length of timber. A shoebox. In the shoebox: forty-one pages of foolscap in the same hand, and about a third of them were numbered 31 to 40 and about two thirds of them were something else that you did not recognise at all. And on the shelf at eye height, where you could not possibly not see it, a single sheet of copy paper, folded once, with nothing on the outside. Inside, four lines, typed on the machine that had typed the manual, and the serifs were sharp because this copy had never been photocopied by anybody. If you are reading this you have taken a wall down in a building you had no business buying. The five are on the first page and they are not the work. The work is what you do in the eleven minutes after she stops talking. Start with tape one. Do them in order. I got them in the wrong order and it cost a woman two years. Don't do it the way I did it at the end. You sat down on the swept floor of a room that had been sealed for four years and you did not move for a long time, and outside on Dovehurst Street the tyre place pulled its shutter down and it started raining again. <hr> Five of the nine reels are within reach. The other four are behind the timber and the timber is holding the shelf up. <hr> <<PNav "Archive">><<PNav "HQ">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* RENOVATION — included from HQ Activities */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen"); AddHours(1); AddFame(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "The Long Hour · back room">> She had left the message with the man in the laundromat, on paper, because she does not have your number and has not asked for it. The back room of The Long Hour was twelve chairs, a card table, a radiator that knocked and a door onto the alley. It smelled of the eighteen years of function it had served. "Friday, six o'clock, until eight. It's dead in here Fridays until nine and it has been dead in here Fridays until nine since 2019, so you are not costing me anything and I want that understood." "What do you want for it?" "Twenty dollars a head is what you'll charge and none of it is mine. What I want is that they can get a drink after and that nobody uses the alley door as a front door." She put the key on the card table and did not hand it to you. "And when you can hold it in your own building, you hold it in your own building. Don't get sentimental about my back room. It's a back room." <hr> Fridays. Six o'clock. Twenty dollars a head. <hr> <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Street">><<PNav "Sublet">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* WEEKLY EVENTS — included at the end of every meeting */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bedroom.jpg">> A mattress, a lamp, and a shoebox of cassettes you have never been able to play. <hr> <h2>Activities</h2> [[Sleep until morning|Sleep]] <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<set $clients.bex to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<run AddHours(1); AddCash(220); AddFame(1); AddEvent("Bex", "First"); $clients.bex.dayCounter to 6>>\ <<Pool 17>> She is sitting on the step with a tote bag on her knees and she stands up too fast when the door opens, and apologises for standing up. "Sorry... sorry, is this a bad... I can come back, I don't have an appointment, I know you probably do appointments." "I do appointments. This is one. Come in." Bex Halloran, twenty-six. She does dispatch for a plumbing outfit on Third Avenue, six-thirty to three, which means she talks to about ninety people a day and is not present in a single one of those conversations. She got a flyer off somebody's fridge. Her friend was supposed to come with her and didn't. She takes the chair and says sorry again about the chair. "How much do you make an hour?" "...That's the first question?" "It's the first question." "Twenty-one fifty." "And what should you be making?" She opens her mouth and shuts it. You wait. You have got much better at waiting. "Twenty-six. There's a girl started in November on twenty-four and she can't run the board on a Friday. I have to fix her Fridays." "How long have you known that?" "Since November." You do not say anything, and she fills it, which is what she does, and this time she hears herself do it. "I know. I know what you're doing. My roommate owes me eleven hundred dollars and I have never once... I //made her a spreadsheet//. I made a spreadsheet so I wouldn't have to say a number out loud, and then I never sent it." She laughs, and it goes wrong in the middle. "I thought this was going to be about, I don't know. Hair." "It might get to hair. Not this week." You take her through the fifth Principle, which is the one that sounds like a massage and is actually a demand. Let yourself be taken care of. You cannot be taken care of by people who have never been told the number. You tell her the whole architecture of it, and then you make her do the only part that matters, which is to say the sentence. "Twenty-six. Say it and then stop talking." "Twenty-six, and I know that's a big..." "No. Say it and then stop talking." It takes her nine goes. On the ninth she says //twenty-six// and closes her mouth and looks at you, and the silence goes on for about four seconds and she visibly survives it. "Oh, that's horrible." "Yes." "That's really horrible. Can I do it about the eleven hundred as well?" "Do the eleven hundred first. It's smaller and you're allowed to practise on somebody who has already done something wrong." She pays you out of the tote bag, in twenties, counted twice, and then she counts them a third time on the step outside where she thinks you cannot see her through the plywood. <<Cash 220>> for the hour. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddHours(1); AddCash(300); AddFame(1); AddEvent("Bex", "Second"); $clients.bex.dayCounter to 10>>\ <<Pool 41>> She does not apologise for the chair. It is the first thing you notice and you decide not to mention it, because a woman who has been told she is doing better starts doing it on purpose and then it stops being real. "So I did it." "Which one?" "Both. Obviously both. You knew it'd be both." The roommate paid four hundred of the eleven hundred and set up a standing transfer for the rest, and cried, and Bex reports the crying with an expression that is about sixty per cent guilt and forty per cent something she has not had a word for before. The raise was worse. "He said twenty-four. And I did the... I did the thing. I said twenty-six and I shut up. And he did this face, and then he said fine, twenty-six, and then he said //you should have asked in November//..." "And?" "And I've been sick about it for nine days!" She puts her hands over her face. "I got everything I asked for and I've been sick about it for nine days. What is that? What is wrong with me?" "Nothing's wrong with you. You've spent twenty-six years buying goodwill and you just found out the exchange rate was made up. That's a bereavement. You're allowed nine days." She looks up. "How many days do I get?" "Nine. You've had them." You spend the rest of the hour on the part nobody warns them about: that the first ask is the easy one, because it is a story about courage, and the second ask is the hard one, because by then it is just admin. You give her one thing to do, a small, tedious, specific thing involving her hours and a form her company has and does not advertise, and she writes it down on her hand. "Can I ask something and you not be weird about it." "Go on." "The Friday thing. The meeting. Is it... are they all like, //fixed//? Because I don't want to sit in a room with thirty women who've got it sorted." "Nobody in that room has it sorted. That's the entry requirement." She pays you three hundred, which is more than you asked for, and does it in a way that makes it very difficult to give any of it back. <<Cash 300>> for the hour. "I'm bringing Danielle. She's worse than me. She's //so// much worse than me." <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<Pool 17>> <h2>Bex Halloran</h2> Twenty-six. Dispatch for a plumbing contractor on Third Avenue, six-thirty to three, ninety phone calls a day and not present in one of them. Found a flyer on somebody's fridge and came on her own after the friend who was supposed to come with her didn't. Her problem is not confidence and it is not her hair. She cannot state a number. Everything else she has, and she has a lot, is downstream of that. <hr> <h3>Events</h3> <<Progress "Bex" "First">> Came to the step without an appointment. <<Progress "Bex" "Second">> Asked, got it, and was sick about it for nine days. <hr> <<if $clients.bex and $clients.bex.dayCounter gt 0>>\ Bex will be back in <<print $clients.bex.dayCounter>> day<<if $clients.bex.dayCounter gt 1>>s<</if>>. <<elseif $clients.bex and not CheckEvent("Bex", "Second")>>\ She will turn up at 114 Dovehurst again on her own. She always does. <<else>>\ She says she is bringing somebody called Danielle, who is worse. <</if>>\ <hr> [[Back to the journal|Journal]] /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* ROTATING CLIENTS — MARGO SUN */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddCash(-18000)>>\ <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddCash(-6000); $player.mortgage += 12000>>\ <<else>>\ <<run AddCash(-18000); AddCash(900)>>\ <</if>>\ <<run $player.unlocks.building to true; $player.introComplete to true; AddEvent("Player", "Bought"); SetHours(11); SetMinutes(0); AddDays(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg" "114 Dovehurst Street">> It took nineteen minutes in a room on the fourth floor of a building on Court Street, with a notary who did not look up and a woman from the title company who called it the parcel eight times. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ You paid it outright. <<Cash 18000>> left your account in one movement and the balance afterwards was a number you had not seen since you were twenty-three, and you owed nothing to anyone, and that turned out to be worth more than the money. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ You put <<Cash 6000>> down and signed a note for <<Cash 12000>> at $220 a week against the parcel, because a building with no money in it is a building you lose in April. The woman from the title company said it was the first seller-financed note she had ever seen written for a five-figure number and that she was going to frame the copy. <<else>>\ Delphine came. She wore the good coat and she said nothing at all for nineteen minutes except her own name, and when the title company started listing the transfer taxes and the recording fees she took out a card and paid the <<Cash 900>> before you had finished working out that you could not. "On the same tab. Don't make a face about it." <</if>>\ Then the keys, which were not keys but a four-digit code for the lockbox, and the woman from the title company shook your hand and said congratulations in the voice of somebody who does that eleven times a day. Marisol emailed the executed copy at 11:04. You read it on the pavement on Court Street with the phone shaking slightly in your hand. Under GRANTOR it said LUMEN INSTITUTE INC, and under it, on the signature line, in a clean flat electronic hand, A. Kessler, for the corporation. She had signed it herself and she had not read the address. <hr> [[Take the R back to Brooklyn|Walkthrough 1]]

<<if not CheckEvent("Player", "NadiaMet")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> You called the 212 number at ten past nine and got a paralegal who put you on hold for eleven minutes and came back to say the file needed a proof of intent before they would open a closing window: a business name, an address to serve at, and something printed with both on it. Printed. There was a print shop two doors from the building and you had never once been inside it. <hr> [[Walk down to Dovehurst and get a price|Prologue Flyers]] <<PNav "Sublet">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> The paralegal was called Marisol and had clearly been given the file the way you get given a coat at a party. She read the reference number back twice, said as-is, no contingency, no walkthrough three times, and then asked how you wanted to structure it, which was not a question you had expected anybody to ask a man with your bank balance. <h4>Eighteen thousand dollars</h4> On hand: <<Cash $player.cash>>. <hr> <<if $player.cash gte 18000 and not CheckEvent("Player", "DelphineFront")>>\ <<link "Pay it outright (-$18,000)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "Buy Complete">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 6000>>\ <<link "Six thousand down and carry the rest on a note (-$6,000)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "Buy Complete">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "DelphineFront") and $player.cash gte 18000>>\ <<link "Close it on Delphine's terms (-$18,000)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "Buy Complete">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<PNav "Sublet">> <</if>>\

[[Buy a coffee (-$5, 20 minutes)|Cafe Coffee]] [[Take a table and work on the pages (2 hours)|Cafe Work]]

<<run AddMinutes(20); AddCash(-5)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/CoffeehouseBar.jpg">> Filter, no room. The girl on the machine has your order memorised and has never once used your name, which you find restful and slightly insulting. <hr> <<PNav "Cafe">>

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers") and not Known("pip")>>\ [[Pip Intro]] <</if>>\ <<if Known("pip") and not $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<if GameDayIs("Thursday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 16>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Hub" "Pip" "Thursday session">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Pip" "Pip's session is Thursday at 16:00.">>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if Known("okonkwo") and $npcs.okonkwo.dayCounter is 0 and BetweenTime(8, 11) and not IsWeekend()>>\ <<PEvent true "Okonkwo Talk" "Okonkwo" "Inspector Okonkwo, folder squared, table by the window.">>\ <</if>>\

<<run AddHours(2)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Two hours at the wobbly table with the pages fanned out and a pencil. You are not reading them. You have read them. You are doing the thing you have done for two years, which is checking whether the order you have decided they go in still makes sense on a Tuesday. <<if $player.tapes.pages>>\ It does, now. It did not before you had thirty-one to forty. The manual has an argument in it and the argument was missing its second half for four years and everyone who ever quoted the thing at you was quoting a sentence with no verb. <<elseif CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers")>>\ Somewhere between twenty-eight and forty-one, the argument goes sideways and comes back different. You have written //what happened here?// in the margin three separate times in three different years. <<else>>\ You get through eleven pages and spend the rest of it doing arithmetic in the back of the notebook that will not come to eighteen thousand no matter which way you sort it. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Cafe">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* SOREL PRINT */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "AskFriday"); AddHours(2); AddFame(2); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1)>>\ She took the Friday. She stood at the front of a room she had written nine pages against and did forty minutes on the fourth Principle without a note. Afterwards, at the back, she said: "I have taught eleven hundred hours and that is the first one I would have paid to attend." <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "AskIntake"); AddHours(2)>>\ <<if Ask("camille", 8)>>\ <<run AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 2); AddFame(1)>>\ Two hours, a legal pad, and the eleven questions in order with the scoring logic written out beside them in her handwriting. "You are going to use three of these and throw the rest away, and the three you keep will be four, six and nine." "Why those?" "Because they are the three he would have kept. I have been sitting across from you for a month, $player.firstName. I know whose student you are." <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 1)>>\ "No." "And I am going to tell you why, because you will otherwise decide I was being precious. That instrument is proprietary, it is the thing they can most easily prove I gave you, and you asked me for it in a public room four weeks into knowing me." "When you have earned it, ask again. I will probably say yes. That is what the waiting is for." <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "AskNames"); AddHours(1)>>\ <<if Ask("camille", 15)>>\ <<run AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); AddFame(3); AddEvent("Camille", "Roster")>>\ She did not give you the book. She gave you four initials and four neighbourhoods, on a page she watched you memorise and then took back and put in her bag. "Those four are leaving anyway. I am not sending you anybody who is being helped, and if you ever ask me to, we are finished." "Understood." "Say it like you mean it, not like you're closing a session." <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("camille", "happiness", -1)>>\ "No, and I am going to be unpleasant about this one." "You are asking me to solicit clients from my own employer's book, which is the specific act named in the specific clause that would cost me four hundred thousand dollars. You know that, because I told you in this chair three weeks ago. So the question is not whether I will. It is whether you were hoping I had forgotten." She let the silence run, using your own thing on you, correctly. "Do not ask me that again this month." <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<h2>Ask Camille for something</h2> <<if $bimbos.camille.bimbo gte 8 and not CheckEvent("Camille", "AskIntake")>>\ [[Ask her to teach you their intake properly|Camille Ask Intake]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille.bimbo gte 14 and not CheckEvent("Camille", "AskNames")>>\ [[Ask her for names off the Flatiron book|Camille Ask Names]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete and not CheckEvent("Camille", "AskFriday")>>\ [[Ask her to take a Friday|Camille Ask Friday]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille.bimbo lt 8>>\ <div class="p-locked">You have nothing to ask her for that would not simply be a favour, and she does not do favours yet.</div> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She did not come on the Sunday. She did not come on the Sunday after that either, and you did what you were told and did not go to the studio and did not write, and on the Thursday of the third week she was outside the bar at closing with her hands in her pockets. "They found the notebook." "How." "Because I got sloppy, and I got sloppy because I was tired, and I was tired because for six weeks I have been doing my job and then doing a second thing on a Sunday and lying about it on Mondays." She said it evenly. She was not accusing you. That was somehow worse. "They did it properly. Two people in the room, a letter already drafted, and a security escort to the lift with my cardigan in a box. Eleven minutes, start to finish." "What do they have?" "Enough. Not everything, because the second half is at my sister's, but enough that when they file, and they will file, the words Dovehurst Street are in a paragraph with the words coordinated and solicitation." She looked past you into the bar, at twelve chairs and a card table. "I pushed too fast because you kept asking, and I kept saying yes because I did not want to be the person who said no to you." A beat. "That is the exact failure mode your own pages warn about. Page forty-one. I checked." <<run AddEvent("Camille", "Defect"); AddEvent("Camille", "DefectCaught"); AddEvent("Player", "LumenLitigation"); $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete to true; AddStat("camille", "happiness", -1); AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 3); $player.expenses += 120; AddHours(1) >>\ <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She was early. She had a box. Not a dramatic box. A paper carrier from a shop, with a cardigan folded on top of it, because a woman carrying a cardigan out of an office on a Wednesday is a woman going to the dry cleaner. "I resigned at four o'clock on Wednesday. I gave the correct notice, I was pleasant, I signed the acknowledgement, and I took nothing that is theirs." "And the notebook?" "The notebook is mine. Every word in it is in my handwriting and none of it is in their system, and their counsel is welcome to explain to a judge why a clinician's own contemporaneous notes are their property." She set the carrier down. "I have thought about that sentence for eight months. It is the best sentence I have ever built." She had done it the way she does everything: early, exact, and with the paperwork already correct. "I am unemployed, I am probably being sued by Friday, and I would like to sit in on your Tuesday because I have never once watched somebody do intake properly and I intend to learn it." "You'll be at the Friday too." "I will be at the Friday too." <<run AddEvent("Camille", "Defect"); AddEvent("Camille", "DefectClean"); $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete to true; AddStat("camille", "trust", 2); AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 5); AddFame(3); $player.income += 90; AddHours(2) >>\ <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "DefectClean")>>\ She is out, clean, on her own timing, with a notebook that is legally hers and a lawyer she found herself. <<else>>\ She is out, badly, and there is a filing with your street name in it. <</if>>\ <hr> [[Ask her for something|Camille Asks]] <<if $bimbos.camille.happiness lt 5>>\ [[Something needs saying|Camille Repair]] <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* ASKS AND REPAIR */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<if $bimbos.camille.dayCounter is 0 and CheckEvent("Camille", "Session3") and not CheckEvent("Camille", "MsgLate") and $gameDate.getHours() gte 21>>\ <<run AddEvent("Camille", "MsgLate")>>\ [[A message from a number you have not saved|Camille Message]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille.happiness lte 3 and $player.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[You should sort things out with Camille|Camille Repair]] <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete>>\ <<include [[Camille Done]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session4")>>\ <<include [[Camille Session 5]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session3")>>\ <<include [[Camille Session 4]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session2")>>\ <<include [[Camille Session 3]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session1")>>\ <<include [[Camille Session 2]]>>\ <<else>>\ <<include [[Camille Session 1]]>>\ <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 1 — she is interviewing you */ /* ==================================================================== */

She was still there when the room emptied. Standing by the radiator with her coat over her arm and the notebook shut, and she waited until the last woman had gone out through the bar before she came down the room. "I've been writing a report on you." "I know." "You don't." She said it without heat. "Camille Ostrowski. I'm a Guide at the Flatiron studio. Six years. I have filed three reports on this room and the third one took me nine days because I could not get it to say the thing they want it to say." "Which is?" "That it's unsafe. That it's a man with no credential and no supervision doing clinical work on vulnerable women in the back of a bar." She looked at the twelve chairs. "I've written that sentence forty times. It's a good sentence. It's the sentence I would write about you if I had not come three weeks running." "So write it." "I'm going to." She put the notebook in her bag. "I'm telling you because you said, in front of twenty-six people, that there is a thing you don't understand well enough to teach. Nobody at my company has said a sentence like that out loud since I started there, and I have started to think about that more than is convenient for me." She wrote a number on a page, tore it, and put it on the card table rather than into your hand. "Sundays I'm at the studio doing intake until eleven and then nobody knows where I am until two. That is the only gap there is." <<set $bimbos.camille to clone($bimboTemplate)>>\ <<run AddEvent("Camille", "Contact"); AddFame(1)>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* THE LUMEN THREAD */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddMinutes(10); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1)>>\ <<audio "Rec" play>>\ No name, no greeting, no sign-off, sent at eleven forty at night. "Question nine of our intake is describe a time you were taken care of. In six years I have never had a client answer it without crying and I have never once thought about why we put it ninth instead of first." Two minutes later: "Because ninth is after they are tired. Do not reply to this." <hr> <<PBack>>

<<if not Ask("camille", 16)>>\ "No." Flat, immediate, and entirely without embarrassment, which is its own kind of lesson. "I want to be exact about why, because you are going to reach for a reason and pick the wrong one. It is not that I do not want to. It is that I am four days from doing the single most dangerous thing of my life, on your advice, and if I sleep with you tonight then every decision I make next week has a reason in it that I cannot audit." "That's fair." "It is more than fair, it is correct, and you knew it before you asked. That is the part I would like you to sit with." <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">> <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("camille", "slut", 6); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); AddHours(3)>>\ <<Pool 29>> She said "I am going to regret the timing of this and not the fact of it," and then did not say anything else for a while. There was no part of it that either of you could pretend was an accident. She is a woman who scores things for a living and she had scored this one before she came out, and afterwards, lying with her arm over her eyes in a rented room, she said: "On Wednesday I am going to resign, and on Wednesday night I am going to be very frightened, and I wanted one thing this week that I chose." "That's the fifth Principle." "Don't." A pause. "...Yes. I know. Don't." <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">> <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 5 — the defection, branched on trust */ /* ==================================================================== */

<h2>Camille</h2> <<switch $bimbos.camille.happiness>>\ <<case 5>>She is as settled as she gets. <<case 4>>Something is unresolved and she has filed it rather than raised it. <<case 3>>She is being professional at you, which from her is a punishment. <<case 2>>She is answering messages in one line and not on Sundays. <<default>>She has stopped explaining herself to you, which is the end state. <</switch>>\ <hr> <<if $bimbos.camille.happiness gte 5>>\ Nothing to fix. <<else>>\ <<if HasTechnique("reframe")>>\ [[Say the true version out loud (1 hour)|Camille Repair Talk]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">You do not know how to do this yet, and with her there is no version you can buy.</div> <</if>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 300>>\ <div class="p-locked">Money is not a currency she accepts and offering it would cost you more.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddHours(1); AddStat("camille", "happiness", 2)>>\ You did not apologise. You said what you were trying to do, and then what you actually did, and then you stopped talking, which was the hard part. "Yes. That is what happened." She thought about it. "You understand that I can see the technique while you are doing it." "I know." "It works anyway. I find that genuinely disturbing and I would like it on the record." <hr> <<PBack>> /* ==================================================================== */ /* EVENT FEEDS */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She was there before you, in the window seat, with a coffee she had not touched and the notebook face down on the table. She had come from intake and was still dressed for it: something grey and expensive that did not photograph as expensive. "I want to be clear about what this is. You are not coaching me. I am interviewing you, and I am going to keep interviewing you until I know which of three things you are." "Which three?" "A fraud. A liability. Or the real thing, which would be much worse for me personally than either of the other two." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Credential")>>\ [[Let her ask about your credentials|Camille Session 1 Credential]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Ethics")>>\ [[Let her ask about him|Camille Session 1 Ethics]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Turn")>>\ [[Ask her a question back|Camille Session 1 Turn]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Credential") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Ethics") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Turn")>>\ [[Close|Camille Session 1 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Camille", "S1Credential"); RemoveEvent("Camille", "S1Ethics"); RemoveEvent("Camille", "S1Turn"); AddEvent("Camille", "Session1"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); $bimbos.camille.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1) >>\ "Same time next week. I'm still interviewing you." "Understood." "And $player.firstName, if anyone from my company ever asks, we have never met, and I will say it in a way you would find extremely convincing." <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 2 — the two-hander */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S1Credential"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); AddMinutes(25)>>\ "What are you qualified in." "Nothing." "Say the whole sentence." "I have no qualification of any kind. I have sixty photocopied pages, nine reels of tape, and about four hundred hours of listening to them." "Thank you." She wrote it down, and you noticed she wrote it in full, verbatim, rather than summarising it, which is what somebody does when they intend to be able to prove what was said. "For the file. You should assume everything you say to me is going in a file until I tell you otherwise, and you should notice that I just told you that, which I was not obliged to do." "Noted." "I have a master's in organisational psychology and six years of supervised practice, and I would not trust me with your Tuesday either." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 1]]

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S1Ethics"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 2); AddMinutes(30)>>\ "The man who wrote your pages. He slept with his clients." "Some of them. Yes." "You said that very fast." "You'd have caught me if I'd said it slowly." She almost smiled and put it away before it arrived. "Then defend it." "I'm not going to." "...That's not an answer." "It's the only honest one I've got. He was running an unlicensed practice out of a building on Dovehurst Street and he was sleeping with women who were paying him to tell them who to be. There is no version of that I can hand you where it comes out clean. I've listened to nine tapes looking for the version and it isn't on them." "And yet." "And yet it worked, and I've got the pages, and the alternative on offer is your employer." That landed somewhere. She turned her cup around a half turn. "You understand that I could write down everything you just said and end you with it." "Yes." "Why did you say it, then." "Because you already knew, and the only thing I had to offer you was finding out what I'd do when you asked." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 1]]

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S1Turn"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); AddMinutes(20)>>\ "Three weeks running, in the back of a bar, in the rain, on your own time. What's the report actually for?" "I'm not the client here." "You're sitting in the chair." "That is a very cheap technique and I teach a version of it on Tuesdays." But she did not get up. "Compliance asked for a competitive assessment. Two paragraphs. I have written nine pages." "Why?" "Because two paragraphs would have been finished three weeks ago." She heard it as she said it. You watched a very controlled woman hear her own sentence and decide, visibly, not to take it back. <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 1]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She had brought Lumen's intake protocol, printed, which is a firing offence on its own, and she put it on the table between you like a chess move. "You show me yours." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Theirs")>>\ [[Let her run their version on you|Camille Session 2 Theirs]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Yours")>>\ [[Run his version on her|Camille Session 2 Yours]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Diff")>>\ [[Name the difference out loud|Camille Session 2 Diff]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Theirs") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Yours") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Diff")>>\ [[Close|Camille Session 2 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Camille", "S2Theirs"); RemoveEvent("Camille", "S2Yours"); RemoveEvent("Camille", "S2Diff"); AddEvent("Camille", "Session2"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); $bimbos.camille.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1); AddFame(1) >>\ She took the printed protocol back, and then stopped, and pushed it across to you instead. "I have not given you that." "You haven't given me that." "Good." <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 3 — the notes */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S2Diff"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 2); AddMinutes(25)>>\ "Say the difference." "Ours produces a number. Yours produces an answer." "Keep going." "A number can be aggregated. An answer can't. You cannot build eleven studios on answers, because an answer only works if somebody is in the room and means it, and meaning it does not scale." She looked out of the window at her own building. "So you take the thing that works, and you find the part of it that scales, and you sell that part, and you tell yourself the rest was never the active ingredient." "Was it?" "It was the whole ingredient." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 2]]

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S2Theirs"); AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 2); AddMinutes(30)>>\ She ran the Lumen intake on you and she was extremely good at it. Eleven questions in a fixed order, each one scored one to five, and by question six you had told a stranger in a coffee shop about your father's second bankruptcy without ever noticing the door you had been walked through. Her tone never changed. Her pen never stopped. "Presentation standards: two. Service orientation: four, which is not a compliment. Peak capacity: three. Positive affect management: one, and I would flag that. Receptivity training: unscoreable, you did something to question nine." "That was extraordinary." "It's a good instrument." "It's a magnificent instrument. Where does the number go?" "...Into the renewal model." She said that a half-second slower than she said anything else all morning. <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 2]]

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S2Yours"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 2); AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 3); AddMinutes(35)>>\ His intake is on the second tape and it is not eleven questions. It is three, and he says on the tape that two of them are decoration. "What do you want." "For this to be over by two." "What do you want." "You've asked that." You did not ask it a third time, because the tape says do not, and you did not fill the silence either, and the silence went on for a very long time in a coffee shop on West 23rd on a Sunday morning. "I want to not be frightened on Sunday nights." She put her pen down flat, which she had not done once. "That is a disgusting piece of engineering. Three questions. No instrument, no scoring, no file. And it got a truer answer out of me in ninety seconds than I have got out of a client in six years." "He says on the tape that two of them are decoration." "They're not decoration. They're the wait." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 2]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She was late, which she had never been, by nineteen minutes, and she arrived without a coat in March. "I've been keeping something and I'm going to show you one page of it and then I am going to want to leave immediately, and I need you to let me." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Page")>>\ [[Look at the page|Camille Session 3 Page]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Pattern")>>\ [[Ask what the pattern is|Camille Session 3 Pattern]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Cost")>>\ [[Ask what keeping it costs her|Camille Session 3 Cost]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Page") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Pattern") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Cost")>>\ [[Close|Camille Session 3 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Camille", "S3Page"); RemoveEvent("Camille", "S3Pattern"); RemoveEvent("Camille", "S3Cost"); AddEvent("Camille", "Session3"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); $bimbos.camille.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1) >>\ She left at twelve twenty, nineteen minutes early, exactly as she had said she would need to, and you let her, exactly as she had asked. She stopped on the pavement outside the window and stood for a second with her back to you before she crossed. Then she crossed, and went into her own building on a Sunday, and the lightbox by the lift listed the five standards at her as she went past. <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 4 — the cost */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S3Cost"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 2); AddMinutes(25)>>\ "What does keeping that notebook cost you?" "If it is found: my job, my licence in this state for practical purposes, and about four hundred thousand dollars, because the non-compete has a liquidated damages clause and Lumen has enforced it twice." "And if you stop keeping it?" She looked at you for a long moment. "That's the better question and I would like you to not have asked it." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 3]]

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S3Page"); AddEvent("Camille", "Notes"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 2); AddStat("camille", "happiness", -1); AddMinutes(30)>>\ One page, handwritten, from a notebook that plainly has a great many pages in it. Twenty-two lines. Each line is a set of initials, a date, a renewal decision, and one word. The words are things like tired, litigious, heavy, asks questions, photographs badly. "These are the ones you let lapse." "These are the ones the model deprioritises for renewal outreach, which is a different sentence and means the same thing." "Whose word is heavy?" "Mine." She took the page back. "That's why I keep it. Not because they wrote it. Because I did, in a box, on a form, about a woman who cried in my office, and then I went and had lunch." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 3]]

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S3Pattern"); AddEvent("Camille", "Roster"); AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 3); AddMinutes(25)>>\ "The pattern is that it is not clinical. We do not drop the women who are not improving. We keep those, they are the best revenue in the book. We drop the women who are improving and have started asking what the next tier is actually for." "Because they're about to leave anyway." "Because they're about to leave anyway, and a lapsed renewal you chose is a better number than a cancellation you didn't." She said it in the flat voice of a woman who has done the arithmetic more than once and got the same answer each time. "Four hundred and ten women in the Flatiron book. I can tell you the initials of about sixty of them who would be better off walking into your bar on a Friday, and I am not going to tell you any of them, and you are not going to ask me again." "I wasn't going to ask." "You were absolutely going to ask." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 3]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Wine.jpg">> Not the coffee place. She moved it, by message, at nine on the Saturday night, to a wine bar four stops away where nobody from her office would be, and she was in the back corner facing the door. "Somebody has asked me twice this week what I do on Sundays." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Who")>>\ [[Ask who|Camille Session 4 Who]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Leave")>>\ [[Ask what happens to a Guide who leaves|Camille Session 4 Leave]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Her")>>\ [[Ask about Kessler|Camille Session 4 Her]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Who") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Leave") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Her")>>\ [[Close|Camille Session 4 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Camille", "S4Who"); RemoveEvent("Camille", "S4Leave"); RemoveEvent("Camille", "S4Her"); AddEvent("Camille", "Session4"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); $bimbos.camille.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1) >>\ "Next Sunday I will either be there or I will have stopped answering, and if it is the second one you are not to come to the studio, and you are not to write to me, and you are to assume the worst version and act accordingly." "Camille." "Say understood." "Understood." <hr> <<if $bimbos.camille.trust gte 14 and $bimbos.camille.slut gte 6>>\ [[Don't let her go home yet|Camille Night]] <</if>>\ <<PNav "Flatiron">>

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S4Her"); AddEvent("Camille", "Kessler"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 2); AddMinutes(30)>>\ "Tell me about Kessler." "She is the best practitioner I have ever watched." That was not what you had braced for. "I have seen her take a room of forty and I have seen her do an intake, and she is better than me by a distance I have stopped finding motivating. She is not a cynic. She genuinely believes she rescued this method from a man who was going to get a woman killed with it, and there are eleven mornings a month when I think she is right." "And the other days?" "The other days I think she took it because she wanted it, and built the argument afterwards, and the argument is excellent." She turned her glass. "She was his client for eleven months, you know. It's in nobody's file. She told a room of Guides once, at an offsite, in a story about resilience, and I do not think she noticed what she had said." "What did she say?" "That there was a year of her life when somebody paid attention to her properly, and it ruined her for everything afterwards." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 4]]

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S4Leave"); AddStat("camille", "bimbo", 3); AddMinutes(30)>>\ "Two Guides have left the Flatiron studio since I started. The first one is selling real estate in Nyack. The second one had a non-solicit action filed against her eleven days after she resigned, settled for an amount she has never said, and does not answer messages." "They don't have to win." "They have never had to win. That is the entire design. The clause exists so that the conversation you are currently having with me is one that most people do not have." "And yet." "Stop saying and yet to me. It is my own technique and you are extremely annoying with it." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 4]]

<<run AddEvent("Camille", "S4Who"); AddStat("camille", "trust", 1); AddStat("camille", "happiness", -1); AddMinutes(25)>>\ "My regional. Once in a corridor, which is nothing, and once sitting down with the door shut, which is not." "What did you say?" "That I see my mother in Rockland." She drank. "My mother has been dead for four years and it is in my file, so either he did not read the file, or he did." "Which do you think?" "I think somebody at my company has been getting calls about a building on Dovehurst Street and has started drawing lines between things." <hr> [[Back|Camille Session 4]]

<<if $bimbos.camille.trust gte 13>>\ <<include [[Camille Defect Clean]]>>\ <<else>>\ <<include [[Camille Defect Caught]]>>\ <</if>>\

There was a woman at the back who did not take a chair from the stack. She came in four minutes late and stood against the wall by the radiator with her coat still on, and she had a notebook, a real one, and she wrote in it the entire time without once looking down at it. Twenty-nine, maybe. Pale, in the way of somebody who has been indoors under good lighting for six years. She left in the twenty seconds while you were taking a question about the second Principle. You did not see her go. You saw that she had gone. She had put twenty dollars in the tin on the way in. You checked.

She came back. Same wall, same notebook, coat off this time and folded over her arm, which is either a small trust or a small mistake. Grey. Expensive in the way that does not photograph. She wrote through the first thirty minutes and then, somewhere in the part about the third Principle, the paragraph in the manual that is angry, she stopped writing and did not start again. Afterwards, packing chairs, you found that she had left a page torn out and folded on the radiator. On it, in a small clean hand, one word with a question mark, and the word was Homework?

Third time, and this time somebody spoke to her. One of the regulars, the woman who argues about the fourth Principle every single week, turned round at the interval and asked her what she was writing, and you watched from eleven feet away as she said something short and pleasant and completely untrue, and the regular laughed and turned back round. She was good at it. That was the thing. She had produced a warm, easy, frictionless lie in half a second with her whole face, and she had not enjoyed doing it, and you saw the half-second afterwards where she did not enjoy it. She stayed to the end. When you said the fifth Principle out loud, and said that you did not understand it well enough to teach it yet, she looked up at you for the first time in three weeks. She left before the chairs.

<<if CheckEvent("Camille", "Session4") and not CheckEvent("Camille", "Defect") and $bimbos.camille.dayCounter lte 2 and not CheckEvent("Camille", "Dread")>>\ <<run AddEvent("Camille", "Dread")>>\ You woke at four and lay there working out what a woman with a non-compete and a notebook does on a Wednesday, and whether you had any right to have put her where she is. <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "DefectCaught") and not CheckEvent("Camille", "Filed")>>\ <<run AddEvent("Camille", "Filed")>>\ A courier envelope was under the shutter at 114 before you got there. Your street name is in the third paragraph. <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* JOURNAL */ /* ==================================================================== */

<img class="p-stat__img" @src="StatPath('camille')" alt=""> <h2>Camille Ostrowski</h2> Twenty-nine. A Guide at the Lumen Institute's Flatiron studio: six years, a master's in organisational psychology, and eleven hundred taught hours. She believed all of it, completely, until she started noticing which women the renewal model quietly lets go. <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "DefectClean")>>\ She resigned on her own timing, with correct notice and a notebook that is legally hers, and she is at the Friday meetings now. <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "DefectCaught")>>\ They found the notebook before she was ready. Eleven minutes from the room to the lift, and a filing with Dovehurst Street in the third paragraph. <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session4")>>\ Somebody at her company has asked her twice this week what she does on Sundays. <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Notes")>>\ She has been keeping her own notebook for eight months. It is a firing offence and probably a lawsuit. <<else>>\ She is interviewing you, and she will keep interviewing you until she knows which of three things you are. <</if>>\ <<PMeter "camille" "trust">> <<PMeter "camille" "bimbo">> <<PMeter "camille" "happiness">> <<PMeter "camille" "slut">> <h4>Where you have got to</h4> <<Progress "Camille" "Session1">> She interviewed you. <<Progress "Camille" "Session2">> Their intake against his. <<Progress "Camille" "Notes">> She showed you a page. <<Progress "Camille" "Kessler">> What Kessler said at an offsite. <<Progress "Camille" "Roster">> Names off the Flatiron book. <<Progress "Camille" "Defect">> She left Lumen. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<textbox "_code" "">> <<button "Enter">><<run CheckCode(_code)>><<goto "Sublet Desk">><</button>> [[Back|Sublet Desk]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine">> Nine tables, none of them level, and a machine that cost more than everything else in the room put together. There is a corkboard by the door with a lost cat on it from two summers ago and a card for a man who tunes pianos. Your flyer, when there is one, goes third row down, left, where people waiting for milk to steam actually look. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Cafe Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[Cafe Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Street">><<PNav "Subway">>

<<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ [[Take a night shift (+$300, back at 04:00)|Night Shift]] <<else>>\ [[Take a day of contract work (+$300, back at 18:00)|Day Work]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and GameDayIs("Friday")>>\ <<link "Skip ahead to tonight's meeting (18:00)">><<run SetHours(18)>><<goto "Weekly Meeting">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Sleep">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> A day of contract troubleshooting in Manhattan. Reports in the morning, a meeting after lunch, and a train home that smells of wet coats. You are $300 richer and you get back at six. <<run SetHours(18); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(300)>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<widget "DelphineDepthNote">><</widget>>\

<<run AddMinutes(30); $npcs.delphine.dayCounter to 1>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkBar")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg">> "How long have you had this place?" "Twenty-eight years in June." She says it the way you would say a shoe size. Then she puts the knife down, which you learn later is the tell. "Prospect had four bars when I bought it. There was a Polish place where the laundromat is. There was a room upstairs from the tyre shop that was not legally anything at all. And there was one on Dovehurst that didn't serve drinks and was still the busiest room on the street on a Friday." "A bar that didn't serve drinks." "I didn't say bar." She picks the knife back up. "Nine dollars, chéri. You can have the rest another day." <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkBuilding")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg">> "114 Dovehurst. What was it?" "You've seen it. Four floors and a bad roof." "That's not what I asked." "No." She wipes down two feet of bar that is already clean and does it slowly. "You want me to tell you what happened in there. I'll tell you what it sounded like instead, because that I know for certain. Fridays, from about seven, I would get the door going every four or five minutes. Women, mostly on their own, coming from the R. And I would get them again at ten, in twos and threes, and they'd be loud. Not drunk-loud. Loud like people who've been given permission to have a good time about something." She looks at the register. "I did my best week of the year, every year, on that room letting out. Then one year it didn't let out, and I lost eleven per cent, and I've never got it back. That's what 114 Dovehurst was. Eleven per cent." "You're telling me about your takings." "I'm telling you it was real. Anybody can tell you a story. I can tell you what it did to my books, and books don't get sentimental." <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bartender.jpg">> "Did he drink in here?" She does not ask who. That is the first thing you notice. The second is that she looks at the far end of the bar, at the seat past the taps, the one nobody takes because the vent is over it. Then she looks back at you a half-second late. "Not much. Two, sometimes. Never on a Friday." "What did he drink?" "You're asking the wrong thing." She refills your glass without being asked and does not ring it in. "He sat where the vent is. Everyone else moves. Three years, and I never once saw him take a better seat. I asked him about it, my second winter, and he said if you sit where the draught is you can see the door and everybody in the room at the same time, and nobody comes and sits beside you unless they mean to." "That's a strange way to drink." "That's a man who has arranged a room. I've watched a lot of people sit at that end of my bar, chéri. He is the only one who chose it." She takes your money this time. "You've been sitting on the third stool since March. Draught's on your left. I noticed." <<elseif $passageRoute is 4>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkFall")>>\ <<Pool 26>> "How did it actually end? Nobody I've asked can tell me. There was no fire, there was no scandal, there's nothing in the papers. It was just there and then it wasn't." "That is exactly how it ended. You've described it." "Delphine." She pours herself two fingers of the red, which she does about once a month. "You are expecting a night. A night where the police come, or a woman screams in the street, or somebody puts a brick through the window. I understand. I expected one too and I had a good seat for it." She drinks about a third of it. "What actually happened is that in April a letter came, and he told nobody. In June a second letter came, and he told two people, and one of them was his lawyer and one of them was not me. In August the sign came down off the door because a court told him the words on it were not his. Not the //building//. The //words//. In October he had eight women in a room that used to hold forty. In November he had four. In December the utilities went, and in January there was plywood." "That's nine months." "It is nine months of paperwork, and every single month of it was legal, and that is the part that nobody wants when they come in here asking. They want a villain in a car. I'm giving you a filing cabinet." She finishes the glass. "Nobody came in and turned the lights off, chéri. They stopped paying for the lights." <<elseif $passageRoute is 5>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkKessler")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Cocktail.jpg">> "Did you ever meet Adrienne Kessler?" "She sat at table four." You wait. She lets you wait, which is her whole method. "Twice a week for the best part of a year. Tonic and lime. Never a drink, not once, and I don't hold that against anybody, but she'd order it like it was a drink. She'd say //I'll take a tonic and lime// the way you'd order a martini. And she'd sit there before the room let out with a notebook, and she'd write." "Nobody thought that was odd?" "Half that room wrote things down. He //told// them to. He'd say the week is the work and the hour is where you find out what happened, and forty women would come out of that building with a notebook in their bag. She was the only one writing before she went in." She straightens a mat that does not need straightening. "I'll give her this. She tipped correctly. Every time, cash, no fuss, no performance about it. I have thought about that more than I would like to. A woman who is careful with a bartender she does not need anything from is a woman who is careful about everything." "You liked her." "I have no idea. I have never once met her. I met a woman who was extremely good at being met." <<elseif $passageRoute is 6>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkRoster")>>\ <<Pool 38>> "Where did they all go? Forty women, and there's not a trace of them anywhere. Nobody's posting. Nobody's talking." "Because it worked." "I don't follow." "Chéri. If a thing fixes you, you don't spend your life at the meetings about it. You go and have the life. The ones who post forever are the ones it didn't take with." She counts on the bar with two fingers, not quite for you. "There was a girl worked the salon on Fifth, she's in Philadelphia, she has a daughter. There was a woman used to come in here on her own on a Wednesday and sit at the window and pretend to be waiting for somebody, and she got married in the spring after and did not invite one person from that building. Which I thought was cold, and then I thought about it for a year and decided it was the healthiest thing I'd ever heard." "You said the ones it took with. What about the others?" "Two of them work for Lumen now." She says it flatly, and puts a glass on the rack. "I'm not going to tell you which two, and you are not going to go and find out, because they were twenty-six years old and a woman offered them health insurance. If you want to be angry at somebody about that, be angry at the person who could not offer them health insurance." <<elseif $passageRoute is 7>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkTapes")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg">> "He recorded his sessions. All of them, I think." "Yes." That is all. She goes down the bar and serves a man his change and comes back and stands in front of you, and only then does she carry on, which is how she tells you she has decided something. "He asked me once whether I thought it was a wrong thing to do. In here, on that stool, about two in the morning. He wasn't asking my permission. He'd already been doing it for two years. He wanted somebody who was not in the building to say it out loud so he could hear how it sounded." "What did you say?" "I asked him whether the women knew. He said yes. I asked him whether he'd ever played one to anybody. He said no. I said then it isn't a recording, it's a diary, and diaries are only a crime once somebody else reads them." She holds your eye for slightly too long. "Which I am now aware was advice with a tail on it." "You think I shouldn't have found them." "I think you should be careful what you do with a dead man's homework. And before you correct me, I know he is not dead. I said it that way on purpose, so that you would hear yourself want to correct me." <<elseif $passageRoute is 8>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkLastNight")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "The back room">> "The last meeting. Were you there?" "It was in my back room." She nods at the bead curtain. You have walked past it forty times. You have walked //through// it. You put the chairs out in there yourself. "By then he'd lost the lease on the hall and could not put twelve women in a condemned building, so he asked me, and I said yes, and I did not charge him, and I have never told anybody that until this minute. Second Friday in December. Nine came. He'd had forty." "What did he talk about?" "The fifth one. Let yourself be taken care of." She laughs, once, without much in it. "Nine women in a room off a bar, in December, with the radiator knocking, and the man who has just lost everything he built stands up and spends an hour on //let yourself be taken care of//. I was in and out with the drinks. I heard about a third of it. I have thought about that third for four years." "Did they understand it?" "They understood it. He didn't. He said so. He stood there and said he'd taught it wrong for two years and he was going to try to say it right once before he stopped. That is not a man teaching. That's a man handing something over." She looks at the curtain for a moment. "You put your chairs out in the same room. Twelve. Same number. I count them every Friday and I have not once said anything to you about it." <<elseif $passageRoute is 9>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkPages")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> "Thirty-one to forty. I've got them now." "And?" "They're not about the women. Every other page in that manual is about the women. Those ten are about what the coach owes. It reads like an apology somebody wrote before he'd done anything wrong." Delphine stops moving entirely. It is the only time you have seen it. "Say that again." "An apology in advance." "Hm." She goes and gets the red. She pours two, this time, and pushes one at you, and you both stand there like idiots for a second because neither of you drinks with anybody. "He wrote those in here. I didn't know what they were. He had a legal pad and he was in that seat four nights running, which he had never done, and on the fourth night he asked me whether I thought it was possible to be good at a thing and bad for the people you were good at it for." "What did you tell him?" "I told him that's every job. I told him I've poured drinks for thirty years for people who should not have had them and I'm still here and so are most of them. He said that wasn't the same, and I said no, it's worse, and he said //yes//, he was pleased about it, and then he wrote for another hour and left me twenty dollars on a nine dollar tab." She drinks. "So those were the pages everybody's been looking for. Ten pages of a man working out that he could do damage. And Kessler cut them." "She didn't cut them. They were missing from the scan." "Chéri. Ten pages missing from a sixty-page document, and they are the ten that say the coach can be wrong. Go and be twenty-eight somewhere else." <<elseif $passageRoute is 10>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkName")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bartender.jpg">> "Say his name." "No." "I've been in here two months. You've told me about the letters and the roster and the last night in your own back room, and you have not once..." "I know what I have not once." She puts both hands flat on the bar. "You think I'm being mysterious. I'm not. I am being //careful//, and there is a difference, and you are the only person in four years who has stayed long enough to be owed the difference." "Then explain it." "There is a court order with that name on it. There is a company with lawyers who search for it. He does not use it any more. I know that for a fact and I am not going to tell you how I know it. And the last thing he ever asked anybody for, as far as I am aware, he asked me, over that bar, and it was that." She straightens up. "So no. Not for you, not for a court, not for the woman who took it off him. You will notice I have been doing this the whole time. You noticed weeks ago. You just didn't want to be the one to say it, in case I stopped talking." "...Yes." "Good. That's the first properly honest thing you've said in my bar." She takes the empty glass away. "Call him what I call him. //Him.// It's not a code, chéri, it's a courtesy. When you have run something for three years and lost it, you will understand why the name is the last thing you'd want back and the last thing you'd hand over." <<elseif $passageRoute is 11>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkYou")>>\ <<Pool 11>> "What do you make of me, then? Honestly." "You want the bar answer or the real one." "The real one." "You're not charming." She lets that sit for exactly long enough. "I mean it as the compliment. He was charming, and it cost him. Charming men get told what they want to hear, and then one day a woman spends eleven months telling them what they want to hear and walks out with the whole business in her handbag." "And I'm what, exactly." "You are a man who came in here on a Tuesday in March with a photocopy in a plastic wallet and asked me what used to happen on this street. Badly, chéri. It was a very bad question. And when I gave you nothing you came back on the Thursday. And when I gave you nothing again you came back the week after, and you paid for your drinks, and you did not once ask me for a favour before you'd asked me a question." She refills the glass. Does not ring it in. "He'd have got what he wanted out of me in one night. You took nine weeks. But you're going to keep it longer, because you didn't get it by being liked." "That's not a very warm thing to say." "I'm not a warm woman. I'm a useful one. Learn the difference and put it in your manual." <<elseif $passageRoute is 12>>\ <<run AddEvent("Delphine", "TalkAfter")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> "When did you last see him?" "The nineteenth of January. Quarter past one in the morning. It was sleeting and he did not have a coat that was any use." No hedging this time. She has had the date ready the entire time you have known her. "He came in after close. I don't open the door after close, and I opened it, and I have wondered ever since whether he counted on that or whether he was just walking and my light was on. He had two boxes. He put one of them on the bar." "What was in it?" "I didn't look." "Delphine." "I did not look, and I want you to sit with how much that cost me, because I am the most curious woman on this avenue and that box was on my bar for eleven minutes." She has to stop for a second. "He asked me to keep it. I said for how long. He said he didn't know. I said that's not a thing you can ask somebody. And he said, and this is the part, chéri, this is the whole four years for me, he said //no, it isn't, I'm sorry,// and he picked it up and took it with him." "He apologised." "He took it back. He'd written ten pages about what he owed people and then he stood in my bar at one in the morning with nowhere to put his own boxes, and when I flinched he apologised and carried them out into the sleet himself. I did not say goodbye. I said //see you Friday,// because that is what I say, and he said //yes,// and he was lying, and we both knew it." She turns and does something with the glasses that does not need doing. "So. You have got the building. You have got the tapes he didn't take. What you have not got is the second box, and neither has she, and I have spent four years deciding whether I hope somebody finds it." "And?" "Ask me again when you've been doing this three years." <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">> /* Counts how much she has actually given up. Gates the hardest question. */

<<run AddHours(1); AddEvent("Delphine", "Session1"); $npcs.delphine.dayCounter to 7>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "The back room, after close">> You wait until the last two are out and the shutter is halfway down. She locks it herself. She has never let you do it. "I want to ask you something and I want you to let me finish it." "That bad." "You've given me the whole of it. The letters, the roster, the last night, the box. Every bit of what I know about him, I know because you decided on a particular Tuesday that I'd earned it." "I'm aware of what I've done, chéri." "Then you're aware you've been coaching me for two months." She stops with the keys in her hand. "Every conversation. One thing, and then a door shut, so I'd come back. Making me pay for it in weeks. That's the method. That's page nineteen. You've been running his method on me across your own bar and I don't think you'd notice you were doing it if I hadn't just said it." For a long moment she does not say anything at all, and you understand that this is not the long silence, that this is a woman forty-seven years old being told something about herself in a room she owns. "Three years, I poured for that. You hear a thing three years, it gets in." "So let me do it properly. Not the bar version. The real one, the whole Protocol, start to finish, and you sit in the chair for once instead of standing behind six feet of mahogany deciding how much anybody gets." She laughs, a real one, short, and then she stops laughing quite suddenly. "You have no idea what you have just asked me." "I think I've got some idea." "No. You have asked a woman who watched it fail whether she believes in it. That is a different question from the one you think you asked and I would like about a year to answer it." She puts the keys in her pocket instead of on the hook. "Not no. Understand me. I am not saying no. I am saying I have run this bar alone since I was thirty-one and I have not sat down in it once, and the reason is not modesty, and you have just put your finger exactly on it, and now I have to go home and be annoyed about that for a while." "How long is a while?" "Longer than you'd like. Shorter than you're afraid of." She turns the last light off over the bar. In the dark the neon from the street makes the whole room the colour of the wine she keeps for herself. "Go home, $player.firstName. Come and ask me again when you've finished what you started. If you can hold that building through what is coming at you, I will take the chair, and you can find out what four years of listening did to me. And you had better have got very good by then, because I will be the worst client you ever have." <hr> <div class="p-locked">Delphine's arc is where 0.2 picks up. She has said yes and she has not said when, and the game will hold her to it in the next version.</div> <hr> <<PNav "Bar">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* TORIN VALE */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<h2>Delphine Aubry</h2> Forty-seven. Québécoise, in the city since she was nineteen, behind the same bar for twenty-two years. She poured drinks for the whole of it, the rise and the fall, and she does not volunteer any of it. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "DelphineLoan")>>\ She fronted you the gap on the building. You have not finished working out why. <</if>>\ <h4>What she has told you</h4> <<Progress "Delphine" "LoreCoach">> That he existed, and drank here. <<Progress "Delphine" "LoreFall">> How the building emptied out. <<Progress "Delphine" "LoreKessler">> That the woman came in first as a client. <<Progress "Delphine" "LoreEnd">> Where he went. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bartender.jpg" "Delphine">> She is cutting limes she does not need cut. She has been doing this for twenty-eight years and she still will not sit down in her own bar. <hr> <h2>What you ask her</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBar")>>\ <<link "How long have you had this place? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBar") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBuilding") and (CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers") or $player.unlocks.building)>>\ <<link "What was 114 Dovehurst, before? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBuilding") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach") and $player.unlocks.building>>\ <<link "Did he drink in here? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkFall") and CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen")>>\ <<link "How did it actually end? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 4>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkKessler") and $player.fame gte 6>>\ <<link "Did you ever meet Adrienne Kessler? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 5>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkFall") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkRoster") and $player.fame gte 10>>\ <<link "Where did the women go? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 6>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkTapes") and $player.unlocks.archive>>\ <<link "Did you know he was recording? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 7>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkFall") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkLastNight") and CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen")>>\ <<link "What was the last meeting like? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 8>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkTapes") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkPages") and $player.tapes.pages>>\ <<link "Ask her about pages 31 to 40 (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 9>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if DelphineDepth() gte 5 and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkName")>>\ <<link "Say his name for me. Once. (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 10>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkName") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkYou") and $player.fame gte 20>>\ <<link "What do you make of me, then? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 11>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkName") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkAfter") and $player.fame gte 25>>\ <<link "When did you last see him? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 12>><<goto "Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkAfter") and $player.unlocks.hq and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "Session1")>>\ [[Ask her the question she has been waiting two months for (1 hour)|Delphine Session 1]] <</if>>\ <<if DelphineDepth() is 0 and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBar")>>\ <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is more. There is always more. She serves it a glass at a time.</div> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">>

<<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 6000>>\ [[Call the number on the listing|Buy The Building]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">The listing wants <<Cash 18000>>. You have <<Cash $player.cash>>. There is no point calling a paralegal with less than six thousand in the account, because six is the smallest number anybody has ever put down on anything.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if $player.introComplete>>\ [[Work on the Protocol's reach|Marketing]] <</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.archive and TapesLeft() gt 0>>\ [[Work through a tape (3 hours)|The Archive]] <</if>>\ <<if $devMode>>\ [[Enter a code|Cheat Codes]] <</if>>\

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeGym.jpg" "The gym floor">> The second floor, rubber-matted and mirrored end to end. Mirrors were not optional; they are half the point. <hr> <h2>Activities</h2> [[Train (2 hours)|Gym Session HQ]] <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg" "Dovehurst Street">> Four blocks of nothing much. A tyre place, a shuttered bodega, Sorel Print with its lights on, and at the end of the row a four-storey brick building with plywood where the ground-floor windows used to be. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Dovehurst Events]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">><<PNav "Print">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeStudio.jpg" "The studio">> Third floor, south-facing, two strobes and a paper roll. He shot here too. The hooks are still in the ceiling in a pattern that only makes sense once you have stood where he stood. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Studio Events]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "Dovehurst 114">> La planta baja vuelve a ser una sola sala larga, como se construyó para ser, con cuarenta sillas apiladas contra la pared y un radiador que funciona. <<elseif $player.unlocks.renovated>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg" "Dovehurst 114">> Enyesado, cableado y barrido. Huele a pintura nueva y a agua vieja. No está terminado, pero ya no está condenado. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg" "Dovehurst 114">> Cuatro plantas del final de otra persona. La escalera aguanta, el tejado no, y en la segunda planta hay un tabique que está veintitrés centímetros fuera de escuadra con todas las demás paredes del edificio. <</if>>\ <hr> <h2>Eventos</h2> <<include [[ES:HQ Events]]>>\ <h2>Actividades</h2> <<include [[ES:HQ Activities]]>>\ <<if $player.fame gte 15>>\ <h2>Clientas</h2> <<include [[ES:HQ Clients]]>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.archive>><<PNav "Archive">><</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.gym>><<PNav "HQGym">><</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.studio>><<PNav "HQStudio">><</if>>\ <<PNav "Dovehurst">><<PNav "Sublet">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg" "Calle Dovehurst">> Era un martes de la última semana de junio y el coche estaba aparcado del lado equivocado, medio encima del paso de peatones, con el motor en marcha y un chófer dentro que ya había hecho aquello antes. Salió de la parte de atrás. Cuarenta y cinco años, sin abrigo porque hacía calor, un bolso que llevaba como si no tuviera nada dentro. No miró al taller de neumáticos ni a la Imprenta Sorel ni a ti, de pie en tu propio portal con una caja de sillas. Había venido a por la reunión. El tercer informe de Camille había entrado el viernes y había dicho lo que ellos querían que dijera sobre alguien, y ese alguien no eras tú, y Adrienne Kessler se había subido a un coche. $player.firstName. Podría haber llamado. Llamé. Dijiste que no, y después una de mis Guías dimitió un viernes por la noche por correo a las once con una dimisión de dos líneas y sin preaviso, y he tenido cuatro de esas en seis años y me acuerdo de todas. Se detuvo a dos metros, cosa deliberada. He venido a ver la sala. Quiero ver la sala por la que dimitió. No dijiste nada, porque llevabas esperando esto desde un martes de marzo y ahora que estaba aquí solo era una mujer en una acera. Miró más allá de ti. Por la puerta abierta, los doce metros y medio de sala hasta el fondo, las sillas apiladas de cuatro en cuatro, el radiador, la pintura. Después retrocedió un paso para abarcarlo bien. Y sus ojos subieron, como suben los ojos de cualquiera cuando se aparta de un edificio, por el ladrillo, hasta el dintel, y hasta los números de hierro fundido de encima que alguien se había molestado en pintar alguna vez. <hr> [[Esperar|ES:Act One End]]

<<run AddEvent("Player", "ActOneEnd"); AddFame(2); AddHours(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg" "114">> Uno. Lo dijo en voz alta, cosa que no habría querido hacer. Uno. Uno. Cuatro. Su mano fue a la correa del bolso y se quedó ahí. La ventanilla del chófer estaba bajada y el motor seguía en marcha y ninguna de las dos cosas cambió. Durante once segundos Adrienne Kessler estuvo de pie en la calle Dovehurst haciendo la aritmética que hace una mujer cuando un calendario de liquidaciones que firmó sin leer resulta que llevaba una dirección. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ Cuatro mil dólares. Muy bajito, primero para sí misma y después para ti. Escribiste cuarenta testimonios para mi empresa en febrero. En marzo cerraste la compra de este edificio. Sí. Lo compraste con nuestro dinero. Lo compré con el mío. Cuatro de dieciocho eran suyos. Cuatro de dieciocho. Repitió los números como los repite un auditor, y entendiste, allí de pie en la tarde cálida delante de tu propia puerta, que le habías entregado la única frase de todo este asunto que es fácil de decirle a un juez. Entiendes que ahora tengo un encargo remunerado, una factura, un pago y una compra. En ese orden. Con veintinueve días de diferencia. He venido a ver una sala. Ya se estaba dando la vuelta. Me voy a ir a estar extremadamente tranquila con esto durante un mes. <<else>>\ ¿Cuánto pagaste por él? Dieciocho. Dieciocho mil dólares. Estaba en una hoja pegada a la puerta. Llevaba su firma en la escritura. Se quedó callada un momento. Sí. La llevaría. Y entonces, y esta es la parte que no esperabas y que no disfrutaste, se rio: una vez, corto, absolutamente sin placer, de sí misma. Cuatro años. Cada trimestre salía en el calendario y cada trimestre yo firmaba el calendario. Volvió a mirar los números. Yo me senté en esa sala. Segunda planta, delante, sobre la calle. Once meses. Lo sé. No lo sabes, pero lo sabrás. Abrió la puerta del coche y se quedó de pie en ella. No voy a hacer nada esta semana. Quiero que sepas que no es clemencia. Es que yo esto lo hago bien, y hacerlo bien lleva alrededor de un mes. <</if>>\ El coche salió del paso de peatones y giró a la izquierda hacia la Cuarta y la calle volvió a ser solo la calle, y la caja de sillas seguía en tus brazos, y había nueve bobinas detrás de una pared arriba y habías abierto cinco. <hr> <div class="p-title">\ <div class="p-title__mark">BimboProtocol</div>\ <div class="p-title__sub">Fin del Acto I · versión $versionLabel</div>\ <div class="p-title__rule"></div>\ </div> <h4>0.2</h4> Ella lo sabe. El Acto II es lo que hace al respecto, lo que le cuesta a Camille Ostrowski y las cuatro bobinas detrás del listón. Todo lo que has construido está guardado. Puedes seguir jugando, las sesiones, las reuniones, el edificio, las cintas que tienes, y la 0.2 recogerá tu partida donde esto la ha dejado. <hr> Gracias por jugar. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">><<PNav "Dovehurst">><<PNav "Sublet">>

<<set _any to false>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia and not $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Nadia · Martes 19:00 · <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>Dovehurst 114<<else>>Imprenta Sorel<</if>></div>\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip and not $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Pip · Jueves 16:00 · <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>Dovehurst 114<<else>>Cafetería Nueve<</if>></div>\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille and not $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Camille · Domingo 11:00 · Flatiron</div>\ <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen")>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Reunión semanal · Viernes 18:00 · <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>Dovehurst 114<<else>>La Hora Larga<</if>></div>\ <</if>>\ <<if TapesLeft() gt 0>>\ <<set _any to true>><div class="p-agenda__item">Quedan <<print TapesLeft()>> cinta<<if TapesLeft() gt 1>>s<</if>> por trabajar.</div>\ <</if>>\ <<if not _any>>\ <div class="p-agenda__item">Nada en la agenda.</div>\ <</if>>

<<run $player.unlocks.archive to true; $player.tapes.found to 5; AddHours(3)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg" "El archivo">> Salió en una sola pieza, porque la habían atornillado y no clavado, lo que significaba que quien la construyó esperaba volver a desmontarla. Detrás, una sala. No una cavidad: una sala, de metro y medio por dos setenta, con la ventana original tapiada y un portalámparas colgando de un cable que alguien había pegado con cinta a una vigueta, y un suelo que estaba barrido. Estanterías en la pared larga. Un reproductor de cinta en el estante de abajo bajo una funda que estaba doblada, no tirada. Nueve bobinas en cajas planas de cartón con las fechas escritas en el canto con una letra que habías visto fotocopiada cuatrocientas veces, y cinco de las nueve estaban a la vista donde una persona podía alcanzarlas y cuatro estaban empujadas al fondo detrás de un listón de madera. Una caja de zapatos. En la caja: cuarenta y una páginas de folio con la misma letra, y como un tercio estaban numeradas del 31 al 40 y como dos tercios eran otra cosa que no reconociste en absoluto. Y en el estante a la altura de los ojos, donde era imposible que no lo vieras, un único folio de papel de copia, doblado una vez, sin nada por fuera. Dentro, cuatro líneas, escritas con la máquina que había escrito el manual, y los remates de las letras estaban afilados porque nadie había fotocopiado nunca esta copia. Si estás leyendo esto has tirado una pared en un edificio que no tenías por qué haber comprado. Los cinco están en la primera página y no son el trabajo. El trabajo es lo que haces en los once minutos después de que ella deje de hablar. Empieza por la cinta uno. Hazlas en orden. Yo las hice en el orden equivocado y le costó dos años a una mujer. No lo hagas como lo hice yo al final. Te sentaste en el suelo barrido de una sala que llevaba cuatro años sellada y no te moviste durante mucho rato, y fuera, en la calle Dovehurst, el taller de neumáticos bajó la persiana y empezó a llover otra vez. <hr> Cinco de las nueve bobinas están al alcance. Las otras cuatro están detrás del listón y el listón es lo que sujeta el estante. <hr> <<PNav "Archive">><<PNav "HQ">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* REFORMAS — incluido desde HQ Activities */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen"); AddHours(1); AddFame(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "La Hora Larga · trastienda">> Había dejado el recado con el hombre de la lavandería, en papel, porque no tiene tu número y no lo ha pedido. La trastienda de La Hora Larga eran doce sillas, una mesa de cartas, un radiador que golpeteaba y una puerta al callejón. Olía a los dieciocho años de funciones que había cumplido. Viernes, de seis a ocho. Los viernes esto está muerto hasta las nueve y lleva muerto los viernes hasta las nueve desde 2019, o sea que no me estás costando nada y quiero que eso quede claro. ¿Qué quiere a cambio? Veinte dólares por cabeza es lo que vas a cobrar y nada de eso es mío. Lo que quiero es que puedan tomarse algo después y que nadie use la puerta del callejón como puerta principal. Dejó la llave en la mesa de cartas y no te la puso en la mano. Y cuando puedas hacerlo en tu propio edificio, lo haces en tu propio edificio. No te pongas sentimental con mi trastienda. Es una trastienda. <hr> Viernes. A las seis. Veinte dólares por cabeza. <hr> <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Street">><<PNav "Sublet">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* WEEKLY EVENTS — incluido al final de cada reunión */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bedroom.jpg">> Un colchón, una lámpara y una caja de zapatos llena de casetes que nunca has podido reproducir. <hr> <h2>Actividades</h2> [[Dormir hasta la mañana|ES:Sleep]] <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<Pool 17>> <h2>Bex Halloran</h2> Twenty-six. Dispatch for a plumbing contractor on Third Avenue, six-thirty to three, ninety phone calls a day and not present in one of them. Found a flyer on somebody's fridge and came on her own after the friend who was supposed to come with her didn't. Her problem is not confidence and it is not her hair. She cannot state a number. Everything else she has, and she has a lot, is downstream of that. <hr> <h3>Events</h3> <<Progress "Bex" "First">> Came to the step without an appointment. <<Progress "Bex" "Second">> Asked, got it, and was sick about it for nine days. <hr> <<if $clients.bex and $clients.bex.dayCounter gt 0>>\ Bex will be back in <<print $clients.bex.dayCounter>> day<<if $clients.bex.dayCounter gt 1>>s<</if>>. <<elseif $clients.bex and not CheckEvent("Bex", "Second")>>\ She will turn up at 114 Dovehurst again on her own. She always does. <<else>>\ She says she is bringing somebody called Danielle, who is worse. <</if>>\ <hr> [[Back to the journal|ES:Journal]] /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* ROTATING CLIENTS — MARGO SUN */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddCash(-18000)>>\ <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddCash(-6000); $player.mortgage += 12000>>\ <<else>>\ <<run AddCash(-18000); AddCash(900)>>\ <</if>>\ <<run $player.unlocks.building to true; $player.introComplete to true; AddEvent("Player", "Bought"); SetHours(11); SetMinutes(0); AddDays(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg" "Calle Dovehurst 114">> Costó diecinueve minutos en una sala de la cuarta planta de un edificio de la calle Court, con un notario que no levantó la vista y una mujer de la compañía de títulos que lo llamó la finca ocho veces. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ Lo pagaste a tocateja. <<Cash 18000>> salieron de tu cuenta en un solo movimiento y el saldo de después era un número que no veías desde los veintitrés, y no le debías nada a nadie, y resultó que eso valía más que el dinero. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ Pusiste <<Cash 6000>> de entrada y firmaste un pagaré de <<Cash 12000>> a $220 la semana contra la finca, porque un edificio sin dinero dentro es un edificio que pierdes en abril. La mujer de la compañía de títulos dijo que era el primer pagaré con financiación del vendedor que había visto escrito por una cifra de cinco dígitos y que iba a enmarcar la copia. <<else>>\ Delphine vino. Se puso el abrigo bueno y no dijo absolutamente nada durante diecinueve minutos salvo su propio nombre, y cuando la compañía de títulos empezó a enumerar los impuestos de transmisión y las tasas de registro sacó una tarjeta y pagó los <<Cash 900>> antes de que terminaras de calcular que no podías. A la misma cuenta. Y no pongas esa cara. <</if>>\ Luego las llaves, que no eran llaves sino un código de cuatro dígitos para la caja fuerte, y la mujer de la compañía de títulos te dio la mano y dijo enhorabuena con la voz de quien hace eso once veces al día. Marisol mandó por correo la copia firmada a las 11:04. La leíste en la acera de la calle Court con el móvil temblándote un poco en la mano. Bajo TRANSMITENTE ponía INSTITUTO LUMEN S.A., y debajo, en la línea de firma, con una letra electrónica limpia y plana, A. Kessler, por la sociedad. Lo había firmado ella misma y no había leído la dirección. <hr> [[Coger la R de vuelta a Brooklyn|ES:Walkthrough 1]]

<<if not CheckEvent("Player", "NadiaMet")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> Llamaste al número 212 a las nueve y diez y te salió un pasante que te dejó en espera once minutos y volvió para decir que el expediente necesitaba una prueba de intención antes de que abrieran una ventana de cierre: un nombre comercial, una dirección de notificación y algo impreso con ambas cosas. Impreso. Había una imprenta a dos portales del edificio y no habías entrado en ella ni una vez. <hr> [[Bajar a Dovehurst y pedir precio|ES:Prologue Flyers]] <<PNav "Sublet">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> La pasante se llamaba Marisol y estaba claro que le habían dado el expediente como a uno le dan un abrigo en una fiesta. Te leyó el número de referencia dos veces, dijo como está, sin condiciones, sin visita tres veces, y después preguntó cómo querías estructurarlo, que no era una pregunta que esperaras que nadie le hiciera a un hombre con tu saldo bancario. <h4>Dieciocho mil dólares</h4> En mano: <<Cash $player.cash>>. <hr> <<if $player.cash gte 18000 and not CheckEvent("Player", "DelphineFront")>>\ <<link "Pagarlo a tocateja (-$18.000)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "ES:Buy Complete">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 6000>>\ <<link "Seis mil de entrada y el resto en un pagaré (-$6.000)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "ES:Buy Complete">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "DelphineFront") and $player.cash gte 18000>>\ <<link "Cerrarlo con las condiciones de Delphine (-$18.000)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "ES:Buy Complete">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<PNav "Sublet">> <</if>>\

[[Buy a coffee (-$5, 20 minutes)|ES:Cafe Coffee]] [[Take a table and work on the pages (2 hours)|ES:Cafe Work]]

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers") and not Known("pip")>>\ [[ES:Pip Intro]] <</if>>\ <<if Known("pip") and not $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<if GameDayIs("Thursday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 16>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Hub" "Pip" "Thursday session">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Pip" "Pip's session is Thursday at 16:00.">>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if Known("okonkwo") and $npcs.okonkwo.dayCounter is 0 and BetweenTime(8, 11) and not IsWeekend()>>\ <<PEvent true "Okonkwo Talk" "Okonkwo" "Inspector Okonkwo, folder squared, table by the window.">>\ <</if>>\

<h2>Ask Camille for something</h2> <<if $bimbos.camille.bimbo gte 8 and not CheckEvent("Camille", "AskIntake")>>\ [[Ask her to teach you their intake properly|ES:Camille Ask Intake]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille.bimbo gte 14 and not CheckEvent("Camille", "AskNames")>>\ [[Ask her for names off the Flatiron book|ES:Camille Ask Names]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete and not CheckEvent("Camille", "AskFriday")>>\ [[Ask her to take a Friday|ES:Camille Ask Friday]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille.bimbo lt 8>>\ <div class="p-locked">You have nothing to ask her for that would not simply be a favour, and she does not do favours yet.</div> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "DefectClean")>>\ She is out, clean, on her own timing, with a notebook that is legally hers and a lawyer she found herself. <<else>>\ She is out, badly, and there is a filing with your street name in it. <</if>>\ <hr> [[Ask her for something|ES:Camille Asks]] <<if $bimbos.camille.happiness lt 5>>\ [[Something needs saying|ES:Camille Repair]] <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Flatiron">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* ASKS AND REPAIR */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<if $bimbos.camille.dayCounter is 0 and CheckEvent("Camille", "Session3") and not CheckEvent("Camille", "MsgLate") and $gameDate.getHours() gte 21>>\ <<run AddEvent("Camille", "MsgLate")>>\ [[A message from a number you have not saved|ES:Camille Message]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille.happiness lte 3 and $player.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[You should sort things out with Camille|ES:Camille Repair]] <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Done]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session4")>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Session 5]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session3")>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Session 4]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session2")>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Session 3]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Camille", "Session1")>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Session 2]]>>\ <<else>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Session 1]]>>\ <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 1 — she is interviewing you */ /* ==================================================================== */

Seguía allí cuando la sala se vació. De pie junto al radiador con el abrigo sobre el brazo y el cuaderno cerrado, y esperó a que la última mujer saliera por el bar antes de recorrer la sala. Llevo semanas escribiendo un informe sobre ti. Lo sé. No lo sabes. Lo dijo sin acritud. Camille Ostrowski. Soy Guía en el estudio de Flatiron. Seis años. He presentado tres informes sobre esta sala y el tercero me llevó nueve días porque no conseguía que dijera lo que quieren que diga. ¿Que es? Que no es seguro. Que es un hombre sin titulación y sin supervisión haciendo trabajo clínico con mujeres vulnerables en la trastienda de un bar. Miró las doce sillas. He escrito esa frase cuarenta veces. Es una buena frase. Es la frase que escribiría sobre ti si no hubiera venido tres semanas seguidas. Pues escríbela. Voy a escribirla. Guardó el cuaderno en el bolso. Te lo digo porque has dicho, delante de veintiséis personas, que hay una cosa que no entiendes lo bastante bien como para enseñarla. Nadie de mi empresa ha dicho una frase así en voz alta desde que entré, y he empezado a darle vueltas a eso más de lo que me conviene. Escribió un número en una hoja, la arrancó y la dejó sobre la mesa de cartas en lugar de ponértela en la mano. Los domingos estoy en el estudio haciendo acogidas hasta las once y luego nadie sabe dónde estoy hasta las dos. Ese es el único hueco que hay. <<set $bimbos.camille to clone($bimboTemplate)>>\ <<run AddEvent("Camille", "Contact"); AddFame(1)>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* EL HILO DE LUMEN */ /* ==================================================================== */

<h2>Camille</h2> <<switch $bimbos.camille.happiness>>\ <<case 5>>She is as settled as she gets. <<case 4>>Something is unresolved and she has filed it rather than raised it. <<case 3>>She is being professional at you, which from her is a punishment. <<case 2>>She is answering messages in one line and not on Sundays. <<default>>She has stopped explaining herself to you, which is the end state. <</switch>>\ <hr> <<if $bimbos.camille.happiness gte 5>>\ Nothing to fix. <<else>>\ <<if HasTechnique("reframe")>>\ [[Say the true version out loud (1 hour)|ES:Camille Repair Talk]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">You do not know how to do this yet, and with her there is no version you can buy.</div> <</if>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 300>>\ <div class="p-locked">Money is not a currency she accepts and offering it would cost you more.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She was there before you, in the window seat, with a coffee she had not touched and the notebook face down on the table. She had come from intake and was still dressed for it: something grey and expensive that did not photograph as expensive. "I want to be clear about what this is. You are not coaching me. I am interviewing you, and I am going to keep interviewing you until I know which of three things you are." "Which three?" "A fraud. A liability. Or the real thing, which would be much worse for me personally than either of the other two." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Credential")>>\ [[Let her ask about your credentials|ES:Camille Session 1 Credential]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Ethics")>>\ [[Let her ask about him|ES:Camille Session 1 Ethics]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Turn")>>\ [[Ask her a question back|ES:Camille Session 1 Turn]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Credential") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Ethics") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S1Turn")>>\ [[Close|ES:Camille Session 1 Close]] <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She had brought Lumen's intake protocol, printed, which is a firing offence on its own, and she put it on the table between you like a chess move. "You show me yours." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Theirs")>>\ [[Let her run their version on you|ES:Camille Session 2 Theirs]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Yours")>>\ [[Run his version on her|ES:Camille Session 2 Yours]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Diff")>>\ [[Name the difference out loud|ES:Camille Session 2 Diff]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Theirs") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Yours") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S2Diff")>>\ [[Close|ES:Camille Session 2 Close]] <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She was late, which she had never been, by nineteen minutes, and she arrived without a coat in March. "I've been keeping something and I'm going to show you one page of it and then I am going to want to leave immediately, and I need you to let me." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Page")>>\ [[Look at the page|ES:Camille Session 3 Page]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Pattern")>>\ [[Ask what the pattern is|ES:Camille Session 3 Pattern]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Cost")>>\ [[Ask what keeping it costs her|ES:Camille Session 3 Cost]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Page") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Pattern") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S3Cost")>>\ [[Close|ES:Camille Session 3 Close]] <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Wine.jpg">> Not the coffee place. She moved it, by message, at nine on the Saturday night, to a wine bar four stops away where nobody from her office would be, and she was in the back corner facing the door. "Somebody has asked me twice this week what I do on Sundays." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Who")>>\ [[Ask who|ES:Camille Session 4 Who]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Leave")>>\ [[Ask what happens to a Guide who leaves|ES:Camille Session 4 Leave]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Her")>>\ [[Ask about Kessler|ES:Camille Session 4 Her]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Who") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Leave") and CheckEvent("Camille", "S4Her")>>\ [[Close|ES:Camille Session 4 Close]] <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.camille.trust gte 13>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Defect Clean]]>>\ <<else>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Defect Caught]]>>\ <</if>>\

Al fondo había una mujer que no cogió silla del montón. Entró cuatro minutos tarde y se quedó de pie contra la pared, junto al radiador, sin quitarse el abrigo, y llevaba un cuaderno, uno de verdad, y escribió en él todo el rato sin bajar la vista ni una sola vez. Veintinueve años, quizá. Pálida, con esa palidez de quien lleva seis años dentro bajo buena iluminación. Se fue en los veinte segundos en que estabas atendiendo una pregunta sobre el segundo Principio. No la viste salir. Viste que se había ido. Había echado veinte dólares en la lata al entrar. Lo comprobaste.

Volvió. La misma pared, el mismo cuaderno, esta vez sin el abrigo puesto y doblado sobre el brazo, lo que es o una pequeña confianza o un pequeño error. Gris. Cara de esa forma que no sale en las fotos. Escribió durante los primeros treinta minutos y después, en algún punto de la parte del tercer Principio, el párrafo del manual que está escrito con rabia, dejó de escribir y no volvió a empezar. Después, recogiendo sillas, encontraste que había dejado una hoja arrancada y doblada sobre el radiador. En ella, con una letra pequeña y limpia, una palabra con signo de interrogación, y la palabra era ¿Deberes?

Tercera vez, y esta vez alguien le habló. Una de las habituales, la mujer que discute sobre el cuarto Principio todas y cada una de las semanas, se dio la vuelta en el descanso y le preguntó qué estaba escribiendo, y tú viste desde tres metros y medio cómo decía algo breve y agradable y completamente falso, y la habitual se rio y volvió a girarse. Se le daba bien. Esa era la cuestión. Había producido una mentira cálida, fácil y sin fricción en medio segundo con toda la cara, y no había disfrutado haciéndolo, y tú viste el medio segundo posterior en el que no lo disfrutó. Se quedó hasta el final. Cuando dijiste el quinto Principio en voz alta, y dijiste que no lo entendías lo bastante bien como para enseñarlo, levantó la vista hacia ti por primera vez en tres semanas. Se fue antes que las sillas.

<<textbox "_code" "">> <<button "Introducir">><<run CheckCode(_code)>><<goto "ES:Sublet Desk">><</button>> [[Volver|ES:Sublet Desk]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine">> Nine tables, none of them level, and a machine that cost more than everything else in the room put together. There is a corkboard by the door with a lost cat on it from two summers ago and a card for a man who tunes pianos. Your flyer, when there is one, goes third row down, left, where people waiting for milk to steam actually look. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[ES:Cafe Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[ES:Cafe Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Street">><<PNav "Subway">>

<<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ [[Coger un turno de noche (+$300, de vuelta a las 04:00)|ES:Night Shift]] <<else>>\ [[Coger un día de trabajo por contrato (+$300, de vuelta a las 18:00)|ES:Day Work]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and GameDayIs("Friday")>>\ <<link "Saltar hasta la reunión de esta noche (18:00)">><<run SetHours(18)>><<goto "ES:Weekly Meeting">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Sleep">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> Un día resolviendo incidencias por contrato en Manhattan. Informes por la mañana, una reunión después de comer y un tren de vuelta que huele a abrigo mojado. Eres $300 más rico y llegas a las seis. <<run SetHours(18); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(300)>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<widget "DelphineDepthNote">><</widget>>\

<h2>Delphine Aubry</h2> Cuarenta y siete. Quebequesa, en la ciudad desde los diecinueve, detrás de la misma barra desde hace veintidós años. Sirvió copas durante todo aquello, la subida y la caída, y no cuenta nada de ello por voluntad propia. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "DelphineLoan")>>\ Te adelantó lo que faltaba para el edificio. Todavía no has terminado de averiguar por qué. <</if>>\ <h4>Lo que te ha contado</h4> <<Progress "Delphine" "LoreCoach">> Que existió, y que bebía aquí. <<Progress "Delphine" "LoreFall">> Cómo se vació el edificio. <<Progress "Delphine" "LoreKessler">> Que la mujer entró primero como clienta. <<Progress "Delphine" "LoreEnd">> A dónde se fue. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bartender.jpg" "Delphine">> She is cutting limes she does not need cut. She has been doing this for twenty-eight years and she still will not sit down in her own bar. <hr> <h2>What you ask her</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBar")>>\ <<link "How long have you had this place? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBar") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBuilding") and (CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers") or $player.unlocks.building)>>\ <<link "What was 114 Dovehurst, before? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBuilding") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach") and $player.unlocks.building>>\ <<link "Did he drink in here? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkFall") and CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen")>>\ <<link "How did it actually end? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 4>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkKessler") and $player.fame gte 6>>\ <<link "Did you ever meet Adrienne Kessler? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 5>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkFall") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkRoster") and $player.fame gte 10>>\ <<link "Where did the women go? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 6>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkCoach") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkTapes") and $player.unlocks.archive>>\ <<link "Did you know he was recording? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 7>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkFall") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkLastNight") and CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen")>>\ <<link "What was the last meeting like? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 8>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkTapes") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkPages") and $player.tapes.pages>>\ <<link "Ask her about pages 31 to 40 (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 9>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if DelphineDepth() gte 5 and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkName")>>\ <<link "Say his name for me. Once. (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 10>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkName") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkYou") and $player.fame gte 20>>\ <<link "What do you make of me, then? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 11>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkName") and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkAfter") and $player.fame gte 25>>\ <<link "When did you last see him? (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 12>><<goto "ES:Delphine Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkAfter") and $player.unlocks.hq and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "Session1")>>\ [[Ask her the question she has been waiting two months for (1 hour)|ES:Delphine Session 1]] <</if>>\ <<if DelphineDepth() is 0 and not CheckEvent("Delphine", "TalkBar")>>\ <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is more. There is always more. She serves it a glass at a time.</div> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">>

<<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 6000>>\ [[Llamar al número del anuncio|ES:Buy The Building]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">El anuncio pide <<Cash 18000>>. Tú tienes <<Cash $player.cash>>. No tiene sentido llamar a un pasante con menos de seis mil en la cuenta, porque seis es el número más pequeño que nadie ha puesto nunca de entrada para nada.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if $player.introComplete>>\ [[Trabajar el alcance del Protocolo|ES:Marketing]] <</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.archive and TapesLeft() gt 0>>\ [[Trabajar una cinta (3 horas)|ES:The Archive]] <</if>>\ <<if $devMode>>\ [[Introducir un código|ES:Cheat Codes]] <</if>>\

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeGym.jpg" "El gimnasio">> La segunda planta, con suelo de goma y espejos de punta a punta. Los espejos no eran opcionales; son la mitad del asunto. <hr> <h2>Actividades</h2> [[Entrenar (2 horas)|ES:Gym Session HQ]] <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg" "Calle Dovehurst">> Cuatro manzanas de nada en particular. Un taller de neumáticos, un colmado con la persiana bajada, la Imprenta Sorel con las luces encendidas y, al final de la hilera, un edificio de ladrillo de cuatro plantas con tableros donde antes estaban las ventanas de la planta baja. <hr> <h2>Eventos</h2> <<include [[ES:Dovehurst Events]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">><<PNav "Print">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeStudio.jpg" "El estudio">> Tercera planta, orientada al sur, dos flashes y un rollo de papel. Él también disparaba aquí. Los ganchos siguen en el techo en un patrón que solo tiene sentido cuando te has puesto donde se ponía él. <hr> <h2>Eventos</h2> <<include [[ES:Studio Events]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Townhall.jpg" "Lumen Institute · Flatiron">> Lumen's flagship studio takes the second and third floors of a building on West 23rd. Frosted glass, a lobby plant that costs more than your rent, and a lightbox by the lift listing the five standards in a typeface Nadia would have opinions about. You do not go up. You have never gone up. There is a coffee place across the street with a window seat, and on Sundays between eleven and two nobody at Lumen knows where Camille Ostrowski is. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[ES:Flatiron Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[ES:Flatiron Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Subway">>

<<if $bimbos.camille and $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is no reason to stand outside this building any more.</div> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Nothing to do here but wait for eleven o'clock on a Sunday.</div> <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.camille and not $bimbos.camille.trainingComplete>>\ <<if GameDayIs("Sunday") and BetweenTime(11, 13)>>\ <<PEvent true "Camille Hub" "Camille" "The window seat, across the street.">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Camille" "Sundays, eleven to two. That is the only gap there is.">>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille and $bimbos.camille.happiness lte 3>>\ <<PEvent true "Camille Repair" "Camille" "Something needs saying.">>\ <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> La tercera tarde llegaste a la ficha de una mujer nacida en 1931 que había venido once veces en 1994 y nunca más, y te quedaste un minuto con las manos fuera del teclado y después la tecleaste como las demás. Pagaron por transferencia el viernes. <<Cash 700>>. Veintidós mil fichas. Dieciocho mil dólares. Habías empezado a medirlo todo en la misma unidad, que es lo que un plazo le hace a una persona. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> El anuncio estaba en un tablón que llevabas un año consultando dos veces al día: DIGITALIZACIÓN DE HISTORIALES MÉDICOS - 3 DÍAS - DEBE SER EXACTO - $700 - BROOKLYN CENTRO. Era una consulta de podología de la calle Livingston que llevaba en papel desde 1988 y que estaba comprando un grupo que no iba a estarlo. Veintidós mil fichas de pacientes metidas en una plantilla, en una sala sin ventanas con una mujer llamada Aurelie que llevaba cascos y no se los quitó ni una vez. Tres días de nueve horas. Salía a unos dos dólares y sesenta centavos la hora si contabas las horas con honestidad, y a $700 si no. <<run AddEvent("Player", "GigData")>>\ <hr> <<link "Aceptar (tres días, +$700)">><<run AddDays(3); SetHours(19); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(700); AddEvent("Player", "GigDataDone")>><<goto "ES:Gig Data Done">><</link>> <<link "Dejarlo pasar">><<run AddEvent("Player", "GigDataDone")>><<goto "ES:Sublet">><</link>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> Salió de La Hora Larga detrás de ti, que es como supo tu nombre, porque Delphine se lo había dicho a alguien en algún momento y él estaba escuchando. Cuarenta años, buen abrigo, ese cansancio concreto del hombre que es dueño de un solo local de algo. Llevaba una carpeta bajo el brazo y no perdió nada de tiempo. ¿Tú escribes? Alguien me ha dicho que escribes. Apunto cosas. No es lo mismo. Se le parece bastante. Abrió la carpeta sobre el capó de un coche. Dentro había fotografías de mujeres, cuarenta, retratos en cuadrícula, y bajo cada una un párrafo. Instituto Lumen. Yo llevo el estudio de Park Slope, abrimos en noviembre. Central te da el manual de marca y la iluminación y las plantas, y lo que no te da son cuarenta testimonios, y la auditoría es el veintidós. Cuarenta. Socias que terminaron la acogida y no renovaron. Todas han firmado la cesión. Legalmente son sus palabras. En la práctica no son las palabras de nadie, que es por lo que son cuatro mil dólares y por lo que se lo estoy pidiendo a un desconocido a la puerta de un bar. Cuatro mil dólares. Un veintidós por ciento de un edificio. Puso una tarjeta encima de la carpeta. En ella, bajo una marca pequeña y limpia como un amanecer aplastado hasta volverse una línea, ponía INSTITUTO LUMEN, y debajo, estándares de presentación · orientación al servicio · capacidad máxima · gestión del afecto positivo · entrenamiento en receptividad. Ya habías leído esas cinco frases antes. Las habías leído lijadas a partir de otras cinco frases por una mujer que se había sentado en una sala y había tomado apuntes que no debía estar tomando. <<run AddEvent("Player", "GigLumen")>>\ <hr> <<link "Aceptar el trabajo (+$4.000)">><<run AddEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>><<goto "ES:Gig Lumen Accept">><</link>> <<link "Rechazarlo">><<run AddEvent("Player", "LumenRefused")>><<goto "ES:Gig Lumen Refuse">><</link>>

<<run AddDays(2); SetHours(23); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(4000)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Cuarenta párrafos en dos noches. Los hiciste bien, porque no sabías hacerlos mal. Escribiste a una mujer llamada D. R., 38, diciendo que el módulo de receptividad la había dejado de disculparse en las reuniones. Escribiste a una mujer llamada K. T., 45, diciendo que sus estándares de presentación le habían devuelto una versión de sí misma que creía haber gastado. Conseguiste que las cuarenta sonaran a personas distintas, lo que llevó más tiempo que hacer que sonaran a una sola, y para la segunda noche habías dejado de notar que cada una de las cinco frases era una buena frase a la que le habían quitado el peso. Pagó contra entrega, por transferencia, desde una cuenta de empresa. <<Cash 4000>>. El aviso de remesa llegó automáticamente a la mañana siguiente. Llevaba tu nombre, y su código de franquicia, y por encima de los dos, porque el sistema lo generaba de forma centralizada y nadie había tenido nunca motivo para desactivar eso, las palabras INSTITUTO LUMEN S.A. - PAGOS A PROVEEDORES. Lo miraste un rato. Después metiste el dinero en la misma cuenta que los turnos de noche, donde dejó de ser nada en particular. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<run AddEvent("Player", "HollisMet"); $npcs.hollis to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> No. Gracias. Son cuatro mil dólares por dos noches. Ya sé lo que son. Cerró la carpeta sin rencor, porque le había preguntado a un desconocido a la puerta de un bar y un desconocido a la puerta de un bar había dicho que no, y eso era un martes. Después se quedó ahí un segundo más, y entendiste que llevaba unos ocho meses queriendo que alguien dijera que no. ¿Sabes cuál es la peor parte? Que son personas de verdad. Todas hicieron la acogida. Lo que pasa es que después de la acogida no hay nada, así que no hay nada que contar, así que alguien tiene que inventárselo. Encendió un cigarrillo que estaba claro que no fumaba a menudo. ¿Quieres algo por las molestias? Información gratis. Ese edificio del final de la manzana, ese sobre el que todo el mundo tiene una teoría: es nuestro. De Lumen. Retenido desde la adquisición, cuatro años, en el registro de activos por un dólar. Las liquidaciones van por un calendario, el calendario va a Jurídico, Jurídico lo sella porque Jurídico no ha bajado nunca por la calle Dovehurst. Catorce días no es una postura de negociación. Catorce días es el final del trimestre fiscal. No hay pujas. No hay pujas. Se lo lleva quien aparezca con el dinero el día catorce y se va por el número de la hoja, y si no aparece nadie se prorroga y se vuelve a listar al mismo número el trimestre siguiente, porque eso es lo que dice el calendario. Se encogió de hombros. Una más. Lo que hubiera dentro salió en un camión en el 24 y yo sé a dónde fue el camión, porque compré un archivador de esa misma carga. Un viejo bajo las vías, a la altura de la Cuarta. Grant. Compra el contenido de edificios muertos y no tira nunca nada. Te dio la calle transversal dos veces, porque se le notaba que habías dejado de respirar bien. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* EL RELEVO HACIA NADIA */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> Había una camioneta de plataforma sobre la boca de riego delante de la lavandería y un hombre de unos cincuenta de pie en la caja discutiendo con un teléfono. ...no, porque una vigueta no es una sugerencia, Ray. Una vigueta es un hecho. Puedes tener mi opinión sobre tu cocina o puedes tener mi factura; lo que no puedes es no tener ninguna de las dos. Colgó, vio que lo mirabas y no le importó que lo miraran. ¿Eres del barrio? Cuatro portales más arriba. ¿Tienes espalda? Tengo espalda. Torin Vale. Bajó de la caja sin usar el estribo. Estoy vaciando una casa de cuatro viviendas en Sunset Park el sábado y el domingo y los dos tíos que tenía han descubierto los dos que tienen boda. Todo lo que hay por encima de la planta noble baja al bordillo a mano, porque la escalera gira dos veces y el de la canaleta quiere seiscientos dólares para decirme que no se puede hacer. Dos días. Novecientos, en efectivo, y me odiarás para la hora de comer del domingo. Novecientos. Novecientos es lo que vale y novecientos es lo que paga. Ni regateo a la baja ni me regatean al alza. Es una forma muy descansada de vivir. <<set $npcs.torin to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "GigTorin")>>\ <hr> <<link "Aceptar (dos días, +$900)">><<run AddDays(2); SetHours(18); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(900); AddFitness(2); AddEvent("Player", "GigTorinDone")>><<goto "ES:Gig Torin Weekend">><</link>> <<link "Decirle que no puedes">><<run AddEvent("Player", "GigTorinDone")>><<goto "ES:Gig Torin Refused">><</link>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> Me parece justo. Son dos días malos. Escribió un número en el reverso de un albarán y te lo tendió igualmente. Torin Vale. Si algún día tienes algo con tejado, ese es el número para el tejado. Te lo guardaste en la cartera, detrás de la fotografía de un edificio que no era tuyo. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/DowntownWide.jpg" "Sunset Park">> Tenía razón sobre la hora de comer del domingo. Dos días de listones y yeso y un baño completo de 1974 que bajó las escaleras en seis piezas, todas con la forma equivocada. Torin trabajó más que tú y habló todo el rato, sobre todo de las viguetas de otra gente, dos veces de una mujer llamada Renata que se había ido en 2011 y una vez, muy brevemente, del edificio del final de Dovehurst. Ese lleva cuatro años muerto. Una pena. Buena estructura, mal tejado, y alguien en algún momento tiró ahí dentro una pared que tenía que haberse quedado donde estaba. ¿Has estado dentro? He estado dentro de todos los edificios de esa calle. He estado dentro de todos los edificios de este distrito a los que se les ha sacado una licencia desde la administración Clinton. Te pasó el extremo de una vigueta. Levanta con las piernas o te cobro la clase. Te pagó a las cuatro del domingo de un sobre del banco, contado dos veces, delante de ti, lo cual entendiste más tarde que era algo que hacía a propósito. Apareciste los dos días y no pusiste morros. Eso son dos de las dos cosas que necesito. Si quieres trabajo, me llamas. No me llames en domingo, no soy un monstruo. <<Cash 900>> por el fin de semana. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<h2>Cómo funciona esto</h2> Eres coach. Las mujeres vienen a ti con un problema que normalmente han diagnosticado mal, y tú las llevas por el Protocolo hasta que dejan de hacerlo. <h4>La semana</h4> Cada clienta tiene una cita fija. Si la pierdes, esperas una semana. El viernes por la tarde es la reunión abierta, que es donde te encuentran las clientas nuevas. <h4>Las cifras</h4> Cada mujer lleva cinco: hasta dónde ha llegado en el Protocolo, cuánto se ha abierto, cuánta comodidad tiene con que la vean, cuánto confía en ti y cuánto bienestar siente contigo en concreto. La confianza es la que importa. Toda petición de verdad tiene un precio en confianza, y siempre puedes pedir más de la que tienes. Simplemente le cuesta bienestar a ella, y una mujer con ese medidor por los suelos deja de aparecer. <h4>Las cintas</h4> El archivo es tu forma de aprender. Cada cinta que trabajas te enseña algo que luego puedes usar en cada sesión, con todas. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Fitness.gif">> Dos horas. No estás construyendo nada impresionante. Te estás demostrando a ti mismo que terminas las cosas, que es el único argumento que te ha funcionado nunca. <<run AddHours(2); AddFitness(3)>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Gym">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* La calle Dovehurst */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddHours(2); AddFitness(3)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Fitness.gif">> Dos horas en tu propio edificio, que es una frase que todavía tienes que decir despacio. <hr> <<PNav "HQGym">>

<<if CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and GameDayIs("Friday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 18 and $player.unlocks.hq>>\ [[Dar la reunión de esta noche|ES:Weekly Meeting]] <</if>>\ <<if $player.fame gte 3 and BetweenTime(9, 17) and $player.unlocks.renovated>>\ [[Atender una sesión privada (1 hora)|ES:Private Session]] <</if>>\ <<include [[ES:Renovation]]>>\

<<if not $clients.bex and $player.dayCounter is 0 and random(1, 3) is 1>>\ <<PEvent true "Bex Intro" "Bex" "Hay alguien esperando en el escalón.">>\ <<elseif $clients.bex and $clients.bex.dayCounter is 0 and not CheckEvent("Bex", "Second")>>\ <<PEvent true "Bex Second" "Bex" "Bex ha vuelto.">>\ <</if>>\ <<if not $clients.margo and $player.fame gte 20 and random(1, 3) is 1>>\ <<PEvent true "Margo Intro" "Margo" "Una mujer con un buen abrigo, comprobando el número contra su móvil.">>\ <</if>>\

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia>><<include [[ES:Nadia HQ Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>><<include [[ES:Pip HQ Events]]>><</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg">> He does not sell it to you straight away. He plugs it in, plays four seconds of a training tape for a forklift company off a reel he clearly keeps for exactly this purpose, stops it, and puts his thumb on the capstan. "Belt's going. Not gone. Going. It'll run about half a per cent slow and it'll get worse over a year, so when everything starts sounding like a man with a cold, that's the belt and not you." "Can you fix it?" "Not today. Nobody makes the belt. You want it perfect, that's two hundred more and six weeks and a man in Ohio. You want it working, that's two-twenty and you carry it out yourself." He wraps the head in a piece of chamois and puts a rubber band round it. "Third one of these I've sold in this arch. You'd think there'd be a run on them." He says it to the deck rather than to you, and then he takes your money, and then, unmistakably, he waits about three seconds to see whether you will ask. <<Cash 220>>. It weighs more than you expected. Everything from before you were born does. <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">>

<<run AddHours(1); $player.tapes.found += 1; RemoveEvent("Player", "TapeSearch"); $npcs.hollis.dayCounter to 2>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg">> It is under the counter in a carrier bag inside a second carrier bag, because Hollis Grant does not believe in a single carrier bag. <<if $player.tapes.found gte 9>>\ "That's the lot, then. Nine. Don't come back asking for a tenth, there isn't one, he stopped." <<else>>\ "One. Came out of a storage unit in Ridgewood with about forty hours of a man's wedding band. Whoever cleared it kept the reels because reels sell and binned the boxes, which is why you're getting it for nothing and why I can't tell you which one it is until you've played it." <</if>>\ "What do I owe you?" "You paid me on Tuesday." He goes back to the bench. Four minutes later the R goes over and the lamp on the scissor arm shakes and he steadies it with two fingers without stopping what he is doing, which he has evidently been doing for thirty years. You have <<print $player.tapes.found>> of the nine. <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> Brass door furniture, two dozen coat hooks, a box of switch plates and the long brass rail out of the ground floor that Torin took down in one piece and would not let anybody help him carry. "Rail's the money. Rest is the rail's friends." He gives you <<Cash 140>> out of a tin, counts it twice, and then stands the rail up against the racking rather than putting it in a bin, which you notice. "I'll not sell that. Somebody'll want it back in twenty years and be amazed I had it." <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">>

<<run AddMinutes(30)>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddEvent("Hollis", "TalkShop")>>\ "How long have you had the arch?" "Since the arch was cheaper than a lock-up." He turns the thing on the bench over and starts on the other side. "I was a service engineer. Company had eleven of us doing hospital dictation machines, transcription pools, that sort of thing. Every borough had a room with forty women and forty machines in it and something was always wrong with nine of them. Then the rooms went. So I bought the machines. Nobody wanted them, I had a van, and it turns out if you're the last man in a city who can do a thing, you don't need to be good at business." "Are you good at business?" "I'm forty years behind on the rent in real terms and the landlord's dead. That's not business, that's weather." <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddEvent("Hollis", "TalkFormat")>>\ "Why would anybody record on tape now? Genuinely. A phone does it better." "A phone does it //easier//. Different word." He puts the screwdriver down, which is as close as he comes to a speech. "Three reasons and only one of them's romance. One: nobody can copy it in a hurry. You want a duplicate of that reel, you need two decks and forty minutes of your life and you can't do it while you're on a train. Two: it can't leave the room by accident. There's no cloud on a reel. There's no //sync//. If it's on that shelf it's on that shelf and that's the whole security model and it's better than most." "And three?" "Three's the interesting one. You can't skim it. Forty minutes of tape takes forty minutes. Man who records on tape has decided he's going to listen to it properly or not at all." He picks the screwdriver back up. "Most people who buy a deck off me want reason one and tell me it's romance. Every so often you get one who's worked out three on his own. They're the ones who come back." <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ <<run AddEvent("Hollis", "TalkDecks")>>\ "You said three of those decks. Who had the other two?" "Same fella. Both of them." The R goes over. He waits it out, which he always does, and then carries on exactly where he stopped. "Bought the first one, nine, ten years back? Asked all the right questions and none of the clever ones. Came back about eighteen months later and bought a second, same model, and I said why, and he said because when this one dies I'm not going to be able to get another and I'll have a shelf full of things I can't hear." "He bought a spare." "He bought a spare //for the future//. Nobody does that. People buy a spare for Tuesday. This bloke was buying for a Tuesday twenty years out, and I remember thinking, that's a man who's expecting to be listened to after he's stopped talking." He shrugs. "Then he stopped coming, and I got the second one back off a house clearance in Bay Ridge about a year after that, and that's the one on the end of the bench that you're now carrying about in a chamois. Make of that whatever you like. I made nothing of it. It's a deck." <<elseif $passageRoute is 4>>\ <<run AddEvent("Hollis", "TalkArchive")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg">> "You knew. About the wall. You knew there was something in that building." "I knew he'd bought a hundred and twenty reels off me over three years and I never once saw one of them again. That's not knowing, son. That's arithmetic." "You could have gone and looked." "Could have. Building was shut four years and the plywood on the side door was never screwed properly, and I'll say that to you and not to anybody else." He blows dust off something and looks at it against the lamp. "But it's his. That's the beginning and the end of it. I've had people in here try to sell me a dead man's records, dead man's photographs, a dead man's letters, and I buy them, because if I don't they go in a skip. That's different from going and getting them. One's rescue and one's robbery and there's about four feet between them." "So what am I?" "You bought the building." He puts the part down and looks at you properly for the first time in about four visits. "That's the difference. You went and got eighteen thousand dollars, and you handed it over, and then you owned the wall and everything inside it. It's not a nice distinction and it's the only one that's ever held up. Don't ask me to pretend it's more elegant than that." <<else>>\ <<run AddEvent("Hollis", "TalkHim")>>\ "What did you make of him? All those visits, all those reels." "Polite. Bit heavy on the questions." "Hollis." "What do you want me to say? I sold a man tape. He came in about every six weeks for three years, and he'd take the labels off the boxes before he left the shop, standing there, with a thumbnail, and put them in my bin, and I never asked why because it's my bin and he was buying forty boxes at a go." He works for a while. You have learned to let him. "He asked me once whether tape lasts. I said thirty, forty years if it's dry and you don't play it to death. He said what about a hundred. I said then you're talking about somebody else's problem, and he said yes, that's rather the idea." "That's what you made of him." "That's what I remember. It's not the same thing and I'd not dress it up." He sets the screwdriver down at right angles to the bench edge. "I'll give you one more and then we're done with it. Last time he was in, and I didn't know it was the last time, nobody ever does, he didn't buy tape. He bought a spare belt for the deck and a head demagnetiser, which is maintenance, and maintenance is a thing you buy when you think you're carrying on." "So he didn't know." "Or he did and he wanted whoever came next to have a working machine." He shrugs, and it is the shrug of a man who has fixed four thousand machines and does not believe any of it was very important. "I've thought about it about twice. You'll think about it for a year. That's the difference between us and it's why you've got the building and I've got the arch." <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* ROTATING CLIENTS — BEX HALLORAN */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<if not $npcs.hollis>><<set $npcs.hollis to clone($minorTemplate)>><</if>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg" "Hollis Salvage">> Under the tracks, in the third arch along, behind a roller door that is only ever up to shoulder height. Every four minutes the R goes over and the whole room says so. Racking to the ceiling. Decks, reels, cases of tape still in shrinkwrap, a crate of remote controls sorted by manufacturer, and a bench at the back with a lamp on a scissor arm where Hollis Grant sits with something opened up in front of him and does not look up when the bell goes. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[ES:Salvage Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[ES:Salvage Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Subway">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> "There are nine and I've got what was in the wall. I want the rest." "Then you don't want a shop, you want a bloodhound. Hundred and fifty covers my phone calls and one train fare and I'll tell you now that two of the four people I'd ring are dead." He writes nothing down. He has never written anything down in front of you. "Quarter-inch, seven-inch reel, probably a Scotch box with the label gone because he took the labels off. I've told you that already and you didn't believe me. Give me four days. If somebody's got one they'll not know what it is, which is the good news, because if they knew what it was they'd want a number I'm not paying." <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg">> The counter is a door on two filing cabinets. Everything on it has a price on masking tape, and every price has been written once and never changed. <hr> <h2>For sale</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "Deck")>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 220>>\ <<link "The quarter-inch deck on the end of the bench (-$220)">>\ <<run AddCash(-220); AddEvent("Player", "Deck"); $player.inventory.pushUnique("Reel-to-reel deck")>>\ <<goto "ES:Hollis Deck">><</link>> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">The deck on the end of the bench is <<Cash 220>>. You have <<Cash $player.cash>>.</div> <</if>>\ <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">He has no second deck worth selling you and says so.</div> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Deck") and not CheckEvent("Player", "Splice")>>\ <<link "A splicing block, a razor and a roll of leader (-$18)">>\ <<run AddCash(-18); AddEvent("Player", "Splice"); $player.inventory.pushUnique("Splicing kit")>>\ <<goto "ES:Hollis Shop">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.building and not CheckEvent("Player", "SoldJunk")>>\ <<link "Sell him the four boxes of fittings you pulled out of the ground floor (+$140, 1 hour)">>\ <<run AddHours(1); AddCash(140); AddEvent("Player", "SoldJunk")>>\ <<goto "ES:Hollis Junk">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.archive and $player.tapes.found lt 9 and not CheckEvent("Player", "TapeSearch") and $player.cash gte 150>>\ <<link "Ask him to put the word out for the rest of them (-$150, 1 hour)">>\ <<run AddHours(1); AddCash(-150); AddEvent("Player", "TapeSearch"); $npcs.hollis.dayCounter to 4>>\ <<goto "ES:Hollis Search">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">>

<h2>Hollis Grant</h2> Sesenta y tantos. Vende y arregla máquinas que ya no fabrica nadie, desde una tienda bajo las vías. Le vendió dos reproductores de cinta a un hombre de la calle Dovehurst hace mucho tiempo y se acuerda mejor de los aparatos que del hombre. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> He keeps working while you talk. It took you three visits to understand that this is not rudeness, it is the only condition under which he says anything at all. <hr> <h2>What you ask him</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkShop")>>\ <<link "Ask him how long he's been under here (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "ES:Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkShop") and not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkFormat")>>\ <<link "Ask him why anybody would record on tape in 2024 (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "ES:Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkFormat") and not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkDecks")>>\ <<link "Ask who else bought a deck like yours (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "ES:Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkDecks") and not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkArchive") and $player.unlocks.archive>>\ <<link "Ask whether he knew what was in the wall (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 4>><<goto "ES:Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkArchive") and not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkHim") and $player.fame gte 15>>\ <<link "Ask him what he made of the man (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 5>><<goto "ES:Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">>

<h2>Expediente</h2> Todo el mundo que has conocido, y hasta dónde has llegado con cada cual. <h2>Clientas</h2> <<if $bimbos.nadia>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Nadia Statistics" title="Nadia Sorel"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('nadia')">Nadia SorelImprenta Sorel · martes</a>\ <<else>>\ <img class="p-card__img" src="Assets/UI/Placeholder.jpg">-Hay una imprenta en la calle Dovehurst con las luces encendidas.\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Pip Statistics" title="Priya Raman"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('pip')">Pip RamanCafetería Nueve · jueves</a>\ <<else>>\ <img class="p-card__img" src="Assets/UI/Placeholder.jpg">-Alguien de la cafetería reconocerá las palabras de tu folleto.\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Camille Statistics" title="Camille Ostrowski"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('camille')">Camille OstrowskiFlatiron · domingos</a>\ <<else>>\ <img class="p-card__img" src="Assets/UI/Placeholder.jpg">-Da suficientes reuniones y alguien vendrá a tomar apuntes sobre ti.\ <</if>>\ <<if $clients.bex>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Bex Statistics" title="Bex Halloran"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('bex')">Bex HalloranSin cita</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $clients.margo>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Margo Statistics" title="Marguerite Sun"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('margo')">Margo SunSin cita</a>\ <</if>>\ <h2>Todos los demás</h2> <<if $npcs.delphine>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Delphine Statistics" title="Delphine Aubry"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('delphine')">Delphine AubryLa Hora Larga</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $npcs.torin>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Torin Statistics" title="Torin Vale"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('torin')">Torin ValeContratista</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $npcs.okonkwo>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Okonkwo Statistics" title="Adaeze Okonkwo"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('okonkwo')">A. OkonkwoDepartamento de Edificación</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $npcs.hollis>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Hollis Statistics" title="Hollis Grant"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('hollis')">Hollis GrantChatarrería, bajo las vías</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $npcs.kessler>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="ES:Kessler Statistics" title="Adrienne Kessler"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('kessler')">Adrienne KesslerInstituto Lumen</a>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddEvent("Player", "KesslerCall"); AddHours(1); $player.dayCounter to 5; AddFame(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> Sonó a las 08:12 de un jueves y el número estaba oculto y lo cogiste porque ahora lo coges todo. ¿Eres $player.firstName? ¿Quién es? Adrienne Kessler. Voy a hablar unos dos minutos y después decides si dices algo. ¿Te parece bien? Era la voz de alguien que no ha tenido que levantarla ni una sola vez. Sin prisa. Interesada. Ese tipo de atención que resulta genuinamente halagadora, que es por lo que funciona. Mi abogado te mandó una carta en mayo y una notificación la semana pasada y las dos eran correctas y las dos eran desagradables de recibir, y no voy a fingir lo contrario ni a pedir perdón por ellas. Eso es lo que hace una empresa. Me gustaría que oyeras la otra cosa, que no viene de una empresa. Sé lo que haces los viernes por la noche. Lo sé porque yo lo hice. Doce mujeres en una trastienda, sin seguro, sin supervisión, sin cribado de acogida, y sin ninguna idea, y esto lo digo sin ninguna maldad, sin ninguna idea de cuál de esas doce está tomando litio. No sabe nada de mi sala. Sé que una mujer que esté dentro te contará en la tercera semana cosas que lleva nueve años sin contarle a su médico. Lo sé porque el método es bueno. Es un método muy bueno. Era bueno cuando se hacía en aquel edificio con un hombre y un cuaderno y es bueno ahora, y la diferencia entre él y yo es que cuando una mujer de mi sala dice algo en la tercera semana hay cuatro personas en un edificio de Flatiron cuyo trabajo entero es lo que pasa después. Él no tenía eso. Se tenía a sí mismo, y su sí mismo era excelente, y no bastó, y dejó de bastar en algún momento del último año y yo lo vi pasar desde la tercera fila. Así que. No te estoy pidiendo que lo dejes. Lo dejarías unas seis semanas. Te estoy pidiendo que entres. Hay una vía de Guía, está pagada, no es un sueldo pequeño, y la gente que está en ella es la gente a la que le importó lo bastante como para hacerlo en un bar. A todas las personas que he contratado las encontré haciéndolo en un bar. <hr> <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ Hubo una pausa mínima. No una duda: una página al pasar. $player.firstName. Antes de que contestes. Tu nombre salió en un informe de proveedores el trimestre pasado, que no es algo que yo suela mirar, salvo porque alguien de Jurídico lo marcó dentro del mismo expediente. Cuatro mil dólares, febrero, Park Slope, cuarenta testimonios de socias. Eso fue antes. Por supuesto que sí. Sin ningún triunfo en la voz, lo cual era peor. No lo saco para avergonzarte. Lo saco porque ya sabes cómo se siente nuestro dinero, y porque lo cogiste, y te habrás fijado en que no te estoy preguntando por qué. Escribiste cuarenta y los hiciste bien. Leí cuatro. Son mejores que lo que pagamos. Eran inventados. Eran compuestos. Sí. Una respiración. Esa es la parte de mi empresa que cambiaría si pudiera cambiar una sola, y te lo estoy diciendo en una llamada que no estoy grabando. Piénsate la oferta. <<run AddEvent("Player", "KesslerLeverage")>>\ <<else>>\ No. Qué rápido. Ha sido rápido durante cinco años. Mm. No pareció importarle, y no pareció sorprendida, y ninguna de las dos cosas era teatro. Entonces digo la cosa verdadera y me voy. Hiciera lo que hiciera, según tú, lo hice en una sala de juntas con abogados, un miércoles, enteramente por escrito. Eso no es una defensa. Es el hecho. Y un hombre que lo hace en un bar un viernes va a perder contra una persona que lo hace un miércoles todas y cada una de las veces, y la razón no es que yo sea peor que tú. Se lo quitó. Yo registré. Él no. Por primera vez, algo se movió bajo la voz, y no era culpa. Cuatrocientas seis mujeres pasaron por Lumen el año pasado y a cada una la atendió alguien cualificado. Pregúntame si lo volvería a hacer, y ten cuidado, porque voy a contestar. La llamada terminó a las 08:19. Había dicho siete minutos de cosas en siete minutos y no había dejado de ser razonable ni una sola vez. No preguntó desde dónde llamabas. No preguntó por el edificio. No se le ocurrió. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* CIERRE DEL ACTO I */ /* ==================================================================== */

<h2>Adrienne Kessler</h2> Cuarenta y cinco. Fundadora y consejera delegada del Instituto Lumen: once estudios, una suscripción por niveles y una marca registrada sobre cinco frases que no escribió ella. Fue clienta durante once meses. Tomó apuntes que ninguna clienta debería haber estado tomando. Después compró la deuda de este edificio, demandó por el nombre y se llevó contratada a toda persona que hubiera podido testificar sobre nada de aquello. Nunca te ha levantado la voz. <h4>Lo que sabes</h4> <<Progress "Kessler" "Letter">> Su abogado te escribe. <<Progress "Kessler" "Cease">> El requerimiento de cese. <<Progress "Kessler" "Call">> Te llamó ella misma. <<Progress "Kessler" "Door">> Leyó el número de encima de la puerta. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<if CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and not $player.unlocks.hq and GameDayIs("Friday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 18>>\ [[Run tonight's meeting|ES:Weekly Meeting]] <</if>>\ [[Buy a drink (-$9, 45 minutes)|ES:Long Hour Drink]] <<if Known("delphine")>>\ <<if $npcs.delphine.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[Talk to Delphine (30 minutes)|ES:Delphine Talk]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Delphine has said what she is saying today.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\

<<run AddMinutes(45); AddCash(-9); $passageRoute to random(1, 4)>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Beer.jpg">> A pint of whatever is nearest the tap handle she likes this month. You take the third stool because the second one leans and the fourth is under the vent. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Whisky.jpg">> Rye, two cubes. Delphine pours it and then tops it, because you look like a man who has been outside all day, and because she has never once undercharged you and never once poured a short one either. <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Wine.jpg">> A glass of the red she keeps for herself. She does not make a thing of it. You drink it slowly enough to notice that it is better than the room. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Cocktail.jpg">> Something in a coupe glass that she builds without asking and without looking at her hands. Two men down the bar watch her do it and neither of them says anything, which in this bar counts as a review. <</if>>\ <<if Known("delphine")>>\ "Eat something today?" "I ate." "You ate standing up. That's not eating, that's refuelling." <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* DELPHINE AUBRY — the withholding mentor */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\ <<if Known("torin") and $npcs.torin.dayCounter is 0 and BetweenTime(17, 22)>>\ <<PEvent true "Torin Talk" "Torin" "Torin, one stool from the end, boots off.">>\ <</if>>\ <<if Known("delphine") and CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and not $player.unlocks.hq and GameDayIs("Friday") and BetweenTime(16, 17)>>\ Delphine has already put the chairs out in the back room. She does that on Fridays now and has not once mentioned doing it. <</if>>\

<<run AddEvent("Player", "LumenCease"); AddHours(1); $player.dayCounter to 3>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> El mensajero tenía diecinueve años y pedía perdón y llevaba cuarenta minutos esperando porque el portero automático no funciona, y necesitaba una firma y una fotografía de la firma. Esta vez cuatro páginas. Requerimiento de cese. Uso de la marca BIMBO PROTOCOL y once variantes. Uso de la expresión los cinco principios en relación con cualquier servicio ofrecido a cambio de contraprestación. Uso de un marco numerado de cinco puntos en cualquier material promocional, sobre la base de un registro sobre una metodología de bienestar de cinco elementos presentado el segundo año tras la adquisición, es decir, presentado dieciocho meses después de que un hombre de esta calle los escribiera a mano. Catorce días para confirmar el cumplimiento por escrito. La última página enumeraba, en un anexo numerado, cada pieza de publicidad que habías sacado. El folleto. La única página web. Los carteles de las seis manzanas. Las búsquedas compradas. Las fechas de todas, exactas al día, incluidas dos que habías tenido que comprobar en tus propios registros. Alguien llevaba un expediente sobre ti desde febrero. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ El punto 7 del anexo no era tuyo. El punto 7 eran cuarenta testimonios de socias publicados en noviembre por un franquiciado de Park Slope, y al lado, en la columna encabezada AUTORÍA, estaba tu nombre. Lo habían metido en el anexo de tu conducta. No como acusación. Como acreditación de vínculo. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<set $npcs.kessler to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "LumenLetter"); AddHours(1); $player.dayCounter to 4>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> Estaba en la bandeja de abajo debajo de una carta de comida, y llevaba un sello de verdad, y tu nombre estaba bien escrito incluyendo la segunda sílaba que la gente pone mal. Dentro, una página, de un bufete de Madison Avenue, en nombre de Instituto Lumen S.A. No te amenazaba. Eso era a lo que volvías una y otra vez. Decía que la clienta del bufete tenía conocimiento de una serie de reuniones públicas celebradas los viernes por la tarde en un local con licencia de la calle Dovehurst, Brooklyn. Decía que la clienta era titular de marcas registradas sobre una lista de términos, y la lista de términos ocupaba once líneas, y las leíste las once, y solo tres eran cosas que hubieras dicho alguna vez. Decía que el bufete no alegaba en este momento infracción alguna. Decía que su clienta no tenía intención presente de proseguir el asunto y que solo deseaba dejar constancia, a efectos del expediente, de la fecha en que había tenido conocimiento. Después pedía, educadamente, el nombre y la dirección de la persona que organizaba las reuniones, para sus archivos. Ya los tenían. Estaban en el sobre. Te quedaste un rato en el escritorio con la carta abierta delante. No había en ella ni una frase que pudieras llevarle a nadie. No había nada a lo que enfadarse, nada que responder, y ninguna pregunta que fuera de verdad una pregunta. Era una carta escrita para estar en una carpeta dentro de dieciocho meses, cuando alguien la leyera en voz alta y dijera y a usted se le notificó el cuatro de mayo. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ Al pie, bajo la firma, había un bloque de referencias: número de asunto, número de cliente y un tercer código que no habrías mirado dos veces salvo porque ya lo habías visto antes, en un aviso de remesa, en febrero, al lado de tu propio nombre. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<set $clients.margo to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<run AddHours(1); AddCash(400); AddFame(2); AddEvent("Margo", "First"); $clients.margo.dayCounter to 8>>\ <<Pool 44>> She checks the number on the door against her phone twice, which people do, and then she looks up at the plywood on the ground floor windows for a good five seconds, which people do not. "You've got a lot of work to do here." "I've got a roof man coming Tuesday." "Get the front done first." "The roof's leaking." "And nobody walking past can see the roof." Marguerite Sun. Thirty-eight. Everyone has called her Margo since she was eleven and she has stopped correcting them. She owns Sun & Daughters on Fifty-First: two chairs, fourteen years, her mother's name over the door and her mother three years dead. She sits down in the good coat and does not take it off, and tells you the numbers before you ask for them, which is a first. "Takings are down thirty-one per cent on 2025. I have nine thousand four hundred on cards. I have one girl and I pay her before I pay myself, which I know what you're going to say about, and there are four blow-dry places within six blocks that charge less than my cost and I cannot work out how." "They're not making money either." "I know they're not making money either! That doesn't help me, that's just two of us drowning." She has read the page with the five Principles on it. She has read it, she tells you, about eleven times, and she has decided that four of them are obvious and one of them is a lie. "Which one's the lie?" "Be a source of joy, not stress." She says it like she has been waiting three weeks to say it to somebody's face. "I have been a source of joy for fourteen years. I am //extremely// good at it. I know which of my clients is getting divorced before her husband does. I do a woman's hair in a hospice on Sundays and I don't charge her and I've never told anybody that until right now. And I am forty pounds heavier than I was, I have not been on holiday since my mother got sick, and my business is dying. So either that principle is a lie or I've been doing it for fourteen years for free." "You've been doing the fourth one and skipping the fifth." "Oh, here we go." "Let yourself be taken care of. It's not a reward for the other four. It's the one that makes the other four survivable. You've built a machine for producing joy and you have not put a single intake valve on it, so it's been running on you. Thirty-one per cent down isn't a marketing problem, Margo. It's a woman who cannot charge properly for something she believes should be a gift." There is a pause of a length you have learned to recognise. "That's a very convenient thing for a man who charges by the hour to say." "Yes." "You're not going to argue with that?" "No. You should keep noticing things like that. It's the only reason I think this'll work on you." You spend the back half of the hour on the actual arithmetic: her price list, her Sundays, the girl's wage, and the fourteen years of loyalty discounts she has been giving to women who would pay full and never blink. She writes on the back of an envelope in a hand you could read from across the room. "You know the worst part. I know all of this. I have known all of this since about 2022." "Everybody knows. Knowing is free. That's why it's worth four hundred dollars to have somebody say it back to you in a building with a hole in the roof." She pays. She does not flinch at the number, and she watches to see whether you flinch at taking it, and you do not, and something about that seems to settle it for her. <<Cash 400>> for the hour. "Front of the building. Before the roof. I'm not going to stop saying it." <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<Pool 44>> <h2>Marguerite "Margo" Sun</h2> Thirty-eight. Owns Sun & Daughters on Fifty-First: two chairs, fourteen years, her mother's name over the door and her mother three years dead. Takings down thirty-one per cent, $9,400 on cards, and one employee she pays before she pays herself. She read the five Principles eleven times and arrived having decided that the fourth one is a lie. She is not wrong about anything except which principle she has been skipping. <hr> <h3>Events</h3> <<Progress "Margo" "First">> Checked the number twice, then criticised the frontage. <hr> <<if $clients.margo and $clients.margo.dayCounter gt 0>>\ Margo will be back in <<print $clients.margo.dayCounter>> day<<if $clients.margo.dayCounter gt 1>>s<</if>>. <<else>>\ She has the price list on the back of an envelope and has not raised anything yet. <</if>>\ <hr> [[Back to the journal|ES:Journal]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Nadie acude a algo de lo que no ha oído hablar. <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers")>>\ <<link "Encargarle a Nadia una tirada de folletos (-$120, 4 horas)">><<run AddHours(4); AddCash(-120); AddFame(2); AddEvent("Player", "Flyers")>><<goto "ES:Marketing">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "Website") and CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers")>>\ <<link "Montar una sola página con los cinco Principios (6 horas)">><<run AddHours(6); AddFame(2); AddEvent("Player", "Website")>><<goto "ES:Marketing">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Website") and not CheckEvent("Player", "Posters") and $player.cash gte 900>>\ <<link "Empapelar las seis manzanas alrededor de Dovehurst (-$900, 8 horas)">><<run AddHours(8); AddCash(-900); AddFame(4); AddEvent("Player", "Posters")>><<goto "ES:Marketing">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Posters") and not CheckEvent("Player", "Listing") and $player.cash gte 2000>>\ <<link "Comprar las búsquedas que Lumen no se ha molestado en comprar (-$2.000, 3 horas)">><<run AddHours(3); AddCash(-2000); AddFame(5); AddEvent("Player", "Listing")>><<goto "ES:Marketing">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Desk">>

<<run $player.meetings.appearance += 1>>\ Hablas cuarenta minutos sobre la diferencia entre que te miren y que te vean, y sobre cómo lo primero es el precio de lo segundo, y sobre cómo a nadie se le ocurre decirle a una mujer que ese precio se negocia. <<if $player.meetings.appearance gte 4>>\ <<Pool 12>> Cuatro de ellas ya vienen arregladas para la ocasión. No por ti. Entre ellas, que es mejor, y que no se lo enseñaste tú. <<elseif $player.meetings.appearance gte 2>>\ Una mujer se queda al final para preguntar, muy en serio, si cuenta cuando solo lo hace los días en que ya está de buen humor. Le dices que cuenta el doble. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<run $player.meetings.bestSelf += 1>>\ Tu mejor versión, les dices, no es una versión mejorada de otra persona. Les lees el párrafo que lo explica y luego se lo lees otra vez, porque es el único párrafo del manual que está escrito con rabia. <<if $player.meetings.bestSelf gte 3>>\ <<run AddFame(1)>>\ Alguien lo graba con el móvil. Probablemente debería importarte. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<run $player.meetings.care += 1>>\ El quinto. El que él dijo que llevó mal durante dos años, y solo lo sabes porque lo dijo en una cinta que nadie debía oír. Lo enseñas a su manera: déjate cuidar, fíjate en cuánto de ti se resiste, y apunta cómo suena esa resistencia con tu propia voz. <<if $player.meetings.care gte 2>>\ <<run AddFame(1)>>\ Dos mujeres se quedan al final y ninguna dice nada durante un rato. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PNav "HQ">><<PNav "Sublet">> <<else>>\ <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Sublet">> <</if>>\ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Pasajes de consulta */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run $player.meetings.joy += 1>>\ Fuente de alegría y no de estrés. Explicas que este es el Principio que suena a adorno y en realidad es el que sostiene el peso, y que una mujer que lo ha entendido ya ha hecho casi todo el trabajo. <<if $player.meetings.joy gte 2>>\ Alguien se ríe en el momento justo. La sala entera se relaja como un centímetro. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<run $player.meetings.please += 1>>\ El segundo Principio es el que te mete en líos, así que lo enseñas con cuidado: agradar a la gente es una destreza, no una deuda, y una destreza se puede dejar en el suelo. <<if $player.meetings.please gte 3>>\ Dos de ellas discuten contigo veinte minutos al terminar. Les concedes un punto, porque tienen razón en él, y porque concederles un punto es la lección entera. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[ES:Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "AskBack"); AddHours(1)>>\ <<if Ask("nadia", 14)>>\ <<run AddStat("nadia", "slut", 6); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddStat("nadia", "happiness", 1)>>\ <<Pool 41>> She locked the door and turned the sign and did not turn the window lights off, and when you looked at the window she said "I know. Leave them," in a voice with an entirely new floor under it. Afterwards, on the counter, with the wedding job still stacked at the far end and neither of them touched, she said into your shoulder: "Ten years I have been extremely comfortable." "I know." "I'd like it on the record that comfortable is a terrible thing to be." <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("nadia", "slut", 2)>>\ She locked the door. She turned the window lights off first, without being asked and without discussion, and that told you everything about where she actually was, and you went ahead anyway. It was not unkind and it was not what it could have been. Afterwards she squared the wedding stack that did not need squaring, twice, and said she had an early start. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "AskLate"); AddMinutes(40)>>\ <<if Ask("nadia", 5)>>\ <<run AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 2)>>\ "Thursdays. Not Fridays, Fridays I have a life now, which is your fault." She cut a key for you on the machine she claims she does not have. "Don't make me regret it." <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 1)>>\ She said yes, and cut the key, and was short with you for the rest of the evening in a way she would deny if asked. You have spent something you had not finished earning. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "AskProof"); AddHours(1)>>\ <<if Ask("nadia", 10)>>\ <<run AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 5); AddStat("nadia", "slut", 3); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 2)>>\ <<Pool 8>> "You want the woman who prints the poster to be on the poster." "I want the poster to be right. You're what right looks like." "That is a line and it worked, and I want both of those things on the record." She did it properly, because she does everything properly: she moved the guillotine, hung a roll of stock for a backdrop, set the lights off the letterpress lamps, and then stood in front of it all with her hair down and told you exactly which of the first eleven frames were bad and why. The twelfth was not bad. She knew it as it happened, and looked at the floor, and laughed at herself. <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 2)>>\ She set it all up correctly and stood in front of it with her arms folded and her face closed, and every frame you took was of a woman waiting for something to be over. You did not use any of them. She did not ask why. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<h2>Ask Nadia for something</h2> <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskPending")>>\ She is already doing the last thing you asked her for. <<else>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.bimbo gte 10 and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskLate")>>\ [[Ask her to keep the shop open late for you|ES:Nadia Ask Late]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.bimbo gte 18 and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskProof")>>\ [[Ask her to model the proofs herself|ES:Nadia Ask Proof]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.bimbo gte 26 and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskBack")>>\ [[Ask her to lock the door|ES:Nadia Ask Back]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.bimbo lt 10>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is nothing you could ask her for yet that she would not simply price and invoice.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> The programme is finished. What is left is a woman who runs a print shop on your street, prints everything you put your name on, and comes on Fridays. <hr> <<if $bimbos.nadia.happiness lt 5>>\ [[Something is wrong and you should fix it|ES:Nadia Repair]] <</if>>\ [[Ask her for something|ES:Nadia Asks]] <hr> <<PNav "Print">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* HOMEWORK */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<if GameDayIs("Tuesday") and $player.unlocks.hq and not $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete>>\ <<if $gameDate.getHours() is 19>>\ <<PEvent true "Nadia Hub" "Nadia" "Tuesday, 19:00.">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Nadia" "Nadia's session is Tuesday at 19:00.">>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete and GameDayIs("Friday") and BetweenTime(17, 21)>>\ <<PEvent true "Nadia Asks" "Nadia" "Nadia is here early.">>\ <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter is 0 and CheckEvent("Nadia", "HWSet") and BetweenTime(9, 20)>>\ [[Nadia has come to find you|ES:Nadia Homework Report]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.happiness lte 3 and $player.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[You should sort things out with Nadia|ES:Nadia Repair]] <</if>>\

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "HWCoat"); AddEvent("Nadia", "HWSet")>>\ "You've got four jumpers. This week you buy one thing you would have described, a month ago, as not for you. You wear it to the paper wholesaler, which is the least romantic errand in your life, and you notice what happens." "Nothing will happen." "Then it'll be a cheap lesson." <hr> <<PNav "Print">>

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "HWDinner"); AddEvent("Nadia", "HWSet")>>\ "You are going to go and eat dinner in a restaurant, on your own, without a book and without your phone on the table." "Absolutely not." "Tuesday." "I will actually die." <hr> <<PNav "Print">>

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "HWPrice"); AddEvent("Nadia", "HWSet"); AddHours(0)>>\ "One job this week. Price it at what it actually costs you, including your time at what you'd pay somebody else to do it. Then say the number out loud to the customer without any sentence after it." "Without a sentence after it." "No but I can do it cheaper. No if that's too much. The number, and then nothing." "That's going to be the longest four seconds of my life." <hr> <<PNav "Print">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Cafe.jpg">> She came to find you, which she has never done, and she did it before Tuesday, which she has also never done. <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "HWPrice")>>\ <<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "HWPrice"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); $bimbos.nadia.cash += 400>>\ "Four hundred and ten dollars. I said four hundred and ten dollars and then I said nothing, exactly like you said, and I want you to know that I nearly died, and he said okay." She was almost angry about it. "He said okay in about a second. $player.firstName, I have been undercharging that man for four years." <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "HWWindow")>>\ <<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "HWWindow"); AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 4); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 2)>>\ "Day one was horrible. Day two was horrible. Day three a woman waved at me. Day four I realised I have worked on that street for six years and I know one person's name." She looked genuinely thrown. "That's not a small thing to find out on a Thursday." <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "HWCoat")>>\ <<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "HWCoat"); AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 3); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); $bimbos.nadia.cash -= 180>>\ "A coat. A green coat, and before you say anything, it was on sale." It was not on sale. "The man at the wholesaler carried the boxes to the van. He has never carried a box in his life. I don't know whether to be pleased or to burn the coat." "Both is available." "Both. Yes. Let's do both." <<else>>\ <<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "HWDinner"); AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 5); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 2)>>\ "Ninety minutes. On my own. No book." She sat down opposite you without being asked. "The first twenty were the worst thing I have done as an adult. And then somewhere around the main course it stopped, all at once, like a fan going off, and I sat in a restaurant and ate a plate of food and nobody in the world needed anything from me." She looked at the table. "I'm going to do it again next week and I'm not going to tell you which restaurant." <</if>>\ <<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "HWSet"); AddHours(1)>>\ <hr> <<PBack>> /* ==================================================================== */ /* ASKS, REPAIR */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "HWWindow"); AddEvent("Nadia", "HWSet")>>\ "Every morning this week, before you open, stand in the front of the shop and look out of the window for one minute. Not at anything. Just be a woman standing at the front of her own shop where people can see her." "That's it?" "Tell me on Tuesday whether that was it." <hr> <<PNav "Print">>

<<if $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete>>\ <<include [[ES:Nadia Done]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session4")>>\ <<include [[ES:Nadia Session 5]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session3")>>\ <<include [[ES:Nadia Session 4]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session2")>>\ <<include [[ES:Nadia Session 3]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session1")>>\ <<include [[ES:Nadia Session 2]]>>\ <<else>>\ <<include [[ES:Nadia Session 1]]>>\ <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 1 — she thinks this is about the shop */ /* ==================================================================== */

<h2>Nadia</h2> <<switch $bimbos.nadia.happiness>>\ <<case 5>>She is content with you. <<case 4>>She is mostly content, and there is something she has not said. <<case 3>>She is not happy with you and is being extremely polite about it, which is worse. <<case 2>>She is answering in whole sentences and nothing else. <<default>>She has stopped pretending, and she is angry, and she is entitled to be. <</switch>>\ <hr> <<if $bimbos.nadia.happiness gte 5>>\ There is nothing to fix. <<else>>\ <<if HasTechnique("reframe")>>\ [[Sit down and have the actual conversation (1 hour)|ES:Nadia Repair Talk]] <</if>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 300 and $bimbos.nadia.weeklyRepair>>\ [[Take her somewhere good (-$300, 3 hours)|ES:Nadia Repair Dinner]] <<elseif not $bimbos.nadia.weeklyRepair>>\ <div class="p-locked">You have already taken her out this week.</div> <</if>>\ <<if not HasTechnique("reframe") and $player.cash lt 300>>\ <div class="p-locked">You have no money and you do not know how to do this with words yet.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddHours(3); AddCash(-300); AddStat("nadia", "happiness", 1); $bimbos.nadia.weeklyRepair to false>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> Somewhere with cloth napkins, which she noticed and did not mention. It worked the way money works: it did not fix anything, and it bought you back a degree of warmth, and you both knew which of those was happening. "This is a bribe." "It's dinner." "It's a very good bribe." <hr> <<PBack>> /* ==================================================================== */ /* EVENT FEEDS */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddHours(1); AddStat("nadia", "happiness", 2); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1)>>\ Reframing is not apologising. He is very clear about that on the tape, twice, in a tone that suggests he learned it the expensive way. You do not defend the thing you did. You say what you were trying to do, you say what you actually did, and you let her tell you the difference. "You pushed me because it was working and you wanted to see how far it went." "Yes." "Thank you. That's all I wanted. Not sorry. Just somebody in the room saying the true version out loud." She poured herself the last of the wine. "Don't do it again." "I'll probably do it again." "...Yes. All right. That's also true." <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> She had flipped the sign and left the front lights on, which she said was so it did not look like anything, and which meant the whole street could see two people sitting in a print shop at seven in the evening. There were two chairs on the customer side of the counter now. There had been one. "Before you start. I want to be clear that I'm doing this because you were straight with me about the money and because I have read your pages and about a third of them are extremely good. Not because I think anything is wrong with me." "Noted." "You're going to say something about that later, aren't you." "Almost certainly." "Fine. Go." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Shop")>>\ [[Ask about the shop|ES:Nadia Session 1 Shop]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Three")>>\ [[Ask why there are three outfits|ES:Nadia Session 1 Three]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Want")>>\ [[Ask what she wants|ES:Nadia Session 1 Want]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Shop") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Three") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Want")>>\ [[Close out the first session|ES:Nadia Session 1 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S1Shop"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S1Three"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S1Want"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Session1"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Fees"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1); AddFame(1) >>\ "Tuesdays. Nineteen hundred. A hundred and fifty a session, and you pay whether or not you show up, because that is what makes it a thing you turn up to." "That's a racket." "It's the same racket as your minimum order." "...Yes it is." She wrote it in the diary she actually uses, the paper one by the till, which you took as the real answer. <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ "Is there homework? There's homework. He put homework in the pages." "There's homework." <hr> [[Have her price a job at what it costs her|ES:Nadia Homework Price]] [[Have her stand in her own front window|ES:Nadia Homework Window]] <<else>>\ There is a whole architecture to the week between sessions and you do not know it yet. He put a tape aside for it. Until you have sat with that tape you are running a conversation, not a programme, and you can feel the difference in the last five minutes when there is nothing to send her home with. "That's it?" "That's it for now." "Huh." <hr> <<PNav "Print">> <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 2 — appearance, applied to a woman who has weaponised plain */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S1Shop"); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); AddMinutes(25)>>\ She talked about the shop for twenty minutes and it was the easiest twenty minutes she had spent with anyone in a while, which you could tell, because about halfway through she noticed it was easy and slowed down. "Margins are thin and getting thinner. Everyone with a laser printer thinks they don't need me until they hold the thing and it looks like it came out of a laser printer." She turned a wedding order round on the counter. "That's a hundred and sixty of these. Letterpress, on a machine that's older than my mother. Nobody in this borough can do it and I still can't charge what it costs me." "Do you want to charge what it costs you?" "Obviously." "Then why haven't you." She started to answer and then did not, which is the answer. "That's a session question. You're not being paid yet." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 1]]

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S1Three"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 2); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); AddMinutes(20)>>\ "You've got three outfits." "I've got a lot of outfits." "You wear three." She put her pen down. It was the first time all evening she had done one thing at a time. "Four. There's a grey one." "Why three." "Because it's a print shop and I get ink on everything and I'm not going to stand in front of a machine in something I like." A beat. "And because it works." "What does it do." "It means people talk to me about the job." You let that sit until she heard it, and she heard it, and her jaw set. "Don't do the silence thing. I've read the pages, I know it's on page nineteen." "It's on page nineteen because it works." "It's rude is what it is." But she said it almost cheerfully, and she wrote something on the corner of the pad and tore it off and put it in her pocket, and did not say what. <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 1]]

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S1Want"); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); AddMinutes(25)>>\ "What do you want?" "From this? Volume. If your thing takes off I print your thing. That's a business relationship and it's the only reason I'm sitting here at seven o'clock." "That's what you want from me. I asked what you want." The Ricoh cycled and stopped. Somebody went past outside with a dog. "I want to be left alone and paid properly." "Those are two different things and you only mean one of them." "Which one." "You tell me." "God, you're annoying." She got up and went to the machine that did not need anything doing to it and did something to it. With her back to you she said, in an entirely different voice, "I want to stop being the person nobody looks at." She let it stand for about two seconds and then killed it. "And now you're going to charge me a hundred and fifty dollars a week." "Yes." "Good. I'd have thought less of you." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 1]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> She had done something to her hair. Not much. Enough that you noticed and enough that she had planned for you to notice and had a sentence ready for when you did, and you could see her holding the sentence. You did not give her the opening. She held it for eleven minutes and then put it down, annoyed, and the session got better immediately. <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2Mirror")>>\ <<if HasTechnique("mirror")>>\ [[Mirror work|ES:Nadia Session 2 Mirror]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Mirror work. There is a tape about this and you have not sat with it.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2First")>>\ [[The first Principle, properly|ES:Nadia Session 2 First]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2Counter")>>\ [[What she does when a customer looks at her|ES:Nadia Session 2 Counter]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2First") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2Counter")>>\ [[Close out the session|ES:Nadia Session 2 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S2First"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S2Counter"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S2Mirror"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Session2"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1) >>\ At the door she said, with her hand already on the latch, in the tone of somebody getting a thing out before they can stop themselves: "I priced the church job at what it costs me. They said yes. They said yes in about four seconds, which means I've been leaving money on that counter for six years." "How does that feel?" "Like being robbed by myself." She got the door open. "Same time next week." <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ <hr> [[Give her something for the week|ES:Nadia Homework Window]] [[Give her something harder|ES:Nadia Homework Coat]] <<else>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">> <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 3 — the window */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S2Counter"); AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 3); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); AddMinutes(25)>>\ "When a customer looks at you, what do you do?" "Nothing." "Show me." "There's nobody here." "I'm here." She looked at you and then did it without meaning to, which was the point: her chin came down about two degrees, her shoulders rolled forward about the same, and she picked up a pen she did not need. It took under a second. She has done it ten thousand times. "Do it again and stop halfway." She did. She stopped halfway. She stayed there, half folded, in a lit shop window on a street with people on it, and her ears went red, and she held it for four seconds before she came out of it swearing. "That was horrible." "Yes." "Is that the whole method? Making people notice they're doing something?" "A lot of it, yes." "That's diabolical." She was almost laughing. "That's genuinely diabolical." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 2]]

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S2First"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 4); AddMinutes(30)>>\ "Take pride in your appearance. Say what you think that means." "Make an effort so men are nicer to you." "That's what you think it means. That's not what it says." "It's a sixty-page pamphlet about making women into bimbos, $player.firstName, let's not both pretend." "Read it out." She sighed, and found it, because of course she had it, and of course it was tabbed. "Take pride in your appearance. Pride is the operative word. Not shame, and not hunger. A woman who dresses out of hunger is asking a question. A woman who dresses out of pride is answering one." She stopped. "That's better than I remembered." "You've read it nine times." "I've read that page once. I skip that page." "I know. It's the only page with a fingerprint on it." "...You looked at my copy." "You left it on the counter." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 2]]

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S2Mirror"); AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 4); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 2); AddMinutes(30)>>\ There is a mirror in the back by the guillotine, hung there for no reason except that it came with the building. You turned the two chairs to face it. He was very specific about this on the tape. You do not tell her what to see. You ask her what she is checking, and then you wait, and the waiting is most of it. "I'm not checking anything." "You looked at your jaw." "I did not." "You looked at your jaw, then at your hairline, then you looked away. In that order. You did it in about a second and a half." Silence, in a print shop, at half past seven. "How long have you been able to do that?" "Two weeks. I learned it off a tape." "That's an appalling thing to be able to do to someone." "Yes." "Do it again." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 2]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> The front of the shop is nine feet of plate glass with a light box above it, and for six years it has held a hand-lettered card listing eleven services. "No." "I haven't said anything." "You looked at the window. You've been looking at the window since you came in. The answer is no." "What's the question?" "...Ask it properly, then." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Card")>>\ [[The card in the window|ES:Nadia Session 3 Card]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Sample")>>\ [[Put her own work in the window|ES:Nadia Session 3 Sample]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Stand")>>\ [[Put her in the window|ES:Nadia Session 3 Stand]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Card") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Sample") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Stand")>>\ [[Close out the session|ES:Nadia Session 3 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S3Card"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 2); AddMinutes(20)>>\ "Read me the card." "Photocopying, colour and black. Binding. Laminating. Business cards. Invitations. Letterpress. Foil. Scanning. Passport photos. Faxing, God help me. Key cutting, which I do not do and have never done and it came with the shop." "Eleven things and the best one is sixth." "They're alphabetical by department." "There's one department. It's you." She looked at the card for a while, from the inside, which is a thing she has probably not done since she wrote it. "It's a list of everything I'll agree to." "Yes." "That's the same thing as the three jumpers." "Yes." "I hate this." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 3]]

<<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S3Card"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S3Sample"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S3Stand"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Session3"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 4); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1); AddFame(1) >>\ She rewrote the card that week. You know because you walked past on the Thursday and it said four things instead of eleven, in a typeface somebody had chosen, and the sixth thing had become the first thing. <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ <hr> [[Set the week's work|ES:Nadia Homework Coat]] [[Set something she will hate|ES:Nadia Homework Dinner]] <<else>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">> <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 4 — the project she walked away from */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S3Sample"); AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 4); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); AddMinutes(30)>>\ It took her forty minutes to choose four things off the wall behind the counter, and she argued with herself out loud the entire time, and the argument was worth the price of admission. "Not the church one, that's showing off." "It's the best thing on the wall." "That is exactly why it's showing off." "Say the sentence you just used, again, slower." "...The best thing I make is the thing I can't put in the window because it's showing off." She stood there holding it. "That's insane, isn't it. That's an insane sentence to have been living inside." She put it in the window. She put it in the middle, and then moved it, and then put it back in the middle. <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 3]]

<<if not Ask("nadia", 8)>>\ <<run AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 2); AddMinutes(20)>>\ She did it. That is the thing you will think about afterwards. You asked her to stand in her own front window under the light box for two minutes, in a street with people on it, and she looked at you for a long moment with an expression you had not seen on her before. Not fear, something flatter and more disappointed. And then she did it, because you asked, and because somewhere in the last three weeks you became a person she does things for. She stood there for the two minutes with her arms at her sides and her face completely closed. Nobody much went past. It did not matter whether anybody went past. When she came back in she said "Fine. Next." and would not talk about it, and the rest of the session was work, correctly performed, by two people who were not really in the room. You went too fast. She will still be here next Tuesday. That is not the same as this having been free. <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("nadia", "exhibitionist", 6); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddMinutes(35)>>\ "Two minutes. In the window, under the light, doing nothing. You don't pose and you don't hide. You stand there being a woman who owns a shop." "And what does that accomplish." "You tell me at the end of the two minutes." She thought about it for long enough that you did not fill the silence, and then she said "Turn the box on, then," and took the pencil out of her hair, and gave you a look that dared you to say one single word about the pencil. Two minutes is a long time. At about forty seconds she stopped standing like a person being made to stand somewhere. At ninety a man went past and looked in and she looked back, and did not do the two-degree thing, and you watched her notice that she had not done it. She came back behind the counter and put both hands flat on it. "It's not that I want to be looked at." "I know." "It's that I've been standing sideways for ten years." <</if>>\ <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 3]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Wine.jpg">> She brought a bottle and did not explain it, and she had the tube out on the counter before you sat down, which meant she had decided some time during the week and had spent the week being decided. "You're going to ask about the architecture eventually. Everybody does it in about month four. You've got a hundred and fifty dollars of my money in your pocket so you can do it now." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Drawings")>>\ [[Look at the drawings|ES:Nadia Session 4 Drawings]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Why")>>\ [[Ask why she walked|ES:Nadia Session 4 Why]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Print")>>\ [[Ask why a print shop|ES:Nadia Session 4 Print]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Drawings") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Why") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Print")>>\ [[Close out the session|ES:Nadia Session 4 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S4Drawings"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S4Why"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S4Print"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Session4"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 4); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 2); AddStat("nadia", "happiness", 1); $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1) >>\ She rolled the drawings up herself and did not put them back in the tube. She put them behind the counter, standing in a bin with the long rolls of stock, where she would see them every day. "Don't say anything about that." "I wasn't going to." "You were absolutely going to." <hr> <<PNav "Print">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 5 — the standing ask */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S4Drawings"); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 2); AddMinutes(30)>>\ A library annexe in Sunset Park. Section drawings, hand-inked, on paper that has been rolled so long it will not lie flat without four mugs on it. You do not know anything about architecture. You know a great deal, now, about what it looks like when somebody has done a thing right and could not stop doing it right even for a missing cat, and this is the same hand that set the church job. "How far did it get?" "Foundations. It's a car park now." "Whose decision was that?" "Not mine." She flattened a corner that did not need flattening. "But I'm the one who left, so after a while it stops mattering whose decision it was." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 4]]

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S4Print"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddMinutes(25)>>\ "Why a print shop?" "Because it's the same work and nobody's watching. Composition, spacing, the fact that a bad kern makes you feel something before you know why. It's a building you can hold. And it's a hundred and sixty invitations for a wedding I'm not going to, which is the correct amount of involvement in other people's lives." "Say the middle part again." "It's the same work and nobody's watching." "...Oh, you're good at this." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 4]]

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S4Why"); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 2); AddStat("nadia", "happiness", -1); AddMinutes(35)>>\ "Why did you walk." She had the answer ready and it was not the true one, and she gave it anyway, and it took ninety seconds and involved a principal, a value-engineering meeting and a change to a stair core. "That's the version for parties." "It's also true." "Both things can be true. I asked why you walked." The Ricoh was off. The street was quiet. She drank some of her own wine and put the glass down at an angle that had to be corrected, and corrected it. "There was a man. Not a dramatic story, there's no scene in it, nothing you could report. Four years of being the one whose drawings got shown and never the one in the room when they got shown. And a Christmas party where a partner put his hand on the back of my neck in front of eleven people and every single one of those people looked at something else." "And the next Monday you were a different-looking person." "The next Monday I cut my hair off in a bathroom, and I have been extremely comfortable ever since, thank you." A long pause. "And this is the part where you tell me the pamphlet fixes that." "It doesn't." "...What?" "It doesn't fix it. It's sixty pages by a man about how to want things on purpose. It doesn't undo anybody's hand on your neck. What it does is stop you paying for it every morning for the next thirty years." She sat with that for a while. "That's the first thing you've said that I believe you know from the inside." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 4]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> Five weeks. Her hair was down, the card in the window said four things, and there was a second chair on her side of the counter now as well, which meant somebody else had been sitting back there. "Last one, isn't it." "Last one of these. Not the last one." "Mm." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Ledger")>>\ [[Go through what has actually changed|ES:Nadia Session 5 Ledger]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Ask")>>\ <<if HasTechnique("ask")>>\ [[The standing ask|ES:Nadia Session 5 Ask]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is a way to ask a woman what she wants that he left a whole tape about, and you have not sat with it.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Terms")>>\ [[Ask what she wants from you now|ES:Nadia Session 5 Terms]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Ledger") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Terms")>>\ [[Finish|ES:Nadia Session 5 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S5Ask"); AddStat("nadia", "slut", 4); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); AddMinutes(20)>>\ The standing ask. You state the thing once. You do not soften it, you do not explain it, and you do not repeat it. Then you wait, and the waiting is not a tactic, it is the entire respect of the thing: she gets the whole silence to answer in. "I'd like you to tell me the thing you've decided not to say to me for about two weeks." The Ricoh, which she had not turned on all evening. "That's a filthy trick." You did not repeat it. "I think about you when I close up." Flat, fast, like pulling a plaster. "There. It's said. I'd like it noted that you made a woman say that in a print shop." "Noted." "And now you're going to do the silence thing." "No. Now I'm going to say that this is week five of a thing you are paying me for, and that we are going to finish it, and then we are going to have a completely different conversation with nobody's hundred and fifty dollars in it." She let out a breath she had been holding for, by the look of it, some considerable time. "...Good. Yes. That's the right answer. I hate that that's the right answer." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 5]]

<<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S5Ledger"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S5Ask"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S5Terms"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Session5"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Partner"); $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete to true; AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 5); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 2); $player.income += 60; AddHours(1); AddFame(2) >>\ She signed the sheet, and made you sign the sheet, and put it in the box where the real paperwork goes. "Right. That's the racket concluded." She turned the lights in the window off, and then, after a moment, turned them back on. "Leave them. It looks like something." <hr> <<PNav "Print">>

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S5Ledger"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddMinutes(25)>>\ You made her list it, out loud, because a woman who has changed will describe it as luck if you let her. "Prices up thirty per cent. Turned down two jobs. Hired a girl three afternoons a week, which I could always afford and never did. Wore the green thing to the wholesaler and the man who has called me sweetheart for four years called me Ms Sorel." "And?" "And I went for a drink with somebody. Once. It was fine. It was extremely fine and I'm not discussing it." "Noted." "You're doing a face." "I'm not doing a face." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 5]]

<<run AddEvent("Nadia", "S5Terms"); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 2); AddMinutes(30)>>\ "What do you want from me now?" "An invoice." "Nadia." "I'm serious. I want to be your printer. Properly, on terms, with a purchase order, because you are about to get busy and you will otherwise ask me for eight hundred posters on a Thursday night as a favour." She slid a sheet across. She had typeset it. "Second: I want to sit in on a Friday and not be introduced as anybody's success story." "Done." "Third one's not for tonight." "Also fine." <hr> [[Back|ES:Nadia Session 5]]

<<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session3") and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "CardSeen") and $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter lte 4>>\ <<run AddEvent("Nadia", "CardSeen")>>\ You walked past Sorel Print on the way to the subway. The card in the window says four things now, and the church job is in the middle of the glass, lit. <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "Invoice")>>\ <<run AddEvent("Nadia", "Invoice")>>\ An invoice arrived, typeset, for work you have not asked for yet. <</if>>\

<img class="p-stat__img" @src="StatPath('nadia')" alt=""> <h2>Nadia Sorel</h2> Thirty-four. Sorel Print & Copy, two doors from 114 Dovehurst. An architect until she was thirty-one, and then a woman with four jumpers and a machine older than her mother. <<if $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete>>\ She prints everything with your name on it, on terms, with a purchase order. She sits in on Fridays and is not introduced as anybody's success story. <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session4")>>\ The drawings are behind the counter now, standing up in the bin with the long rolls, where she sees them every day. <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session3")>>\ The card in her window lists four things instead of eleven, and the best thing she makes is the first one on it. <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session1")>>\ She is paying you a hundred and fifty dollars a week and has told exactly nobody. <<else>>\ She prints your flyers on credit because you asked properly. <</if>>\ <<PMeter "nadia" "bimbo">> <<PMeter "nadia" "trust">> <<PMeter "nadia" "exhibitionist">> <<PMeter "nadia" "slut">> <<PMeter "nadia" "happiness">> <h4>Where you have got to</h4> <<Progress "Nadia" "Session1">> The first session. <<Progress "Nadia" "Session2">> The first Principle, properly. <<Progress "Nadia" "Session3">> The window. <<Progress "Nadia" "Session4">> Sunset Park. <<Progress "Nadia" "Session5">> The standing ask. <<Progress "Nadia" "AskProof">> She modelled her own posters. <<Progress "Nadia" "Partner">> On terms, with a purchase order. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<if $bimbos.nadia.exhibitionist gte 12 and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskProof") and BetweenTime(10, 20)>>\ <<PEvent true "Nadia Ask Proof" "Nadia" "Shoot the posters properly.">>\ <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* JOURNAL */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run $passageRoute to random(1, 4)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> Ocho horas de centralita en una sala sin ventanas junto a la avenida Atlantic, encaminando camiones que ya van tarde. Se te da bien como se le da bien a cualquiera algo que ha hecho cuatrocientas veces sin haberlo elegido ni una. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ La mujer del puesto de al lado se llama Renny, tiene dos trabajos y se pinta las uñas a las tres de la mañana porque es la única hora en que nadie le pide nada. Levanta una mano bajo el flexo, la mira y dice que es lo único del día que es suyo. Le das vueltas el resto del turno y no consigues que deje de ir sobre el manual. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ Un conductor llama desde la Belt a las dos y media y habla once minutos de nada, porque su mujer se ha ido y la cabina es el único sitio donde puede decirlo. Le dejas. A la empresa no le cuesta nada y es lo único útil que haces en toda la noche. <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ Noche tranquila. Te caen cuatro horas en que el panel no se mueve y te las pasas repasando de memoria las páginas 41 a 52, en orden, como otros hombres repasan una mano que perdieron. Te las sabes enteras y sigues sin conseguir que la 47 encaje, y has empezado a sospechar que es porque él se equivocaba. <<else>>\ Se pierden dos remolques en Maspeth y todo lo que hay después de medianoche es gente gritando. Sales a las cuatro con dolor de cabeza y con la lucidez muy concreta del hombre que acaba de pasarse ocho horas resolviendo de maravilla el problema de otro, y gratis. <</if>>\ A las cuatro de la mañana vuelves a casa andando con $300 en la cuenta y sin ningún recuerdo del turno. <<run SetHours(4); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(300); AddDays(0)>>\ <hr> [[Irte a la cama|ES:Sleep]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "La Hora Larga">> <<if OddJobTimes("Coat") gt 1>>\ Ahora tenían tu número, que es lo que le pasa a un hombre que aparece con camisa negra y devuelve el abrigo correcto ochenta veces. Otra casa, tres calles más allá, la misma tarde: ochenta personas, un perchero en un pasillo y unas instrucciones que te dio una mujer que no te miró mientras las daba. —Quinientos sesenta. Ya sabes cómo va. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (7 horas, +$560)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(7); AddCash(560)>><<goto "ES:Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<link "Aceptar y quedarte las propinas (7 horas, +$560 y lo que caiga)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(7); AddCash(560 + random(3, 9) * 20)>><<goto "ES:Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<link "Decir que no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ La mujer de la barra le estaba preguntando a Delphine si conocía a alguien discreto, para el sábado, y Delphine no contestó: se movió diez centímetros a la izquierda para que la mujer pudiera verte. Era una casa en la calle Carroll con una barandilla que valía más que todo lo que has tenido nunca, y el trabajo eran los abrigos: cogerlos, etiquetarlos, saber de quién es cada uno sin que te lo digan dos veces, y estar en el perchero a las dos de la mañana cuando ochenta personas quieren irse en nueve minutos. —Quinientos sesenta. Camisa negra, sin logo. Si alguien te pregunta a qué te dedicas, dices que trabajas para la familia. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (7 horas, +$560)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(7); AddCash(560)>><<goto "ES:Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<link "Aceptar y quedarte las propinas (7 horas, +$560 y lo que caiga)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(7); AddCash(560 + random(3, 9) * 20)>><<goto "ES:Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<link "Decir que no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Coat") gt 1 and $passageRoute gt 0>>\ <<Pool 41>> Segunda casa, y esto es lo que no habías entendido la primera vez: es la misma fiesta. No la misma gente: la misma fiesta. Las mismas dos mujeres pasando la peor noche, el mismo hombre haciendo lo del quicio, la misma que sale al perchero a la una y media porque el perchero es el único sitio de la casa donde nadie está siendo nada. El suyo era un abrigo verde, tenía unos cincuenta y dijo —no lo encuentres todavía—, que fue la primera vez que alguien te decía la parte callada en voz alta, y no lo encontraste todavía. Ya has estado en dos pasillos de este distrito y has visto la misma hora ocurrir en los dos. Sesenta páginas fotocopiadas llevan dos años diciéndotelo y tú lo habías leído como una afirmación. No es una afirmación. Es una descripción. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<Cash 560>>, y el vaso. <<else>>\ <<Cash 560>>. Volviste a dejar el vaso. <</if>>\ <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg">> —Le has dicho que no a quinientos sesenta dólares. Delphine no levantó la vista del vaso que estaba secando. —No te voy a preguntar por qué. Me lo voy a acordar. <<else>>\ <<Pool 41>> Al del guardarropa no lo mira nadie. Ese es el trabajo entero y resulta ser, además, el mejor asiento de cualquier casa de Brooklyn. En cinco horas, a un metro del perchero, aprendiste: que una mujer le cuenta la verdad a su amiga en un pasillo y a la sala la misma historia con el final cambiado; que los dos abrigos más caros eran de las dos personas que peor noche estaban pasando; que un hombre le dijo algo a su mujer en la puerta, en los cuatro segundos que tardó en darte el resguardo, que le hizo algo en la cara para lo que tú no tenías palabra y que ella ya había guardado antes de llegar al salón. A la una y media una mujer de cuarenta y tantos salió a por su chal, no encontraba el resguardo y no quería volver a entrar, y se quedó junto al perchero y te dejó buscarlo cuatro minutos enteros que no hacían falta, y habló de nada en absoluto, y volvió a entrar cuando ya había tenido bastante de no estar dentro. Has pensado bastante en esos cuatro minutos. Nadie en aquella casa le había dado nada por lo que no hubiera tenido que resultar encantadora, salvo el del guardarropa buscándole un resguardo que ella tuvo en la mano todo el rato. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ Las propinas iban a un vaso y el vaso se vino contigo. <<Cash 560>> de la familia, y el vaso. <<else>>\ Dejaste el vaso de las propinas en el perchero para la chica que hacía el guardarropa el domingo. <<Cash 560>>. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> <<if OddJobTimes("Deli") gt 1>>\ Ya te había sacado el cajón antes de que cruzaras la puerta, que es todo el vocabulario de bienvenida de un hombre de sesenta años. —Esta vez congelados. Es peor. El mismo dinero. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (6 horas, +$300)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(300)>><<goto "ES:Odd Deli Done">><</link>> <<link "Esta noche no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Deli Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ La persiana estaba a medio bajar y dentro había un hombre sentado en un cajón del revés contando latas a mano con una linterna, porque el fluorescente del pasillo dos se había fundido y el electricista era el jueves. —Inventario. Cada lata, cada bote, cada caja del almacén, y el almacén es peor de lo que parece. Llevo desde las siete y he llegado a las sopas. Sesenta y tantos, llevaba el local desde 1994, odiaba el sistema de inventario que le había instalado su yerno, lo dijo largo y tendido, y tenía cara de hombre que llevaba quince días sin dormir bien. —Trescientos dólares y te llevas lo que esté a punto de caducar. Seis horas. Será la noche más aburrida de tu vida. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (6 horas, +$300)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(300)>><<goto "ES:Odd Deli Done">><</link>> <<link "Esta noche no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Deli Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Deli") gt 1 and $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> Seis horas en una cámara a dieciocho bajo cero, en turnos de veinte minutos porque es lo que una persona aguanta, calentándote entre uno y otro contra un radiador de la trastienda que tenía encima la fotografía de una mujer. La primera vez no habías visto la fotografía. La viste ahora porque te plantabas delante de ella cuatro veces por hora con las manos bajo los sobacos, y porque hacía una semana te habían hablado de ella a oscuras a las dos de la mañana y entonces no sabías qué cara tenía. Él no la mencionó y tú no preguntaste. A las dos bajó la persiana y dio las buenas noches exactamente con la misma voz. <<Cash 300>>, y un frío que no te salió de los dedos hasta el mediodía. <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> Dijiste que no y él dijo —me parece bien— sin levantar la vista, y seguía allí cuando pasaste a la una de la madrugada, todavía en el cajón, todavía contando. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> Tenía razón. Fue la noche más aburrida de tu vida. Seis horas de latas. Hiciste el almacén en tres y la tienda en dos y la última la pasaste discutiendo con él sobre si el sistema debía contar unidades o cajas, y ganaste, lo cual te costó veinte minutos y te valió una bolsa de todo lo que caducaba y un té. A las dos de la mañana, cerrando, dijo lo que dice la gente cuando lleva seis horas callada: que el inventario lo había hecho su mujer durante veintiséis años, y que era rapidísima, y que él no se lo había agradecido ni una sola vez de una manera que ella hubiera reconocido como agradecimiento. Después bajó la persiana y dio las buenas noches. <<Cash 300>>, cuatro cajas de arroz a punto de caducar y algo que te apuntaste en el dorso de la mano volviendo a casa y copiaste a la página 47 por la mañana. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "La Hora Larga">> <<if OddJobTimes("Door") gt 1>>\ Esta vez no miró la puerta. Sacó el taburete. —El sábado. Sesenta en la lista, o sea noventa. El mismo dinero. —El mismo dinero. —Es el mismo trabajo. Si te pagara más por el segundo empezarías a esperar que hubiera un tercero, y entonces serías portero, y tú no vas a ser portero. Lo dijo sin ningún énfasis particular, como se enuncia algo que las dos partes ya saben, y se fue a firmar algo. <hr> <<link "Coger la puerta (6 horas, +$460)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(460)>><<goto "ES:Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<link "Coger la puerta y quedarte después (6 horas, +$460, noche dura)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(6); AddCash(460); AddFitness(-1)>><<goto "ES:Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<link "Este fin de semana no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ Delphine miró la puerta y luego te miró a ti, en ese orden, y que fuera ese orden no fue casualidad. —El sábado. Reserva privada, la trastienda y la mitad de acá de la barra, cuarenta personas y una mujer que se llama Ruthie a la que conozco desde hace veinte años y que no me ha dicho la verdad sobre una lista de invitados ni una sola vez. —Quieres un portero. —Quiero a alguien en ese taburete que sepa contar y que sepa decirle que no a un hombre que le dobla el tamaño sin montar un número. De ocho a dos. Cuatrocientos sesenta. Se echó un paño al hombro. —No te estoy haciendo un favor. Si no supieras contar cosas no habrías aguantado seis años en una centralita. Fue la primera vez que te dijo algo que demostraba que había escuchado. <hr> <<link "Coger la puerta (6 horas, +$460)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(460)>><<goto "ES:Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<link "Coger la puerta y quedarte a recoger (6 horas, +$460, noche dura)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(6); AddCash(460); AddFitness(-1)>><<goto "ES:Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<link "Decir que no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Door Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Door") gt 1 and $passageRoute gt 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "La Hora Larga · sábado">> Esta vez conocías la sala, que resultó ser casi todo el trabajo. Sabías que la salida de incendios se atranca, que el tercer taburete es donde la gente deja los vasos y que en una noche así el problema nunca entra por delante: sale de alguien al que ya has dejado pasar. Dejaste fuera a dos y ninguno discutió, porque habías aprendido en una sola noche que la manera de decirlo es todo el asunto. A las doce y media una mujer salió al pasillo a llorar, igual que la otra vez, otra mujer. No fuiste, igual que la otra vez. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ Después, vasos y sillas y bolsas de basura, y Delphine dijo lo único que dijo en toda la noche: —Las miras. —¿Eso es un problema? —No he dicho que sea un problema. He dicho que las miras. Apagó las luces del fondo. —Dos hombres en veintidós años lo han hecho en mi bar sin que me tocara a mí resolverlo. Vete a casa. <<Cash 460>>. <<else>>\ <<Cash 460>>, fuera a las dos, y nada dentro que no hubieras visto hacía una semana, que es lo que es un turno. <</if>>\ <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg">> —Mm. Se quitó el paño del hombro. —Entonces llamaré al sobrino de Ruthie, y estará con el móvil toda la noche, y me pasaré el domingo pidiéndole perdón a un cerrajero. No estaba molesta. Lo estaba archivando, que era peor. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "La Hora Larga · sábado">> Cuarenta se convirtieron en sesenta a las diez y media, como siempre. Dejaste fuera a cuatro personas y tres se lo tomaron bien. Era un cuarenta cumpleaños y eran casi todas mujeres, y para medianoche la trastienda había llegado a ese punto al que llega una sala de mujeres cuando los hombres que iban a dar problemas ya se han ido a casa: más ruidosa, más lenta, más física, absolutamente despreocupada. Los tacones de alguien estaban dentro de una maceta. Dos bailaban como se baila cuando os conocéis desde los diecinueve, es decir, mal y sin un átomo de vergüenza. Tú te quedaste en el taburete de la puerta contando, y mirando, y entendiste sobre la una de la madrugada que estabas haciendo aquello de lo que el manual va en realidad, que no es mirar mujeres. Es darte cuenta de cuál está pasando la peor noche y por qué. Se llamaba Ruthie y a las doce y media lloraba junto a la salida de incendios porque su hermana había dicho algo en el brindis, y tú no fuiste, porque eras el portero y no te tocaba. Has pensado en eso después. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ Te quedaste después de las dos y recogiste los vasos, las sillas y las bolsas de basura con Delphine, los dos sin hablar, y llegaste a casa a las cuatro con la espalda destrozada y un billete de veinte doblado que ella te metió en el bolsillo del abrigo y que ninguno de los dos mencionó. <<Cash 460>>, y Delphine Aubry te vio trabajar. <<else>>\ <<Cash 460>>, y Delphine Aubry te vio trabajar. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallD.jpg">> El local vacío junto al metro tenía luces dentro y ningún rótulo, y a través del cristal, en el suelo, once televisores en círculo dando todos los mismos cuatro segundos de una mujer recogiéndose el pelo. La artista se llamaba Nour, tenía treinta y uno, tenía la exposición nueve días, ningún presupuesto para seguridad y un casero que había dejado extremadamente claro qué pasaba si se rompía el cristal. —De noche. De diez a seis. Te sientas en la silla, no tocas nada, y si alguien rompe el escaparate me llamas a mí y después a la policía, en ese orden, y lo digo en serio, ese orden. Quinientos dólares por una noche, que es lo que cuesta el miedo. <hr> <<link "Pasar la noche (8 horas, +$500)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(8); AddCash(500)>><<goto "ES:Odd Gallery Done">><</link>> <<link "Por quinientos no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Gallery Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallD.jpg">> Las luces seguían encendidas cuando pasaste a las dos, y había alguien en la silla, y era ella. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallD.jpg">> Ocho horas en una silla con once televisores. El bucle duraba cuatro segundos. Una mujer se levanta el pelo, lo retuerce, lo sostiene y lo suelta —y se suelta, siempre, porque la pieza son once tomas del mismo gesto y en ninguna se queda arriba. Lo había grabado doscientas veces en una tarde y había usado las once en las que se te ve decidir volver a intentarlo. A la tercera hora lo odiabas. A la quinta habías dejado de verlo. Sobre las cuatro y media de la mañana, sin haber dormido, en un local de Brooklyn, levantaste la vista y lo viste bien por primera vez y tuviste que salir un minuto al frío. Nour llegó a las seis con dos cafés y no te preguntó qué te parecía, cosa que le agradeciste, y luego te lo preguntó igual cuando ya estabas en la puerta. —Va sobre volver a intentarlo. —Todo el mundo dice que va sobre fracasar. —Pues no. Te has quedado las once en que lo vuelve a intentar. Si fuera sobre fracasar te habrías quedado aquellas en las que lo deja. Miró al suelo un segundo. —Vuelve el jueves. Te pago lo mismo. <<Cash 500>>, ninguna hora de sueño y una cosa en el pecho para la que no tenías sitio. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> En enero habías puesto una tarjeta en tres sitios —ESCRITURA. CARTAS, FORMULARIOS, SOLICITUDES. $40. NO SOY ABOGADO— y habías dado por hecho que nadie leía la tercera línea, ni ninguna. Alguien la leyó. Cuatro alguien, en dos días, porque la primera se lo contó a las otras tres. Una carta de apoyo para un visado. Una carta de motivación para un curso de acceso a enfermería. Un recurso contra una resolución de vivienda. Y una mujer llamada Yara que quería una carta para su hermana que llevaba nueve años sin escribir y que te pagó los cuarenta dólares por sentarte en una mesa de la Cafetería Nueve y hacerle preguntas hasta que la carta existiera. <<run AddEvent("Player", "Writes")>>\ <hr> <<link "Hacer las cuatro bien (8 horas, +$380)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(8); AddCash(380)>><<goto "ES:Odd Letters Done">><</link>> <<link "Hacer los tres formularios y devolverle el dinero a Yara (5 horas, +$260)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(5); AddCash(260)>><<goto "ES:Odd Letters Done">><</link>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Los formularios eran el dinero fácil. Un formulario es una máquina para decir una cosa verdadera con la única forma que la máquina acepta, y en eso eres bueno, y tardaste cuatro horas en hacer tres lo bastante bien como para que los tres funcionaran. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ Yara te llevó dos horas y once minutos y fue lo más difícil que has tecleado nunca. No quería que fuese una carta bonita. Le quitaba lo bonito una y otra vez. Cada vez que le ofrecías una frase que hiciera más fácil recibirla, decía —no, porque entonces ella puede sentirse mal y entonces vuelve a ir sobre ella—, y al final quedaban cuatro frases, ninguna con un solo adjetivo, y era el texto más brutal y más completo que has tenido nunca entre las manos. La leyó, dijo —sí— una vez, la dobló y te pagó. <<Cash 380>> por ocho horas, que es mal dinero, y luego te quedaste veinte minutos en la cafetería sin hacer absolutamente nada. Alguien, en algún punto de esta ciudad, iba a oír hablar de un hombre que escribe cosas para la gente. No pensaste en eso hasta mucho después, y para entonces un hombre con un buen abrigo ya lo había oído. <<else>>\ Le devolviste a Yara sus cuarenta dólares y le dijiste la verdad, que era que no necesitaba un escritor: necesitaba escribirla ella y sabría que estaba terminada cuando dejara de poder hacerla más amable. Te miró con algo entre el agradecimiento y el atraco. —Eso no es un servicio. Sabes que eso no es un servicio. —No. Pero es la respuesta correcta. <<Cash 260>>, que es peor dinero y mejor noche de sueño, y desde entonces te preguntas si eso es un principio o una excusa. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Cafe">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> La furgoneta estaba en la esquina con las puertas de atrás abiertas y el espejo ya estaba medio fuera, y la mujer que lo sujetaba había caído noventa segundos tarde en que un espejo de cuerpo entero no pesa: sencillamente es más largo que el alcance de una persona en todas las direcciones a la vez. —No digas nada. Ya lo sé. Treinta y tantos. Mudándose fuera, no dentro: se nota, porque el que llega trae cajas y el que se va trae los cuatro objetos que se negó a dejar atrás. Un espejo con marco de caoba y una esquina desportillada arriba a la izquierda. —Cuarto piso, sin ascensor, y el giro del segundo es donde me ganó la última vez. Veinte minutos de tu vida. Trescientos veinte dólares, que es una locura, y he llegado al punto del día en que me da igual. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (2 horas, +$320)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(2); AddCash(320)>><<goto "ES:Odd Mirror Done">><</link>> <<link "Hacerlo gratis">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(2)>><<goto "ES:Odd Mirror Done">><</link>> <<link "Tienes que estar en otro sitio">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Mirror Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> Dijiste que lo sentías y lo sentías, y seguiste Prospect abajo, y cuarenta minutos después seguías haciendo la cuenta de trescientos veinte dólares, que es lo que ese número le hace a un hombre con catorce días. <<else>>\ <<Pool 7>> El giro del segundo piso os llevó once minutos y casi todos tus nudillos. Subiste de espaldas con la parte alta del marco contra el pecho y ella aguantó el peso por abajo y fue soltando tacos en un registro bajo y conversacional, contra el edificio y no contra ti. Lo metisteis en el salón y lo apoyasteis contra la pared, y ella dio un paso atrás para mirarlo, y entonces —porque estaba ahí, y porque llevaba toda la mañana en una furgoneta, y porque la gente hace esto delante de un espejo sin decidirlo— se miró. Todavía tenía el precinto en la mano. Giró un cuarto a la izquierda, levantó la barbilla y miró a la mujer del marco unos cuatro segundos, y algo se le fue de los hombros, y dijo: —Dios. Ahí está. Luego se acordó de que estabas en la habitación. No se disculpó por ello, cosa que notaste, y en la que seguías pensando en la escalera. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ Te pagó en la puerta, en billetes de veinte, contados de plano sobre la palma. <<Cash 320>> y un moratón en el esternón con forma de esquina de caoba. <<else>>\ —He dicho trescientos veinte. —Ya sé lo que has dicho. Te miró un segundo como se mira una palabra que has leído mal. Después escribió un número en el dorso del albarán, te lo puso en la mano y no lo explicó, y tú no lo miraste hasta llegar abajo del todo. Nada en la cuenta. Algo en el bolsillo. Tenías catorce días y acababas de regalar trescientos veinte dólares, y no conseguías arrepentirte, y tenías una sospecha de por qué y no fuiste a por ella. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> <<if OddJobTimes("Piano") gt 1>>\ Petey llamó a las siete y diez. —Un piano de media cola, de planta baja a un camión, que suena más fácil y no lo es, porque hay que quitarle las patas y todo el que no lo ha hecho nunca se cree que las patas son la parte fácil. La misma tarifa. ¿Entras? Entrabas antes de que terminara la frase, cosa que él notó. —Ya. Así empieza. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (5 horas, +$680)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(5); AddCash(680); AddFitness(2)>><<goto "ES:Odd Piano Done">><</link>> <<link "Tu espalda sigue sin estar bien">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Piano Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ La tarjeta del afinador de pianos tenía un segundo número en bolígrafo y el segundo número era el suyo, y lo que quería no era afinar. —Vertical. Bastidor de hierro. Del segundo piso a una furgoneta, y antes de que digas nada: sí, ya lo sé, y no, no hay otra manera, y tengo dos hombres y necesito tres y el tercero se ha caído esta mañana por la rodilla, que es mentira. Seiscientos ochenta dólares por una mañana, que es lo que cuesta un piano cuando está en el piso equivocado. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (5 horas, +$680)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(5); AddCash(680); AddFitness(2)>><<goto "ES:Odd Piano Done">><</link>> <<link "Tu espalda no lo vale">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Piano Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Piano") gt 1 and $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> Las patas no son la parte fácil. Cinco horas, y unos noventa segundos de ellas fueron el trabajo de verdad: el momento en que tres hombres sostienen el peso de algo que no se puede caer y ninguno dice nada, porque no hay nada que decir y decirlo gastaría aire. Petey también tenía razón en lo otro. Tenía setenta y uno y salió al escalón en rebeca y puso la mano plana sobre la tapa mientras estaba en el portón, e Ivo te buscó los ojos por encima, y los dos apartasteis la vista, porque los dos sabíais que iba a hacerlo. —Todas —dijo Petey, apretando la cincha. No sonaba cansado de ello. Esa fue la parte que te quedaste. <<Cash 680>>. <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> —Sensato —dijo, con la voz de un hombre a punto de hacerlo con dos. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> Un piano vertical pesa más o menos lo que tres hombres y le da igual. Bajasteis trece escalones en cincuenta minutos con una cincha, con un hombre llamado Ivo debajo de ti soltando tacos en un idioma que no conocías y un hombre llamado Petey encima diciendo suave, suave, suave en un registro al que te descubriste acompasando la respiración. La mujer a la que pertenecía miraba desde lo alto de la escalera con las dos manos en la boca, y cuando estuvo en el portón bajó y puso la mano plana sobre la tapa, y la dejó ahí, y no lo explicó. —Lo tiene desde los seis años —dijo Petey en la furgoneta, tan tranquilo, apretando una cincha—. Siempre lo tocan. Todas y cada una. Lo verás cien veces y nunca deja de ser lo mismo. <<Cash 680>>, y una espalda que te lo recordó en la escalera de casa. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg" "Imprenta Sorel">> Tenía sobre el mostrador un encargo que cogía y soltaba cada dos minutos, cosa que en Nadia Sorel equivale a que otra persona esté gritando. —Noventa y seis páginas. Un libro de cocina de una mujer de Bay Ridge que lleva dos años esperándolo y que lo ha pagado a plazos, y entra en máquina el lunes, y lo he leído cuatro veces y ya estoy en la fase en la que leo lo que creo que pone. —Quieres un par de ojos nuevos. —Quiero un par de ojos que no lo hayan visto nunca. Trescientos cuarenta. De noche, aquí, porque de la tienda no sale. Dijo la última parte de plano y después, un compás más tarde, como si ese compás le hubiera costado algo: —Yo voy a estar aquí de todas formas. <hr> <<link "Leer las noventa y seis páginas (7 horas, +$340)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(7); AddCash(340)>><<goto "ES:Odd Proof Done">><</link>> <<link "Leerlo y marcar también lo que no son erratas (8 horas, +$340)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(8); AddCash(340)>><<goto "ES:Odd Proof Done">><</link>> <<link "Tienes turno">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Proof Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> —Vale. Ya tenía el encargo otra vez en las manos antes de que llegaras a la puerta. —Ha sido una tontería pedírselo a un desconocido. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg" "Imprenta Sorel, 02:40">> Siete horas en la punta de su mostrador con un lápiz rojo y una mujer a metro y medio manejando una máquina y sin hablarte, que fueron las siete horas más cómodas que habías pasado en dos años. Encontraste sesenta y una erratas. Cuatro importaban. Una era una temperatura de horno que habría prendido fuego a una bandeja de almendras en unas novecientas cocinas. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ Marcaste además once sitios que no eran erratas: sitios donde la mujer de Bay Ridge había escrito como habla, y donde un corrector lo habría enderezado, y donde enderezarlo le habría sacado el libro entero de la boca. Escribiste DEJAR al lado de los once. Nadia repasó tus marcas a las tres de la mañana de pie, con el café enfriándose, y se paró en el cuarto DEJAR. —¿Por qué? —Porque es suyo y no está mal. Solo que no suena a libro. Releyó el párrafo. Después puso un visto al lado de tu DEJAR, y luego al lado de los otros diez, y no dijo nada en absoluto al respecto, y a las tres y media te hizo un café sin que se lo pidieras, cosa que —te enteraste mucho después— Nadia Sorel no hace. <<else>>\ Nadia repasó tus marcas a las tres de la mañana de pie, con el café enfriándose, y dijo —bien— una vez, en lo de las almendras. <</if>>\ A las cinco y veinte dio la vuelta al cartel, y os quedasteis los dos en el umbral mirando calle abajo un edificio de cuatro plantas con tablones donde antes estaban las ventanas de la planta baja, y ninguno dijo nada al respecto. <<Cash 340>>. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> <<if OddJobTimes("Service") gt 1>>\ La puerta de la cocina estaba calzada con un cajón y Bo estaba en ella, sin fumar, mirando calle arriba a nadie que viniera. —La de cuarto frío se ha ido a una boda. El jefe todavía no lo sabe. Cuatrocientos veinte, y esta noche no estás en platos, estás en guarniciones, o sea que estás en el pase, o sea que se va a enterar. —He hecho un servicio. —Ya. Lo vi. <hr> <<link "Coger el servicio (6 horas, +$420)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(420)>><<goto "ES:Odd Service Done">><</link>> <<link "Esta noche no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Service Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ Estaba en la acera con la chaquetilla puesta fumándose un cigarro hasta el filtro en cuatro caladas, que no es un hombre echando un descanso: es un hombre haciendo cuentas. —¿Puedes estar de pie seis horas y seguir una instrucción a la primera? —Sí. —¿Has trabajado en cocina? —No. —Bien, entonces no tienes nada que desaprender. Cuatrocientos veinte, un servicio, estás en el pase limpiando platos y no me hablas entre las siete y las nueve. <hr> <<link "Coger el servicio (6 horas, +$420)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(420)>><<goto "ES:Odd Service Done">><</link>> <<link "Esta noche no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Service Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Service") gt 1 and $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> Esta vez estuviste dentro del ritmo en nueve minutos en lugar de cuarenta, y esa era toda la diferencia, y era una diferencia enorme. A las ocho y veinte ibas medio paso por delante de la voz por primera vez —el plato bajaba mientras él lo pedía— y no dijo nada, y Bo no dijo nada, y el servicio simplemente fue un poco más rápido a partir de entonces, que es el único cumplido que hace esa cocina. En el descanso ella se bebió su pinta de agua y dijo: —Dentro de unas tres semanas vas a ser insoportable. —¿Por qué tres semanas? —Porque es cuando dejas de estar agradecido. Lo dijo como un chiste y no lo era, y lo apuntaste en casa porque es el cuarto Principio con la pintura quitada. <<Cash 420>>. <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> Ya había encendido otro antes de que pasaras el escaparate. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> Entre las siete y las nueve la cocina no contenía personas. Contenía cinco posiciones, y una voz, y un ritmo al que fuiste medio compás por detrás durante cuarenta minutos y en el que después, sin ninguna transición que puedas identificar, estabas dentro. Has perseguido esa sensación desde entonces y solo la has encontrado dos veces. A las nueve y media se rompió. Alguien puso música. La jefa de partida, una mujer llamada Bo con una quemadura del largo del antebrazo izquierdo, se bebió una pinta de agua de un trago, dejó el vaso y dijo la primera frase no laboral que te había dicho nadie en toda la noche: —Tienes la cara. Los primerizos siempre ponen esa cara. No es un trabajo bonito y son las dos únicas horas de la semana en que no pienso en nada. El jefe te pagó a las once del cambio y te preguntó si querías los viernes. —Tengo unos catorce días de una cosa. —Todo el mundo tiene catorce días de una cosa. <<Cash 420>>, y una quemadura en la cara interna de la muñeca que vas a poder encontrar durante un año. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/RentedStudio.jpg">> La tarjeta del corcho decía FUERTE, PUNTUAL, NO RARO. UN DÍA. EN EFECTIVO, y un número, y el número era de una mujer llamada Sasha Merrit que fotografiaba ropa interior para catálogos y que había perdido a su segunda ayudante el martes, por un catálogo que pagaba más. —Normas. No hablas con las modelos salvo que ellas te hablen. No te pones donde se vea el monitor. Si digo bandera mueves la cosa negra a la izquierda hasta que deje de hablar. Setecientos dólares, once horas, y la comida la pago yo y no es buena. El estudio era una sala blanca alquilada en el cuarto piso de un edificio de Gowanus, y contuvo, a lo largo del día, a cuatro mujeres, dos percheros de sujetadores de muestra, una estilista que planchaba todo dos veces con vapor y un director de arte que no levantó la vista del portátil ni una sola vez. <hr> <<link "Coger el día (10 horas, +$700)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(10); AddCash(700)>><<goto "ES:Odd Studio Done">><</link>> <<link "Coger el día y quedarte a desmontar (12 horas, +$820)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(12); AddCash(820); AddFitness(-1)>><<goto "ES:Odd Studio Done">><</link>> <<link "Este no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Studio Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Quitaste la tarjeta del corcho, te la metiste en el bolsillo y no llamaste al número, y no habrías sabido explicarle a nadie del todo por qué, y ya entonces sabías que no era el motivo moral que estabas fingiendo que era. <<else>>\ <<Pool 24>> Esto es lo que no esperabas: fue la sala menos erótica en la que has estado nunca, y el día más útil que habías pasado en dos años. Trabajaban. Ya está. Una mujer se ponía en una marca con mil cien dólares de nada encima, cargaba el peso en el pie de atrás y sostenía una expresión nueve segundos seguidos, cuarenta veces por hora, y entre toma y toma se ponía una bata, comía patatas fritas y se quejaba de la línea L, y volvía a dejar la bata y volvía a lo suyo. La segunda se llamaba Delia y llevaba once años en esto, y sobre las cuatro de la tarde Sasha dijo dame la buena y Delia hizo algo con la barbilla y con la respiración que cambió por completo la fotografía sin mover el cuerpo más de un centímetro, y el director de arte levantó la vista del portátil por primera vez en todo el día. Tú estabas a oscuras detrás de una bandera negra con las manos llenas del equipo de otra persona y pensaste: eso es una técnica. Alguien se la enseñó. Puede encenderla. Sesenta páginas de un manual fotocopiado que habías leído cuatrocientas veces se reordenaron en silencio dentro de tu cabeza, y al final del día sabías qué había estado intentando decir la página 47 y por qué nunca te había cuadrado, y era porque él la había escrito para una mujer que ya sabía hacer lo que hacía Delia y tú la habías leído como si fuera para una que no. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ Te quedaste al desmontaje, enrollaste doce metros de cable mal y luego bien, y bajaste tres focos por cuatro tramos de escalera. —No eres raro —dijo Sasha, contando los billetes—. Eso escasea más que ser fuerte. Dame tu número. <<Cash 820>>. <<else>>\ Te pagó a las siete en una cafetería de abajo, en efectivo, y dijo que la llamaras en primavera. <<Cash 700>>. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/ClinicOffice.jpg">> LABORATORIO DEL SUEÑO - TRES NOCHES - $1.500 - HAY QUE SABER DORMIRSE A LA ORDEN. Una unidad universitaria en la sexta planta de un edificio junto al Navy Yard, con un estudio sobre trabajadores por turnos, que es por lo que te querían a ti y es la primera vez en seis años que ser un hombre de noches ha sido un mérito para algo. Tres noches en una habitación con una cámara y once electrodos, y once horas de cuestionarios de día, y sin salir del edificio. Mil quinientos dólares. Tres de tus catorce días. <hr> <<link "Hacer las tres noches (3 días, +$1.500)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddDays(3); SetHours(10); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(1500)>><<goto "ES:Odd Study Done">><</link>> <<link "No puedes permitirte tres días">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Study Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/ClinicOffice.jpg">> Mil quinientos dólares contra tres días de una ventana de catorce, y te quedaste en el vestíbulo haciendo la cuenta cuatro veces y saliste, y era lo correcto y no lo pareció. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/ClinicOffice.jpg">> Te dormiste a la orden tres noches, cosa que les gustó, y contestaste cuatrocientas preguntas durante los días, que es donde la cosa se puso rara. Los cuestionarios iban sobre rutina, sobre control y sobre si sentías que tu vida la dirigías tú o la dirigían las circunstancias, y para la segunda tarde ya habías caído en que eran los instrumentos estándar y en que esas mismas cinco preguntas las habías visto antes, con otras palabras, en un manual fotocopiado de los noventa. Se había leído la literatura. Ese fue el hallazgo. El hombre había sido un lunático con una máquina de escribir en una casa de Brooklyn y además, en algún momento, se había sentado en una biblioteca a leerse la investigación de verdad, y los cinco Principios no eran cinco cosas que se hubiera inventado. Eran cinco cosas traducidas del idioma de una disciplina que jamás lo habría dejado acercarse a un paciente. El investigador que te hizo la entrevista final era un posdoctorando llamado Weller que preguntó, al acabar, por qué te había interesado tanto el diseño del instrumento. —Estoy leyendo alrededor de una cosa. —Todos los de este estudio están leyendo alrededor de una cosa. Tú eres el primero que la lee bien. <<Cash 1500>>, tres días menos de reloj y la última prueba que necesitabas de que no eres el fan de un chalado. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Loft.jpg">> El anuncio estaba impreso en casa, en un papel que había pasado dos veces por la impresora. PISO POR VACIAR. MI PADRE. TRABAJO PAGADO, DOS DÍAS, UNA SOLA PERSONA. Después un teléfono y, debajo, en letra más pequeña, como si lo hubiera añadido tras releerlo: NO UNA EMPRESA DE VACIADOS. NO QUIERO UNA EMPRESA. Se llamaba Fran, tenía cincuenta años y te esperó delante de un piso de renta antigua en Sterling en el que su padre había vivido treinta y un años y en el que había muerto hacía seis semanas. —Ochocientos veinte. Se va todo menos lo que yo deje en el recibidor. Voy a estar aquí todo el rato y probablemente no serviré de nada. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (9 horas, +$820)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(9); AddCash(820); AddFitness(1)>><<goto "ES:Odd Wake Done">><</link>> <<link "Aceptar y mandarla a la cafetería (9 horas, +$820)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(9); AddCash(820); AddFitness(1)>><<goto "ES:Odd Wake Done">><</link>> <<link "Esto debería hacerlo otro">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Wake Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> No llamaste al número. El anuncio seguía en el escaparate cuatro días después, y luego ya no estaba, y nunca supiste por cuál de las dos vías. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg">> Treinta y un años de un hombre caben en once horas y cuarenta y una bolsas de basura. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ La mandaste a la cafetería de la esquina a la segunda hora, porque había cogido cuatro veces el mismo paño de cocina y lo había dejado en cuatro sitios distintos, y porque hay una clase de ayuda que solo estorba. Fue. Volvió a la hora de comer más entera e hizo la cocina ella sola, que era la única habitación que quería hacer y la única que no había podido empezar. <<else>>\ Se quedó, y no sirvió de nada, exactamente como había anunciado, y tú trabajaste esquivándola y la dejaste no servir de nada porque era su padre. <</if>>\ El montón del recibidor creció todo el día y nunca eran las cosas que esperabas. El reloj no. Un cuchillo de pan. La fotografía de una mujer en una playa que no era su madre, que ella miró mucho rato y puso en el montón igualmente. Al final, en el fondo del armario, una caja de zapatos con cartas, todas de la misma letra, ninguna de su madre, abarcando unos cuatro años de los ochenta. —¿Las leo? No era una pregunta para la que estuvieras cualificado y le diste la única respuesta honesta, que era que las iba a leer tarde o temprano decidiera lo que decidiera hoy, así que lo único que estaba eligiendo de verdad era si las leía estando así de cansada. Las puso en el montón del recibidor. —Tú tampoco eres una empresa de vaciados —dijo, pagándote en la puerta. <<Cash 820>>, y en el R de vuelta pensaste en un edificio de la calle Dovehurst con cuatro plantas del final de otra persona dentro, y en qué habría en el fondo de su armario, y no podías estarte quieto. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> Llevaba un rato delante de la lavandería. No esperando una colada: no traía bolsa. Esperando a que la calle fuera otra calle, que es una cosa que llevas seis años viendo hacer a esa hora y que no has visto funcionar nunca. Veintitrés o veinticuatro. Buen abrigo sobre el vestido equivocado para marzo, un zapato torcido hacia dentro, el móvil en la mano al cero por ciento. —Perdona. Perdona. ¿Tú vives aquí? ¿Aquí de verdad? —Arriba. —Vale. Bien. Se rió de nada. —Esto es tan tonto. Vivo a cuatro manzanas por ahí y tengo ciento cuarenta dólares y te los doy todos si me acompañas a mi portal y no me hablas. <hr> <<link "Acompañarla (1 hora, +$140)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(1); AddCash(140)>><<goto "ES:Odd Walk Done">><</link>> <<link "Acompañarla y no cobrarle (1 hora)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(1)>><<goto "ES:Odd Walk Done">><</link>> <<link "Meterla en un taxi (-$40)">><<run $passageRoute to 3; AddMinutes(20); AddCash(-40)>><<goto "ES:Odd Walk Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 3>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> Paraste uno en la Cuarta y le pagaste al hombre por la ventanilla antes de que ella pudiera discutir, y se subió y apoyó la frente en el cristal y desapareció. Cuarenta dólares que no tenías. Subiste la escalera sintiéndote idiota y dormiste mejor que en toda la semana, que es el tipo de aritmética de la que está lleno el manual y que siempre habías dado por retórica. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> Anduvisteis cuatro manzanas por el lado de fuera de la acera y no le hablaste. Habló ella. No exactamente contigo: a media distancia, como habla la gente que ha decidido de antemano que el que escucha no cuenta. Un tal Aaron. Una cena. Una cosa que él le había dicho sobre el vestido al principio de la noche que ella había tomado por un cumplido durante dos horas y que después, en algún punto entre el segundo bar y la calle, había recompuesto en lo que era en realidad. —No hizo nada. Esa es la cuestión. No hizo nada y aun así tuve que salir por atrás y eso no se lo puedo explicar a nadie, así que. —A mí no me lo tienes que explicar. Yo solo camino. —Ya. Dos manzanas. —Por eso te lo he pedido a ti y no al taxi. En su portal metió la llave al segundo intento, se giró y te miró bien por primera vez, y entendiste que estaba comprobando, y que la comprobación era el motivo entero de los ciento cuarenta dólares: había comprado el derecho a que la vieran llegar a casa alguien que iba a ser una transacción y no una anécdota. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ Los cogiste, porque un hombre con catorce días los coge. <<Cash 140>>, y una frase en la cabeza de la que no te libraste en tres días: pagó a un desconocido para estar a salvo y era la opción más barata que tenía. <<else>>\ —Quédatelo. —No, porque entonces es un favor, y entonces te debo algo, y entonces vuelve a ser lo mismo de siempre. Lo dijo deprisa, como quien lo tiene pensado desde mucho antes de esta noche. —Coge el dinero. Por favor. Así que lo cogiste y se lo devolviste en el mismo movimiento, doblado dentro de su mano, y le dijiste que eran ciento cuarenta dólares que tenía permiso para tener sin deberle nada a nadie, y ella se quedó en su portal sin decir absolutamente nada. Nada en la cuenta. Volviste a casa por el camino largo y no habrías sabido decirle a nadie por qué no lo lamentabas. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> La peluquería de dos puertas más abajo de Sorel estaba a oscuras y había una mujer subida a una escalera con un frontal y un comprobador de enchufes, haciéndole algo a un plafón que, según el cartel de la puerta, había instalado un electricista cualificado en noviembre. —No lo instaló en noviembre. Vino en noviembre. Verbo distinto. Se llamaba Ines. Había metido once años de peluquería en el traspaso de un local de Prospect y había descubierto al segundo mes que el contratista de su casero había colgado seis puestos de un solo circuito, y había ido a buscarse el reglamento ella misma, y se lo había leído entero, dos veces. —La inspección es el jueves. Necesito a alguien que sujete cosas, pase cosas, apunte lecturas y sea un segundo adulto en la sala cuando venga el inspector, porque he visto lo que le pasa a una mujer explicándole su propia instalación a un hombre con un portapapeles y no pienso hacerlo sola. Seiscientos veinte. <hr> <<link "Aceptar (7 horas, +$620)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(7); AddCash(620)>><<goto "ES:Odd Wire Done">><</link>> <<link "Aceptar y dejar que el jueves hable ella (7 horas, +$620)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(7); AddCash(620)>><<goto "ES:Odd Wire Done">><</link>> <<link "Tú no eres electricista">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "ES:Odd Wire Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> —Yo tampoco —dijo desde la escalera—. El trabajo no era ese. Ibas tres manzanas más allá cuando entendiste que tenía razón y que tú habías contestado a una pregunta que ella no había hecho. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> Dos días sujetando cosas y apuntando números, y ella era mejor en esto que el hombre que lo había hecho en noviembre, y lo sabía, y lo decía alegremente una vez por hora. El jueves, el inspector era un señor de cincuenta y tantos que entró, miró a Ines, te miró a ti y te dirigió a ti las cuatro primeras preguntas. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ Dijiste: —Yo sujeto la linterna. Eso lo contesta ella. Cuatro veces. Acabó llegando. A la tercera respuesta había dejado de interpretar paciencia y había empezado a escuchar de verdad, y al final estaba discutiendo con ella de un factor de corrección de igual a igual, cosa que viste ocurrir en directo y que no te habrías creído si te la cuentan. Firmó a las cuatro y media y ella cerró la puerta y se quedó de espaldas contra ella. —Doce años. Es la primera de estas que gano. <<Cash 620>>, y una demostración gratuita de la diferencia entera que hay entre ayudar a una mujer y hablar por ella. <<else>>\ Las contestaste, porque te las hacían a ti y porque a esas alturas te sabías las respuestas, y salió bien, y firmó a las cuatro y media. Ines estuvo callada después de que se fuera. No enfadada. Callada. —Tú también lo has hecho —dijo al rato, sin acritud—. No pasa nada. Lo hace todo el mundo. Solo que era mi techo. <<Cash 620>>, y unas cuatro manzanas después te cayó del todo y se quedó caído. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">><<PNav "Street">>

<<run AddMinutes(30); $npcs.okonkwo.dayCounter to 2>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFair")>>\ "What are you actually looking for? So I can stop guessing." "Egress, load, and whether the thing you told me you were going to do is the thing you did." "That's it?" "That is the entire job, Mr. $player.lastName. People imagine I arrive hoping to find something. I arrive hoping to find nothing, because nothing means I am done by eleven and there is a stairwell in Bay Ridge I would rather spend the afternoon worrying about." She finally drinks some of the coffee. "I will tell you the only thing that will ever get you in trouble with me. Not a bad roof. A bad roof is a schedule. It is putting sixty people in a room that is signed for thirty and assuming I will be reasonable about it. I am not reasonable. I am fair. Those are opposite things and the difference has cost me most of the friends I had in this job." <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFile")>>\ "My file's about an inch thick and I've owned the place five weeks." "Your file is an inch thick and about six pages of it are yours." She turns it so you can see, which she is technically allowed to do and clearly does not do often. "Change of use, twice, both approved. A gym certificate that lapsed. A vacate order. Then four years of a holding company filing the minimum to keep it standing and not one dollar more: no heat, no water, roof reported twice by a neighbour and never actioned. Do you know what that costs a company, to leave a building like that?" "Nothing?" "Two hundred and forty dollars a year, and they paid it eleven months late every single time, which tells me a clerk did it off a list. Nobody in that company has ever thought about your building for longer than it takes to sign something." She squares the folder again. "I have been doing this nineteen years. A file like that is not malice. It is somebody's fourth priority. Which, if you are the building, is worse." <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ <<run AddEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkCalls")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Cafe.jpg">> "Can I ask you something that isn't about the roof? You've been off with me since the second visit and I don't think it's anything I've done." She does not answer immediately, which is not like her. Everything else about her is immediate. "Somebody is calling my office about you." "A neighbour?" "No. Twice a week, since the middle of last month. Always the general line, never my extension. Always asking after the //status// of the file at 114 Dovehurst. Not a complaint, you understand. A complaint I can act on. A complaint has a name on it." She puts her cup down carefully. "This person asks whether an inspection has been scheduled. Whether an occupancy has been granted. Whether the change of use has been filed yet. All of it is public record, Mr. $player.lastName. Every question they ask, they could answer themselves at a terminal in the lobby. And they call anyway." "Why would somebody do that?" "Because a file that people ring about gets looked at more carefully than a file that nobody rings about. That is not a rule. There is no rule. It is simply true of human beings, and whoever is doing this knows that it is true, and has been very careful to do nothing whatsoever that I could put a stop to." She looks out of the window at the street for a second. "I want you to understand that I resent it enormously and that it will not change one word of my report. Both of those things are the case at once. I find it uncomfortable and I would rather you knew." <<else>>\ <<run AddEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkAdvice")>>\ "If you were me. What would you do?" "I would file early and I would file boring." "That's it?" "Mr. $player.lastName, in nineteen years I have watched exactly one kind of person lose a building to paperwork, and it is not the careless one. The careless ones get a violation and a date and they fix it. It is the one who believes the paperwork is beneath what he is really doing." She permits herself something that is nearly a smile. "You run a meeting on a Friday. I know that, everyone in four blocks knows that, and my file has no opinion about it and never will. But the day you have forty people in that room, your assembly classification changes, and if I hear about it from a phone call rather than from you, I will not be able to help you and I will not want to." "So tell you first." "Tell me first, tell me in writing, and tell me the true number. Whoever is calling my office is betting that you are the other kind of man. Disappoint them in the most tedious way available." She gathers the folder and stands. "And fix the roof before it rains properly. That was not advice. That was the inspection." <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Cafe">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* COFFEEHOUSE NINE */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<h2>Adaeze Okonkwo</h2> Cuarenta y cuatro. Departamento de Edificación. Justa hasta un punto que a veces resulta incómodo y nunca ni una sola vez injusta. Alguien no para de llamar a su oficina preguntando por tu dirección y no deja nombre, y ha empezado a molestarle en tu nombre, cosa que ella negaría. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/CoffeehouseBar.jpg">> She takes the table by the window with her back to the wall and her folder squared to the edge of the table, and she does not touch the coffee for the first four minutes. <hr> <h2>What you ask her</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFair")>>\ <<link "Ask her what she's actually looking for (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "ES:Okonkwo Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFair") and not CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFile")>>\ <<link "Ask why 114 has a file that thick (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "ES:Okonkwo Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFile") and not CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkCalls")>>\ <<link "Ask her what's bothering her (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "ES:Okonkwo Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkCalls") and not CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkAdvice") and $player.fame gte 15>>\ <<link "Ask her what she would do (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 4>><<goto "ES:Okonkwo Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Cafe">>

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "AskNight"); AddEvent("Pip", "Asked"); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 3; AddHours(2)>>\ <<if Ask("pip", 12)>>\ <<run AddStat("pip", "slut", 4); AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ <<Pool 29>> "Come to mine after you close." She kept wiping the same six inches of counter. "Say the rest of it." "That's all of it." "No, say the rest, because if you don't say the rest I'm going to fill it in myself and I'll fill it in wrong, I always fill it in wrong." "Come to mine after you close. If you get there and you don't want to, say so, and I'll walk you to the R and that's the end of it." "...Okay. That's an unusual amount of rest." She got there at ten past eight with her work shirt still on and the smell of the grinder in her hair, and stood in the middle of the room with her arms crossed for about a minute and a half, and said, "I'm going to want to make this funny. Don't let me." She wanted the light on. She said so out loud, twice, the second time crossly, because the first time she had said it like a question. She took her own shirt off and dropped it on the floor rather than folding it, and that took her visible effort, and she told you it had. She was quick and she was mouthy and she was //there//. She stopped you twice to move your hand, once to say //no, not that, this//, and once, halfway through and flat on her back and completely serious, to say "I don't know if I like this yet, keep going and I'll tell you," which was the single best sentence anyone had said in that room in two years of you living in it. Afterwards she lay on her front across the mattress with her chin on her hands, looking up at the sixty photocopied pages taped to the wall, reading them upside down. "Number four's the worst one." "Be a source of joy, not stress." "Yeah. I could do that one at //fifteen//. I could do that one in my sleep, that one's my whole personality, that one's the job I've had since I was..." She went quiet. "Is there a page where he says what to do if you're only good at the fourth one." "Thirty-one to forty are missing." "Course they are," said Pip, and put her face in the pillow. <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("pip", "slut", 2)>>\ <<Pool 29>> "Come to mine after you close." "Yep." Not a beat. Not a breath. She said it the way she said //no worries at all// and went back to steaming milk, and when you tried to give her the rest of the sentence, that she could change her mind at the door, that nothing happened that she did not want, she waved it off with the milk jug and said "you don't have to do the speech, it's fine, I know the speech," and you had the very clear sense that she did know the speech, and had heard it before, from somebody who had also thought of himself as one of the good ones. She came at eight. She was excellent at it. She was so good at it that at one point you stopped, and she read the stop instantly and adjusted, and got better at it, because //better// was the only direction she had ever been given. She made no noise she had not chosen. She said your name three times and each time it was pitched about a tone lower than she speaks. When you put your hand flat between her shoulder blades she arched into it beautifully, on cue, correctly, and her face was turned away and her eyes were open and pointed at the wall. Afterwards she was up and dressed in four minutes and made a joke about the state of your kitchen that was genuinely funny, and hugged you at the door, and said "that was really nice," which is the review of a meal. You stood in the door and listened to her go down the stairs two at a time, and thought: *she will tell me it was fine. She will tell me it was fine because telling me it was fine is the module. And I will not be able to prove otherwise, because I did not ask her before I asked her.* <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Repair */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "AskNo"); AddEvent("Pip", "Asked"); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 2; AddHours(1)>>\ <<if Ask("pip", 6)>>\ <<run AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 3); AddTrust("pip", 1); AddStat("pip", "happiness", 1)>>\ "Refuse somebody something this week. Once. Anybody. It doesn't have to be a big one." "That's the ask? That's not even a..." She stopped with her hand on the steam wand. "Oh, you absolute //swine//." "Once." "Once is loads. Once is //loads//, $player.firstName, do you know how many things I get asked in a day..." It took her until Sunday. She told you about it on the Monday in three messages, the first of which was four hundred words long and included the other person's full name, their job, a description of their coat, and a defence of her decision that nobody had asked for. The third message just said "she didn't even mind" and then, an hour later, "why did nobody tell me they don't mind". <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 1)>>\ "Refuse somebody something this week. Once." "Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. Great one." "You're not going to do it." "I am //literally// going to do it. Consider it done. In fact I'll do two." She was already three steps down the counter, apron strings swinging, cheerful as a Sunday. "Anything else? Any other bits? I've got a break at half eleven if you want to run through more of these." On the Thursday you asked her how it had gone and she said it had gone great, and then described a week in which she had covered two shifts, lent somebody forty dollars, and stayed late three times, and she said all of it in the tone of a woman reporting a success. She had said yes to you the way she said yes to everyone, instantly and completely, and it had not occurred to her that //refuse somebody// was a thing she could have refused. <</if>>\ <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>>

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "AskPhoto"); AddEvent("Pip", "Asked"); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 2; AddHours(1)>>\ <<if Ask("pip", 5)>>\ <<run AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 3); AddStat("pip", "slut", 1)>>\ <<Pool 12>> "Send me a photograph of yourself this week that you haven't arranged." "Define arranged." "You'll know. If you moved anything, including your face, it's arranged." She thought about it for a genuinely long time, which is what she had started doing instead of saying yes. "That's harder than if you'd asked for the other kind, you know that, right? I could send you the other kind by half past." "I know." It arrived on the Saturday. She was on the fire escape in a jumper with her hair wrong and half her face out of frame, and she had clearly held the phone out at arm's length and pressed the button before she could review it, and the caption said "deleted eleven. sending the twelfth because if I look at it again I'll delete that one too". <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 2)>>\ <<Pool 12>> "Send me a photograph of yourself this week." "Sure." It arrived in under ninety seconds. She had gone into the staff toilet and taken it there, apron off, shirt open two buttons, and it was, technically, a very good photograph, lit off the window, chin down, the angle chosen by somebody who had been taught angles. "Want a different one?" "No." "I can do a different one. What are you after? Just say the format and I'll do it, it's honestly quicker than this." She was back on the floor pulling shots inside three minutes and she was absolutely fine, chatting, laughing at a regular's dog, and that was the disturbing part and you knew it while it was happening: the thing had cost her nothing because there was nothing in the till to charge it to. You had asked for more than you had earned and she had simply paid it out of somebody else's account, and she had been trained to do that at fifteen, and she would do it for anyone who asked in the right tone of voice. You put the phone away and did not look at the photograph again. <</if>>\ <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>>

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "AskShift"); AddEvent("Pip", "Asked"); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 2; AddHours(1)>>\ <<if Ask("pip", 8)>>\ <<run AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 3); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 1)>>\ <<Pool 21>> "Work a shift dressed the way you'd dress if nobody was allowed to say anything about it." "Nobody //does// say anything about it." "Then it'll be an easy week." "You are so annoying." She did it on the Friday. Nothing anybody would have written down: a skirt instead of the black jeans, the good boots, and she had done something to her eyes, and she had left the top of her collarbone out in March. What you noticed was not the clothes. It was that she came out from behind the machine to hand things across instead of sliding them down the counter, twice, three times, all morning, without appearing to know she was doing it. "Two people asked if I was going somewhere after." "What did you say?" "I said no. And then I didn't explain." She was extremely pleased with herself. "That's the bit, isn't it. That's the actual bit." <<else>>\ <<run AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 2)>>\ <<Pool 21>> "Work a shift dressed the way you'd dress if nobody was allowed to say anything about it." "Yeah, no problem. What am I going for?" "That's the point. It's yours." "Right, but give me a target and I'll hit it. Do you want short, do you want... honestly just say. It's fine. It's //easier// if you say." You did not say. She spent the week trying to guess it instead, and you know that because she turned up on Friday in something she had plainly bought for the purpose, on a barista's wage, in a style she had never once worn, and asked you if it was right. She asked you if it was right. "Is it right?" "Pip." "Just tell me if it's right and then we can both get on with our day." You told her it was right, because the alternative in that moment was standing in a cafe making a twenty-three-year-old defend a receipt, and you spent the walk home working out precisely which of you that had been for. <</if>>\ <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/CoffeehouseBar.jpg">> She was on the counter and the queue was three deep and she clocked you coming in from the door, and had your coffee started before you reached her, which she did for you and for nobody else and which she would have denied. "You've got the face. You want something." "I do." "Say it, then. You do the thing where you say it once." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "AskPhoto")>>\ [[Ask her to send you a photograph she has not arranged|ES:Pip Ask Photo]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "AskShift")>>\ [[Ask her to work a shift dressed the way she would if nobody was allowed to comment|ES:Pip Ask Shift]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "AskNo")>>\ [[Ask her to refuse somebody, once, this week|ES:Pip Ask No]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "AskNight") and CheckEvent("Pip", "Session3")>>\ <<if GetStat("pip", "slut") gte 10>>\ [[Ask her to come to yours after close (2 hours)|ES:Pip Ask Night]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">You could ask her upstairs and she would come. That is exactly why you are not going to, this week.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ [[Leave it|ES:Pip Asks Out]]

<<run AddHours(1)>>\ "Nothing. Coffee." "Weird," said Pip, and made it, and would not take the money. <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>>

<<if not $bimbos.pip>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers") and BetweenTime(7, 19)>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Intro" "Pip" "The barista has one of your flyers in her hand and has stopped moving.">>\ <</if>>\ <<else>>\ <<if not $player.unlocks.hq and not $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete and GameDayIs("Thursday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 16 and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 0>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip.happiness gte 3>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Hub" "Pip" "Thursday, four o'clock. Corner table by the window.">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Pip" "She is behind the counter and she is not looking up.">>\ <</if>>\ <<elseif not $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete and not $player.unlocks.hq and BetweenTime(7, 19)>>\ <<PEvent false "Pip" "Thursday at 16:00. She does not do off-book.">>\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip.happiness lte 3 and $bimbos.pip.weeklyRepair and BetweenTime(7, 19)>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Repair" "Pip" "She is being extremely pleasant to you, which is how you know.">>\ <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "Session1") and not $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 0 and not CheckEvent("Pip", "Asked") and BetweenTime(7, 19) and not GameDayIs("Thursday")>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Asks" "Pip" "You could ask her for something between now and Thursday.">>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* First meeting */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She is finished, in the sense that the course is finished. She turns up anyway. <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Session 1 — the ladder she does not get */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 2; AddHours(1); AddFame(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg">> She had moved the table by the door eight inches and put a jug of water on it, and when you asked her about the eight inches she explained the eight inches for three straight minutes: sightlines, the draught, the fact that a woman coming in for the first time should not have to walk past forty chairs of strangers before she reaches a face. "They put you in a corridor. Every single time, they put you in a corridor first, and by the time you get in the room you've already agreed to everything. I'm not having a corridor." "You've thought about this." "I've thought about nothing else for two months, I've got a //list//, do you want the list..." "Yes." "Oh." She was thrown for exactly one second. "Right. Okay. So. Number one, nobody signs anything on their first visit..." You listened to all fourteen. Eleven of them were better than what you had. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<if $player.unlocks.hq and not $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete and GameDayIs("Thursday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 16 and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 0>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip.happiness gte 3>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Hub" "Pip" "Thursday, four o'clock. She is already here and she has moved a chair.">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Pip" "She has not confirmed and she is not going to.">>\ <</if>>\ <<elseif $player.unlocks.hq and CheckEvent("Pip", "Session1") and not $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 0 and not CheckEvent("Pip", "Asked") and not GameDayIs("Thursday")>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Asks" "Pip" "She comes by on her breaks now. You could ask her for something.">>\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete and $player.unlocks.hq and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 0>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Front Desk" "Pip" "She has appointed herself to something.">>\ <</if>>\

<<if CheckEvent("Pip", "HWNothing") and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter lte 3>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Homework Nothing" "Pip" "Pip has messaged you, at length, at a bad hour.">>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "HWScale") and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter lte 3>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Homework Scale" "Pip" "A photograph of a page of a notebook.">>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "HWInventory") and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter lte 3>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Homework Inventory" "Pip" "She left something folded twice with your name on it.">>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "HWWant") and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter lte 3>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Homework Want" "Pip" "Four messages in ninety seconds.">>\ <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "HWInventory"); AddEvent("Pip", "DidInventory"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 3); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> She did not message. She left it with the barista on the Wednesday, folded twice, with your name on the outside in block capitals like a school note. Five sentences. Five sources. //"No worries at all!" - don't know. before Bloom I think. mum?// //"I've got the capacity for it." - Bloom. module 2. Rhona said it to me at my first review and I said it back to her for four years.// //"I'm so sorry, I'm being annoying." - don't know.// //"Happy to!" - work. I think work. although I said it at fifteen too so maybe not.// //"I'm fine." - don't know. don't know. don't know.// At the bottom, sideways up the margin, small: //three out of five don't know. that's the finding, right? that's what you wanted. I hope you're pleased, I've been in a mood for two days.// //see you thursday. I'm coming thursday. obviously I'm coming thursday.// <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "HWNothing"); AddEvent("Pip", "DidNothing"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> The message came in at 23:41, which is not when a person messages you about a completed task. It is when a person messages you about a failed one. "okay so I did the nothing thing" "sat on the fire escape. 40 mins. no phone. it was FINE" "it was not fine actually. do you know what I did for the first eleven minutes. I planned. I planned the WEEK. on the fire escape. during my nothing." "then I ran out of week to plan and there was still half an hour left" "and I just sat there" "and it was so loud in there $player.firstName" Then, four minutes later, and you could feel the four minutes: "anyway!! task complete!! tick the box!!" You did not tick the box. You wrote //eleven minutes// in the notebook and put the phone face down. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "HWScale"); AddEvent("Pip", "DidScale"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> She sent a photograph of a page of a notebook. Seven rows, ruled by hand, a column for the number and a column for the decision. //Mon 61.4 - no bagel, walked the long way, said no to Nadine's leaving thing// //Tue 61.4 - same// //Wed 61.9 - cancelled the film, did a double// //Thu 61.6 - fine, said yes to the film, then cancelled anyway// //Fri 61.2 - good day. was nice to everyone. got asked if I'd had my hair done// //Sat 62.1 - didn't leave the flat// //Sun - didn't weigh. couldn't.// Underneath, in different ink, pressed hard enough to emboss the back of the page: //a machine in my bathroom has been deciding what I do with my evenings since I was fifteen and I did not know that until Wednesday// "I still haven't thrown them out" "don't tell me to" "I won't." "good" "...thanks" <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "HWWant"); AddEvent("Pip", "DidWant"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddStat("pip", "slut", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1); AddStat("pip", "happiness", 1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> "I did it" "I said it to Marco. out loud. I said 'I'm going to take half an hour and sit down and eat.' and then I did the thing where you wait and don't fill it, which I got off you, which I'm not thanking you for" "he said ok" "$player.firstName he said OK. that was it. that was the whole event. four years" "I nearly cried into a chicken sandwich in front of nine customers over the word ok" A pause, and then: "I didn't make it funny either. I wanted to SO badly. I had a whole bit about the sandwich" "anyway that's the homework. next" <hr> <<PBack>> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Additional asks */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<if CheckEvent("Pip", "Session5")>>\ <<include [[ES:Pip Done]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session4")>>\ <<include [[ES:Pip Session 5]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session3")>>\ <<include [[ES:Pip Session 4]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session2")>>\ <<include [[ES:Pip Session 3]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session1")>>\ <<include [[ES:Pip Session 2]]>>\ <<else>>\ <<include [[ES:Pip Session 1]]>>\ <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/CoffeehouseBar.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine">> You left eleven flyers on the community board by the toilets at Coffeehouse Nine and bought a coffee you did not want, which is the tax on using somebody else's wall. You were four steps from the door when the barista said, without any particular volume, "Hey. Wait." She was twenty-two or twenty-three, small, quick-handed, hair scraped up with a pen through it. She had one of the flyers flat on the counter and both palms on it like it might get up. "Where did you get that sentence." "Which one?" She did not look up. "Bottom left. The fifth one." //Let yourself be taken care of.// You had set it in the smallest type on the sheet because it was the one people misread. "It's from a manual. Sixty pages, photocopied. The man who wrote it isn't around any more." <<Pool 19>> She read it again. You watched her read it maybe six times, her mouth moving very slightly on //taken//, and the colour went out of her face in a way you had only ever seen in hospitals. "That's Receptivity Training." "That's what?" "Module four. Receptivity Training. It's theirs. It's got the little R in the circle after it and everything, they put it on the workbooks, they put it on the..." She stopped. She straightened the flyer with two fingers until it was square to the edge of the counter, and when she spoke again her voice had a bright shine on it that had not been there eleven seconds earlier. "Sorry! Ignore me. Long shift. Did you want that heated up?" "No." "Cool, cool. Great flyer, by the way. Very clean layout. Really nice use of the space." You had been reading about the Protocol for six years and running it for eleven days, and even eleven days was enough to know what you had just watched. She had gone somewhere and come back with a different person driving. "How long were you with Lumen?" Her hands kept working. Grinder, portafilter, tamp, lock. "Four years. Bloom. It's the youth track, it's not... it's not the main thing, it's a development pathway. Fifteen to nineteen." "Fifteen." "Fifteen's the intake age, yeah. My mum found the brochure at a wellness fair, she thought it'd give me structure, and honestly? It did. It gave me //loads// of structure." The shine again, thick as lacquer. "I came out of it really aligned. Genuinely. Presentation standards, service orientation, all of that, I still use it every single day, look at me, I'm the best barista on this street and I'm not even being humble about it, that's peak capacity, that's..." She ran out. The espresso finished pulling into a cup nobody had ordered. She looked at it for a while. "Sorry. What's your name?" "$player.firstName." "Pip. Priya, but nobody's called me that since I was fourteen, so." She pushed the coffee across at you. "Your sentence is older than their sentence, isn't it." "By about six years." "Right." She wiped a dry counter. "Right. Okay. So they took it." "They took all five." "Sure." A beat. "And you're what... you're doing the original? Like a heritage version?" "I'm doing the work. Thursdays are open." You did not push it. You had learned that much off a tape: you say the thing once, and then you wait, and the waiting is not a tactic, it is the whole respect. She picked at the corner of the flyer with a thumbnail. "Ninety a week, I can do ninety a week, I'm not being cheap I just genuinely do not have..." "Ninety's fine." "Thursday's my early. I'm off the floor at four." She finally looked at you properly, and for about a second and a half there was nothing on her face at all, no shine, no service, nothing, and it was the most alarming thing you had seen in a year. "Don't be like them." "I'll try." "Everyone says that. They said that." The shine came back up like a screen saver. "Four o'clock! Corner table. I'll save you the one by the window, it's got the wobble but the light's better." <<run $bimbos.pip to clone($bimboTemplate); AddEvent("Pip", "Met"); AddTrust("pip", 1); AddHours(1) >>\ <hr> <<PNav "Cafe">><<PNav "Street">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Hub */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She was flawless with you. That was the tell and by now you could read it: the warmer she got, the further out she was. She called you //sir// once, as a joke, and it did not land as one. <hr> <<if $player.cash gte 80>>\ <<link "Take her somewhere with a tablecloth (-$80, 2 hours)">>\ <<run AddCash(-80); AddHours(2); AddStat("pip", "happiness", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.weeklyRepair to false; $passageRoute to 1 >><<goto "ES:Pip Repair Done">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if HasTechnique("reframe")>>\ <<link "Say the thing out loud (1 hour)">>\ <<run AddHours(1); AddStat("pip", "happiness", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.weeklyRepair to false; $passageRoute to 2 >><<goto "ES:Pip Repair Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is a way to fix this without buying her dinner and you have not learned it yet.</div> <</if>>\ [[Leave her alone this week|ES:Pip Repair Out]]

<<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> You took her to the place on the corner that puts cloth on the tables, and she was appalling about it for the first ten minutes: reading the menu out in a voice, pricing everything, offering to split it four separate times. "I'm buying you dinner because I got something wrong and I'd rather not be clever about it." That shut her up for a while. "You could just say sorry, you know. It's a word people have." "Sorry." "Ugh. Don't, now it's weird." She ate about half of it and took the rest home in a box and messaged you at eleven to say the chips had not travelled well, which was as close to forgiveness as she was going to get to in one evening. <<else>>\ <<Pool 4>> You did not buy her anything. You stood at the end of the counter until the queue cleared and then said it plainly, because you had listened to a man do exactly this on a tape and he had done it in nine words. "I asked you for more than you had. You paid it anyway. That's mine, not yours." Pip put the cloth down. "You can't just..." "I'm not asking you to say anything about it." "Well, now I want to." She was angry, and then she was not, and the whole thing took about four seconds and left her looking tired and about six years younger. "They never did that. Four years. Not once did anybody in that building say a thing was theirs and not mine." "It's page eleven." "I'm going to have to read this bloody book, aren't I." <</if>>\ <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>>

<<run $bimbos.pip.weeklyRepair to false>>\ You let it sit for a week. Sometimes that is correct and sometimes it is the cheap option, and the honest answer is that you did not know which this was. <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Event feeds */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ She was out of the apron and into a jacket before the clock hit four, and she had the table cleaned, and she had a notebook out, and the notebook was new. "Okay. So I've been thinking about it all week and I want to be really upfront with you about my goals, because I think misalignment at intake is where these things die." "You've been to an intake before." "I've been to //nine//." She said it like a personal best. "So. What are the levels?" "The levels." "The tiers, the bands, whatever you call them. Bloom had six. Six bands, four modules a band, you sit the review, you clear the band. I was Band Four at sixteen, which nobody had done, and I'm not saying that to brag, I'm saying it because I know how I work. Give me the ladder and I will //eat// the ladder." She had the pen up. She was smiling. The smile was doing an enormous amount of work and none of it was happiness. <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Levels")>>\ [[Tell her there is no ladder|ES:Pip Session 1 Levels]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Intake")>>\ [[Let her run her own intake on herself|ES:Pip Session 1 Intake]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Speed")>>\ [[Answer the question she is actually asking: how fast|ES:Pip Session 1 Speed]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Levels") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Intake") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Speed")>>\ [[Close it out|ES:Pip Session 1 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "S1Levels"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S1Intake"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S1Speed"); AddEvent("Pip", "Session1"); AddEvent("Pip", "Fees"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 5; AddHours(2) >>\ "So what's my homework." "Who said there was homework?" "There's always homework. It's Thursday, we've done an hour and a half, you're going to give me a task and then next week you're going to ask me how the task went, that's how all of these work." She was right, and it was irritating that she was right, and you had learned enough to say so. "Yes. There's homework." "//Thank// you." Pen up. Page turned. Ready. <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ "Between now and next Thursday, I want you to do one thing that produces nothing." She waited for the rest of it. "...And?" "That's it." "Produces nothing how? Like nothing for me, or nothing for other people, or... is it a mindfulness thing? Because I can do a mindfulness thing, I've got the app, I've got the //paid// version of the app..." "One thing. No product. Nobody gets anything out of it, including you." "That's not a task. That's an absence of a task." "Write it down anyway." She wrote it down. You watched her write it down and then draw a small neat box beside it to tick, and you decided not to say anything about the box. <<run AddEvent("Pip", "HWNothing")>>\ <<else>>\ "Nothing this week. Just come back." "That's not a task." "No." "I don't know what to do with a week that doesn't have a task in it, $player.firstName." "I know. That's the observation." <</if>>\ She packed the notebook away and paid you ninety dollars in cash, in an envelope, counted twice in front of you. "Same time next week. I'll do the thing. I always do the thing." That was the part you wrote down on the train home. Not that she would do it: that she said //always//, and said it like a warning, and did not know she had. <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Session 2 — Bloom */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S1Intake"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ "You've done nine of these. Do mine for me." She lit up. It was the first thing all afternoon she had wanted. "Oh, I'm //good// at this." She sat back, crossed her legs, and became somebody else: smoother, slower, the vowels rounder, a woman thirty years old with a lanyard. "Priya Raman, twenty-three, service sector, no dependants. Presentation standards: strong, self-maintained, no lapse noted since... well. Service orientation: exemplary, arguably over-indexed. Positive affect management: excellent, extremely stable, very rarely requires intervention." She tipped her head. "Capacity is where we'd focus. She's operating well below where she could be operating and the limiter is environmental. Recommend increased load." "Increased load." "More work. It's always more work. Nine intakes, five different women, four years, and every single one of them looked at me and said //we think you can take more//." She dropped the voice like putting down a bag. "And they were right! I could. I can take loads." "What did any of them ask you?" "Ask me?" "A question. Any question, in four years, that a form didn't already have a box for." Pip opened her mouth. She kept it open for a second, and then she picked her pen back up and clicked it twice, and said, brightly, "That's a really good question," which was not an answer, and which you both heard was not an answer. <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S1Levels"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2)>>\ "There aren't any." The pen stopped. "There's a curriculum, though." "There's a manual. It's got five sentences in it and about fifty pages of a man arguing with himself about them." "Okay, but the //sequence//." "There's no sequence." She laughed. It was a real laugh, briefly, and it was not amused. "Then how do I know if I'm doing well?" "You won't for a while." "That's..." She put the pen down flat and squared it to the edge of the notebook, the way she had squared the flyer. "That's fine! That's totally fine, that's a really interesting methodology, I'm very open to it." "Pip." "I'm //open// to it." You let it sit. Four seconds, five. She filled it, because she always filled it. She told you about a customer who ordered eleven drinks and paid in coins, and she was funny about it, genuinely funny, three good jokes in ninety seconds and every one of them a hand held up in front of her face. You wrote one line in your own notebook: //she has never once been told a number she could not chase.// <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S1Speed"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2)>>\ "Just give me a number of weeks. Any number. I'm not going to hold you to it, I just need something to..." "To beat." "To //plan against//." "To beat." She threw a sugar packet at you. It was the least rehearsed thing she had done since you met her. "Fine! To beat! Because I'm quick, and being quick is the only thing I've ever..." She stopped that one herself, which was new. "Okay, wow, we're doing this." "It takes as long as it takes. Some of it will take months. One part of it is going to take about four minutes and you'll spend two years getting to those four minutes." "That is the single most annoying sentence anyone has ever said to me." "I know." "No, genuinely, top three. It's up there with //we've decided to hold you at Band Five for continuity reasons.//" "What does that mean?" "It means the cohort below me was thin and it looked bad on the annual if the top band emptied out." She said it lightly, and then heard herself say it lightly, and drank her coffee for a long time. <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "DidNothing")>>\ She got to the table before you and she had already ordered for both of you, and she started talking before you had your coat off. "I sat on the fire escape for forty minutes and I did not enjoy a single second of it and I want that noted." <<else>>\ She got to the table before you and she had already ordered for both of you, and she was three sentences into a story about a customer before you sat down. It was a good story. It was a wall. <</if>>\ "Tell me about Bloom." The story stopped mid-clause. "It's a youth development pathway, it's..." "Not the brochure. Tell me one day of it." "One day." "One. Any one." She looked out of the window at the street for long enough that the coffee got drinkable. "Okay. But I want it on the record that it was //fine//." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Room")>>\ [[Ask about the room|ES:Pip Session 2 Room]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Form")>>\ [[Ask about the form|ES:Pip Session 2 Form]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Cohort")>>\ [[Ask about the other girls|ES:Pip Session 2 Cohort]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Room") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Form") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Cohort")>>\ [[Close it out|ES:Pip Session 2 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "S2Room"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S2Form"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S2Cohort"); AddEvent("Pip", "Session2"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 5; AddHours(2) >>\ She got her jacket on and got most of the way to cheerful again on the walk to the door, which took about eleven seconds, and you timed it. <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ "Homework." "Oh good, a real one this time?" "Do you own scales?" She went still with her arm half in a sleeve. "Everyone owns scales." "This week you're going to weigh yourself on them at the same time you always do, and you're going to write down the number, and then you're going to write down what the number made you decide about the rest of your day. Not how you felt. What you //decided//." "That's..." She thought about it properly, which took her a second and a half. "That's a nasty little task, that is." "Yes." "You're not going to tell me to throw them out?" "Not this week." "Because I would, if you said. I'd do it tonight." "I know you would. That's why I'm not saying it." She stood in the doorway for a second with the light behind her, working that one over, and you could see her not have a word for it. <<run AddEvent("Pip", "HWScale")>>\ <<else>>\ "No task?" "Not yet. I don't know how to set them properly yet and I'd rather not set you a bad one." She stopped in the doorway. "You just said you didn't know something." "Yes." "Huh," said Pip, and went to get her bike. <</if>>\ <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Session 3 — the bad one */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S2Cohort"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 1); AddStat("pip", "happiness", -1)>>\ "Who else was in your intake?" "Eleven of us. Cohort Nine, which is why I liked working here, actually, the //Nine//, it's stupid, ignore that." She counted them off. She had names for all eleven and she said them fast and in order, the way you say a thing you have said to yourself at three in the morning. "Two of them are Guides now. One's in Chicago running their whole regional thing at twenty-six, which, good for her, honestly, she was //made// of it. Three I don't know. Four I've got on my phone and we send each other the same four messages every Christmas." "That's ten." Pip drank her coffee. "Yeah." "Pip." "Her name was Robin, she was sixteen and a half, and Lumen sent flowers and a note about her //journey//, and the note had a typo in it, and I have thought about that typo more than I have thought about almost anything." She said it in one breath and then put the cup down very carefully, like the cup was the only thing in the room that could still break. "Can we do a different one." "Yes." "Thanks. Sorry. That was..." "Don't." She did not apologise again, which took her two full minutes and visible effort, and was the most progress she made all week. <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S2Form"); AddEvent("Pip", "BloomFile"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ "You signed something." "I signed //loads// of things, I was fifteen, they had a laminated folder." She stopped. "You mean the continuity form." "I don't know what that is." Pip put both hands flat on the table, which is what she did instead of fidgeting when the thing was large. "Every Bloom girl has a file. Not a folder, a file, it's a specific word, it's got a number on it and your number follows you. And when you exit the pathway you sign a continuity form, which is... they explain it as //we'd love to keep supporting you//, and what it actually says is the file stays open." "Open how long?" "There isn't a box for how long." She laughed without any air in it. "I left when I was nineteen. I got a card on my birthday last year. Not from a person. From the file." "Where do they keep them?" "Third floor, past the frosted room. The Guides call it the annex. It's not a secret, it's just boring, that's the whole trick of that place. Everything terrible about it is //filed//." She tipped her head at you. "Why. What are you doing." "Learning." "You've got a face on. You've got a face like my uncle when he's about to sue somebody." You wrote //annex// down, and //continuity file//, and //number follows you//, and she watched you do it and did not stop you, and that mattered more than she knew. <<run AddEvent("Pip", "Annex")>>\ <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S2Room"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ <<Pool 26>> "Capacity review. Every eight weeks. Third floor at Flatiron, the room at the end with the frosted glass, which is a genuinely nice room, I want to be fair, they spent money on it." She turned her cup a quarter turn. Another quarter. "You go in, you take your shoes off, you stand on the plate. There's a curtain but the curtain's on a track that stops about eight inches short, and everyone knew about the eight inches, we used to joke about the eight inches. So there's a Guide at the desk and there's whoever's next in the corridor and there's you, on the plate, in your socks." "How old." "Fifteen the first time. Nineteen the last time. That's ..." she did it in her head, fast, she did everything fast. "Twenty-six of them. Give or take." "And they read the number out." "They read the number out, and then they say the number you were at last time, and then they say //and how do we feel about that//." "How did you feel about it?" "Aligned." She said it instantly and then made a face at herself, the first genuinely disgusted expression you had seen her make. "God. Sorry. That's... you say //aligned// because //aligned// ends the conversation. If you say aligned you're back in the corridor in ninety seconds. If you say anything else it's a forty minute conversation about your relationship with capacity and you miss the train." "So you learned a word that gets you out of rooms." "I learned about six." <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ You had spent the week with a tape and a notebook and had arrived at a conclusion you did not like: that you could not teach her anything, because every sentence you gave her went into a machine that turned it into a module. The only thing left was to break the machine. She sat down happy. That was the worst part, afterwards. She sat down happy, and she had the notebook, and she said, "I did the scales thing and I've got //findings//," and you said, "Before that. I want to take some words off you." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Ban")>>\ [[Take the five words|ES:Pip Session 3 Ban]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Offer")>>\ [[Let her try the other thing she knows how to do|ES:Pip Session 3 Offer]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Manual")>>\ [[Let her hit back|ES:Pip Session 3 Manual]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Ban") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Offer") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Manual")>>\ [[Close it out|ES:Pip Session 3 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S3Ban"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 3); AddStat("pip", "happiness", -1)>>\ You wrote five words on the back of a receipt and turned it round. //Capacity. Alignment. Presentation. Receptivity. Affect.// "You don't get these any more." "Sure. Fine. Easy." "Tell me how the week went." "The week went..." She stopped. You watched her go and get the sentence and find the sentence was made out of the words on the receipt. You watched her go and get another one. Same problem. "The week went well in terms of my... in terms of how I was..." "Keep going." "I'm going." "Keep going." "I'm //going//, give me a..." Her voice came up about four notches and two customers looked over and she brought it straight back down and smiled at them, and that, the smile at the customers, cost her the rest of the sentence entirely. Forty seconds of nothing. "I don't have any other words." "I know." "No, you're not. I'm not being dramatic. I have a vocabulary of about nine hundred words for how a person is doing and every single one of them is theirs. They gave me those when I was fifteen. What was I supposed to do, keep the old ones? I didn't //have// old ones, I was fifteen." "You'll get new ones." "From you." That landed exactly where she aimed it. <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "S3Ban"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S3Offer"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S3Manual"); AddEvent("Pip", "Session3"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 1); AddStat("pip", "happiness", -1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 5; AddHours(2) >>\ She was at the door before you got your coat. "Pip." "What's my homework." "You don't have to..." "//What is my homework.//" She said it with her back to you, holding the door, letting the cold in on four other people. "Don't you dare not give me one. You've had my week for three weeks. If you take that as well I'm going to have seven days with nothing in them and I genuinely do not know what happens to me in seven days with nothing in them." That, in the end, was the honest sentence. It took an hour and a half of the worst session you had ever run to get it out of her, and it came out at the door with her back turned, which is where those sentences live. <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ "Five sentences. Things you say most days. Next to each one, where you got it." "And if I don't know where I got it?" "Then write //don't know//, and that's the finding." "Fine." <<run AddEvent("Pip", "HWInventory")>>\ <<else>>\ "Come back next Thursday. That's the whole task and it's not a small one." "Yeah. Yeah, we'll see." <</if>>\ She went. You sat in the cafe for another twenty minutes with a cold cup and your own notebook, which she had read, which had been the point of it being face down, and which had been face down where she could reach it because you had put it there. You were not sure, later that night, whether you had put it there on purpose. That was the part you did not write down. <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Session 4 — rebuilding */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S3Manual"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddStat("pip", "happiness", -1); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ Your notebook was face down on the table. She turned it over with one finger, and you let her, because stopping her would have been an answer. Page after page of your handwriting. Her name at the top of eleven of them. //She has never been told a number she could not chase.// //Break the machine.// //Week 3: remove vocabulary.// She read the whole thing. It took her four minutes and you sat through all four. "Week three: remove vocabulary." "Yes." "So there is a curriculum." "That's not..." "There's a curriculum, and there's a plan, and there's a //man with a manual//, and you sat there in week one and told me there was no ladder, and there's a ladder, it's just that you're the only one holding it." She was not shouting. She had gone completely level, which was so much worse. "I have met eleven of you. Do you know what all eleven had? Notes. Every single one of them had notes on me and every single one of them thought their notes were the kind notes." "I'm not..." "You have got sixty pages taped to a wall. Someone told me. You have got a dead man's homework taped to your wall and you are running it on a barista." You did not have a clean answer, because there was not one. You could have said //the difference is consent// and she would have said //I signed nine forms//. You could have said //I'm not selling anything// and she would have said //you took ninety dollars off me in an envelope//. What you said, eventually, was: "Every word of that is true and I'm not going to argue with any of it." "Don't do that either. Don't //agree// at me." "I've got a manual. I've got notes. I want you different at the end of this than you are now, and I've got an idea of which direction, and I wrote it down. All of that's true." You closed the notebook and pushed it across to her side of the table. "The only thing I've got that they didn't is that you can read it." Pip looked at the notebook for a long time. "That's a really good line." "It's not a line." "It's a //really// good line," she said, and put her coat on, and left it lying there and did not take it. <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S3Offer"); AddStat("pip", "slut", 2); AddStat("pip", "happiness", -1)>>\ <<Pool 41>> She went quiet for about a minute and then she changed shape. You had seen it in the tapes described and never seen it done. Her shoulders came back and down. Her chin dropped four degrees. The knee turned in. It was technically excellent and it happened in under two seconds and there was nothing behind it at all, the way there is nothing behind a shop window at night. "Okay. So what do you actually want." "I want you to sit normally." "This is normal. This is the other module." She undid the top two buttons of her shirt without looking down at them, and she did not hurry, and her face stayed perfectly pleasant. "Module six. You get it at eighteen, it's //optional//, it's in the same folder as the one about handshakes. And I'm very good at it, $player.firstName, I'm honestly one of the best in my cohort at it, so..." "Do them up." "...so let's not do six more Thursdays of you being patient with me. Let's just do the part where I'm useful and then you can write me up as a success." "Pip. Do them up." She did them up. Fast, hard, one of them wrong, and her hands were shaking and her face was still absolutely pleasant, and that gap between the hands and the face was the single most frightening thing you had ever been shown by another person. "You could have just said yes." "No." "Everyone says no first." She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand, once, businesslike. "That's not a thing about you. That's a thing about first." <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ She came. You had put the odds at about even and she came, eight minutes late, which she had never been. She sat down. She did not have the notebook. "I'm not apologising." "Good." "I've been apologising since Thursday. In my head. To you, which is insane, because I was //right//." "You were." "Stop //doing// that." But there was something under it this week, some engine turning over that had not been turning before. "Okay. So I've got nothing. I've got no words and I've got no ladder and I've got a week where I said about eleven sentences total because every other one had a banned word in it. Ask me something." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Coffee")>>\ [[Ask her about coffee|ES:Pip Session 4 Coffee]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Want")>>\ [[Ask her what she wants|ES:Pip Session 4 Want]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Mirror")>>\ <<if HasTechnique("mirror")>>\ [[Put her in front of a mirror|ES:Pip Session 4 Mirror]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is a thing he did with mirrors and you have not worked out what it was yet.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Coffee") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Want") and (CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Mirror") or not HasTechnique("mirror"))>>\ [[Close it out|ES:Pip Session 4 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "S4Coffee"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S4Want"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S4Mirror"); AddEvent("Pip", "Session4"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddStat("pip", "happiness", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 5; AddHours(2) >>\ "I've been thinking about your notebook." "So have I." "I'm not taking it back. What I said. All of it stands, you //are// a man with a manual and if you ever start smoothing that over I'll know and I'll be gone the same afternoon." She put her cup down. "But you didn't tidy it up. You just went yes. Nobody's ever gone yes." "It's on page eleven of the manual. He says the whole method is worth nothing if you can't be told." "Of course it is," said Pip, disgusted. "Of course the answer to //your book is doing something bad to me// is //page eleven of the book//. God, you're both insufferable." <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ "Homework. Say the lunch thing out loud to somebody who isn't me." "Say it how?" "Out loud. To a person. //I'm going to sit down and eat this.// You don't have to explain it and you don't have to justify it and you absolutely do not get to make it funny." "Not making it funny is genuinely the hardest part of that." "I know." <<run AddEvent("Pip", "HWWant")>>\ <<else>>\ "Nothing this week. Do the lunch." "That's the task? Lunch?" "Sitting down." <</if>>\ <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Session 5 — what she is for */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S4Coffee"); AddEvent("Pip", "Coffee"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 3); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ "Tell me about coffee." "Tell you //what// about coffee." "Anything. You've made about ninety thousand of them. Tell me something true about it." She sighed, and rolled her eyes, and started talking to be difficult. "Fine. Okay. So the grinder here is a decade old and the burrs are past it, and when you dial it in cold in the morning the first two shots channel, so I pull two and I bin two, every single day, at six-forty, and Marco thinks I'm wasting stock and I'm not, I'm... the third one's the first honest one." "Keep going." "There's a sound. When the grind's right the machine makes a different sound, it's lower, it's like..." She did it. She made the noise, in a cafe, at four in the afternoon, with her hands doing the shape of a portafilter. "...that. And when I hear that I know the whole day's going to be fine, which is stupid, because it's a //sound//, but I've been doing it four years and I hear it about eleven times a day and every single time something in my chest goes down about an inch." She stopped. Neither of you said anything for a second, because you were both counting it, and the count came out the same. Ninety-one words, no //capacity//, no //alignment//, no //standards//, no shine on it anywhere. "Oh, you //bastard//," said Pip, with enormous feeling, and put her face in her hands, and laughed until she had to stop. <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S4Mirror"); AddEvent("Pip", "Mirror"); AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 3); AddStat("pip", "slut", 1)>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg">> There is a mirror the length of the second floor landing at 114 and you walked her up to it. <<else>>\ <<Pool 16>> The staff toilet at Coffeehouse Nine has a mirror over the sink with a chip out of one corner, and it was the only mirror available, so it was the one you used. <</if>>\ "Look at yourself and tell me what you see. No adjectives you learned in a building." "This is a bit." "It's on a tape. He does it in the second week with everyone and he does not explain why, which I think is because he couldn't." She stood in front of it with her arms folded and looked at her own face with open, professional dislike, the way you look at a table you have to clean. "Presentation is..." "No." "I //know//, I'm... give me a second." It took her four minutes. She unfolded her arms at about the second minute without noticing she had done it, which was the whole exercise, and at three she pulled the pen out of her hair. "My jaw's crooked. Left side's lower, you can only see it if I'm tired, and I'm always tired, so everyone can always see it." She turned her head. "I have got a really good neck. I have got a stupidly good neck and nobody has ever mentioned it once in twenty- three years." "I'm mentioning it." "Don't, you'll ruin it." She was going pink and was furious about going pink. "This is horrible. Why is this horrible. Standing on a plate in my socks was //easier// than this." "Because that one was about the number and this one is about you." She looked at herself for another few seconds and then said, to the mirror and not to you, "Okay. Same time next week." <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S4Want"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddStat("pip", "slut", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ "What do you want?" "Oh, that's the big one, is it. Have you got an hour." "Small. Something you could have this week." She was ready to be clever about it. You could see the clever answer arrive and you could see her put it down, which was new, which was the actual progress. "I want to eat lunch sitting down." "Go on." "I've worked here four years and I have eaten every single lunch standing up in the back by the ice machine, in about four minutes, because if I sit in the room somebody will need something and I'll get up. And I'm not being //oppressed//, nobody's making me, Marco would not care, it's me." She pressed her thumb into the table. "I want to sit at a table in the middle of the room with a plate. Not a bag. A plate. And eat it slowly and let somebody else get the door." "That's a real one." "It's pathetic is what it is." "It's the fifth Principle and it's the one nobody can do." "Which is the fifth?" "Let yourself be taken care of." "...Right. So that's what Receptivity Training was //for//. Huh. They taught it as how to receive feedback." "I know." "They taught a fifteen year old how to receive feedback and called it..." She stopped, and shook her head, and did not finish it, because she did not have the words she used to finish that sentence with, and the new ones were not built yet. <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ She had cut her hair. Not much, an inch, blunt across the bottom, and she had done it herself in the staff toilet with the good scissors, and she told you that before you had asked, before hello, with something in her voice you had not heard from her before, which was ordinary pride. "It's a bit crooked at the back." "It is." "Yeah." She sat down like the chair was hers. "So this is the last one, isn't it. You've got that face." "Of the five, yes." "And then what?" "That's what today's about." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Work")>>\ [[Ask what she wants to do with it|ES:Pip Session 5 Work]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Lumen")>>\ [[Ask her what she would do to Lumen|ES:Pip Session 5 Lumen]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Him")>>\ [[Ask what she wants from you|ES:Pip Session 5 Him]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Work") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Lumen") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Him")>>\ [[Close it out|ES:Pip Session 5 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Pip", "S5Work"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S5Lumen"); RemoveEvent("Pip", "S5Him"); AddEvent("Pip", "Session5"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 3); AddStat("pip", "happiness", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1); AddFame(2); $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete to true; $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 2; AddHours(2) >>\ <<Pool 35>> She counted out ninety dollars and you pushed it back across the table. "Don't." "You're not a client from Thursday." "That's a //massive// thing to say to somebody at four o'clock on a... okay. Okay." She put the envelope in her jacket without counting it a second time, which she had never once failed to do. "So what am I?" "You're the only person in this city who's been through both. That's not a small job and I can't pay you for it yet." "Yet." "Yet." "I'll take yet. Yet is a //verb//, sort of. Yet's got a direction on it." She stood up, and hesitated, and you could see her sorting through the closing lines she had for this, she had a big drawer of them, everybody's favourite barista, four years of practice at ending a conversation warmly and completely. She did not use any of them. "I sat down and ate a sandwich on Tuesday. In the middle of the room. It took twenty minutes and three people needed something and I said //one second// to all three and finished it." "How was it?" "Awful. Genuinely awful, I sweated through my shirt. Doing it again Thursday." She went and got her bike. Eleven weeks earlier she had used the word //capacity// four times in one sentence, and this afternoon she had used the word //sandwich//, and you sat in the window with a cold cup and understood, for the first time since you had found sixty photocopied pages in a stranger's file share, exactly what the man had been trying to do. <hr> <<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<PNav "HQ">><<else>><<PNav "Cafe">><</if>> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Homework */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S5Him"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 1)>>\ "And what do you want from me?" "Careful." "I'm asking properly." <<if GetStat("pip", "slut") gte 14 and GetStat("pip", "trust") gte 12>>\ <<run AddEvent("Pip", "Present"); AddStat("pip", "slut", 3); AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ <<Pool 44>> She thought about it for a while, actually thought, with her eyebrows down, which she only ever did when she had decided not to perform the answer. "I want to try that again. The thing I did in week three." "You don't have to..." "I know I don't have to. That's the entire point, that's the //whole thing//, you absolute..." She laughed at herself. "I did it once as a trick and you said no and I've been annoyed about it for six weeks, and I'd like to find out what it is when it isn't a trick. That's it. That's the ask." <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ So you locked the front door of your own building at half past five on a Thursday, and she went up the stairs ahead of you, and she stopped on the landing where the mirror was, which was not an accident. <<else>>\ So you walked her the four blocks to the sublet, and she looked at the sixty photocopied pages taped above the desk for a full minute before she looked at anything else, and said, "He wrote in the margins. Nobody told me he wrote in the margins." <</if>>\ It was slower than she expected. You could tell it was slower than she expected because she kept getting ahead of it and having to come back, a hand going to your belt on some old schedule, then stopping, then her breathing out through her teeth and going, "Sorry, that's the... sorry." "There's no sequence." "You keep //saying// that." Her shirt off, and she did not pose. That was the difference and it was the whole difference. In week three she had arranged herself in under two seconds and there had been nothing behind it. Here she was uneven and slightly hunched and let you look at her anyway, and when you put a hand flat between her shoulder blades she made a noise she had plainly never made in front of another person in her life, and then went bright red about the noise, and then, after a second, laughed. "That's //mine//." "What is?" "That noise. Nobody taught me that one." She was loud. She was loud and specific and kept telling you things: slower, there, no, //there//, wait, hang on, do that again, and every instruction was a sentence about what she wanted, said out loud, to another person, which was the homework, which she worked out somewhere in the middle and told you she had worked out, at length, breathless and delighted with herself and entirely unable to stop talking. Afterwards she lay across your arm with her hair stuck to her forehead and did the thing she had never done in eleven weeks, which was nothing at all. No joke. No shine. Four straight minutes of a woman lying still in a room. "Right," she said eventually. "Okay. So that's what all the fuss is about." "You've..." "Oh, loads of times. Never once //there// for it." She turned her face into your shoulder. "Twenty-three years old. Present at one of them." <<else>>\ She thought about it for a while, and you watched her decide not to answer it with her body, which two months ago would have been the only tool she reached for. "Not yet." "All right." "See, that's... you didn't even flinch. Do you know how //rare//..." She made herself stop. "There's a version of this where I'm sleeping with you by now. It's a very short version and I know all the lines in it and I could have started it in week one, and if I'd started it in week one none of the rest of this would have happened, because that's what I use it for. It's a fire door. I go through it when the room gets hot." "And now?" "Now I'd quite like to want something for a bit before I do anything about it. I've literally never done that. I've never once wanted something for longer than an afternoon." She grinned at you, and it was the real one, crooked and slightly mean. "So you can sit there and be patient about it, which you're weirdly good at, and I'm going to enjoy that enormously." <</if>>\ <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S5Lumen"); AddEvent("Pip", "BloomFile"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> She had brought a box. Shoebox, soft at the corners, a rubber band round it that had gone to glue. "Don't get excited, it's mostly badges." It was mostly badges. Under the badges was a workbook: spiral-bound, the Lumen mark on the front in a font they had since retired, //BLOOM - Module One - Intake//, and inside the front cover a printed line of small type. //Adapted, with thanks, from the source text.// "Source text." "First printing. My cohort got the first printing because we were the first cohort. My friend Anisha did Bloom two years after me and I've seen hers and that line isn't in it. They took it out." She tapped the page. "They //thanked// him. In year one, when it was still a nice idea and nobody had lawyers, somebody in that building typed a thank you to a man they were in the middle of robbing." "Can I keep this?" "You can borrow it and if you lose it I'll end you." She pushed it over. "Also, the annex. The continuity files. They're not digital. They're //paper//, because of a data rule somebody read wrong in year two and nobody's ever revisited, and there is one woman called Marisol who has the keys and she does four days a week and she has hated that job for eleven years." You looked at her. "What." "Nothing. You'd be very good at this." "I //know//." <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S5Work"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 3); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ "What are you for?" "That's a horrible question." "It's the last one on the list." She turned her cup, quarter turn, quarter turn, and then stopped doing it, deliberately, and put her hands in her lap. "There are about four hundred girls who went through Bloom. Four hundred that I'd count. And every single one of them is walking round with the same nine hundred words in her head and no idea that the words came from somewhere, and most of them are //fine//, that's the thing, most of them have jobs and boyfriends and they're fine, and every so often one of them puts a flyer down on a counter and goes white." "You want to find them." "I want to be in the room when they read the sentence. Because I was on my own on a Tuesday afternoon with a man I'd never met and a cortado I'd already made, and it was the worst forty seconds of my adult life, and it did not need to be." She shrugged, and the shrug was the old deflection, and she caught it and put it away. "So. I want to do what you do. On them. Only I know the building and I know the folder and I know what module four actually is, which you don't, because you weren't fifteen in it." "That's not a small thing you're asking for." "I'm not asking. I'm telling you what I'm for." She had said it without a single one of their words, and she noticed, and she did not point it out, which was the last thing she needed to learn. <hr> [[Back to the table|ES:Pip Hub]]

<<if CheckEvent("Pip", "Session2") and not CheckEvent("Pip", "Annex") and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 0>>\ <<run AddEvent("Pip", "Annex"); AddEvent("Pip", "BloomFile")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bedroom.jpg">> Twenty past one. Your phone lit the ceiling. "can't sleep. thinking about the filing thing" "third floor. past the frosted room. they call it the annex and there's a woman called Marisol who has the keys and hates it there" "they're PAPER. all of them. four hundred girls in a cupboard" "mine's still open. I checked. you can ring the main line and ask for continuity and they'll tell you your file status like it's a parcel" "anyway. go to sleep. sorry." "not sorry" <hr> <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session4") and not CheckEvent("Pip", "Nightline") and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 0 and random(1, 3) is 1>>\ <<run AddEvent("Pip", "Nightline"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 1)>>\ <<Pool 45>> "awake?" "Yes." "I said a sentence today with no adjectives in it at all and a man asked me if I was ok" "turns out I've been putting three adjectives on everything for nine years so people know I'm not upset" "nobody has ever thought I was upset. not once. ever." "night" <hr> <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.pip.bimbo gte 40>>\ <<Pool 44>> <<elseif $bimbos.pip.bimbo gte 28>>\ <<Pool 35>> <<elseif $bimbos.pip.bimbo gte 16>>\ <<Pool 26>> <<elseif $bimbos.pip.bimbo gte 8>>\ <<Pool 19>> <<else>>\ <<Pool 11>> <</if>> <h2>Priya "Pip" Raman</h2> Twenty-three. Barista at Coffeehouse Nine on Prospect, four years, best on the street and not humble about it. Went through Bloom, the Lumen Institute's youth pathway, from fifteen to nineteen. Twenty-six capacity reviews. Nine intakes. One continuity file, still open. <<if $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete>>\ She has stopped using their words. It took eleven weeks and one session that neither of you will bring up again. What she talks in now is verbs: she pulls two and bins two, she sits down to eat, she says one second to three people and finishes the sandwich. She wants to find the other four hundred and be in the room when they read the sentence, and she will be better at it than you are. <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session4")>>\ The vocabulary is gone and nothing has grown back over the hole yet. She talks in shorter sentences than she used to and stops in the middle of them, which is not a symptom. She described a grinder for ninety-one seconds without once saying //capacity// and then swore at you for eleven minutes about it. <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session3")>>\ You took five words off her and found out what was underneath, which was not much, and she found out what was underneath you, which was a manual. She was right about most of it. She came back anyway, which is the only fact in this entry that matters. <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session2")>>\ She has started telling you about Bloom in the only way she can, which is sideways and quickly and with a joke on the end. Rooms, forms, a plate you stand on in your socks. Eleven girls in Cohort Nine. She can only account for ten. <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session1")>>\ She speaks fluent optimisation. Capacity, alignment, presentation standards, showing up as her highest self. And appears to mean absolutely none of it. She wanted the tier structure in the first four minutes. There is no tier structure and she has not forgiven you. <<else>>\ She read one sentence off your flyer and went the colour of the counter. Four years of somebody else's version of your book, starting at fifteen. She is funny, fast, relentlessly pleasant, and there is nobody home. <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip.happiness gte 5>>\ Pip is happy with you, and says so, and for once that is probably the same thing. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.happiness is 4>>\ Pip is fine with you. There is a small thing she has not said. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.happiness is 3>>\ Pip is being extremely nice to you. That is the tell. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.happiness is 2>>\ Pip is flawless with you: warm, quick, professional, gone. <<else>>\ Pip has not refused you anything and will not refuse you anything, and that is what she is furious about. <</if>>\ <h4>Where she is</h4> <<PMeter "pip" "bimbo">> <<if $bimbos.pip.bimbo gte 40>>\ She is running the Protocol, not receiving it. She argues with the fourth Principle and is winning. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.bimbo gte 28>>\ She has words of her own now. Not many, and she uses them carefully, the way you use a new language. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.bimbo gte 16>>\ The Lumen vocabulary is coming out and nothing has replaced it. This is the worst part and it is supposed to be. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.bimbo gte 8>>\ She can describe what was done to her. She cannot yet describe what she wants instead. <<else>>\ She can recite five sanded-down Principles and perform contentment on demand. She could pass any review in that building tomorrow. <</if>>\ <<PMeter "pip" "slut">> <<if $bimbos.pip.slut gte 30>>\ Sex is hers now. She talks through it, changes her mind halfway, and reports back. She is very hard to shut up. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.slut gte 18>>\ She has started wanting things in advance instead of deciding in the moment that she is willing. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.slut gte 8>>\ She is extremely capable and largely absent. Module six, eighteen and up, optional, filed next to the one about handshakes. <<else>>\ She uses it as a fire door. She goes through it when a room gets hot and she has never once been in the room afterwards. <</if>>\ <<PMeter "pip" "exhibitionist">> <<if $bimbos.pip.exhibitionist gte 30>>\ She has a photograph of her own face that she likes. That took eight years and sixteen frames. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.exhibitionist gte 16>>\ She comes out from behind the machine to hand things across. She does not know she does it. <<else>>\ She has been photographed nine hundred times, front, side, back, against a wall with a scale printed on it, and has never kept one. <</if>>\ <<PMeter "pip" "trust">> <<PMeter "pip" "happiness">> <h4>What she has given you on Lumen</h4> <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "BloomFile")>>\ Bloom girls get a continuity file with a number on it, and the file does not close when the programme does. Paper, not digital, because of a data rule somebody misread in year two. Third floor at Flatiron, past the frosted room: the Guides call it the annex. One keyholder, four days a week, eleven years of hating it. <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "Session5")>>\ And a first-printing Bloom workbook with a line of small type inside the front cover, //adapted, with thanks, from the source text//, removed from every printing after hers. <</if>>\ <<else>>\ Nothing yet. She will not talk about the inside of that building until she believes you are not going to write it up. <</if>>\ <h4>Money</h4> <<if $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete>>\ She does not pay you any more. You have not worked out how to pay her. <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Fees")>>\ Ninety dollars a week, in cash, in an envelope, counted twice in front of you. <<else>>\ Nothing agreed. <</if>>\ <h4>Events</h4> <div class="progress-block">\ <<Progress "Pip" "Met">><<Progress "Pip" "Session1">><<Progress "Pip" "DidNothing">><<Progress "Pip" "Session2">><<Progress "Pip" "BloomFile">><<Progress "Pip" "DidScale">><<Progress "Pip" "Session3">><<Progress "Pip" "DidInventory">><<Progress "Pip" "Session4">><<Progress "Pip" "Mirror">><<Progress "Pip" "DidWant">><<Progress "Pip" "Session5">><<Progress $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete>> <<Progress "Pip" "AskPhoto">><<Progress "Pip" "AskShift">><<Progress "Pip" "AskNo">><<Progress "Pip" "AskNight">><<Progress "Pip" "StudioDone">><<Progress "Pip" "Nightline">> </div>\ <<if $bimbos.pip.dayCounter gt 0>>\ Pip is not available for <<print $bimbos.pip.dayCounter>> <<if $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 1>>more day<<else>>more days<</if>>. <<elseif $bimbos.pip.happiness lte 2>>\ She will not sit down with you until you have put something right. <<elseif not $bimbos.pip.trainingComplete>>\ Thursday, 16:00, <<if $player.unlocks.hq>>114 Dovehurst<<else>>Coffeehouse Nine<</if>>. <<else>>\ She turns up at the building on her own time now. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "StudioDone"); AddStat("pip", "exhibitionist", 4); AddStat("pip", "slut", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.dayCounter to 3; AddHours(2)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeStudio.jpg" "Dovehurst Studio">> "I've had photos taken of me about nine hundred times." "By them?" "Progress imagery. Front, side, back, eight-week intervals, in a leotard they gave you, against a wall with a scale printed on it." She said it while walking the length of the paper roll, looking up at the hooks in the ceiling. "So I know exactly what I look like and I have never once seen a picture of myself I'd keep." "Then we'll take one you'd keep." "How's that different?" "You say when." It took an hour and she spent most of it being unbearable: narrating, doing voices, asking if her elbow was doing something, offering to do it //properly// if you would just tell her the format. You did not tell her the format. You put a strobe on the wall behind her and sat down on a box and let her run out of material, and it took forty minutes, and then she stopped talking and stood in the middle of the paper in the good light in her own clothes. "Okay. Now." She took her jumper off, and then she stood there in a plain black bra with the strap gone off one shoulder, hair up with the pen through it, jaw crooked on the left side, and did not arrange one single thing. Sixteen frames. She took the camera off you afterwards and went through them at arm's length, deleting nothing, all the way to the end, and then she went back to the fourth one and looked at it for a long time. "That's my face." "It is." "No, you don't... that's my //face//. That's the one in the mirror. All the other ones I've ever seen are the one I do." She handed the camera back without looking up from it. "Print that." <hr> <<PNav "HQStudio">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Journal */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<if $player.unlocks.studio and CheckEvent("Pip", "Session4") and not CheckEvent("Pip", "StudioDone") and $bimbos.pip.dayCounter is 0>>\ <<if GetStat("pip", "exhibitionist") gte 12 and GetStat("pip", "trust") gte 8>>\ <<PEvent true "Pip Studio" "Pip" "She has asked twice about the room on the third floor.">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Pip" "She has looked at the studio door and not asked. Leave it there.">>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\

[[Get a quote on something (20 minutes)|ES:Print Quote]] <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers") and not CheckEvent("Player", "Reprint")>>\ [[Collect a second print run (-$60, 1 hour)|ES:Print Run]] <</if>>\

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\ <<if Known("nadia") and not $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<if GameDayIs("Tuesday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 19>>\ <<PEvent true "Nadia Hub" "Nadia" "Tuesday session">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Nadia" "Nadia's session is Tuesday at 19:00. She stays open late for it.">>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\

<<run AddMinutes(20); $passageRoute to random(1, 3)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg">> <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ You ask what it would cost to do the flyer properly: heavier stock, two colours, trimmed rather than guillotined by whoever is standing there. The number comes back on a slip of paper, written out by hand, itemised down to the make-ready. It is $71 more than you have and it is worth every dollar of it, and you say so, and you leave without ordering it. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ You ask about a hundred sheets of something you could write on and give people at the end of a meeting. Something that does not feel like a receipt. "Laid, not wove. Wove's cheaper and it feels like a bank." You are handed two samples to compare, and you compare them, and you genuinely cannot tell the difference, and are told that this is fine and that in three weeks you will be able to. <<else>>\ You ask what a proper sign would cost. Not a banner. A sign, for a door, that somebody would have to unscrew. The answer is that a sign is not printing and you want a man on Fourth, and that he is expensive and slow and you should use him anyway, and that you should not put it up until the inspection is signed off, because there is nothing in the world more expensive than a sign you have to take down. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">>

<<run AddHours(1); AddCash(-60); AddFame(1); AddEvent("Player", "Reprint")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> Four hundred more, boxed, because the first run went in nine days and you spent the last two of those handing out flyers you had already promised to somebody else. They come out of the machine warm. You had not known that. You stand there with your hands flat on the top of the stack like an idiot for a second, and nobody in the shop says anything about it, which is its own kind of tact. <<Cash 60>> for the run. The five Principles, in order, on the back, where somebody standing at a bus stop will read all five before they notice they are reading. <hr> <<PNav "Print">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* HOLLIS SALVAGE */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run $passageRoute to random(1, 3); AddHours(1)>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddCash(500)>>\ <<Pool 3>> Una recomendación de alguien a quien no conoces, lo que significa que los folletos están viajando. Tiene cuarenta y cuatro años y lleva nueve siendo la razonable de un matrimonio en el que nadie más tenía que serlo. No hablas del Protocolo durante la primera media hora. Hablas de la palabra //razonable// y de dónde la sacó. <<Cash 500>> por la hora. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ Aviso con poco margen, y llega tarde, y se disculpa cuatro veces en el primer minuto. Las cuentas en voz alta, con suavidad, y ella se queda helada y luego se ríe. <<run AddCash(300)>>\ <<Pool 21>> <<Cash 300>> por la hora. <<else>>\ <<run AddCash(400)>>\ <<Pool 33>> Leyó la página de los cinco Principios y ha venido a decirte que el tercero es peligroso. No le falta razón. Dedicas la hora a por qué merece la pena el peligro, y reserva otra. <<Cash 400>> por la hora. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

/* ===================================================================== 10-plot.twee — la columna vertebral de la trama de BIMBO PROTOCOL 0.1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Contiene: el prólogo, la compra de Dovehurst 114, el descubrimiento del archivo, la escalera de reformas, el router de Story Beats, los Weekly Events, el hilo de Lumen y el cierre del Acto I. Pasajes de otros archivos a los que ESTE archivo ENLAZA: Nadia Hub · Delphine Talk · Torin Talk · Journal Pasajes de otros archivos que este archivo solo NOMBRA en la prosa y no enlaza, porque todavía no los ha reclamado ningún escritor: Hollis Shop — la chatarrería bajo las vías. Se llega con <<PNav "Salvage">> una vez marcado Player:HollisMet, que este archivo marca en la rama honesta del encargo de Lumen. Pip Hub — el arco de Pip se abre desde los beats de su autor. Camille Hub — este archivo solo crea $bimbos.camille y marca Camille:Contact. Todo lo demás es suyo. Flags que este archivo ESCRIBE: Player: PrologueOpen, GigTorin, GigTorinDone, GigData, GigDataDone, GigLumen, LumenMoney, LumenRefused, HollisMet, NadiaMet, DelphineFront, Bought, MeetingsOpen, MetInHQ, RenoQuote, RenoOne, RenoOneSnag, RenoTwo, RenoTwoSnag, RenoGym, RenoStudio, OkonkwoPressure, CamilleSight1, CamilleSight2, CamilleSight3, LumenLetter, LumenCease, KesslerCall, KesslerLeverage, ActOneEnd Camille: Contact Flags que este archivo solo LEE: Camille: Defect (marcado por el autor de Camille) ===================================================================== */ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg" "Calle Dovehurst 114">> La lluvia había parado una hora antes de que te bajaras de la R en la avenida Prospect y volvió a empezar cuatro manzanas después, esa lluvia fina de marzo que más que caer se queda colgada. Te quedaste en la acera de enfrente de Dovehurst 114 con la capucha bajada porque querías verlo bien. Cuatro plantas de ladrillo rojo vuelto marrón. Tableros sobre las ventanas de la planta baja, grises e hinchados, atornillados por alguien a quien pagaban por horas. Una cornisa a la que le faltaban dos ménsulas. Encima de la puerta, en hierro fundido que alguien se había molestado en pintar alguna vez, el número. Conocías el número. Lo habías mirado en una fotografía escaneada tantas veces que verlo bajo la lluvia de verdad parecía un error de categoría, como conocer en persona a una palabra. Dos mil cuatrocientos dólares en tu cuenta. Todo lo demás que poseías estaba en el realquilado de Prospect y casi todo era papel. <hr> [[Cruzar la calle|ES:Prologue 2]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg" "Calle Dovehurst">> Cruzaste. La puerta era de acero y más nueva que el edificio, con una caja fuerte de llaves colgada y una pegatina de una empresa de servicios inmobiliarios de Bay Ridge, y pegada por dentro del panel de cristal de al lado, una hoja impresa en una funda de plástico. VENTA PRIVADA - CALLE DOVEHURST 114 - $18.000 - TODO AL CONTADO, 14 DÍAS, SIN CONDICIÓN DE FINANCIACIÓN, SE VENDE COMO ESTÁ. Debajo, un número de teléfono con prefijo 212 y una referencia de expediente que empezaba por LI-. Ya tenías la hoja fotografiada en el móvil. La tenías desde hacía seis días. Habías venido andando hasta aquí para comprobar que seguía puesta. Dieciocho mil dólares por cuatro plantas en Brooklyn no es un precio. Es una liquidación. Alguien en un despacho con ventana tenía una partida que limpiar antes del cierre del trimestre y escribió un número que hacía desaparecer la línea. Te quedaste allí el rato suficiente para empaparte bien. Calle abajo, un taller de neumáticos bajaba la persiana. La Imprenta Sorel tenía las luces encendidas y el cartel girado a CERRADO. En la esquina, una puerta tenía una bombilla roja encima y estaba abierta, y era lo único iluminado y abierto de la calle Dovehurst. <<run AddHours(1)>>\ <hr> [[Ponerte a cubierto|ES:Prologue 3]]

<<set $npcs.delphine to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "La Hora Larga">> La Hora Larga era larga y estrecha y tenía once taburetes, y a las cuatro y media de la tarde tenía a dos hombres al fondo sin hablarse y a una mujer detrás de la barra leyendo un albarán con las gafas subidas al pelo. Te dejó sentarte y quitarte el abrigo antes de acercarse. Cuarenta y tantos. Canas asomando por delante y dejadas ahí. Una rebeca sobre una camisa buena, las mangas subidas hasta el codo. Estás mojado. Está lloviendo. Está lloviendo. Puso un posavasos. El acento era francés bajo unos treinta años de Brooklyn, lo que hacía que sonara a costumbre y no a un sitio. ¿Qué vas a tomar? Miraste los tiradores más rato del que necesita un hombre que está decidiendo. ¿Qué es lo más barato? El café. Es gratis a partir de las cuatro porque la jarra lleva puesta desde mediodía y prefiero que te lo bebas tú antes que yo. Café, entonces. Lo sirvió, te lo puso delante y no se fue. Eso fue lo primero que notaste de ella de verdad: no llenaba el espacio. Se quedó allí con un trapo en la mano y dejó que fueras tú quien tuviera que decidir si hablar. <hr> [[Preguntar por el edificio|ES:Prologue 4]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bartender.jpg" "Delphine Aubry">> El del final de la manzana. El ciento catorce. ¿Sabe si la venta es de verdad? No contestó durante un segundo. Te miró como se mira una factura de la que ya sabes el total, y algo pasó por su cara que se fue antes de que pudieras nombrarlo. ¿Qué venta? Dieciocho mil. Catorce días. Está pegada en la puerta. La he visto. Dobló el trapo por la mitad y luego otra vez por la mitad. ¿De dónde vienes esta tarde? De la avenida Prospect. Has hecho cuatro manzanas bajo la lluvia para mirar un edificio que no puedes comprar. No había crueldad en ello. Lo dijo como quien lee una temperatura en voz alta. Quería verlo. Mm. Lo sabía. Estuviste seguro de ello a mitad de la frase y seguiste estándolo después, y ella no dijo ni una palabra al respecto. No dijo eres uno de esos, ni ya sé a qué vienes, ni preguntó qué llevabas en la bolsa. Miró a un hombre con un abrigo mojado preguntando por un edificio condenado, lo archivó y le sirvió un café. La venta es de verdad. Te voy a decir una cosa sobre ella y luego tengo un reparto. Nadie de aquí la va a tocar. Ni el del taller, ni el dueño del colmado, ni los dos promotores que llevan tres años comprando esta calle, y lo sé porque los cuatro beben aquí y los cuatro ya han dicho que no. ¿Por qué? Por quién vende. Recogió tu taza vacía. Esa es la única cosa. Vuelve cuando tengas una pregunta de verdad. Se fue a firmar un reparto de limas. Te quedaste con el cerco de agua que había dejado la taza e hiciste la aritmética que llevabas seis días haciendo y te salió el mismo resultado, que era que estabas a quince mil seiscientos dólares de lo único que habías querido nunca. <<run AddHours(1)>>\ <hr> [[Volver andando a casa|ES:Prologue 5]]

<<if not CheckEvent("Player", "DayOne")>>\ <<run $passageRoute to random(1, 3)>>\ <</if>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg" "Tu escritorio">> El realquilado era una habitación encima de una lavandería y costaba $310 a la semana. Encima del escritorio, en el orden en que creías que debían ir, había sesenta páginas fotocopiadas con un hueco donde deberían estar las treinta y una a la cuarenta. Abriste el portátil e hiciste que la hoja de cálculo lo dijera una vez más. <h4>Catorce días</h4> Alquiler, $310 a la semana. En mano, <<Cash $player.cash>>. Necesario, <<Cash 18000>>. La centralita de la avenida Atlantic te readmitiría en el turno de noche a $300 el turno, sin preguntas, porque siempre lo hacían. Catorce turnos de eso eran $4.200 y no era ni de lejos suficiente y lo sabías antes de teclearlo. Así que las noches eran el suelo, no el plan. El plan era la otra cosa, la que habías aprendido haciendo seis años de ellas: que en cuatro manzanas a la redonda de cualquier lavandería de esta ciudad siempre hay alguien que necesita una espalda, un par de manos o un hombre que aparezca sobrio, y que esa gente no pone anuncios. Se queda de pie en una acera a una hora concreta con cara de fastidio, y si tú estás en esa acera a esa hora el trabajo es tuyo, y si no estás se lo lleva otro y tú no te enteras nunca. Así que: estar fuera. Estar fuera a las horas en que pasan las cosas. La calle, el bar, la cafetería, la imprenta y la habitación en la que estás sentado. Catorce días de estar en el sitio correcto es una estrategia, y era la única que tenías. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ La bolsa de ella seguía junto a la puerta. Cuatro meses ya. Un buen abrigo, un teléfono que se había pagado ella y unas botas que no le habías visto puestas ni una sola vez fuera del piso, solo dentro, solo tarde, solo para ti — lo cual había sido un chiste entre vosotros hasta que dejó de serlo y ella se fue en enero sin levantar la voz por nada. Llevabas cuatro meses teniendo cuidado de no mirar esa bolsa. La miraste ahora con un número en la cabeza, que es exactamente la diferencia que hay entre el duelo y catorce días, y por la mañana bajaste el abrigo y el teléfono al sitio de la Quinta y te dieron cuatrocientos dólares por los dos. A ella no le habría importado. Esa era la peor parte y además era verdad. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ Seis años de noches te habían dado una cosa y tenías la cabeza suficiente para saber cuál. El dinero no: el dinero se iba la misma semana que entraba. El cuerpo. Cargar a las cuatro de la mañana durante seis años había construido algo que tú no habías ido a buscar, y el primer Principio, ese del que todo el mundo se ríe, es el que primero funcionó contigo y funcionó sin pedirte permiso. Hiciste cuarenta minutos en el suelo, entre la cama y el escritorio, porque estabas a punto de pasarte catorce días pidiéndole a desconocidos que creyeran que podías levantarles los muebles, y porque a un hombre que va a enseñar una cosa más le vale haberla hecho. <<else>>\ Debajo de la cama, en una maleta con el cierre roto, estaba la pletina. Se la habías comprado hace dos años a un hombre de Ridgewood que quería ochenta dólares y que lo acercaran a Queens Boulevard, y te la habías traído a casa en el R sobre las rodillas como quien lleva algo herido. Cuarto de pulgada, dos pistas, la correa cambiada una vez por ti mal y otra por alguien competente. Iba a una velocidad ligerísimamente equivocada y tú ya habías dejado de oírlo. Nadie cuerdo tiene un magnetófono de bobina abierta en 2028. Tú tenías uno por una nota a pie de página de un mensaje de foro de 2019 que decía que el coach lo grababa todo, y porque habías decidido, sin ninguna prueba, que las cintas seguían existiendo en alguna parte y que un día tú serías el hombre que tuviera la máquina para ponerlas. <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "DayOne")>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddCash(400)>>\ <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddFitness(6)>>\ <<else>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "Deck"); $player.inventory.pushUnique("Reel-to-reel deck")>>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "PrologueOpen"); AddEvent("Player", "DayOne"); SetHours(19); SetMinutes(0)>>\ Pusiste el despertador a las ocho y saliste a las ocho de la tarde en vez de eso, porque el primer turno era el primer turno. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* LOS ENCARGOS */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Imprenta y Copias">> Sorel Imprenta y Copias estaba a dos portales del 114 y tenía en el escaparate una tarjeta rotulada a mano con once servicios en una tipografía que alguien había elegido de verdad. La campanilla de la puerta era una campanilla de verdad. La mujer del mostrador no levantó la vista enseguida. Treinta y muchos. Jersey negro, mangas hasta los nudillos, pelo recogido con un lápiz que claramente estaba soportando carga. Detrás de ella una Ricoh del tamaño de un armario sacaba un trabajo y ella miraba el borde de la salida, no la puerta. Dos minutos. Como aparte la vista se los empieza a comer. Esperaste. Miraste la pared de detrás en su lugar, que tenía una década de trabajos de otra gente clavados: una pescadería, una iglesia polaca, tres gatos perdidos, un grupo de música. Todos compuestos como es debido. Todos por alguien que no podía dejar de hacerlo bien ni siquiera por un gato perdido. La máquina terminó. Ella escuadró el taco, no se dio la vuelta, y dijo: Vale. Dime. Quería precio de una tirada de folletos. A5, una cara, negro. Quinientos, y también precio de dos mil, para saber entre qué estoy eligiendo. Ahora sí se dio la vuelta. Repite eso. ¿Qué parte? Todo. Nadie dice la segunda parte. Todo el mundo entra y dice cuánto cuestan unos folletos y luego se enfada conmigo por hacer las once preguntas. Acercó un bloc. Quinientos son ciento veinte. Dos mil son doscientos noventa, que no es cuatro veces ciento veinte, y esa es la razón entera por la que has preguntado. Esa es la razón entera por la que he preguntado. Mm. Apuntó las dos cifras y giró el bloc para que las vieras, cosa que no hace todo el mundo. ¿Para cuándo lo quieres? No lo quiero. Todavía no. Quería saber lo que cuesta para saber hacia qué estoy trabajando. Dejó el bolígrafo. No tienes dinero. Tengo ciento veinte. Tengo otras cosas en las que gastarlo durante unas dos semanas más. ¿Entonces qué haces en mi tienda? Porque dentro de dos semanas prefiero saberlo ya. Hubo una pausa. Algo en su cara hizo eso de cuando una persona decide que no vas a ser un problema, y se relaja como un centímetro, y acto seguido le disgusta haberse relajado. Nadia Sorel. Lo dijo como un dato sobre el edificio y no como una presentación. El precio aguanta un mes. Después el papel sube en abril y no te lo voy a comer yo. $player.firstName $player.lastName. No me hace falta. Ya se estaba volviendo hacia la Ricoh. Volverás o no volverás. La campanilla sonó a tu espalda. Dos portales más allá, los tableros, y el número encima de la puerta. <<set $bimbos.nadia to clone($bimboTemplate)>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "NadiaMet")>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Street">><<PNav "Sublet">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* EL PRÉSTAMO — el clímax emocional del prólogo */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "La Hora Larga">> Entraste a las cuatro y media otra vez porque esa era la hora que conocías, y esta vez traías una pregunta. Dijo que nadie de aquí lo tocaría por quién vende. Ya sé quién vende. Delphine dejó el albarán. ¿Cuánto de mi dinero quiere que le cuente? Nada. Siéntate al final. Levantó la trampilla. Ahí no. Al final. Sirvió dos, cosa que no había hecho antes, y salió de detrás de la barra, cosa que tampoco había hecho antes, y se sentó a un taburete de distancia de ti, que es la distancia que elige una persona cuando la conversación va a ser larga. ¿Cuánto tienes? <<Cash $player.cash>>. ¿Y cuántos días? <<print $player.deadline>>. O sea que te faltan <<Cash 18000 - $player.cash>> y no puedes hacerlo, y sabes que no puedes hacerlo, y has entrado aquí igualmente porque soy la única persona de esta calle que te ha hablado como a una persona. No contestaste a eso, porque no había nada en ello que fuera falso. <hr> [[Dejarla hablar|ES:Prologue Loan Terms]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "La Hora Larga · trastienda">> Giró el vaso sobre la barra un cuarto de vuelta. Llegué aquí con diecinueve años. He trabajado en nueve locales de esta ciudad y llevo veintidós años siendo dueña de este. En todo ese tiempo me han pedido dinero cuatro veces y he dicho que sí una. No me conoce. No. Miró el espejo de detrás de las botellas en lugar de mirarte a ti. Durante tres años, esta sala estaba llena los viernes a las seis, y estaba llena de mujeres que habían hecho cuatro manzanas desde aquel edificio, y no eran lo que te imaginarías. Estaban cansadas. Entraban cansadas y salían más ligeras, y discutían entre ellas sobre el cuarto, siempre el cuarto, y ninguna pagó nunca con la tarjeta de otra persona. Y él venía los jueves y se sentaba donde estás sentado tú, y no tenía encanto. Tenía preparación. Traía un cuaderno y escribía en él en el bar como un demente, y cuando le quitaron todo el asunto vino y no dijo ni una palabra al respecto, y luego dejó de venir, y llevo cuatro años sin decir su nombre en voz alta y no voy a empezar esta noche. Los dos hombres del fondo se habían ido. Eran las cinco y diez de un martes y volvía a llover. Vi cómo aquel edificio se quedaba a oscuras. Llevo sirviendo copas debajo de él todas las noches desde entonces. Así que. Puso la mano abierta sobre la barra, que fue lo primero sin gobernar que le habías visto hacer. <<Cash 18000 - $player.cash>>. Eso es lo que te falta y eso es lo que tengo que no es el alquiler ni son los impuestos. Condiciones. Me pagas doscientos veinte a la semana desde la primera semana en que le saques dinero a alguien, y si llega una semana en que no puedes, me lo dices el lunes y no el viernes. No quiero intereses. No quiero una parte. He visto cómo lo de un hombre pasaba a ser de otra persona y no te lo voy a hacer a ti. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ Una cosa más. No la suavizó. Guillaume me contó para qué te pagó. Cuarenta, ¿verdad? Te doy el dinero igual, porque prefiero que lo tengas tú a que lo tengan ellos, pero tú y yo vamos a sentarnos aquí y a tener claro que cuatro mil de lo que metes en esa sala son suyos, y un día alguien te lo va a poner delante. Lo sé. Bien. Entonces no volvemos a hablar de ello. <<else>>\ Y te pidió que escribieras los cuarenta y dijiste que no. Lo dijo plano, como una línea de albarán. Estuvo aquí esa noche contándoselo a todo el mundo. Le parecía gracioso. No es gracioso y es la razón de que el número sea el que es. <</if>>\ ¿Por qué? Porque alguien tendría que haberlo hecho y no lo hizo nadie. Se bajó del taburete. Esa es tu única cosa verdadera de esta noche. Bébete eso, que es del bueno, y vete a comprar tu edificio. <<set _gap to 18000 - $player.cash>>\ <<run AddCash(_gap); $player.mortgage += _gap; AddEvent("Player", "DelphineFront"); AddHours(2)>>\ <hr> <<Cash _gap>> de Delphine Aubry. Se lo debes a $220 la semana y no apuntó nada. <hr> <<PNav "Desk">><<PNav "Sublet">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* COMPRAR DOVEHURST 114 */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/PublicGym.jpg" "Bracken Fitness">> Bracken Fitness. Cuarenta dólares al mes, sin toallas, y un rack de sentadillas que no ha estado libre ni una sola vez cuando lo has querido. <hr> <h2>Actividades</h2> [[Entrenar en serio (2 horas)|ES:Gym Session]] <hr> <<PNav "Subway">>

<<run AddCash(-5000); $player.unlocks.gym to true; AddEvent("Player", "RenoGym"); AddHours(8)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeGym.jpg" "El gimnasio">> Suelo de goma en toda la segunda planta, un rack, dos bancos y espejos de punta a punta en la pared larga, que costaron más que todo lo demás junto. Eso es mucho espejo. Los espejos no son opcionales. No he dicho que los quites. He dicho que es mucho espejo. Pasó el pulgar por el perfil del canto. Sabes que él también los tenía. La misma pared. Se ven los agujeros de fijación si sabes lo que estás mirando, y yo sé lo que estoy mirando. <hr> <<PNav "HQGym">><<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddCash(-4000); AddEvent("Player", "RenoOne"); $player.dayCounter to 3; AddHours(9); AddFitness(2)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg">> Tres días, y tenía razón en que estarías cargando cosas. El tejado salió en tiras y fue a parar a un contenedor que también pagabas tú. El cableado salió de las paredes en tramos largos y grises, como algo que se extrae de una herida, y el aprendiz de Torin, un chaval callado de diecinueve años llamado Dov, abrió rozas nuevas en el yeso con un auricular puesto en una oreja. Torin hablaba. La segunda tarde, sentado en un cubo del revés comiéndose un bocadillo en lo que después sería la sala, dijo: ¿Sabes qué le pasa a este edificio? Nada. Eso es lo que le pasa. Lleva cuatro años vacío y nadie ha pelado el cobre. Cuatro años, planta baja tapiada con un contrachapado de seis milímetros que atraviesa un niño de una patada, y hay treinta y cinco metros de cobre en ese sótano todavía en la pared. ¿Y? Pues que alguien de esta calle lo estaba vigilando. Nada más. No digo que sea un pensamiento bonito ni malo. Digo que alguien lleva cuatro años cuidando de tu edificio y no eras tú. <hr> Tres días de obra. La inspección es cuando terminen. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<set $npcs.okonkwo to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<run AddHours(2)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg">> Adaeze Okonkwo llegó a las 09:40 para una cita de las 09:30 y se disculpó por ello, cosa que no había hecho nunca ningún inspector de ninguna historia que te hubiera contado Torin. Cuarenta y tantos. Abrigo gris, una tableta en una funda de goma y una linterna que usaba constantemente incluso a plena luz. Subió por el edificio planta a planta y no dijo casi nada, y todo lo que dijo era un número. <<set _snag to random(1, 3)>>\ <<if _snag lte 2>>\ Se detuvo en el sótano. Señor $player.lastName. En este edificio hay un montante de gas y está en carga. No hay gas. No hay contador. No hay contador. El contador se retiró. La acometida no se taponó, y una acometida sin taponar está en carga para mí y para la compañía, y yo no puedo firmar un cambio de uso sobre una acometida en carga sin taponar. Escribió algo. Esto no es una multa y no es una infracción. Es un martes. Llama a la compañía, la taponan, te cobran seiscientos dólares, yo vuelvo. <hr> <<if $player.cash gte 600>>\ <<link "Pagar a la compañía para que la taponen (-$600)">><<run AddCash(-600); AddHours(4); $player.unlocks.renovated to true>><<goto "ES:Reno One Passed">><</link>> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Taponar el montante cuesta <<Cash 600>>. Tú tienes <<Cash $player.cash>>. Vuelve cuando lo tengas.</div> <</if>>\ <<PNav "HQ">> <<else>>\ Volvió a bajar a la sala, se quitó las gafas y miró al techo. Quien te haya hecho el tejado te lo ha hecho bien. He estado en cuatro edificios esta semana y tres me estaban mintiendo. Torin Vale. Sí. Lo sé. Lo firmó en la tableta y giró la pantalla hacia ti, cosa que más tarde descubriste que no tenía por qué hacer. <<run $player.unlocks.renovated to true>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">> <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg">> La compañía vino el jueves, lo taponó en cincuenta minutos y te cobró <<Cash 600>> por los cincuenta minutos. Okonkwo volvió el viernes, miró el tapón, miró el precinto y firmó. Eso vuelve a ser un edificio. Todavía no es ninguna otra cosa. No le metas sillas. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddEvent("Player", "RenoQuote"); AddHours(2)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg">> Torin Vale llegó a las ocho, recorrió las cuatro plantas en veinte minutos sin apuntar nada, y después escribió un cuarto de hora sobre el portón de la camioneta. Bueno. ¿Quieres las buenas noticias en orden o todas de golpe? Todas de golpe. La estructura está bien. La estructura está mejor que bien; la estructura seguirá aquí cuando el taller de neumáticos sea un bloque de pisos. Tu escalera aguanta, tus viguetas están secas salvo un tramo y medio al fondo de la segunda, que está seco porque ya hizo lo suyo de pudrirse en 2009. Esas son todas las buenas noticias y son más de las que le tocan a casi nadie. Giró el bloc. Malas noticias: tu tejado es una decisión que alguien tomó en 1988 y tu instalación eléctrica es una decisión que alguien tomó en 1961, y no puedes abrirle una puerta al público con ninguna de las dos. Tejado y reinstalación, y hablo de una de verdad, no de una mejora de acometida y una oración: cuatro mil. Materiales a precio de coste, mi tiempo a una tarifa que no voy a explicar, tres días, y estarás cargando cosas. ¿Y luego? Y luego te toca una inspectora, porque eso es un cambio de uso y sobre un cambio de uso ni tú ni yo tenemos derecho a opinar. Arrancó la hoja. Después de eso, si quieres devolver la planta baja a una sola sala como estaba dibujada, seis y medio. Pero haz primero el tejado. Todo lo que gastes antes del tejado es dinero que estás echando por el tejado, que es un chiste que he hecho novecientas veces y volveré a hacer. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddCash(-7500); $player.unlocks.studio to true; AddEvent("Player", "RenoStudio"); AddHours(8)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeStudio.jpg" "El estudio">> Orientado al sur, todo el ancho de la tercera planta. Dos focos, un rollo de papel sobre un triple soporte de pared, oscurecimiento sobre carril y un suelo que costó cuatro días dejar lo bastante plano. Los ganchos del techo ya estaban ahí en un patrón que no había significado nada para ti el primer día que recorriste el edificio. Torin se quedó mirándolos un rato y luego fue a por la escalera y puso un cáncamo nuevo en el que faltaba, justo en el centro, sin que nadie se lo pidiera y sin decir nada al respecto. <hr> <<PNav "HQStudio">><<PNav "HQ">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* STORY BEATS — el router central */ /* Incluido desde Sleep Events, Sublet Events, Street Events, */ /* Dovehurst Events, HQ Events y Studio Events. */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddCash(-6500); AddEvent("Player", "RenoTwo"); $player.dayCounter to 3; AddHours(9)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallC.jpg">> Los tabiques salieron en una mañana. Se habían puesto baratos y salieron aún más baratos, y debajo los tablones corrían sin interrupción los doce metros y medio enteros desde la ventana delantera hasta la pared del fondo, y pudiste ver por primera vez para qué se había construido aquella sala. Torin se quedó callado, cosa nueva. Ahí lo tienes. Eso es una sala. Alguien dibujó eso en 1907 y luego cien años de idiotas le metieron paredes. Yeso, entonces. Después el suelo, lijado y sellado, y una línea de radiadores que llegaba de verdad hasta el fondo. Dov hizo el rodapié y lo hizo bien y se negó a que se lo elogiaran. La última tarde Torin estaba subido a una escalera con un nivel cuando dijo, sin bajar: Hay alguien preguntando por ti. ¿Preguntando a quién? Preguntando al Departamento. Mi número de licencia salió la semana pasada en una petición de expedientes vinculada a un número de obra, y el número de obra es el tuyo, y la petición venía de un bufete, y un bufete no pide expedientes de un tejado de cinco mil dólares. Bajó dos peldaños. No estoy preocupado. Yo lo hago todo bien, es aburridísimo, es el modelo de negocio entero. Te lo digo porque deberías saber qué forma tiene antes de que llegue. <hr> Tres días. Después la inspección que decide si puedes meterle cuarenta sillas. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddHours(2); AddEvent("Player", "OkonkwoPressure")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg">> Okonkwo llegó a las 09:30 para una cita de las 09:30 y trajo a alguien con ella, un joven con un portapapeles que no habló y al que presentó como que era de la oficina, cosa que no significa nada. Midió la sala. Midió la puerta. Se plantó en mitad del suelo y giró una vuelta entera. Uso de pública concurrencia. ¿Qué número me vas a decir? Cuarenta. Cuarenta está bien. Cuarenta y nueve es donde tu vida se complica, y me imagino que eso ya te lo ha dicho alguien. <<set _snag to random(1, 3)>>\ <<if _snag lte 2>>\ Se paró al fondo de la sala, donde una puerta daba al patio, y le puso la mano encima. Esta es tu segunda vía de evacuación y abre hacia dentro y está cerrada con llave. Las dos cosas son el mismo problema, y el problema es que en noventa segundos de humo, cuarenta personas empujan. ¿Qué necesita? Necesita abrir hacia fuera y necesita barra antipánico. Mil doscientos dólares si usas una empresa de verdad y cuatrocientos si usas a un tío con una furgoneta, y al tío de la furgoneta lo voy a suspender, así que son mil doscientos. <hr> <<if $player.cash gte 1200>>\ <<link "Hacerlo como es debido (-$1.200)">><<run AddCash(-1200); AddHours(6)>><<goto "ES:Reno Two Passed">><</link>> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Barra antipánico y puerta recolgada: <<Cash 1200>>. Tú tienes <<Cash $player.cash>>.</div> <</if>>\ <<PNav "HQ">> <<else>>\ Lo firmó de pie, cosa que el joven de la oficina sí notó. <hr> [[Hacerle la pregunta|ES:Reno Two Passed]] <</if>>\

<<run $player.unlocks.hq to true>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "Dovehurst 114">> Firmó el cambio de uso a las 11:20 de un miércoles por la mañana y te mandó el certificado por correo antes de haber salido del edificio, porque lo hace todo el mismo día. En la puerta se lo preguntaste. ¿Quién llama a su oficina preguntando por mí? No fingió no entenderlo, y tampoco te lo dijo, y el hueco entre esas dos cosas era la respuesta entera. Señor $player.lastName. Este mes me han reasignado cuatro inspecciones. Tres son de esta manzana. Yo no las pedí y no sé quién lo hizo. Volvió a ponerse las gafas. Debería entender que esto no es una amenaza. Soy extremadamente buena en mi trabajo. Si alguien quiere que mire su edificio de cerca, lo peor que puede pasarle es que su edificio quede muy, muy en regla. ¿Y lo mejor? Lo mismo. Eso es lo que a la gente le cuesta. <hr> Cuarenta sillas. Un radiador que funciona. Una puerta que abre hacia fuera. Ya tienes dónde hacerlo. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

/* Escalera de fases. Cada fase: presupuesto → tres días de obra (player.dayCounter) → una inspección de Okonkwo que puede torcerse. */ <<if not $player.unlocks.renovated>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "RenoQuote")>>\ [[Que Torin Vale recorra el edificio|ES:Reno Quote]] <<elseif not CheckEvent("Player", "RenoOne")>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 4000>>\ [[Empezar la fase uno: tejado e instalación eléctrica (-$4.000)|ES:Reno One]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Dejarlo seguro cuesta <<Cash 4000>>. Tú tienes <<Cash $player.cash>>.</div> <</if>>\ <<elseif $player.dayCounter gt 0>>\ <div class="p-locked">La cuadrilla de Torin está en el tejado. <<print $player.dayCounter>> día<<if $player.dayCounter gt 1>>s<</if>> más, y luego la inspección.</div> <<else>>\ [[Recibir a la inspectora|ES:Reno One Inspection]] <</if>>\ <<elseif not $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "RenoTwo")>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 6500>>\ [[Empezar la fase dos: tirar los tabiques (-$6.500)|ES:Reno Two]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">La sala cuesta <<Cash 6500>>. Tú tienes <<Cash $player.cash>>.</div> <</if>>\ <<elseif $player.dayCounter gt 0>>\ <div class="p-locked">La planta baja es una obra. <<print $player.dayCounter>> día<<if $player.dayCounter gt 1>>s<</if>> más.</div> <<else>>\ [[Recibir a la inspectora|ES:Reno Two Inspection]] <</if>>\ <<else>>\ <<if not $player.unlocks.gym and $player.cash gte 5000 and $player.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[Acondicionar la segunda planta como gimnasio (-$5.000)|ES:Reno Gym]] <</if>>\ <<if not $player.unlocks.studio and $player.cash gte 7500 and $player.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[Acondicionar la tercera planta como estudio (-$7.500)|ES:Reno Studio]] <</if>>\ <</if>>\

[[Look at what he's selling|ES:Hollis Shop]] [[Talk to Hollis (30 minutes)|ES:Hollis Talk]]

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "TapeSearch") and $npcs.hollis.dayCounter is 0 and $player.tapes.found lt 9>>\ <<PEvent true "Hollis Found" "Hollis" "He's put something under the counter for you.">>\ <</if>>\

<<if $gameDate.getHours() gte 5>><<run AddDays(1)>><</if>>\ <<run SetHours(8); SetMinutes(0); UpdateDayCounters();>>\ <<Pool>> <<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ Duermes mal, como llevas durmiendo dos años, y te despiertas contando. <<else>>\ Duermes en el edificio. No es cómodo y te da igual. <</if>>\ <hr> <<if GameDayIs("Monday") and $player.introComplete>>\ [[Sentarte con las cuentas|ES:Weekly Finances]] <<else>>\ <<include [[ES:Sleep Events]]>>\ <<include [[ES:Day Start]]>>\ <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.nadia>><<include [[ES:Nadia Sleep Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>><<include [[ES:Pip Sleep Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille>><<include [[ES:Camille Sleep Events]]>><</if>>\ <<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> Two doors from 114 and the only lit window on the row after six. A counter, a Heidelberg that is older than the woman who runs it and better maintained, and a wall of paper samples fanned out by weight with the prices written on in pencil and corrected in pencil. There is a drawing pinned behind the register that is not a print. It is an elevation, hand-drawn, of a building that was never built, and it has been up there long enough to have gone the colour of weak tea. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[ES:Print Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[ES:Print Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Dovehurst">><<PNav "Street">>

<div class="p-title">\ <div class="p-title__mark">BimboProtocol</div>\ <div class="p-title__sub">Cuatro años después de que cerrara el edificio</div>\ <div class="p-title__rule"></div>\ <div class="p-lang"><<link "English">><<run variables().lang = "en">><<goto "Start">><</link>> · Español</div>\ <div class="p-title__warn">+18 Este juego está destinado únicamente a jugadores mayores de 18 años. Si no lo eres, ciérralo ahora.</div>\ <div class="p-form">\ <label class="p-field">Nombre<<textbox "$player.firstName" "Wes">></label>\ <label class="p-field">Apellido<<textbox "$player.lastName" "Corbin">></label>\ </div>\ </div> [[Empezar|ES:Prologue 1]] <<if $devMode>>\ [[Saltar el prólogo|ES:Start Choices]] <</if>>\

Atajo de desarrollo. Te deja en el Acto I con el edificio comprado, el archivo abierto y las dos primeras clientas ya fichadas. <<link [[Empezar en el Acto I|ES:114 Dovehurst]]>>\ <<run variables().player.introComplete = true; variables().player.cash = 3200; variables().player.unlocks.building = true; variables().player.unlocks.archive = true; variables().player.fame = 6; variables().player.tapes.found = 5; AddEvent("Player", "Bought"); AddEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen"); variables().npcs.delphine = clone(variables().minorTemplate); variables().npcs.torin = clone(variables().minorTemplate); variables().bimbos.nadia = clone(variables().bimboTemplate); variables().bimbos.pip = clone(variables().bimboTemplate); SetHours(9); >>\ <</link>> [[Volver|ES:Start]]

<<set _here to Here()>>\ <<set _home to (_here is "Sublet")>>\ <<set _out to (_here is "Street")>>\ <<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ /* ---------------- PRÓLOGO ----------------------------------------- */ /* El tablón. Cada mañana se sortean tres bolos; aquí salen los que se ofrecen donde él está, a la hora a la que está. */ <<for _j range OddJobsHere()>>\ <<capture _j>><<link _j.teaser>><<run OddJobTake(_j.id)>><<goto `P(_j.passage)`>><</link>><</capture>> <</for>>\ /* El fin de semana de Torin. De día, en la calle o en casa. */ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "PrologueOpen") and not CheckEvent("Player", "GigTorin") and (_home or _out) and BetweenTime(8, 18)>>\ [[Hay una camioneta sobre la boca de riego y un hombre gritándole a un teléfono|ES:Gig Torin]] <</if>>\ /* El tablón de anuncios. Solo en casa. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "GigData") and $player.deadline lte 13 and _home>>\ [[Algo nuevo en el tablón de trabajos|ES:Gig Data Entry]] <</if>>\ /* La bifurcación moral. A la puerta del bar, de tarde, cuando ya lo han visto por ahí. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "GigLumen") and $player.deadline lte 13 and _out and BetweenTime(16, 22)>>\ [[Un hombre con un buen abrigo sale de La Hora Larga detrás de ti|ES:Gig Lumen]] <</if>>\ /* Nadia. Tiene que pasar antes de poder comprar el edificio. Horario de tienda. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "NadiaMet") and _out and BetweenTime(9, 17) and not GameDayIs("Sunday")>>\ [[Bajar a Dovehurst y pedir precio de una tirada de folletos|ES:Prologue Flyers]] <</if>>\ /* El préstamo de Delphine. El bar abre a las 14:00. O ha hecho el trabajo, o el reloj ha bajado lo bastante como para que ella deje de esperar. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "DelphineFront") and CheckEvent("Player", "NadiaMet") and $player.cash lt 17000 and ($player.cash gte 4500 or $player.deadline lte 3) and $player.deadline lte 6 and (_home or _out) and BetweenTime(14, 23)>>\ [[Ir a hacerle a Delphine Aubry una pregunta de verdad|ES:Prologue Loan]] <</if>>\ <<else>>\ /* ---------------- ACTO I ------------------------------------------ */ /* Delphine ofrece la trastienda, que es lo que abre el bucle de reuniones. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and $player.unlocks.archive and (_home or _out) and BetweenTime(14, 23)>>\ [[Delphine ha dejado un recado sobre su trastienda|ES:Back Room Offer]] <</if>>\ /* El abogado de Lumen. Correo, en el realquilado, por la mañana. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "LumenLetter") and $player.fame gte 15 and _home and BetweenTime(8, 12)>>\ [[Abajo hay una carta con tu nombre bien escrito|ES:Lumen Letter]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenLetter") and not CheckEvent("Player", "LumenCease") and $player.fame gte 25 and _home and BetweenTime(8, 14)>>\ [[Hay un mensajero esperando delante de la lavandería|ES:Lumen Cease]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenCease") and not CheckEvent("Player", "KesslerCall") and $player.dayCounter is 0 and (_home or _here is "114 Dovehurst")>>\ [[Te está sonando el teléfono y el número está oculto|ES:Kessler Call]] <</if>>\ /* El clímax del Acto I. Todo tiene que ser cierto a la vez. */ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "KesslerCall") and not CheckEvent("Player", "ActOneEnd") and $player.unlocks.hq and CheckEvent("Player", "MetInHQ") and CheckEvent("Camille", "Defect") and (_here is "114 Dovehurst" or _here is "Dovehurst Street")>>\ [[Hay un coche en la calle Dovehurst que no pertenece a la calle Dovehurst|ES:Act One Climax]] <</if>>\ <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> Avenida Prospect. La lavandería, un cerrajero y las escaleras que bajan al metro. Cuatro manzanas al este está Dovehurst. <hr> <h2>Eventos</h2> <<include [[ES:Street Events]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Cafe">><<PNav "Print">> <<PNav "Subway">><<PNav "Sublet">> <<if $player.unlocks.building>><<PNav "Dovehurst">><</if>>\

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia>><<include [[ES:Nadia Studio Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>><<include [[ES:Pip Studio Events]]>><</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Loft.jpg" "Tu realquilado">> Una habitación y una placa eléctrica encima de una lavandería en Prospect. El alquiler son $310 a la semana y el techo tiembla a las siete cada mañana cuando arrancan las secadoras. Hay sesenta páginas fotocopiadas pegadas con cinta en la pared sobre el escritorio, en el orden en que crees que debían ir. <hr> <h2>Eventos</h2> <<include [[ES:Sublet Events]]>>\ <h2>Actividades</h2> <<include [[ES:Sublet Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Desk">><<PNav "Bedroom">><<PNav "Street">> <<if $player.unlocks.building>><<PNav "Dovehurst">><</if>>\

<<if BetweenTime(20, 23) and not $player.unlocks.building>>\ [[Coger un turno de noche (+$300, de vuelta a las 04:00)|ES:Night Shift]] <</if>>\ <<if BetweenTime(5, 10) and $player.unlocks.building>>\ [[Coger un día de trabajo por contrato (+$300, de vuelta a las 18:00)|ES:Day Work]] <</if>>\ [[Entrenar (1 hora)|ES:Workout]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg" "Tu escritorio">> Las páginas, la caja de zapatos, un portátil con la bisagra partida y una hoja de cálculo a la que no has conseguido hacerle decir $18.000 por mucho que la ordenes. <hr> <h2>Actividades</h2> <<include [[ES:Desk Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<include [[ES:Story Beats]]>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia>><<include [[ES:Nadia Home Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>><<include [[ES:Pip Home Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille>><<include [[ES:Camille Home Events]]>><</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Subway.jpg">> La línea R en la avenida Prospect. En esta ciudad todo está a cuarenta minutos de todo lo demás. <hr> <<PNav "Gym">><<if $player.unlocks.clinic>><<PNav "Clinic">><</if>>\ <<PNav "Flatiron">><<PNav "Salvage">> <<PNav "Street">> <<audio "Subway" play>>\

<<set _found to $player.tapes.found>>\ <<for _i to 1; _i lte 9; _i++>>\ <<if _i lte _found>>\ <<if HasTape(_i)>>\ <div class="p-tape"><<print _i>><<print Tape(_i).name>>trabajada</div>\ <<else>>\ <div class="p-tape"><<print _i>><<print Tape(_i).name>><<capture _i>><<link "trabajarla (3 horas)">><<run AddHours(3); DecodeTape(_i); $passageRoute to _i>><<goto "ES:Tape Played">><</link>><</capture>></div>\ <</if>>\ <<else>>\ <div class="p-tape p-tape--missing"><<print _i>>-sin recuperar</div>\ <</if>>\ <</for>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> <h4><<print Tape($passageRoute).name>></h4> <<print Tape($passageRoute).blurb>> Tres horas con el reproductor y un cuaderno. Su voz es más plana de lo que esperabas, y dice //¿vale?// al final de las frases como hace la gente cuando está comprobando si el otro sigue ahí. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ Ya sabes hacer trabajo de espejo. A partir de aquí entra en todas las sesiones. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ La petición firme. Enuncia la cosa una vez. No la suavices y no la repitas. <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ Los deberes. La semana entre sesiones es la sesión; la hora solo es donde te enteras de lo que pasó. <<elseif $passageRoute is 4>>\ El reencuadre. Qué hacer cuando está enfadada contigo y tiene toda la razón. <<elseif $passageRoute is 5>>\ El silencio largo. Deja once minutos de él en la cinta y tú te tragas los once. <<elseif $passageRoute is 7>>\ Las páginas 31 a 40, por fin, leídas en voz alta porque nunca pasó a limpio una copia. <<elseif $passageRoute is 8>>\ El quinto Principio, y los dos años que dice que lo enseñó mal. <<elseif $passageRoute is 9>>\ La última sesión. Once días antes de que cerrara el edificio. Lo sabía. <<else>>\ El ritmo. Qué es demasiado rápido, y cómo se enteró él. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Archive">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg" "El archivo">> La sala detrás del tabique. Nueve bobinas y una caja de zapatos, y un reproductor que te vendió Hollis y que las pasa a una velocidad ligerísimamente equivocada. <hr> <h2>Cintas</h2> <<include [[ES:Tape List]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "The Long Hour">> A long narrow room on the corner of Prospect with a bar down one side and nothing much down the other. Eleven stools. A back room behind a bead curtain that used to be a kitchen and is now twelve chairs and a card table. The clock over the register is four minutes fast and has been for twenty years, because Delphine says a bar that is late is a bar that gets sued. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[ES:Long Hour Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[ES:Long Hour Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Street">><<PNav "Sublet">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Sesenta páginas, escritas a máquina, fotocopiadas tantas veces que los remates de las letras se han vuelto blandos. A todas las copias que circulan les faltan las páginas 31 a 40. <h4>Los cinco</h4> 1. Enorgullécete de tu aspecto. 2. Agrada a quienes te rodean. 3. Sé tu mejor versión absoluta. 4. Sé fuente de alegría, no de estrés. 5. Déjate cuidar. <<if $player.tapes.pages>>\ <hr> Ya tienes las páginas 31 a 40. No son lo que nadie suponía. Hablan de lo que un coach le debe a la mujer que se sienta en la silla, y están escritas como un hombre que pide perdón por adelantado. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallE.jpg" "Segunda planta · el despacho">> Te sentaste en el suelo con la espalda contra la pared unos diez minutos, y fue en el décimo minuto cuando notaste que tenías frío por un lado. El despacho era un rectángulo. Era obviamente un rectángulo. La ventana estaba centrada en la pared delantera y la chimenea estaba centrada en la pared lateral y la sala seguía sin ser un rectángulo, porque la pared del fondo se adelantaba. Te levantaste y la mediste a pasos. Después saliste al rellano y mediste el rellano a pasos. Después bajaste a la primera planta y mediste a pasos la sala de debajo. Veintitrés centímetros. La pared del fondo de aquel despacho sobresalía veintitrés centímetros respecto a todas las demás paredes de ese lado del edificio, las cuatro plantas, y los veintitrés centímetros no iban a ninguna parte. No había roza, ni bajante, ni conducto. Era montante y placa de yeso y la había enlucido alguien con prisa, y a lo largo del borde inferior, donde debería haberse colocado el rodapié, no había rodapié ninguno: solo una línea trazada a lápiz que alguien había marcado y a la que nunca había vuelto. Le pusiste la palma encima. Hueco, y después, a veintiocho centímetros a la izquierda, no hueco. Saliste a buscar la camioneta llena de herramientas que no tenías, y no tenías, y volviste con un martillo de uña que encontraste en la sala trasera de la cuarta planta al lado de la silla. <hr> [[Abrirla|ES:Archive Found]]

<<run AddMinutes(30); $npcs.torin.dayCounter to 1>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddEvent("Torin", "TalkJoists")>>\ "Nothing's wrong with it. That's what nobody gets. You look at plywood on the windows and you think rot. Rot's in the roof and the roof's a Tuesday." "So what's the expensive part?" "The expensive part is the second floor is fine." He waits for you to catch up. You don't. "Joists on that floor are two-by-tens at twelve inch centres. Twelve. Nineteen twenty-two building, that's a //ballroom// spec. Somebody paid for that once. So now you've got a floor that'll take eighty people jumping and a roof that won't take a heavy Thursday, and the inspector doesn't care that the floor's a gift. She cares about the roof, so you're going to spend nine grand fixing the bad half of a building that's better than it has any right to be." He drinks about a third of his pint in one go. "People think a building's a thing. It's an argument between four or five decades about what the place is for." <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddEvent("Torin", "TalkStreet")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> "What was Dovehurst like? Before." "Working. Not nice. Working. There's a difference and everybody's forgotten it." He counts it off on his fingers, which he does constantly and which is somehow never annoying. "Tyre place, still there. Bodega, gone, and that one hurt. Two garment lofts. A place did signwriting, actual hand signwriting, old boy, dead now. Sorel's was a stationer's before the girl's mother had it. And a print union hall, which is your building, before it was your building." "A union hall." "That's your ballroom joists. That's your one big room on the ground floor. That's why there's a coat rail bolted into the brick in a place that makes no sense until you picture two hundred printers hanging up two hundred coats." He points his glass at you. "You didn't buy a building. You bought a room that's been for meetings since before your dad. Everything that's gone on in there since has been people finding that out." <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ <<run AddEvent("Torin", "TalkBefore")>>\ "And after the union? Before it got condemned?" "Oh, I did that one." He says it into his pint. It goes past you and then it comes back and hits you. "You worked on 114?" "Eight, nine years back? Ground floor and the second. Took a partition wall out downstairs, put the one big room back. Wired the second for a gym: mirrors, proper rubber, the works. Nice job, actually. Paid on time, which I mention because it's rarer than you'd think." "You didn't say." "You didn't ask. Bloke walks in and says can you fix my roof, I say yes, that's the whole conversation. I've worked half this postcode twice. I did the laundromat under your flat. I did the vents in this bar and Delphine still says they're in the wrong place, and they are, but that's where the joists were." He shrugs, and it is genuinely nothing to him, and that is the strangest part of the whole exchange. "Buildings come round again, mate. You do a place three times in a career if you're any good." <<elseif $passageRoute is 4>>\ <<run AddEvent("Torin", "TalkWho")>>\ "Who hired you? That time." "Fella." "That's it? A fella." "Well, I'm not going to remember, am I. Nine years." He thinks about it anyway, because he is a man who cannot leave a question alone even when he has finished with it. "Bit older than you. Not much. Very specific about the mirrors. Wanted them floor to ceiling on the long wall and I said that's two grand more and he said yes without doing the face people do. Wanted the big room //empty//. No stage, no platform, nothing at the front. I said you'll want a riser for a speaker and he said no, because whoever's speaking should be standing on the same floor as everybody else." He drains the glass. "That's stuck with me, that. Cost him nothing and it's the only thing I remember him saying. Bloke had the money for a riser and didn't want one." "You never asked what he was doing in there?" "Mate, I put mirrors in a Pilates place on Fifth and a fetish club in Bushwick in the same month and I couldn't tell you which was which by the invoice. People want mirrors. It's not my business why." <<elseif $passageRoute is 5>>\ <<run AddEvent("Torin", "TalkMoney")>>\ "Be straight with me. Am I paying what this is worth?" "You're paying about eight per cent under, and I'd rather you didn't tell anybody." "Why?" "Because you're not going to argue with the roof number, and the roof number is where the money is, and a man who doesn't argue about the roof is worth eight per cent to me. Half my week's an argument. You've never once asked me to knock something off and you've never once asked me to skip a permit. Do you know how restful that is?" He puts his glass down. "Also I've seen the leaflet. My sister-in-law's got one on her fridge. Whatever you're at, you're at it properly, and the last four blokes I did work for in this postcode were flipping. I'd rather the room went to somebody who's going to be in it." <<else>>\ <<run AddEvent("Torin", "TalkFinish")>>\ "Why'd you take it? Really. There's easier money six stops that way." "There's easier money everywhere. That's not a reason to go and get it." He turns the pint round on the mat. "I'll tell you and then we're not doing this again, because I've had two. Nine years ago I took that partition out and put that room back the way it was built, and it was the best week I had that year. And then I drove past it eighteen months later and there was plywood on it. And I have driven past it about four hundred times since and every single time I've thought, that's a waste, somebody wants to sort that out." "So it bothered you." "It's a //room//, mate. It's not a person. Don't make it a thing." He picks his phone up off the bar, which means it is over. "But yeah. It bothered me. Roof Tuesday. Bring cash for the skip." <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* ADAEZE OKONKWO */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<h2>Torin Vale</h2> Cincuenta y dos. Contratista. Habla sin parar, trabaja bien, cobra lo que dijo que cobraría. Ha estado dentro de Dovehurst 114 antes y lo mencionó una vez, de pasada, con el tono de un hombre que menciona el tiempo que hace. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg">> Torin Vale takes up a stool and a half and puts his phone face down on the bar, which is the only formal manner he has. <hr> <h2>What you ask him</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkJoists")>>\ <<link "Ask him what's actually wrong with the building (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "ES:Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkJoists") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkStreet")>>\ <<link "Ask him about the street (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "ES:Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkStreet") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkBefore")>>\ <<link "Ask what 114 was before it was condemned (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "ES:Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkBefore") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkWho")>>\ <<link "Ask who he did that job for (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 4>><<goto "ES:Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkWho") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkMoney")>>\ <<link "Ask him whether he's charging you properly (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 5>><<goto "ES:Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkMoney") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkFinish") and $player.unlocks.renovated>>\ <<link "Ask him why he took the job (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 6>><<goto "ES:Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallC.jpg" "Dovehurst 114 · planta baja">> El código funcionó al segundo intento. La puerta entró unos diez centímetros y se paró contra cuatro años de correo, y tuviste que meter el hombro, que no es la forma en que uno quiere entrar en lo que acaba de comprar. Planta baja. Una sola sala larga, tabicada en algún momento en tres malas con montantes y una puerta a la que le habían dado una patada. Tablones bajo moqueta en losa bajo daños por agua. Un radiador en la pared del fondo, frío, y encima un rectángulo de pintura dos tonos más limpio que el resto, de metro veinte por noventa, donde algo había estado colgado mucho tiempo. Te quedaste dentro un rato y no te sentiste triunfal. Te sentiste como un hombre en casa de otro. <hr> [[Subir|ES:Walkthrough 2]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallD.jpg" "Las plantas altas">> La escalera giraba dos veces y cada peldaño aguantaba, cosa que notaste, lo que significaba que ya habías empezado a pensar como Torin. Segunda planta: dos salas y un despacho al frente sobre la calle. Tercera planta, orientada al sur, todo el ancho, con ganchos en el techo en un patrón que todavía no significaba nada para ti. Cuarta planta y la trampilla del tejado, y una mancha bajando por la pared norte desde la trampilla hasta la segunda planta que te decía de qué iba a ir la primera factura. En la sala trasera de la cuarta planta alguien había dejado una silla mirando a la ventana. Bajaste al despacho de la segunda planta porque era la única sala del edificio que aún conservaba su puerta, y porque querías sentarte. <hr> [[Sentarte en el despacho|ES:The Stud Wall]]

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<run AddEvent("Player", "MetInHQ")>><</if>>\ <<if $player.fame gte 6 and not CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight1") and not $bimbos.camille>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "CamilleSight1")>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Sighting 1]]>>\ <<elseif $player.fame gte 9 and CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight1") and not CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight2")>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "CamilleSight2")>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Sighting 2]]>>\ <<elseif $player.fame gte 12 and CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight2") and not CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight3")>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "CamilleSight3")>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Sighting 3]]>>\ <<elseif $player.fame gte 15 and CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight3") and not $bimbos.camille>>\ <<include [[ES:Camille Introduces Herself]]>>\ <</if>>\

<<run $player.cash += ($player.income - $player.expenses)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> <h4>$player.firstName $player.lastName</h4> Ingresos semanales: <<Cash $player.income>> Gastos semanales: <<Cash $player.expenses>> <<if $player.mortgage gt 0>>\ <<run $player.cash -= 220; $player.mortgage -= 160>>\ <h4>Dovehurst 114</h4> Pagas $220 a cuenta del préstamo. Quedan <<Cash $player.mortgage>> de capital. <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia and CheckEvent("Nadia", "Fees")>>\ <<run $player.cash += 150>>\ Nadia ha pagado sus $150 de la semana. <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip and CheckEvent("Pip", "Fees")>>\ <<run $player.cash += 90>>\ Pip ha pagado sus $90, en efectivo, en un sobre, porque no se fía de las apps. <</if>>\ <h4>Total</h4> Empiezas la semana con <<Cash $player.cash>>. <hr> <<include [[ES:Sleep Events]]>>\ <<include [[ES:Day Start]]>>\ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* La reunión semanal */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "Dovehurst 114">> Colocas tú mismo las sillas. Cuatro filas de ocho, porque prefieres que sobren sillas antes que una mujer de pie al fondo decidiendo que está estorbando. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "La Hora Larga · trastienda">> Delphine abre la trastienda a las cinco y media y te la deja. Doce sillas, una mesa de cartas y un radiador que golpetea. Cobras $20 por cabeza. <</if>>\ <<run AddHours(2); AddFame(1)>>\ <<if $player.fame gt 40>>\ <<run AddCash(1900)>>\ Noventa y pico mujeres. Dejas de apuntar nombres a las sesenta porque la cola sale a la acera y la acera no es tuya. <<elseif $player.fame gt 30>>\ <<run AddCash(1000)>>\ Cincuenta mujeres. Por primera vez la sala suena a sala y no a un puñado de gente callándose junta. <<elseif $player.fame gt 22>>\ <<run AddCash(520)>>\ Veintiséis. Se te acaban las sillas que habías puesto y vas a por más, y alguien ya ha ido a por ellas. <<elseif $player.fame gt 15>>\ <<run AddCash(400)>>\ Veinte. Ahora llegan de dos en dos, que es distinto: significa que se lo están contando entre ellas. <<elseif $player.fame gt 10>>\ <<run AddCash(260)>>\ Trece. Alguien ha dejado un vaso de agua en la mesa de delante sin que nadie se lo pidiera. Lo miras un segundo más de lo que pretendías. <<elseif $player.fame gt 6>>\ <<run AddCash(160)>>\ Ocho mujeres. Dos escuchan de verdad. Es mejor proporción de la que te merecías. <<elseif $player.fame gt 3>>\ <<run AddCash(100)>>\ Cinco. Una se va a la mitad y se lleva a su amiga. <<else>>\ <<run AddCash(60)>>\ Vienen tres mujeres. Das la charla que llevas dos años dando frente a un espejo. En voz alta es peor. Sacas sesenta dólares y pierdes casi todo en la sala. <</if>>\ <h4>¿De qué va lo de esta noche?</h4> [[Enorgullécete de tu aspecto|ES:Meeting Appearance]] [[Agrada a quienes te rodean|ES:Meeting Please]] [[Sé tu mejor versión absoluta|ES:Meeting Best Self]] [[Sé fuente de alegría, no de estrés|ES:Meeting Joy]] <<if HasTechnique("care")>>\ [[Déjate cuidar|ES:Meeting Care]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Déjate cuidar. Todavía no lo entiendes lo bastante bien como para enseñarlo.</div> <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/WorkoutRoom.jpg">> Cuarenta minutos en el suelo, entre la cama y el escritorio. No es un gimnasio. Es el primer Principio aplicado a ti mismo, que es la única forma en que has conseguido nunca obligarte a hacerlo. <<run AddHours(1); AddFitness(2)>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<h2>$player.firstName $player.lastName</h2> Veintiocho años. Seis de noches. Encontraste sesenta páginas fotocopiadas en el peor momento de tu vida y funcionaron contigo, y llevas cada hora desde entonces intentando averiguar por qué. <<PMeter "player" "fame">> <<PMeter "player" "fitness">> <h4>Dinero</h4> En mano: <<Cash $player.cash>> Ingresos semanales: <<Cash $player.income>> Gastos semanales: <<Cash $player.expenses>> <<if $player.mortgage gt 0>>\ Pendiente del edificio: <<Cash $player.mortgage>> <</if>>\ <<if $player.techniques.length gt 0>>\ <h4>Lo que sabes hacer</h4> <<for _t range $player.techniques>>\ <<if _t is "mirror">>Trabajo de espejo. <<elseif _t is "ask">>La petición firme. <<elseif _t is "homework">>Poner deberes. <<elseif _t is "reframe">>Reencuadrar. <<elseif _t is "silence">>El silencio largo. <<elseif _t is "pacing">>El ritmo. <<elseif _t is "pages">>Todo lo de las páginas 31 a 40. <<elseif _t is "care">>El quinto Principio. <</if>>\ <</for>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Townhall.jpg" "Lumen Institute · Flatiron">> Lumen's flagship studio takes the second and third floors of a building on West 23rd. Frosted glass, a lobby plant that costs more than your rent, and a lightbox by the lift listing the five standards in a typeface Nadia would have opinions about. You do not go up. You have never gone up. There is a coffee place across the street with a window seat, and on Sundays between eleven and two nobody at Lumen knows where Camille Ostrowski is. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Flatiron Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[Flatiron Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Subway">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> On the third afternoon you got to a card for a woman born in 1931 who had come in eleven times in 1994 and never again, and you sat with your hands off the keyboard for a minute and then typed it in like the others. They paid by transfer on the Friday. <<Cash 700>>. Twenty-two thousand cards. Eighteen thousand dollars. You had started measuring everything in the same unit, which is what a deadline does to a person. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> The listing was on a board you had been checking twice a day for a year: MEDICAL RECORDS DIGITISATION - 3 DAYS - MUST BE ACCURATE - $700 - DOWNTOWN BKLYN. It was a podiatry practice on Livingston Street that had been on paper since 1988 and was being bought by a group that was not going to be. Twenty-two thousand patient cards into a template, in a windowless room with a woman called Aurelie who wore headphones and did not once take them off. Three days at nine hours. It came to about two dollars and sixty cents an hour if you counted the hours honestly, and $700 if you did not. <<run AddEvent("Player", "GigData")>>\ <hr> <<link "Take it (three days, +$700)">><<run AddDays(3); SetHours(19); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(700); AddEvent("Player", "GigDataDone")>><<goto "Gig Data Done">><</link>> <<link "Leave it">><<run AddEvent("Player", "GigDataDone")>><<goto "Sublet">><</link>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> He came out of The Long Hour behind you, which is how he knew to say your name, because Delphine had said it to somebody at some point and he had been listening. Forty, good coat, the specific tiredness of a man who owns one location of something. He had a folder under his arm and he did not waste any time. "You write? Somebody said you write." "I write things down. It's not the same." "It's close enough." He opened the folder on the hood of a car. Inside were photographs of women, forty of them, headshots in a grid, and under each one a paragraph. "Lumen Institute. I've got the Park Slope studio, we opened in November. Corporate gives you the brand book and the lighting and the plants and what they don't give you is forty testimonials, and the audit's on the twenty-second." "Forty." "Members who finished the intake and didn't renew. They've all signed the release. Legally it's their words. Practically it's nobody's words, which is why it's four thousand dollars and why I'm asking a stranger outside a bar." Four thousand dollars. Twenty-two per cent of a building. He put a card on top of the folder. On it, under a small clean mark like a sunrise flattened into a line, it said LUMEN INSTITUTE, and under that, presentation standards · service orientation · peak capacity · positive affect management · receptivity training. You had read those five phrases before. You had read them sanded down out of five other sentences by a woman who had sat in a room and taken notes she was not supposed to be taking. <<run AddEvent("Player", "GigLumen")>>\ <hr> <<link "Take the work (+$4,000)">><<run AddEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>><<goto "Gig Lumen Accept">><</link>> <<link "Turn it down">><<run AddEvent("Player", "LumenRefused")>><<goto "Gig Lumen Refuse">><</link>>

<<run AddDays(2); SetHours(23); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(4000)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Forty paragraphs in two nights. You did them well, because you did not know how to do them badly. You wrote a woman called D. R., 38, saying that the receptivity module had let her stop apologising in meetings. You wrote a woman called K. T., 45, saying her presentation standards had given her back a version of herself she thought she had spent. You made all forty sound like different people, which took longer than making them sound like one, and by the second night you had stopped noticing that every one of the five phrases was a good sentence with the load taken out of it. He paid on receipt, by transfer, from a company account. <<Cash 4000>>. The remittance advice came through automatically the following morning. It had your name on it, and his franchise code, and above both of those, because the system generated it centrally and nobody had ever had a reason to turn that off, the words LUMEN INSTITUTE INC - VENDOR PAYMENTS. You looked at it for a while. Then you put the money in the same account as the night shifts, where it stopped being anything in particular. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<run AddEvent("Player", "HollisMet"); $npcs.hollis to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> "No. Thanks." "It's four thousand dollars for two nights." "I know what it is." He closed the folder without any hard feelings, because he had asked a stranger outside a bar and a stranger outside a bar had said no, and that was Tuesday. Then he stood there a second longer, and you understood that he had wanted somebody to say no for about eight months. "You know what the worst part is? They're real people. They all did the intake. It's just that after the intake there's nothing, so there's nothing to say, so somebody has to make it up." He lit a cigarette he clearly did not smoke often. "You want something for your trouble? Free information. That building at the end of the block, the one everybody's got a theory about. That's ours. Lumen's. Held since the acquisition, four years, on the asset register at a dollar. The disposals go through a schedule, the schedule goes to Legal, Legal rubber-stamps it because Legal has never once walked down Dovehurst Street. Fourteen days is not a negotiating position. Fourteen days is the end of the fiscal quarter." "Nobody's bidding." "Nobody's bidding. It goes to whoever turns up with the money on day fourteen and it goes at the number on the sheet, and if nobody turns up it gets rolled and re-listed at the same number next quarter, because that's what the schedule says." He shrugged. "One more. Whatever was in it went out in a truck in '24 and I know where the truck went, because I bought a filing cabinet out of the same load. Old man under the tracks at Fourth. Grant. Buys the contents of dead buildings and never throws anything out." He gave you the cross street twice, because he could see you had stopped breathing properly. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* THE HAND-OFF TO NADIA */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> There was a flatbed on the hydrant outside the laundromat and a man in his fifties standing in the bed of it arguing with a phone. "...no, because a joist is not a suggestion, Ray. A joist is a fact. You can have my opinion about your kitchen or you can have my invoice, you can't have neither." He hung up, saw you looking, and did not mind being looked at. "You local?" "Four doors up." "You got a back?" "I've got a back." "Torin Vale." He came down off the bed without using the step. "I'm stripping out a four-family in Sunset Park Saturday and Sunday and the two guys I had have both discovered they have weddings. Everything above the parlour floor comes down to the kerb by hand, because the stair turns twice and the chute man wants six hundred dollars to tell me it can't be done. Two days. Nine hundred, cash, and you'll hate me by Sunday lunchtime." "Nine hundred." "Nine hundred is what it's worth and nine hundred is what it pays. I don't haggle down and I don't get haggled up. It's a very restful way to live." <<set $npcs.torin to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "GigTorin")>>\ <hr> <<link "Take it (two days, +$900)">><<run AddDays(2); SetHours(18); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(900); AddFitness(2); AddEvent("Player", "GigTorinDone")>><<goto "Gig Torin Weekend">><</link>> <<link "Tell him you can't">><<run AddEvent("Player", "GigTorinDone")>><<goto "Gig Torin Refused">><</link>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> "Fair enough. It's a bad two days." He wrote a number on the back of a delivery note and held it out anyway. "Torin Vale. If you ever own anything with a roof on it, that's the number for the roof." You put it in your wallet, behind the photograph of a building you did not own. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/DowntownWide.jpg" "Sunset Park">> He was right about lunchtime on Sunday. Two days of lath and plaster and a bathroom suite from 1974 that came down the stairs in six pieces, all of them the wrong shape. Torin worked harder than you and talked the entire time, mostly about other people's joists, twice about a woman called Renata who had left in 2011, once, very briefly, about the building at the end of Dovehurst. "That one's been dead four years. Shame. Good bones, bad roof, and somebody at some point took a wall in it that should have stayed where it was." "You've been inside?" "I've been inside every building on that street. I've been inside every building in this borough that's had a permit pulled since the Clinton administration." He handed you the end of a joist. "Lift with your legs or I'll charge you for the lesson." He paid you at four on Sunday out of a bank envelope, counted twice, in front of you, which you understood later was a thing he did on purpose. "You showed up both days and you didn't sulk. That's two out of two things I need. You want work, you call me. Don't call me on a Sunday, I'm not a monster." <<Cash 900>> for the weekend. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<h2>How this works</h2> You are a coach. Women come to you with a problem they have usually misdiagnosed, and you take them through the Protocol until they have not. <h4>The week</h4> Every client has a fixed appointment. Miss it and you wait a week. Friday evening is the open meeting, which is where new clients find you. <h4>The numbers</h4> Each woman carries five: how far through the Protocol she is, how open she has become, how comfortable she is being seen, how much she trusts you, and how content she is with you specifically. Trust is the one that matters. Every real ask is priced in trust, and you can always ask for more than you have. It just costs her contentment, and a woman at the bottom of that meter stops turning up. <h4>The tapes</h4> The archive is how you learn. Each tape you work through teaches you something you can then do in every session, for everyone. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Fitness.gif">> Two hours. You are not building anything impressive. You are demonstrating to yourself that you finish things, which is the only argument that has ever worked on you. <<run AddHours(2); AddFitness(3)>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Gym">> /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Dovehurst Street */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run AddHours(2); AddFitness(3)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Fitness.gif">> Two hours in your own building, which is a sentence you still have to say slowly. <hr> <<PNav "HQGym">>

<<if CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and GameDayIs("Friday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 18 and $player.unlocks.hq>>\ [[Run tonight's meeting|Weekly Meeting]] <</if>>\ <<if $player.fame gte 3 and BetweenTime(9, 17) and $player.unlocks.renovated>>\ [[Take a private session (1 hour)|Private Session]] <</if>>\ <<include [[Renovation]]>>\

<<if not $clients.bex and $player.dayCounter is 0 and random(1, 3) is 1>>\ <<PEvent true "Bex Intro" "Bex" "Somebody is waiting on the step.">>\ <<elseif $clients.bex and $clients.bex.dayCounter is 0 and not CheckEvent("Bex", "Second")>>\ <<PEvent true "Bex Second" "Bex" "Bex is back.">>\ <</if>>\ <<if not $clients.margo and $player.fame gte 20 and random(1, 3) is 1>>\ <<PEvent true "Margo Intro" "Margo" "A woman in a good coat, checking the number against her phone.">>\ <</if>>\

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia>><<include [[Nadia HQ Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>><<include [[Pip HQ Events]]>><</if>>\

<<if not $npcs.hollis>><<set $npcs.hollis to clone($minorTemplate)>><</if>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg" "Hollis Salvage">> Under the tracks, in the third arch along, behind a roller door that is only ever up to shoulder height. Every four minutes the R goes over and the whole room says so. Racking to the ceiling. Decks, reels, cases of tape still in shrinkwrap, a crate of remote controls sorted by manufacturer, and a bench at the back with a lamp on a scissor arm where Hollis Grant sits with something opened up in front of him and does not look up when the bell goes. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Salvage Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[Salvage Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Subway">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg">> The counter is a door on two filing cabinets. Everything on it has a price on masking tape, and every price has been written once and never changed. <hr> <h2>For sale</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "Deck")>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 220>>\ <<link "The quarter-inch deck on the end of the bench (-$220)">>\ <<run AddCash(-220); AddEvent("Player", "Deck"); $player.inventory.pushUnique("Reel-to-reel deck")>>\ <<goto "Hollis Deck">><</link>> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">The deck on the end of the bench is <<Cash 220>>. You have <<Cash $player.cash>>.</div> <</if>>\ <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">He has no second deck worth selling you and says so.</div> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Deck") and not CheckEvent("Player", "Splice")>>\ <<link "A splicing block, a razor and a roll of leader (-$18)">>\ <<run AddCash(-18); AddEvent("Player", "Splice"); $player.inventory.pushUnique("Splicing kit")>>\ <<goto "Hollis Shop">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.building and not CheckEvent("Player", "SoldJunk")>>\ <<link "Sell him the four boxes of fittings you pulled out of the ground floor (+$140, 1 hour)">>\ <<run AddHours(1); AddCash(140); AddEvent("Player", "SoldJunk")>>\ <<goto "Hollis Junk">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if $player.unlocks.archive and $player.tapes.found lt 9 and not CheckEvent("Player", "TapeSearch") and $player.cash gte 150>>\ <<link "Ask him to put the word out for the rest of them (-$150, 1 hour)">>\ <<run AddHours(1); AddCash(-150); AddEvent("Player", "TapeSearch"); $npcs.hollis.dayCounter to 4>>\ <<goto "Hollis Search">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">>

<h2>Hollis Grant</h2> Sixty-something. Sells and fixes machines nobody makes any more, out of a shop under the tracks. He sold two tape decks to a man on Dovehurst Street a long time ago and remembers the decks better than the man. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> He keeps working while you talk. It took you three visits to understand that this is not rudeness, it is the only condition under which he says anything at all. <hr> <h2>What you ask him</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkShop")>>\ <<link "Ask him how long he's been under here (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkShop") and not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkFormat")>>\ <<link "Ask him why anybody would record on tape in 2024 (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkFormat") and not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkDecks")>>\ <<link "Ask who else bought a deck like yours (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkDecks") and not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkArchive") and $player.unlocks.archive>>\ <<link "Ask whether he knew what was in the wall (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 4>><<goto "Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkArchive") and not CheckEvent("Hollis", "TalkHim") and $player.fame gte 15>>\ <<link "Ask him what he made of the man (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 5>><<goto "Hollis Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Salvage">>

<h2>Dossier</h2> Everyone you have met, and what you have got as far as with them. <h2>Clients</h2> <<if $bimbos.nadia>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Nadia Statistics" title="Nadia Sorel"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('nadia')">Nadia SorelSorel Print · Tuesdays</a>\ <<else>>\ <img class="p-card__img" src="Assets/UI/Placeholder.jpg">-There is a print shop on Dovehurst Street with its lights on.\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Pip Statistics" title="Priya Raman"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('pip')">Pip RamanCoffeehouse Nine · Thursdays</a>\ <<else>>\ <img class="p-card__img" src="Assets/UI/Placeholder.jpg">-Somebody at the coffeehouse will recognise the words on your flyer.\ <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Camille Statistics" title="Camille Ostrowski"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('camille')">Camille OstrowskiFlatiron · Sundays</a>\ <<else>>\ <img class="p-card__img" src="Assets/UI/Placeholder.jpg">-Hold enough meetings and somebody will come to take notes on you.\ <</if>>\ <<if $clients.bex>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Bex Statistics" title="Bex Halloran"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('bex')">Bex HalloranDrop-in</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $clients.margo>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Margo Statistics" title="Marguerite Sun"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('margo')">Margo SunDrop-in</a>\ <</if>>\ <h2>Everyone else</h2> <<if $npcs.delphine>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Delphine Statistics" title="Delphine Aubry"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('delphine')">Delphine AubryThe Long Hour</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $npcs.torin>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Torin Statistics" title="Torin Vale"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('torin')">Torin ValeContractor</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $npcs.okonkwo>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Okonkwo Statistics" title="Adaeze Okonkwo"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('okonkwo')">A. OkonkwoBuildings Department</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $npcs.hollis>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Hollis Statistics" title="Hollis Grant"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('hollis')">Hollis GrantSalvage, under the tracks</a>\ <</if>>\ <<if $npcs.kessler>>\ <a class="p-card" data-passage="Kessler Statistics" title="Adrienne Kessler"><img class="p-card__img" @src="PortraitPath('kessler')">Adrienne KesslerLumen Institute</a>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<run AddEvent("Player", "KesslerCall"); AddHours(1); $player.dayCounter to 5; AddFame(1)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> It rang at 08:12 on a Thursday and the number was withheld and you answered it because you answer everything now. "Is this $player.firstName?" "Who's this?" "Adrienne Kessler. I'm going to talk for about two minutes and then you can decide whether to say anything. Is that all right?" It was the voice of somebody who has never once had to raise it. Unhurried. Interested. The kind of attention that is genuinely flattering, which is why it works. "My counsel sent you a letter in May and a notice last week and both of them were correct and both of them were unpleasant to receive, and I am not going to pretend otherwise or apologise for them. That is what a company does. I'd like you to hear the other thing, which is not from a company." "I know what you're doing on Friday nights. I know because I did it. Twelve women in a back room, no insurance, no supervision, no intake screening, and no idea, and I mean this without any unkindness, no idea at all which of those twelve is on lithium." "You don't know anything about my room." "I know that a woman in it will tell you things in week three that she has not told her doctor in nine years. I know that because the method is good. It is a very good method. It was good when it was done in that building by a man with a notebook and it is good now, and the difference between me and him is that when a woman in my room says something in week three there are four people in a building in Flatiron whose entire job is what happens next." "He didn't have that. He had himself, and his himself was excellent, and it was not enough, and it stopped being enough some time in the last year and I watched it happen from the third row." "So. I'm not asking you to stop. You'd stop for about six weeks. I'm asking you to come in. There is a Guide track, it is paid, it is not a small salary, and the people on it are the people who cared enough to do it in a bar. Everybody I have ever hired I found doing it in a bar." <hr> <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ There was the smallest pause. Not hesitation. A page being turned. "$player.firstName. Before you answer. Your name came up on a vendor report last quarter, which is not a thing I would normally look at, except that somebody in Legal flagged it into the same matter file. Four thousand dollars, February, Park Slope, forty member testimonials." "That was before." "Of course it was." No triumph in it at all, which was worse. "I'm not raising it to embarrass you. I'm raising it because you already know what our money feels like, and because you took it, and you'll notice I'm not asking you why." "You wrote forty of them and you did them well. I read four. They're better than what we pay for." "They were made up." "They were composite. Yes." A breath. "That is the part of my company I would change if I could change one part of it, and I am telling you that on a phone call I am not recording. Think about the offer." <<run AddEvent("Player", "KesslerLeverage")>>\ <<else>>\ "No." "That was quick." "It was five years quick." "Mm." She did not seem to mind, and she did not seem surprised, and neither of those was an act. "Then I'll say the true thing and go. Whatever you think I did, I did it in a boardroom with lawyers, on a Wednesday, entirely in writing. That is not a defence. It is the fact. And a man who does it in a bar on a Friday is going to lose to a person who does it on a Wednesday every single time, and the reason is not that I am worse than you." "You took it off him." "I filed. He didn't." For the first time, something moved under the voice, and it was not guilt. "Four hundred and six women came through Lumen last year and every one of them was seen by somebody qualified. Ask me if I'd do it again and be careful, because I am going to answer." The call ended at 08:19. She had said seven minutes' worth of things in seven minutes and had never once been anything other than reasonable. She did not ask where you were calling from. She did not ask about the building. It did not occur to her to. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* ACT I CLOSE */ /* ==================================================================== */

<h2>Adrienne Kessler</h2> Forty-five. Founder and chief executive of the Lumen Institute: eleven studios, a subscription tier, and a trademark on five sentences she did not write. She was a client for eleven months. She took notes no client should have been taking. Then she bought the paper on this building, sued over the name, and hired away everyone who could have testified to any of it. She has never once raised her voice at you. <h4>What you know</h4> <<Progress "Kessler" "Letter">> Her counsel writes to you. <<Progress "Kessler" "Cease">> The cease-and-desist. <<Progress "Kessler" "Call">> She called you herself. <<Progress "Kessler" "Door">> She read the number over the door. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<if CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and not $player.unlocks.hq and GameDayIs("Friday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 18>>\ [[Run tonight's meeting|Weekly Meeting]] <</if>>\ [[Buy a drink (-$9, 45 minutes)|Long Hour Drink]] <<if Known("delphine")>>\ <<if $npcs.delphine.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[Talk to Delphine (30 minutes)|Delphine Talk]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Delphine has said what she is saying today.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\ <<if Known("torin") and $npcs.torin.dayCounter is 0 and BetweenTime(17, 22)>>\ <<PEvent true "Torin Talk" "Torin" "Torin, one stool from the end, boots off.">>\ <</if>>\ <<if Known("delphine") and CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and not $player.unlocks.hq and GameDayIs("Friday") and BetweenTime(16, 17)>>\ Delphine has already put the chairs out in the back room. She does that on Fridays now and has not once mentioned doing it. <</if>>\

<<run AddEvent("Player", "LumenCease"); AddHours(1); $player.dayCounter to 3>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> The courier was nineteen and apologetic and had been waiting forty minutes because the buzzer does not work, and he needed a signature and a photograph of the signature. Four pages this time. Cease and desist. Use of the mark BIMBO PROTOCOL and eleven variants. Use of the phrase the five principles in connection with any service offered for consideration. Use of a numbered five-point framework in any promotional material, on the basis of a registered claim to a five-element wellness methodology filed in the second year after the acquisition, which is to say, filed eighteen months after a man on this street wrote them by hand. Fourteen days to confirm compliance in writing. The last page listed, in a numbered schedule, every piece of marketing you had put out. The flyer. The single web page. The posters on the six blocks. The search terms. Dates for all of them, accurate to the day, including two you had had to check your own records to confirm. Somebody had been keeping a file on you since February. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ Item 7 in the schedule was not yours. Item 7 was forty member testimonials published in November by a Park Slope franchisee, and beside it, in the column headed AUTHORSHIP, was your name. They had put it in the schedule of your conduct. Not as an accusation. As an establishment of relationship. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<set $npcs.kessler to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "LumenLetter"); AddHours(1); $player.dayCounter to 4>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> It was in the tray downstairs under a menu, and it had a real stamp on it, and your name was spelled correctly including the second syllable that people get wrong. Inside, one page, from a firm on Madison Avenue, on behalf of Lumen Institute Inc. It did not threaten you. That was what you kept going back to. It said that the firm's client was aware of a series of public gatherings held on Friday evenings at a licensed premises on Dovehurst Street, Brooklyn. It said that the client held registered marks in a list of terms, and the list of terms ran to eleven lines, and you read all eleven, and only three of them were things you had ever said. It said that the firm was not at this time asserting infringement. It said that its client had no present intention of pursuing the matter and wished merely to establish, for the record, the date upon which it had become aware. Then it asked, politely, for the name and address of the individual organising the gatherings, for their records. They already had it. It was on the envelope. You sat at the desk for a while with it flat in front of you. There was no sentence in it you could take to anybody. There was nothing to be angry at, nothing to answer, and no question in it that was actually a question. It was a letter written to be in a file eighteen months from now, when somebody would read it aloud and say and you were notified on the fourth of May. <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ At the bottom, under the signature, was a reference block: matter number, client number, and a third code you would not have looked at twice except that you had seen it before, on a remittance advice, in February, next to your own name. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Nobody comes to a thing they have not heard of. <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers")>>\ <<link "Have Nadia print a run of flyers (-$120, 4 hours)">><<run AddHours(4); AddCash(-120); AddFame(2); AddEvent("Player", "Flyers")>><<goto "Marketing">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "Website") and CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers")>>\ <<link "Put up a single page with the five Principles on it (6 hours)">><<run AddHours(6); AddFame(2); AddEvent("Player", "Website")>><<goto "Marketing">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Website") and not CheckEvent("Player", "Posters") and $player.cash gte 900>>\ <<link "Poster the six blocks around Dovehurst (-$900, 8 hours)">><<run AddHours(8); AddCash(-900); AddFame(4); AddEvent("Player", "Posters")>><<goto "Marketing">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Posters") and not CheckEvent("Player", "Listing") and $player.cash gte 2000>>\ <<link "Buy the search terms Lumen has not bothered to buy (-$2,000, 3 hours)">><<run AddHours(3); AddCash(-2000); AddFame(5); AddEvent("Player", "Listing")>><<goto "Marketing">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Desk">>

<<run $player.meetings.appearance += 1>>\ You talk for forty minutes about the difference between being looked at and being seen, and how the first is the price of the second, and how nobody tells women that the price is negotiable. <<if $player.meetings.appearance gte 4>>\ <<Pool 12>> Four of them come in dressed for it now. Not for you. For each other, which is better, and which you did not teach them. <<elseif $player.meetings.appearance gte 2>>\ A woman stays behind to ask, quite seriously, whether it counts if she only does it on days she is already in a good mood. You tell her it counts double. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<run $player.meetings.bestSelf += 1>>\ Best self, you tell them, is not a better version of somebody else. You read them the paragraph about it and then you read them the paragraph again, because it is the only paragraph in the manual that is angry. <<if $player.meetings.bestSelf gte 3>>\ <<run AddFame(1)>>\ Somebody records it on her phone. You should probably mind. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<run $player.meetings.care += 1>>\ The fifth. The one he said he got wrong for two years, and you only know that because he said so on a tape nobody was supposed to hear. You teach it his way: let yourself be taken care of, and notice how much of you objects, and write down what the objection sounds like in your own voice. <<if $player.meetings.care gte 2>>\ <<run AddFame(1)>>\ Two women stay behind afterwards and neither of them says anything for a while. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PNav "HQ">><<PNav "Sublet">> <<else>>\ <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Sublet">> <</if>>\ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* Reference passages */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<run $player.meetings.joy += 1>>\ A source of joy and not of stress. You explain that this is the Principle that sounds like decoration and is actually the load-bearing one, and that a woman who has understood it has already done most of the work. <<if $player.meetings.joy gte 2>>\ Someone laughs in the right place. The whole room relaxes about a centimetre. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[Meeting Exit]]>>\

<<run $player.meetings.please += 1>>\ The second Principle is the one that gets you in trouble, so you teach it carefully: pleasing people is a skill, not a debt, and a skill can be put down. <<if $player.meetings.please gte 3>>\ Two of them argue with you about it for twenty minutes after. You let them win a point, because they are right about it, and because letting them win a point is the whole lesson. <</if>>\ <hr> <<include [[Weekly Events]]>>\ <hr> <<include [[Meeting Exit]]>>\

<h2>Ask Nadia for something</h2> <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskPending")>>\ She is already doing the last thing you asked her for. <<else>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.bimbo gte 10 and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskLate")>>\ [[Ask her to keep the shop open late for you|Nadia Ask Late]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.bimbo gte 18 and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskProof")>>\ [[Ask her to model the proofs herself|Nadia Ask Proof]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.bimbo gte 26 and not CheckEvent("Nadia", "AskBack")>>\ [[Ask her to lock the door|Nadia Ask Back]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.bimbo lt 10>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is nothing you could ask her for yet that she would not simply price and invoice.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> The programme is finished. What is left is a woman who runs a print shop on your street, prints everything you put your name on, and comes on Fridays. <hr> <<if $bimbos.nadia.happiness lt 5>>\ [[Something is wrong and you should fix it|Nadia Repair]] <</if>>\ [[Ask her for something|Nadia Asks]] <hr> <<PNav "Print">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* HOMEWORK */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<if $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter is 0 and CheckEvent("Nadia", "HWSet") and BetweenTime(9, 20)>>\ [[Nadia has come to find you|Nadia Homework Report]] <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia.happiness lte 3 and $player.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[You should sort things out with Nadia|Nadia Repair]] <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.nadia.trainingComplete>>\ <<include [[Nadia Done]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session4")>>\ <<include [[Nadia Session 5]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session3")>>\ <<include [[Nadia Session 4]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session2")>>\ <<include [[Nadia Session 3]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Nadia", "Session1")>>\ <<include [[Nadia Session 2]]>>\ <<else>>\ <<include [[Nadia Session 1]]>>\ <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 1 — she thinks this is about the shop */ /* ==================================================================== */

<h2>Nadia</h2> <<switch $bimbos.nadia.happiness>>\ <<case 5>>She is content with you. <<case 4>>She is mostly content, and there is something she has not said. <<case 3>>She is not happy with you and is being extremely polite about it, which is worse. <<case 2>>She is answering in whole sentences and nothing else. <<default>>She has stopped pretending, and she is angry, and she is entitled to be. <</switch>>\ <hr> <<if $bimbos.nadia.happiness gte 5>>\ There is nothing to fix. <<else>>\ <<if HasTechnique("reframe")>>\ [[Sit down and have the actual conversation (1 hour)|Nadia Repair Talk]] <</if>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 300 and $bimbos.nadia.weeklyRepair>>\ [[Take her somewhere good (-$300, 3 hours)|Nadia Repair Dinner]] <<elseif not $bimbos.nadia.weeklyRepair>>\ <div class="p-locked">You have already taken her out this week.</div> <</if>>\ <<if not HasTechnique("reframe") and $player.cash lt 300>>\ <div class="p-locked">You have no money and you do not know how to do this with words yet.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> She had flipped the sign and left the front lights on, which she said was so it did not look like anything, and which meant the whole street could see two people sitting in a print shop at seven in the evening. There were two chairs on the customer side of the counter now. There had been one. "Before you start. I want to be clear that I'm doing this because you were straight with me about the money and because I have read your pages and about a third of them are extremely good. Not because I think anything is wrong with me." "Noted." "You're going to say something about that later, aren't you." "Almost certainly." "Fine. Go." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Shop")>>\ [[Ask about the shop|Nadia Session 1 Shop]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Three")>>\ [[Ask why there are three outfits|Nadia Session 1 Three]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Want")>>\ [[Ask what she wants|Nadia Session 1 Want]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Shop") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Three") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S1Want")>>\ [[Close out the first session|Nadia Session 1 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S1Shop"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S1Three"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S1Want"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Session1"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Fees"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1); AddFame(1) >>\ "Tuesdays. Nineteen hundred. A hundred and fifty a session, and you pay whether or not you show up, because that is what makes it a thing you turn up to." "That's a racket." "It's the same racket as your minimum order." "...Yes it is." She wrote it in the diary she actually uses, the paper one by the till, which you took as the real answer. <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ "Is there homework? There's homework. He put homework in the pages." "There's homework." <hr> [[Have her price a job at what it costs her|Nadia Homework Price]] [[Have her stand in her own front window|Nadia Homework Window]] <<else>>\ There is a whole architecture to the week between sessions and you do not know it yet. He put a tape aside for it. Until you have sat with that tape you are running a conversation, not a programme, and you can feel the difference in the last five minutes when there is nothing to send her home with. "That's it?" "That's it for now." "Huh." <hr> <<PNav "Print">> <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 2 — appearance, applied to a woman who has weaponised plain */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> She had done something to her hair. Not much. Enough that you noticed and enough that she had planned for you to notice and had a sentence ready for when you did, and you could see her holding the sentence. You did not give her the opening. She held it for eleven minutes and then put it down, annoyed, and the session got better immediately. <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2Mirror")>>\ <<if HasTechnique("mirror")>>\ [[Mirror work|Nadia Session 2 Mirror]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Mirror work. There is a tape about this and you have not sat with it.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2First")>>\ [[The first Principle, properly|Nadia Session 2 First]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2Counter")>>\ [[What she does when a customer looks at her|Nadia Session 2 Counter]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2First") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S2Counter")>>\ [[Close out the session|Nadia Session 2 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S2First"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S2Counter"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S2Mirror"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Session2"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 3); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1) >>\ At the door she said, with her hand already on the latch, in the tone of somebody getting a thing out before they can stop themselves: "I priced the church job at what it costs me. They said yes. They said yes in about four seconds, which means I've been leaving money on that counter for six years." "How does that feel?" "Like being robbed by myself." She got the door open. "Same time next week." <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ <hr> [[Give her something for the week|Nadia Homework Window]] [[Give her something harder|Nadia Homework Coat]] <<else>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">> <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 3 — the window */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> The front of the shop is nine feet of plate glass with a light box above it, and for six years it has held a hand-lettered card listing eleven services. "No." "I haven't said anything." "You looked at the window. You've been looking at the window since you came in. The answer is no." "What's the question?" "...Ask it properly, then." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Card")>>\ [[The card in the window|Nadia Session 3 Card]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Sample")>>\ [[Put her own work in the window|Nadia Session 3 Sample]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Stand")>>\ [[Put her in the window|Nadia Session 3 Stand]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Card") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Sample") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S3Stand")>>\ [[Close out the session|Nadia Session 3 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S3Card"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S3Sample"); RemoveEvent("Nadia", "S3Stand"); AddEvent("Nadia", "Session3"); AddStat("nadia", "bimbo", 4); AddStat("nadia", "trust", 1); $bimbos.nadia.dayCounter to 6; AddHours(1); AddFame(1) >>\ She rewrote the card that week. You know because you walked past on the Thursday and it said four things instead of eleven, in a typeface somebody had chosen, and the sixth thing had become the first thing. <<if HasTechnique("homework")>>\ <hr> [[Set the week's work|Nadia Homework Coat]] [[Set something she will hate|Nadia Homework Dinner]] <<else>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">> <</if>>\ /* ==================================================================== */ /* SESSION 4 — the project she walked away from */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Wine.jpg">> She brought a bottle and did not explain it, and she had the tube out on the counter before you sat down, which meant she had decided some time during the week and had spent the week being decided. "You're going to ask about the architecture eventually. Everybody does it in about month four. You've got a hundred and fifty dollars of my money in your pocket so you can do it now." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Drawings")>>\ [[Look at the drawings|Nadia Session 4 Drawings]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Why")>>\ [[Ask why she walked|Nadia Session 4 Why]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Print")>>\ [[Ask why a print shop|Nadia Session 4 Print]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Drawings") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Why") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S4Print")>>\ [[Close out the session|Nadia Session 4 Close]] <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> Five weeks. Her hair was down, the card in the window said four things, and there was a second chair on her side of the counter now as well, which meant somebody else had been sitting back there. "Last one, isn't it." "Last one of these. Not the last one." "Mm." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Ledger")>>\ [[Go through what has actually changed|Nadia Session 5 Ledger]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Ask")>>\ <<if HasTechnique("ask")>>\ [[The standing ask|Nadia Session 5 Ask]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is a way to ask a woman what she wants that he left a whole tape about, and you have not sat with it.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Terms")>>\ [[Ask what she wants from you now|Nadia Session 5 Terms]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Ledger") and CheckEvent("Nadia", "S5Terms")>>\ [[Finish|Nadia Session 5 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run $passageRoute to random(1, 4)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Office.jpg">> Eight hours of dispatch in a windowless room off Atlantic Avenue, routing trucks that are already late. You are good at it in the way a person is good at anything they have done four hundred times and never once chosen. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ The woman on the desk beside you is called Renny and works two jobs and does her nails at three in the morning because that is the only hour nobody wants anything from her. She holds a hand up under the lamp, considers it, and says it is the one thing all day that is hers. You think about that for the rest of the shift and cannot make it stop being about the manual. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ A driver calls in from the Belt at half two and talks for eleven minutes about nothing because his wife has left and the cab is the only place he can say so. You let him. It costs the company nothing and it is the only useful thing you do all night. <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ Quiet night. You get four hours where the board does not move and you spend them going through pages 41 to 52 in your head, in order, the way other men run through a hand they lost. You have them by heart and you still cannot make page 47 sit right, and you have started to suspect that is because he was wrong. <<else>>\ Two trailers go missing in Maspeth and everything after midnight is shouting. You come out of it at four with a headache and the specific clarity of a man who has just spent eight hours solving somebody else's problem beautifully and for nothing. <</if>>\ At four in the morning you walk home with $300 in your account and no memory of the shift. <<run SetHours(4); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(300); AddDays(0)>>\ <hr> [[Go to bed|Sleep]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "The Long Hour">> <<if OddJobTimes("Coat") gt 1>>\ They had your number now, which is a thing that happens to a man who turns up in a black shirt and gives back the right coat eighty times. A different house, three streets over, the same evening: eighty people, a rack in a hallway, and a set of instructions delivered by a woman who did not look at you while she gave them. "Five sixty. You know how it works." <hr> <<link "Take it (7 hours, +$560)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(7); AddCash(560)>><<goto "Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<link "Take it, and take the tips (7 hours, +$560 and whatever comes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(7); AddCash(560 + random(3, 9) * 20)>><<goto "Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<link "Say no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ The woman at the bar was asking Delphine whether she knew anybody discreet, for Saturday, and Delphine did not answer, and instead moved four inches to the left so that the woman could see you. It was a house on Carroll Street with a stair rail worth more than everything you had ever owned, and the job was the coats: take them, tag them, know whose is whose without being told twice, and be at the rack at two in the morning when eighty people all want to leave in nine minutes. "Five hundred and sixty. Black shirt, no logo. If anybody asks you what you do, you say you work for the family." <hr> <<link "Take it (7 hours, +$560)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(7); AddCash(560)>><<goto "Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<link "Take it, and take the tips (7 hours, +$560 and whatever comes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(7); AddCash(560 + random(3, 9) * 20)>><<goto "Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <<link "Say no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Coat Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Coat") gt 1 and $passageRoute gt 0>>\ <<Pool 41>> Second house, and this is what you had not understood the first time: it is the same party. Not the same people — the same party. The same two women having the worst night, the same man doing the thing in the doorway, the same one who comes out to the rack at half one because the rack is the only place in the house where nobody is being anything. Hers was a green coat and she was about fifty and she said, "don't find it yet," which was the first time anybody had said the quiet part to you out loud, and you did not find it yet. You have been in two hallways in this borough now and you have seen the same hour happen in both of them. Sixty photocopied pages have been telling you that for two years and you had read it as a claim. It is not a claim. It is a description. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<Cash 560>>, and the glass. <<else>>\ <<Cash 560>>. You left the glass again. <</if>>\ <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg">> "You said no to five hundred and sixty dollars." Delphine did not look up from the glass she was doing. "I am not going to ask why. I am going to remember it." <<else>>\ <<Pool 41>> Nobody looks at the coat man. That is the entire job and it is also, it turns out, the best seat in any house in Brooklyn. Over five hours, three feet from the rack, you learned: that a woman will tell her friend the truth in a hallway and the same story to the room with the ending changed; that the two most expensive coats belonged to the two people having the worst night; that a man at the door said something to his wife in the four seconds it took to hand over a ticket that made her face do something you did not have a word for and that she had put away again before they reached the front room. At half one a woman in her forties came out for her wrap and could not find her ticket and did not want to go back in, and stood by the rack and let you look for it for a full four minutes she did not need, and talked about nothing at all, and went back in when she had had enough of not being in there. You have thought about that four minutes a lot since. Nobody in that house had given her anything she had not had to be charming for except the coat man looking for a ticket that was in her hand the whole time. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ The tips went in a glass and the glass came home with you. <<Cash 560>> from the family, and the glass. <<else>>\ You left the tip glass on the rack for the girl doing the cloakroom on Sunday. <<Cash 560>>. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> <<if OddJobTimes("Deli") gt 1>>\ He had the crate out for you before you were through the door, which is a sixty-year-old man's entire vocabulary of welcome. "Frozen this time. It's worse. Same money." <hr> <<link "Take it (6 hours, +$300)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(300)>><<goto "Odd Deli Done">><</link>> <<link "Not tonight">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Deli Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ The shutter was half down and there was a man inside on an upturned crate counting tins by hand with a torch, because the strip light over aisle two had gone and the electrician was Thursday. "Stocktake. Every tin, every jar, every box in the back, and the back is worse than it looks. I've been at it since seven and I have got as far as soup." He was sixty-odd and had been running the place since 1994 and hated the inventory system his son-in-law had installed, and said so at length, and had a face like a man who had not slept properly in a fortnight. "Three hundred dollars and you can have whatever's short-dated. Six hours. It's the dullest night you'll ever have." <hr> <<link "Take it (6 hours, +$300)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(300)>><<goto "Odd Deli Done">><</link>> <<link "Not tonight">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Deli Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Deli") gt 1 and $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> Six hours in a walk-in at minus eighteen, in twenty-minute shifts because that is all a person has in them, warming up between each one against a radiator in the back office with a photograph of a woman on it. You had not noticed the photograph the first time. You noticed it now because you were standing in front of it four times an hour with your hands under your arms, and because you had been told about her in the dark at two in the morning a week ago and had not known then what she looked like. He did not mention her and you did not ask. At two he pulled the shutter down and said goodnight in exactly the same voice. <<Cash 300>>, and a cold you could not get out of your fingers until noon. <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> You said no and he said "fair enough" without looking up, and was still there when you came past at one in the morning, still on the crate, still counting. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Deli.jpg">> He was right. It was the dullest night you ever had. Six hours of tins. You did the back in three and the front in two and spent the last one arguing with him about whether the system should be counting units or cases, and won, which cost you twenty minutes and got you a bag of short-dated everything and a cup of tea. At two in the morning, locking up, he said the thing people say when they have been quiet for six hours: that his wife had done the stocktake for twenty-six years, and had been very fast at it, and that he had never once thanked her for it in a way she would have recognised as thanks. Then he pulled the shutter down and said goodnight. <<Cash 300>>, four boxes of short-dated rice, and something you wrote on the back of your hand on the walk home and copied onto page 47 in the morning. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "The Long Hour">> <<if OddJobTimes("Door") gt 1>>\ She did not look at the door this time. She put the stool out. "Saturday. Sixty on the book, which means ninety. Same money." "Same money." "It is the same job. If I paid you more for the second one you would start hoping there was a third, and then you would be a doorman, and you are not going to be a doorman." She said the last part without any particular weight, the way you state a thing both people already know, and went to sign for something. <hr> <<link "Take the door (6 hours, +$460)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(460)>><<goto "Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<link "Take the door and stay on after (6 hours, +$460, hard night)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(6); AddCash(460); AddFitness(-1)>><<goto "Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<link "Not this weekend">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ Delphine looked at the door, and then at you, in that order, and it was not an accident that it was that order. "Saturday. Private hire, back room and the near half of the bar, forty people, and a woman called Ruthie who I have known twenty years and who has never once told me the truth about a guest list." "You want a doorman." "I want somebody on that stool who can count and who can say no to a man twice his size without making it a thing. Eight until two. Four hundred and sixty." She put a bar towel over her shoulder. "I am not doing you a favour. If you were no good at counting things you would not have lasted six years on a dispatch desk." That was the first time she had said anything to you that proved she had listened. <hr> <<link "Take the door (6 hours, +$460)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(460)>><<goto "Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<link "Take the door and the back room too (6 hours, +$460, hard night)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(6); AddCash(460); AddFitness(-1)>><<goto "Odd Door Done">><</link>> <<link "Say no">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Door Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Door") gt 1 and $passageRoute gt 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "The Long Hour · Saturday">> You knew the room this time, which turned out to be most of the job. You knew that the fire door sticks, that the third stool is the one people put their drinks on, and that the trouble on a night like this never comes through the front, it comes from somebody who has already been let in. You turned two away and neither of them argued, because you had learned in one night that the way you say it is the whole of it. At half twelve a woman came out to the corridor to cry, the same as last time, a different woman. You did not go over, the same as last time. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ Afterwards, glasses and chairs and bin bags, and Delphine said the only thing she said all night: "You watch them." "Is that a problem?" "I did not say it was a problem. I said you watch them." She turned the lights off in the back. "Two men in twenty-two years have done that in my bar without it being something I had to deal with. Go home." <<Cash 460>>. <<else>>\ <<Cash 460>>, and out by two, and nothing in it you had not seen a week ago, which is what shift work is. <</if>>\ <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg">> "Mm." She took the towel off her shoulder. "Then I'll get Ruthie's nephew and he will be on his phone all night and I will spend Sunday apologising to a locksmith." She was not annoyed. She was filing it, which was worse. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "The Long Hour · Saturday">> Forty became sixty by half ten, the way it always does. You turned four people away and three of them took it well. It was a fortieth birthday and it was almost entirely women, and by midnight the back room had got to the stage a room of women gets to when the men who were going to be a problem have already gone home: louder, slower, more physical, entirely unbothered. Somebody's heels were in a plant pot. Two of them were dancing in the way people dance when they have known each other since they were nineteen, which is to say badly and without one atom of self- consciousness. You sat on the stool by the door and counted, and watched, and understood at about one in the morning that you were doing the thing the manual is actually about, which is not looking at women. It is noticing which one is having the worst night and why. Her name was Ruthie and she was crying by the fire door at half twelve because her sister had said something at the toast, and you did not go over, because you were the doorman and it was not yours to do. You have thought about that since. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ You stayed on after two and did the glasses and the chairs and the bin bags with Delphine, both of you not talking, and got home at four with your back gone and a folded twenty she put in your coat pocket that neither of you mentioned. <<Cash 460>>, and Delphine Aubry saw you work. <<else>>\ <<Cash 460>>, and Delphine Aubry saw you work. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallD.jpg">> The empty shopfront by the subway had lights in it and no sign, and through the glass, on the floor, eleven television sets in a circle all showing the same four seconds of a woman putting her hair up. The artist was called Nour and she was thirty-one and had the show for nine days and no budget for security and a landlord who had made it extremely clear what happened if the glass went. "Overnight. Ten till six. You sit in the chair, you do not touch anything, and if somebody breaks the window you ring me and then the police, in that order, and I mean that order." Five hundred dollars for one night, which is what fear costs. <hr> <<link "Sit the night (8 hours, +$500)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(8); AddCash(500)>><<goto "Odd Gallery Done">><</link>> <<link "Not for five hundred">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Gallery Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallD.jpg">> The lights were still on when you went past at two, and there was somebody in the chair, and it was her. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallD.jpg">> Eight hours in a chair with eleven televisions. The loop was four seconds long. A woman lifts her hair, twists it, holds it, and lets it drop — and it drops, every time, because the piece is eleven takes of the same gesture and in none of them does it stay up. She had shot it two hundred times in one afternoon and used the eleven where you can see her decide to try again. By hour three you hated it. By hour five you had stopped seeing it. At about half four in the morning, on no sleep, in a shopfront in Brooklyn, you looked up and saw it properly for the first time and had to go and stand outside in the cold for a minute. Nour came at six with two coffees and did not ask what you thought, which you were grateful for, and then asked anyway when you were at the door. "It's about trying it again." "Everybody says it's about failing." "It isn't, though. You kept the eleven where she has another go. If it was about failing you'd have kept the ones where she stops." She looked at the floor for a second. "Come back Thursday. I'll pay you the same." <<Cash 500>>, no sleep, and a thing in your chest you did not have room for. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> You had put a card up in three places in January — WRITING. LETTERS, FORMS, APPLICATIONS. $40. I AM NOT A LAWYER — and had assumed nobody read the third line, or any of them. Somebody had. Four somebodies, over two days, because the first one told the other three. A visa support letter. A personal statement for a nursing access course. An appeal against a housing decision. And a woman called Yara who wanted a letter to her sister that she had been not writing for nine years and who paid you the forty dollars to sit at a table in Coffeehouse Nine and ask her questions until it existed. <<run AddEvent("Player", "Writes")>>\ <hr> <<link "Do all four properly (8 hours, +$380)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(8); AddCash(380)>><<goto "Odd Letters Done">><</link>> <<link "Do the three that are forms and give Yara her money back (5 hours, +$260)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(5); AddCash(260)>><<goto "Odd Letters Done">><</link>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> The forms were the easy money. A form is a machine for saying a true thing in the only shape the machine accepts, and you are good at that, and it took you four hours to do three of them well enough that all three worked. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ Yara took two hours and eleven minutes and was the hardest thing you have ever typed. She did not want it to be a nice letter. She kept taking the nice out. Every time you offered her a sentence that would make it easier to receive she said "no, because then she gets to feel bad and then it's about her again", and by the end there were four sentences left and none of them contained an adjective and it was the most brutal and most complete piece of writing you have ever had your hands on. She read it, said "yes" once, folded it, and paid you. <<Cash 380>> for eight hours, which is bad money, and you sat in the café afterwards for twenty minutes not doing anything at all. Somebody, somewhere in this city, was going to hear about a man who writes things for people. You did not think about that until much later, and by then a man in a good coat had already heard it. <<else>>\ You gave Yara her forty dollars back and told her the truth, which was that she did not need a writer, she needed to write it herself and would know it was finished when she stopped being able to make it kinder. She looked at you with something between gratitude and being robbed. "That's not a service. You know that's not a service." "No. It's the right answer, though." <<Cash 260>>, which is worse money and a better night's sleep, and you have wondered since whether that is a principle or an excuse. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Cafe">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> The van was on the corner with its back doors open and the mirror was already half out of it, and the woman holding it had worked out about ninety seconds too late that a full-length mirror is not heavy, it is simply longer than a person's reach in every direction at once. "Don't say anything. I know." Thirties. Moving out rather than moving in — you can tell, because people moving in bring boxes and people moving out bring the four objects they refused to leave behind. A mirror in a mahogany frame with a chip out of the top left. "Fourth floor, no lift, and the turn on the second is where it beat me last time. Twenty minutes of your life. Three hundred and twenty dollars, which is insane, and I have got to the point in the day where I do not care." <hr> <<link "Take it (2 hours, +$320)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(2); AddCash(320)>><<goto "Odd Mirror Done">><</link>> <<link "Do it for nothing">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(2)>><<goto "Odd Mirror Done">><</link>> <<link "You have somewhere to be">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Mirror Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> You said you were sorry and you were, and you went on down Prospect, and forty minutes later you were still doing the arithmetic on three hundred and twenty dollars, which is what that number does to a man with fourteen days. <<else>>\ <<Pool 7>> The turn on the second floor took eleven minutes and most of your knuckles. You went up backwards with the top of the frame against your chest and she took the weight below and swore steadily in a low conversational register, at the building rather than at you. You got it into the front room and stood it against the wall and she stepped back to look at it, and then — because it was there, and because it had been in a van all morning, and because people do this in front of mirrors without deciding to — she looked at herself in it. She was still holding the packing tape. She turned a quarter to the left and put her chin up and looked at the woman in the frame for about four seconds, and something went out of her shoulders, and she said: "God. There she is." Then she remembered you were in the room. She did not apologise for it, which you noticed, and which you were still thinking about on the stairs. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ She paid you at the door, in twenties, counted flat against her palm. <<Cash 320>> and a bruise on your sternum shaped like a mahogany corner. <<else>>\ "I said three twenty." "I know what you said." She looked at you for a second the way you look at a word you have read wrong. Then she wrote a number on the back of the packing slip and put it in your hand and did not explain it, and you did not look at it until you were at the bottom of the stairs. Nothing in your account. Something in your pocket. You had fourteen days and you had just given away three hundred and twenty dollars, and you could not make yourself be sorry about it, and you had a suspicion about why that was and did not chase it. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> <<if OddJobTimes("Piano") gt 1>>\ Petey rang at ten past seven. "Baby grand, ground floor to a truck, which sounds easier and is not, because the legs come off and everybody who has never done it thinks the legs are the easy part. Same rate. You in?" You were in before he finished the sentence, which he noticed. "Yeah. That's how it starts." <hr> <<link "Take it (5 hours, +$680)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(5); AddCash(680); AddFitness(2)>><<goto "Odd Piano Done">><</link>> <<link "Your back is still not right">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Piano Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ The card for the man who tunes pianos had a second number on it in biro and the second number was his, and what he wanted was not tuning. "Upright. Iron frame. Second floor to a van, and before you say anything, yes, I know, and no, there is no other way to do it, and I have got two men and I need three and the third one dropped out this morning because of his knee, which is a lie." Six hundred and eighty dollars for a morning, which is what a piano costs when it is on the wrong floor. <hr> <<link "Take it (5 hours, +$680)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(5); AddCash(680); AddFitness(2)>><<goto "Odd Piano Done">><</link>> <<link "Your back is not worth it">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Piano Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Piano") gt 1 and $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> The legs are not the easy part. Five hours, and about ninety seconds of it were the actual job: the moment where three men take the weight of something that cannot be dropped and none of them says anything, because there is nothing to say and saying it would use air. Petey was right about the other thing too. She was seventy-one and she came out onto the step in a cardigan and put her hand flat on the lid while it was on the tailgate, and Ivo caught your eye over the top of it, and you both looked away, because you had both known she was going to. "Every one," Petey said, tightening the strap. He did not sound tired of it. That was the part you kept. <<Cash 680>>. <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> "Sensible," he said, in the voice of a man about to do it with two. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> An upright piano weighs about as much as three men and does not care that it does. You went down thirteen stairs in fifty minutes on a strap with a man called Ivo below you swearing in a language you did not know and a man called Petey above you saying easy, easy, easy in a register you found yourself matching your breathing to. The woman it belonged to watched from the top of the stairs with both hands over her mouth, and when it was on the tailgate she came down and put her hand flat on the lid, and left it there, and did not explain. "She's had it since she was six," Petey said in the van, unbothered, tightening a strap. "They always touch it. Every single one. You'll see it a hundred times and it never stops being the same." <<Cash 680>>, and a back that told you about it on the stairs at home. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> She had a job on the counter she kept picking up and putting down, which for Nadia Sorel is the equivalent of another person shouting. "Ninety-six pages. A cookery book by a woman in Bay Ridge who has waited two years for it and paid for it in instalments, and it goes on the press on Monday, and I have read it four times and I am now at the stage where I am reading what I think it says." "You want a fresh pair of eyes." "I want a pair of eyes that has never seen it. Three forty. Overnight, here, because it does not leave the shop." She said the last part flatly and then, a beat later, as though the beat had cost her something: "I'll be here anyway." <hr> <<link "Read the ninety-six pages (7 hours, +$340)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(7); AddCash(340)>><<goto "Odd Proof Done">><</link>> <<link "Read it and mark the ones that are not errors too (8 hours, +$340)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(8); AddCash(340)>><<goto "Odd Proof Done">><</link>> <<link "You have a shift">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Proof Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> "Fine." She had the job back in her hands before you were at the door. "It was a stupid thing to ask a stranger." <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg" "Sorel Print, 02:40">> Seven hours at the end of her counter with a red pencil and a woman four feet away running a machine and not talking to you, which was the most comfortable seven hours you had had in two years. You found sixty-one errors. Four of them mattered. One of them was an oven temperature that would have set fire to a tray of almonds in about nine hundred kitchens. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ You also marked eleven places that were not errors: places where the woman in Bay Ridge had written the way she talks, and where a proofreader would have straightened it, and where straightening it would have taken the whole book out of her mouth. You wrote LEAVE next to all eleven. Nadia went through your marks at three in the morning standing up, with her coffee going cold, and stopped at the fourth LEAVE. "Why." "Because it's hers and it's not wrong. It's just not how a book sounds." She read the paragraph again. Then she put a tick next to your LEAVE, and then next to the other ten, and did not say anything about it at all, and made you a coffee at half three without being asked, which — you found out much later — Nadia Sorel does not do. <<else>>\ Nadia went through your marks at three in the morning standing up, with her coffee going cold, and said "good" once, at the almonds. <</if>>\ At twenty past five she flipped the sign, and you both stood in the doorway looking down the row at a four-storey building with plywood where the ground-floor windows used to be, and neither of you said anything about it. <<Cash 340>>. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> <<if OddJobTimes("Service") gt 1>>\ The kitchen door was propped open with a crate and Bo was in it, not smoking, looking up the street at nobody coming. "Larder's gone to a wedding. Chef doesn't know yet. Four twenty, and you're not on plates tonight, you're on garnish, which means you're on the pass, which means he //will// know." "I've done one service." "I know. I watched it." <hr> <<link "Take the service (6 hours, +$420)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(420)>><<goto "Odd Service Done">><</link>> <<link "Not tonight">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Service Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ He was on the pavement in whites smoking a cigarette down to the filter in four pulls, which is not a man taking a break, it is a man doing sums. "Can you stand up for six hours and follow an instruction the first time?" "Yes." "Have you worked a kitchen?" "No." "Good, then you've got nothing to unlearn. Four twenty, one service, you're on the pass wiping plates and you do not speak to me between seven and nine." <hr> <<link "Take the service (6 hours, +$420)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(6); AddCash(420)>><<goto "Odd Service Done">><</link>> <<link "Not tonight">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Service Done">><</link>> <</if>>\

<<if OddJobTimes("Service") gt 1 and $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> You were inside the rhythm in nine minutes this time instead of forty, and that was the whole difference, and it was an enormous difference. At twenty past eight you were half a step ahead of the call for the first time — the plate was going down as he asked for it — and he did not say anything, and Bo did not say anything, and the service simply went slightly faster from then on, which is the only compliment that kitchen pays. At the break she drank her pint of water and said: "You're going to be really annoying in about three weeks." "Why three weeks?" "That's when you stop being grateful." She meant it as a joke and it was not one, and you wrote it down at home because it is the fourth Principle with the paint off. <<Cash 420>>. <<elseif $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> He had lit another one before you were past the window. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Restaurant.jpg">> Between seven and nine the kitchen did not contain any people. It contained five positions, and a voice, and a rhythm that you were half a beat behind for forty minutes and then, without any transition you could identify, were inside. You have chased that feeling since and only found it twice. At half nine it broke. Somebody put music on. The chef de partie, a woman called Bo with a burn scar the length of her left forearm, drank a pint of water in one go, put the glass down, and said the first non-work sentence anybody had said to you all night: "You've got the face. First-timers always get the face. It's not a nice job and it's the only two hours of the week I'm not thinking about anything." The chef paid you at eleven out of the float and asked whether you wanted Fridays. "I've got about fourteen days of something." "Everybody's got fourteen days of something." <<Cash 420>>, and a burn on the inside of your wrist you will be able to find for a year. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/RentedStudio.jpg">> The card on the corkboard said STRONG, PUNCTUAL, NOT WEIRD. ONE DAY. CASH, and a number, and the number belonged to a woman called Sasha Merrit who photographed underwear for catalogues and had lost her second assistant to a better-paying catalogue on Tuesday. "Rules. You do not talk to the models unless they talk to you. You do not stand where you can see the monitor. If I say flag it you move the black thing left until I stop talking. Seven hundred dollars, eleven hours, and lunch is on me and is not good." The studio was a rented white room on the fourth floor of a building in Gowanus, and it held, over the course of the day, four women, two rails of sample bras, a stylist who steamed everything twice, and an art director who did not once look up from a laptop. <hr> <<link "Take the day (10 hours, +$700)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(10); AddCash(700)>><<goto "Odd Studio Done">><</link>> <<link "Take the day and stay for the strike (12 hours, +$820)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(12); AddCash(820); AddFitness(-1)>><<goto "Odd Studio Done">><</link>> <<link "Not this one">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Studio Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> You took the card down off the corkboard and put it in your pocket and did not ring the number, and you could not entirely have told anybody why, and you knew even at the time that it was not the moral reason you were pretending it was. <<else>>\ <<Pool 24>> Here is what you had not expected: it was the least erotic room you had ever stood in, and it was the most useful day you had spent in two years. They worked. That was all. A woman stood on a mark in eleven hundred dollars' worth of nothing and put her weight on her back foot and held an expression for nine seconds at a time, forty times an hour, and between takes she put a dressing gown on and ate crisps and complained about the L train, and put the dressing gown down again and went back to it. The second one was called Delia and had been doing it eleven years, and at about four in the afternoon Sasha said give me the good one and Delia did something with her chin and her breathing that changed everything about the photograph without moving her body more than a centimetre, and the art director looked up from the laptop for the first time all day. You stood in the dark behind a black flag with your hands full of somebody else's equipment and thought: that is a technique. Somebody taught her that. She can turn it on. Sixty pages of a photocopied manual you had read four hundred times reorganised themselves quietly in your head, and by the end of the day you knew what page 47 had been trying to say and why it had never made sense to you, and it was because he had written it for a woman who could already do what Delia did and you had been reading it as if it were for a woman who could not. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ You stayed for the strike, coiled forty feet of cable badly and then properly, and carried three lights down four flights. "You're not weird," Sasha said, counting it out. "That's rarer than strong. Give me your number." <<Cash 820>>. <<else>>\ She paid you at seven in a coffee shop downstairs, in cash, and said you could call her in the spring. <<Cash 700>>. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/ClinicOffice.jpg">> SLEEP LABORATORY - THREE NIGHTS - $1,500 - MUST BE ABLE TO SLEEP ON DEMAND. A university unit on the sixth floor of a building near the Navy Yard, running a study on shift workers, which is why they wanted you and which is the first time in six years that being a night man was a qualification for anything. Three nights in a room with a camera and eleven electrodes, and eleven hours of daytime questionnaires, and no leaving the building. Fifteen hundred dollars. Three of your fourteen days. <hr> <<link "Do the three nights (3 days, +$1,500)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddDays(3); SetHours(10); SetMinutes(0); AddCash(1500)>><<goto "Odd Study Done">><</link>> <<link "You cannot afford three days">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Study Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/ClinicOffice.jpg">> Fifteen hundred dollars against three days of a fourteen-day window, and you stood in the lobby and did the arithmetic four times and walked out, and it was the right call and it did not feel like one. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/ClinicOffice.jpg">> You slept on command for three nights, which they were pleased about, and answered four hundred questions during the days, which is where it got strange. The questionnaires were about routine, and control, and whether you felt your life was directed by yourself or by circumstance, and by the second afternoon you had worked out that they were the standard instruments and that you had seen the same five questions before, rephrased, in a photocopied manual from the nineties. He had read the literature. That was the discovery. The man had been a lunatic with a typewriter in a Brooklyn brownstone and he had also, at some point, sat in a library and read the actual research, and the five Principles were not five things he had made up. They were five things he had translated out of the language of a discipline that would never have let him near a patient. The researcher who debriefed you was a postdoc called Weller who asked, at the end, why you had been so interested in the instrument design. "I'm reading around something." "Everybody in this study is reading around something. You're the first one who's read around it correctly." <<Cash 1500>>, three days off the clock, and the last piece of evidence you needed that you are not a fan of a crank. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Loft.jpg">> The notice was printed at home on paper that had been through a printer twice. FLAT TO BE CLEARED. FATHER. PAID WORK, TWO DAYS, ONE PERSON ONLY. Then a phone number and, underneath, in smaller type, as though she had added it after reading it back: NOT A HOUSE CLEARANCE COMPANY. I DON'T WANT A COMPANY. Her name was Fran and she was fifty and met you outside a rent-stabilised one-bedroom on Sterling that her father had lived in for thirty-one years and died in six weeks ago. "Eight hundred and twenty. Everything goes except what I put in the hall. I'll be here the whole time and I will probably be useless." <hr> <<link "Take it (9 hours, +$820)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(9); AddCash(820); AddFitness(1)>><<goto "Odd Wake Done">><</link>> <<link "Take it and tell her to go and sit in the café (9 hours, +$820)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(9); AddCash(820); AddFitness(1)>><<goto "Odd Wake Done">><</link>> <<link "Somebody else should do this">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Wake Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> You did not ring the number. The notice was still in the window four days later, and then it was not, and you never found out which way that went. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg">> Thirty-one years of a man fits into eleven hours and forty-one bin bags. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ You sent her to the café on the corner at the second hour, because she had picked up the same tea towel four times and put it down in four different places, and because there is a kind of help that is only in the way. She went. She came back at lunchtime steadier and did the kitchen herself, which was the only room she had wanted to do and had not been able to start. <<else>>\ She stayed, and she was useless, exactly as advertised, and you worked around her and let her be useless because it was her father. <</if>>\ The hall pile grew all day and it was never the things you expected. Not the watch. A bread knife. A photograph of a woman on a beach who was not her mother, which she looked at for a long time and put in the pile anyway. At the end, in the bottom of the wardrobe, a shoebox of letters, all in the same hand, none of them from her mother, spanning about four years in the eighties. "Do I read those." It was not a question you were qualified for and you gave her the only honest answer, which was that she would read them eventually whatever she decided today, so the only real choice was whether she read them while she was this tired. She put them in the hall pile. "You're not a house clearance company either," she said, paying you at the door. <<Cash 820>>, and on the R going home you thought about a building on Dovehurst Street with four floors of somebody else's ending in it, and about what would be in the bottom of its wardrobe, and you could not sit still. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> She had been outside the laundromat for a while. Not waiting for a wash — she had no bag. Waiting for the street to be a different street, which is a thing you have watched people do at that hour for six years and have never once seen work. Twenty-three or twenty-four. Good coat over the wrong dress for March, one shoe turned in, phone in her hand at nought per cent. "Sorry. Sorry. Do you live here? Like actually here?" "Upstairs." "Right. Okay." She laughed at nothing. "This is so stupid. I'm four blocks that way and I have got a hundred and forty dollars and I will give you all of it if you walk me to my door and don't talk to me." <hr> <<link "Walk her home (1 hour, +$140)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(1); AddCash(140)>><<goto "Odd Walk Done">><</link>> <<link "Walk her home and refuse the money (1 hour)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(1)>><<goto "Odd Walk Done">><</link>> <<link "Put her in a cab instead (-$40)">><<run $passageRoute to 3; AddMinutes(20); AddCash(-40)>><<goto "Odd Walk Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 3>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> You flagged one on Fourth and paid the man through the window before she could argue, and she got in and put her forehead on the glass and was gone. Forty dollars you did not have. You went up the stairs feeling like an idiot and slept better than you had in a week, which is the sort of arithmetic the manual is full of and which you had always assumed was rhetoric. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg">> You walked four blocks on the outside of the pavement and did not talk to her. She talked. Not to you exactly — at the middle distance, the way people do when they have decided in advance that the listener does not count. A man called Aaron. A dinner. A thing he had said about her dress at the start of the evening that she had taken as a compliment for two hours and then, somewhere between the second bar and the street, had reassembled into what it actually was. "He didn't do anything. That's the thing. He didn't do anything and I still had to leave through the back and I can't explain that to anyone, so." "You don't have to explain it to me. I'm just walking." "Yeah." Two blocks. "That's why I asked you and not the cab." At her door she got the key in on the second try and turned round and looked at you properly for the first time, and you understood that she was checking, and that the checking was the whole reason for the hundred and forty dollars: she had bought the right to be watched walking home by somebody who was going to be a transaction and not a story. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ You took it, because a man with fourteen days takes it. <<Cash 140>>, and a sentence in your head you could not get out for three days: she paid a stranger to be safe and that was the cheapest option available to her. <<else>>\ "Keep it." "No, because then it's a favour, and then I owe you, and then it's the whole thing again." She said it fast, like somebody who had thought it through long before tonight. "Take the money. Please." So you took it and gave it back to her in the same movement, folded into her hand, and said it was a hundred and forty dollars she was allowed to have without owing anybody anything, and she stood in her doorway and did not say anything at all. Nothing in your account. You walked home the long way and could not have told anyone why you were not sorry. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> The salon two doors down from Sorel was dark inside and there was a woman up a ladder in it with a head torch and a socket tester, doing something to a ceiling rose that the sign on the door said a qualified electrician had done in November. "He did not do it in November. He came in November. Different verb." Her name was Ines. She had put eleven years of hairdressing into a lease on Prospect and had discovered in month two that her landlord's contractor had wired six stations off one ring main, and had gone and got the code herself, and read it, all of it, twice. "Inspection's Thursday. I need somebody to hold things, pass things, write down readings, and be a second adult in the room when the inspector comes, because I have watched what happens to a woman explaining her own wiring to a man with a clipboard and I am not doing it alone. Six twenty." <hr> <<link "Take it (7 hours, +$620)">><<run $passageRoute to 1; AddHours(7); AddCash(620)>><<goto "Odd Wire Done">><</link>> <<link "Take it, and let her do the talking on Thursday (7 hours, +$620)">><<run $passageRoute to 2; AddHours(7); AddCash(620)>><<goto "Odd Wire Done">><</link>> <<link "You are not an electrician">><<run $passageRoute to 0>><<goto "Odd Wire Done">><</link>>

<<if $passageRoute is 0>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> "Neither am I," she said from the ladder. "That's not what the job was." You were three blocks away before you understood that she had been right and you had answered a question she had not asked. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg">> Two days of holding things and writing down numbers, and she was better at it than the man who had done it in November, and knew she was, and said so cheerfully about once an hour. Thursday, the inspector was a man in his fifties who came in, looked at Ines, looked at you, and addressed the first four questions to you. <<if $passageRoute is 2>>\ You said, "I hold the torch. She'll answer that." Four times. He got there eventually. By the third answer he had stopped performing patience and started actually listening, and by the end he was arguing with her about a derating factor as an equal, which is a thing you watched happen in real time and would not have believed if somebody had described it to you. She signed off at half four and shut the door and stood with her back against it. "Twelve years. That's the first one of those I've won." <<Cash 620>>, and a demonstration, free of charge, of the whole difference between helping a woman and speaking for her. <<else>>\ You answered them, because they were addressed to you and because you knew the answers by then, and it went fine, and he signed it off at half four. Ines was quiet after he left. Not angry. Quiet. "You did it too," she said, eventually, without heat. "It's fine. Everybody does it. It's just that it was my ceiling." <<Cash 620>>, and about four blocks later it landed properly and stayed landed. <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Print">><<PNav "Street">>

<h2>Adaeze Okonkwo</h2> Forty-four. Buildings Department. Fair to a degree that is occasionally inconvenient and never once unfair. Somebody keeps calling her office about your address and will not leave a name, and she has started to find that irritating on your behalf, which she would deny. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/CoffeehouseBar.jpg">> She takes the table by the window with her back to the wall and her folder squared to the edge of the table, and she does not touch the coffee for the first four minutes. <hr> <h2>What you ask her</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFair")>>\ <<link "Ask her what she's actually looking for (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "Okonkwo Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFair") and not CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFile")>>\ <<link "Ask why 114 has a file that thick (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "Okonkwo Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkFile") and not CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkCalls")>>\ <<link "Ask her what's bothering her (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "Okonkwo Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkCalls") and not CheckEvent("Okonkwo", "TalkAdvice") and $player.fame gte 15>>\ <<link "Ask her what she would do (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 4>><<goto "Okonkwo Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Cafe">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/CoffeehouseBar.jpg">> She was on the counter and the queue was three deep and she clocked you coming in from the door, and had your coffee started before you reached her, which she did for you and for nobody else and which she would have denied. "You've got the face. You want something." "I do." "Say it, then. You do the thing where you say it once." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "AskPhoto")>>\ [[Ask her to send you a photograph she has not arranged|Pip Ask Photo]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "AskShift")>>\ [[Ask her to work a shift dressed the way she would if nobody was allowed to comment|Pip Ask Shift]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "AskNo")>>\ [[Ask her to refuse somebody, once, this week|Pip Ask No]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "AskNight") and CheckEvent("Pip", "Session3")>>\ <<if GetStat("pip", "slut") gte 10>>\ [[Ask her to come to yours after close (2 hours)|Pip Ask Night]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">You could ask her upstairs and she would come. That is exactly why you are not going to, this week.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ [[Leave it|Pip Asks Out]]

<<if CheckEvent("Pip", "Session5")>>\ <<include [[Pip Done]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session4")>>\ <<include [[Pip Session 5]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session3")>>\ <<include [[Pip Session 4]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session2")>>\ <<include [[Pip Session 3]]>>\ <<elseif CheckEvent("Pip", "Session1")>>\ <<include [[Pip Session 2]]>>\ <<else>>\ <<include [[Pip Session 1]]>>\ <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg">> She was flawless with you. That was the tell and by now you could read it: the warmer she got, the further out she was. She called you //sir// once, as a joke, and it did not land as one. <hr> <<if $player.cash gte 80>>\ <<link "Take her somewhere with a tablecloth (-$80, 2 hours)">>\ <<run AddCash(-80); AddHours(2); AddStat("pip", "happiness", 1); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.weeklyRepair to false; $passageRoute to 1 >><<goto "Pip Repair Done">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if HasTechnique("reframe")>>\ <<link "Say the thing out loud (1 hour)">>\ <<run AddHours(1); AddStat("pip", "happiness", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1); $bimbos.pip.weeklyRepair to false; $passageRoute to 2 >><<goto "Pip Repair Done">><</link>> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is a way to fix this without buying her dinner and you have not learned it yet.</div> <</if>>\ [[Leave her alone this week|Pip Repair Out]]

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ She was out of the apron and into a jacket before the clock hit four, and she had the table cleaned, and she had a notebook out, and the notebook was new. "Okay. So I've been thinking about it all week and I want to be really upfront with you about my goals, because I think misalignment at intake is where these things die." "You've been to an intake before." "I've been to //nine//." She said it like a personal best. "So. What are the levels?" "The levels." "The tiers, the bands, whatever you call them. Bloom had six. Six bands, four modules a band, you sit the review, you clear the band. I was Band Four at sixteen, which nobody had done, and I'm not saying that to brag, I'm saying it because I know how I work. Give me the ladder and I will //eat// the ladder." She had the pen up. She was smiling. The smile was doing an enormous amount of work and none of it was happiness. <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Levels")>>\ [[Tell her there is no ladder|Pip Session 1 Levels]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Intake")>>\ [[Let her run her own intake on herself|Pip Session 1 Intake]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Speed")>>\ [[Answer the question she is actually asking: how fast|Pip Session 1 Speed]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Levels") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Intake") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S1Speed")>>\ [[Close it out|Pip Session 1 Close]] <</if>>\

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "DidNothing")>>\ She got to the table before you and she had already ordered for both of you, and she started talking before you had your coat off. "I sat on the fire escape for forty minutes and I did not enjoy a single second of it and I want that noted." <<else>>\ She got to the table before you and she had already ordered for both of you, and she was three sentences into a story about a customer before you sat down. It was a good story. It was a wall. <</if>>\ "Tell me about Bloom." The story stopped mid-clause. "It's a youth development pathway, it's..." "Not the brochure. Tell me one day of it." "One day." "One. Any one." She looked out of the window at the street for long enough that the coffee got drinkable. "Okay. But I want it on the record that it was //fine//." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Room")>>\ [[Ask about the room|Pip Session 2 Room]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Form")>>\ [[Ask about the form|Pip Session 2 Form]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Cohort")>>\ [[Ask about the other girls|Pip Session 2 Cohort]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Room") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Form") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S2Cohort")>>\ [[Close it out|Pip Session 2 Close]] <</if>>\

<<run AddEvent("Pip", "S2Room"); AddStat("pip", "bimbo", 2); AddTrust("pip", 1)>>\ <<Pool 26>> "Capacity review. Every eight weeks. Third floor at Flatiron, the room at the end with the frosted glass, which is a genuinely nice room, I want to be fair, they spent money on it." She turned her cup a quarter turn. Another quarter. "You go in, you take your shoes off, you stand on the plate. There's a curtain but the curtain's on a track that stops about eight inches short, and everyone knew about the eight inches, we used to joke about the eight inches. So there's a Guide at the desk and there's whoever's next in the corridor and there's you, on the plate, in your socks." "How old." "Fifteen the first time. Nineteen the last time. That's..." she did it in her head, fast, she did everything fast. "Twenty-six of them. Give or take." "And they read the number out." "They read the number out, and then they say the number you were at last time, and then they say //and how do we feel about that//." "How did you feel about it?" "Aligned." She said it instantly and then made a face at herself, the first genuinely disgusted expression you had seen her make. "God. Sorry. That's... you say //aligned// because //aligned// ends the conversation. If you say aligned you're back in the corridor in ninety seconds. If you say anything else it's a forty minute conversation about your relationship with capacity and you miss the train." "So you learned a word that gets you out of rooms." "I learned about six." <hr> [[Back to the table|Pip Hub]]

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ You had spent the week with a tape and a notebook and had arrived at a conclusion you did not like: that you could not teach her anything, because every sentence you gave her went into a machine that turned it into a module. The only thing left was to break the machine. She sat down happy. That was the worst part, afterwards. She sat down happy, and she had the notebook, and she said, "I did the scales thing and I've got //findings//," and you said, "Before that. I want to take some words off you." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Ban")>>\ [[Take the five words|Pip Session 3 Ban]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Offer")>>\ [[Let her try the other thing she knows how to do|Pip Session 3 Offer]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Manual")>>\ [[Let her hit back|Pip Session 3 Manual]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Ban") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Offer") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S3Manual")>>\ [[Close it out|Pip Session 3 Close]] <</if>>\

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ She came. You had put the odds at about even and she came, eight minutes late, which she had never been. She sat down. She did not have the notebook. "I'm not apologising." "Good." "I've been apologising since Thursday. In my head. To you, which is insane, because I was //right//." "You were." "Stop //doing// that." But there was something under it this week, some engine turning over that had not been turning before. "Okay. So I've got nothing. I've got no words and I've got no ladder and I've got a week where I said about eleven sentences total because every other one had a banned word in it. Ask me something." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Coffee")>>\ [[Ask her about coffee|Pip Session 4 Coffee]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Want")>>\ [[Ask her what she wants|Pip Session 4 Want]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Mirror")>>\ <<if HasTechnique("mirror")>>\ [[Put her in front of a mirror|Pip Session 4 Mirror]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">There is a thing he did with mirrors and you have not worked out what it was yet.</div> <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Coffee") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Want") and (CheckEvent("Pip", "S4Mirror") or not HasTechnique("mirror"))>>\ [[Close it out|Pip Session 4 Close]] <</if>>\

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · Thursday 16:00">> <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Coffeehouse.jpg" "Coffeehouse Nine · Thursday 16:00">> <</if>>\ She had cut her hair. Not much, an inch, blunt across the bottom, and she had done it herself in the staff toilet with the good scissors, and she told you that before you had asked, before hello, with something in her voice you had not heard from her before, which was ordinary pride. "It's a bit crooked at the back." "It is." "Yeah." She sat down like the chair was hers. "So this is the last one, isn't it. You've got that face." "Of the five, yes." "And then what?" "That's what today's about." <hr> <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Work")>>\ [[Ask what she wants to do with it|Pip Session 5 Work]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Lumen")>>\ [[Ask her what she would do to Lumen|Pip Session 5 Lumen]] <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Him")>>\ [[Ask what she wants from you|Pip Session 5 Him]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Work") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Lumen") and CheckEvent("Pip", "S5Him")>>\ [[Close it out|Pip Session 5 Close]] <</if>>\

[[Get a quote on something (20 minutes)|Print Quote]] <<if CheckEvent("Player", "Flyers") and not CheckEvent("Player", "Reprint")>>\ [[Collect a second print run (-$60, 1 hour)|Print Run]] <</if>>\

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\ <<if Known("nadia") and not $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<if GameDayIs("Tuesday") and $gameDate.getHours() is 19>>\ <<PEvent true "Nadia Hub" "Nadia" "Tuesday session">>\ <<else>>\ <<PEvent false "Nadia" "Nadia's session is Tuesday at 19:00. She stays open late for it.">>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\

<<run $passageRoute to random(1, 3); AddHours(1)>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddCash(500)>>\ <<Pool 3>> A referral from nobody you know, which means the flyers are travelling. She is forty-four and has spent nine years being the reasonable one in a marriage where nobody else had to be. You do not talk about the Protocol for the first half hour. You talk about the word //reasonable// and where she picked it up. <<Cash 500>> for the hour. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddCash(300)>>\ <<Pool 21>> Short notice, and she is late, and she apologises four times in the first minute. You count them out loud, gently, and she stops dead and then laughs. <<Cash 300>> for the hour. <<else>>\ <<run AddCash(400)>>\ <<Pool 33>> She read the page with the five Principles on it and came in to tell you that the third one is dangerous. She is not wrong. You spend the hour on why it is worth the danger, and she books another. <<Cash 400>> for the hour. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

/* ===================================================================== 10-plot.twee — the main plot spine of BIMBO PROTOCOL 0.1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Owns: the prologue, the purchase of 114 Dovehurst, the archive discovery, the renovation ladder, the Story Beats router, Weekly Events, the Lumen thread and the Act I close. Cross-file passages this file LINKS to (owned elsewhere): Nadia Hub · Delphine Talk · Torin Talk · Journal Cross-file passages this file only NAMES in prose and does not link, because no writer has claimed them yet: Hollis Shop — the salvage shop under the tracks. Reached through <<PNav "Salvage">> once Player:HollisMet is set, which this file sets on the honest branch of the Lumen gig. Pip Hub — Pip's arc opens off her own writer's beats. Camille Hub — this file only creates $bimbos.camille and sets Camille:Contact. Everything after is hers. Flags this file WRITES: Player: PrologueOpen, GigTorin, GigTorinDone, GigData, GigDataDone, GigLumen, LumenMoney, LumenRefused, HollisMet, NadiaMet, DelphineFront, Bought, MeetingsOpen, MetInHQ, RenoQuote, RenoOne, RenoOneSnag, RenoTwo, RenoTwoSnag, RenoGym, RenoStudio, OkonkwoPressure, CamilleSight1, CamilleSight2, CamilleSight3, LumenLetter, LumenCease, KesslerCall, KesslerLeverage, ActOneEnd Camille: Contact Flags this file only READS: Camille: Defect (set by Camille's writer) ===================================================================== */ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg" "114 Dovehurst Street">> The rain had stopped an hour before you got off the R at Prospect Avenue and started again four blocks later, the thin March kind that does not fall so much as hang. You stood across the street from 114 Dovehurst with your hood down because you wanted to see it properly. Four floors of red brick gone brown. Plywood over the ground-floor windows, grey and swollen, screwed on by somebody who was paid by the hour. A cornice missing two corbels. Above the door, in cast iron somebody had bothered to paint once, the number. You knew the number. You had looked at it on a scanned photograph so many times that seeing it in the actual weather felt like a category error, like meeting a word. Two thousand four hundred dollars in your account. Everything else you owned was in the sublet on Prospect and most of it was paper. <hr> [[Cross the street|Prologue 2]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Downtown.jpg" "Dovehurst Street">> You crossed. The door was steel and newer than the building, with a lockbox on it and a sticker from a property services company in Bay Ridge, and taped inside the glass panel beside it, a printed sheet in a plastic sleeve. PRIVATE SALE - 114 DOVEHURST ST - $18,000 - ALL CASH, 14 DAYS, NO FINANCING CONTINGENCY, SOLD AS IS. Underneath, a phone number with a 212 area code and a case reference beginning LI-. You had the sheet photographed on your phone already. You had had it for six days. You had walked here to check it was still up. Eighteen thousand dollars for four floors in Brooklyn is not a price. It is a disposal. Somebody in an office with a window had a line item to clear before the quarter closed and had written a number that made the line go away. You stood there long enough to get properly wet. Down the block a tyre place was pulling its shutter. Sorel Print had its lights on and its sign flipped to CLOSED. At the corner, one door had a red bulb over it and the door was open, and that was the only lit and open thing on Dovehurst Street. <<run AddHours(1)>>\ <hr> [[Get out of the rain|Prologue 3]]

<<set $npcs.delphine to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "The Long Hour">> The Long Hour was long and narrow and had eleven stools, and at half four in the afternoon it had two men at the far end not talking to each other and a woman behind the bar reading a delivery docket with her glasses pushed up into her hair. She let you sit down and get your coat off before she came over. Forties. Grey coming in at the front and left there. A cardigan over a good shirt, sleeves pushed to the elbow. "You're wet." "It's raining." "It is." She put a coaster down. The accent was French under about thirty years of Brooklyn, which made it sound like a habit rather than a place. "What are you having?" You looked at the taps for longer than a man deciding needs to. "What's cheapest?" "Coffee. It's free after four because the pot's been on since noon and I'd rather you drank it than me." "Coffee, then." She poured it, put it in front of you, and did not go away. That was the first thing about her you noticed properly: she did not fill the space. She stood there with a cloth in her hand and let you be the one who had to decide whether to speak. <hr> [[Ask about the building|Prologue 4]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bartender.jpg" "Delphine Aubry">> "The one at the end of the block. Hundred and fourteen. Do you know if the sale's real?" She did not answer for a second. She looked at you the way you look at a bill you already know the total of, and something happened in her face that was gone before you could name it. "Which sale." "Eighteen thousand. Fourteen days. It's taped to the door." "I've seen it." She folded the cloth in half and then in half again. "You came from where, this afternoon?" "Prospect Avenue." "You came four blocks in the rain to look at a building you can't buy." There was no cruelty in it. She said it the way you'd read out a temperature. "I wanted to see it." "Mm." She knew. You were certain of it in the middle of the sentence and you were still certain of it afterwards, and she did not say a word about it. She did not say you're one of those, or I know what you're here for, or ask what was in your bag. She looked at a man in a wet coat asking about a condemned building and she filed it and she poured him a coffee. "The sale is real. I'll tell you one thing about it and then I have a delivery. Nobody local is going to touch it. Not the tyre place, not the man who owns the bodega, not the two developers who have been buying this street for three years, and I know that because all four of them drink here and all four of them have already said no." "Why?" "Because of who's selling." She picked up your empty cup. "That's the one thing. Come back when you've got a real question." She went to sign for a delivery of limes. You sat with the ring of water your cup had left and did the arithmetic you had been doing for six days and got the same answer, which was that you were fifteen thousand six hundred dollars away from the only thing you had ever wanted. <<run AddHours(1)>>\ <hr> [[Walk home|Prologue 5]]

<<if not CheckEvent("Player", "DayOne")>>\ <<run $passageRoute to random(1, 3)>>\ <</if>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg" "Your desk">> The sublet was one room over a laundromat and cost $310 a week. Above the desk, in the order you thought they were meant to go in, were sixty photocopied pages with a gap where thirty-one to forty should have been. You opened the laptop and made the spreadsheet say it one more time. <h4>Fourteen days</h4> Rent, $310 a week. On hand, <<Cash $player.cash>>. Needed, <<Cash 18000>>. The dispatch office off Atlantic Avenue would take you back on nights at $300 a shift, no questions, because they always would. Fourteen shifts of that was $4,200 and it was not close and you knew it was not close before you typed it. So the nights were the floor, not the plan. The plan was the other thing, the thing you had learned doing six years of them: that in a four-block radius of any laundromat in this city there is always somebody who needs a back, a pair of hands or a man who will turn up sober, and that they do not advertise. They stand on a pavement at a particular hour looking annoyed, and if you are on that pavement at that hour the work is yours and if you are not it goes to somebody else and you never hear about it. So: be out. Be out at the hours when things are happening. The street, the bar, the café, the print shop, and the room you are sitting in. Fourteen days of being in the right place is a strategy, and it was the only one you had. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ Her bag was still by the door. Four months now. A good coat, a phone she had paid for herself, and a pair of boots you had never once seen her wear out of the flat, only in it, only late, only for you — which had been a joke between you until it stopped being one and she left in January without raising her voice about anything at all. You had been careful not to look at the bag for four months. You looked at it now with a number in your head, which is the exact difference between grief and fourteen days, and you took the coat and the phone down to the place on Fifth in the morning and got four hundred dollars for both. She would not have minded. That was the worst part and it was also true. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ Six years of nights had done one thing for you and you had the sense to know what it was. Not the money — the money was gone the week it arrived. The body. Loading at four in the morning for six years had built something you had never gone looking for, and the first Principle, the one everybody laughs at, is the one that had worked on you first and worked on you without asking. You did forty minutes on the floor between the bed and the desk, because you were about to spend fourteen days asking strangers to believe you could lift their furniture, and because a man who is going to teach a thing had better have done it. <<else>>\ Under the bed, in a case with a broken catch, was the deck. You had bought it two years ago from a man in Ridgewood who wanted eighty dollars and a lift to Queens Boulevard, and you had carried it home on the R across your knees like something injured. Quarter-inch, two-track, the belt replaced once by you badly and once by somebody competent. It ran at very slightly the wrong speed and you had stopped being able to hear that. Nobody sane owns a reel-to-reel in 2028. You owned one because of a footnote in a forum post from 2019 that said the coach recorded everything, and because you had decided, on no evidence, that the tapes still existed somewhere and that one day you would be the man holding the machine that played them. <</if>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "DayOne")>>\ <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ <<run AddCash(400)>>\ <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ <<run AddFitness(6)>>\ <<else>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "Deck"); $player.inventory.pushUnique("Reel-to-reel deck")>>\ <</if>>\ <</if>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "PrologueOpen"); AddEvent("Player", "DayOne"); SetHours(19); SetMinutes(0)>>\ You set the alarm for eight and went out at eight in the evening instead, because the first shift was the first shift. <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">><<PNav "Street">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* THE GIGS */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BoutiqueDesk.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> Sorel Print & Copy was two doors from 114 and had a hand-lettered card in the window listing eleven services in a typeface somebody had actually chosen. The bell over the door was a real bell. The woman behind the counter did not look up straight away. Mid-thirties. Black jumper, sleeves to the knuckles, hair up with a pencil in it that was plainly load-bearing. Behind her a Ricoh the size of a wardrobe was running a job and she was watching the output edge, not the door. "Two minutes. If I look away it starts eating them." You waited. You looked at the wall behind her instead, which had a decade of other people's jobs pinned to it: a fish market, a Polish church, three missing cats, a band. All of them set properly. All of them by somebody who could not stop doing it right even for a missing cat. The machine finished. She squared the stack, did not turn round, and said: "Okay. Go." "I'd like a price on a flyer run. A5, single side, black. Five hundred, and then a price for two thousand, so I know what I'm choosing between." Now she turned round. "Say that again." "Which part?" "All of it. Nobody says the second part. Everybody comes in and says how much for some flyers and then gets annoyed at me for asking the eleven questions." She pulled a pad over. "Five hundred is a hundred and twenty. Two thousand is two ninety, which is not four times a hundred and twenty, and that's the whole reason you asked." "That's the whole reason I asked." "Mm." She wrote both numbers down and turned the pad round so you could see them, which not everybody does. "When do you want it." "I don't. Not yet. I wanted to know what it costs so I know what I'm working towards." She put the pen down. "You've got no money." "I've got a hundred and twenty. I've got other things to spend it on for about two more weeks." "Then why are you in my shop?" "Because in two weeks I'd rather already know." There was a pause. Something in her face did the thing where a person decides you are not going to be a problem, and relaxes about a centimetre, and then immediately dislikes having relaxed. "Nadia Sorel." She said it like a fact about the building rather than an introduction. "The price holds for a month. After that paper goes up in April and I'm not eating it for you." "$player.firstName $player.lastName." "I don't need it." She was already turning back to the Ricoh. "You'll be back or you won't." The bell went behind you. Two doors down, the plywood, and the number over the door. <<set $bimbos.nadia to clone($bimboTemplate)>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "NadiaMet")>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Street">><<PNav "Sublet">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* THE LOAN — the emotional high point of the prologue */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "The Long Hour">> You went in at half four again because that was the hour you knew, and this time you had a question. "You said nobody local would touch it because of who's selling. I know who's selling now." Delphine put the docket down. "How much of my money do you want to hear about?" "None of it. Sit at the end." She lifted the hatch. "Not there. The end." She poured two, which she had not done before, and came round the bar, which she had not done before either, and sat one stool away from you, which is the distance a person picks when the conversation is going to be long. "How much have you got?" "<<Cash $player.cash>>." "And how many days?" "<<print $player.deadline>>." "So you're short <<Cash 18000 - $player.cash>> and you can't do it, and you know you can't do it, and you came in here anyway because I'm the only person on this street who's talked to you like a person." You did not answer that, because there was nothing in it that was wrong. <hr> [[Let her talk|Prologue Loan Terms]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "The Long Hour · back room">> She turned the glass on the bar a quarter turn. "I came here at nineteen. I have worked in nine rooms in this city and I have owned this one for twenty-two years. In all that time I have been asked for money four times and I have said yes once." "You don't know me." "No." She looked at the mirror behind the bottles rather than at you. "Three years, this room was full at six o'clock on a Friday, and it was full of women who had come four blocks from that building, and they were not what you would think. They were tired. They came in tired and they went out lighter, and they argued with each other about the fourth one, always the fourth one, and none of them ever once paid with somebody else's card." "And he came in on Thursdays and sat where you're sitting, and he was not charming. He was prepared. He had a notebook and he wrote in it in the bar like a lunatic, and when the whole thing was taken off him he came in and he did not say one word about it, and then he stopped coming, and I have not said his name out loud in four years and I am not going to start tonight." The two men at the far end had gone. It was ten past five on a Tuesday and it was raining again. "I watched that building go dark. I have served drinks under it every night since. So." She put her hand flat on the bar, which was the first ungoverned thing you had seen her do. "<<Cash 18000 - $player.cash>>. That's what you're short and that's what I've got that isn't the lease and isn't the tax. Terms. You pay me two hundred and twenty a week from the first week you take money off anybody, and if a week comes where you can't, you tell me on the Monday and not the Friday. I don't want interest. I don't want a share. I have watched one man's thing get owned by somebody else and I'm not doing it to you." <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenMoney")>>\ "One more." She did not soften it. "Guillaume told me what he paid you for. Forty of them, was it. I'm giving you the money anyway, because I'd rather you had it than they did, but you and I are going to sit here and be clear that four thousand of what you carry into that room is theirs, and one day somebody is going to hold that up in front of you." "I know." "Good. Then we never discuss it again." <<else>>\ "And he asked you to write the forty and you said no." She said it flatly, like a docket item. "He was in here that night telling everybody. He thought it was funny. It is not funny and it is the reason the number is what it is." <</if>>\ "Why?" "Because somebody should have and nobody did." She got off the stool. "That's your one true thing for tonight. Drink that, it's the good one, and go and buy your building." <<set _gap to 18000 - $player.cash>>\ <<run AddCash(_gap); $player.mortgage += _gap; AddEvent("Player", "DelphineFront"); AddHours(2)>>\ <hr> <<Cash _gap>> from Delphine Aubry. You owe it at $220 a week and she wrote nothing down. <hr> <<PNav "Desk">><<PNav "Sublet">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* BUYING 114 DOVEHURST */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<PShot "Assets/Places/PublicGym.jpg" "Bracken Fitness">> Bracken Fitness. Forty dollars a month, no towels, and a squat rack that has never once been free when you wanted it. <hr> <h2>Activities</h2> [[Train properly (2 hours)|Gym Session]] <hr> <<PNav "Subway">>

<<run AddCash(-5000); $player.unlocks.gym to true; AddEvent("Player", "RenoGym"); AddHours(8)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeGym.jpg" "The gym floor">> Rubber matting over the whole second floor, a rack, two benches, and mirrors end to end on the long wall, which cost more than everything else put together. "That's a lot of mirror." "The mirrors aren't optional." "I didn't say cut them. I said it's a lot of mirror." He ran a thumb along the edge bead. "You know he had them too. Same wall. You can see the fixing holes if you know what you're looking at, and I know what I'm looking at." <hr> <<PNav "HQGym">><<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddCash(-4000); AddEvent("Player", "RenoOne"); $player.dayCounter to 3; AddHours(9); AddFitness(2)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg">> Three days, and he was right that you would be carrying things. The roof came off in strips and went into a dumpster you were also paying for. The wiring came out of the walls in long grey lengths like something being drawn out of a wound, and Torin's apprentice, a silent nineteen-year-old called Dov, chased new runs into the plaster with a headphone in one ear. Torin talked. On the second afternoon, sitting on an upturned bucket eating a sandwich in what would later be the hall, he said: "You know what's wrong with this building? Nothing. That's what's wrong with it. It's been empty four years and nobody stripped the copper. Four years, ground floor boarded with quarter-inch ply a child could kick through, and there's a hundred and ten feet of copper in that basement still on the wall." "So?" "So somebody on this street was watching it. That's all. I'm not saying it's a nice thought or a bad one. I'm saying somebody has been looking after your building for four years and it wasn't you." <hr> Three days of work. The inspection is when they're done. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<set $npcs.okonkwo to clone($minorTemplate)>>\ <<run AddHours(2)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg">> Adaeze Okonkwo arrived at 09:40 for a 09:30 and apologised for it, which none of the inspectors in any story Torin had told you had ever done. Forties. Grey coat, a tablet in a rubber case, and a torch she used constantly even in daylight. She went up through the building floor by floor and said almost nothing, and everything she did say was a number. <<set _snag to random(1, 3)>>\ <<if _snag lte 2>>\ She stopped in the basement. "Mr $player.lastName. There is a gas service riser in this building and it is live." "There's no gas. There's no meter." "There is no meter. The meter was removed. The service was not capped, and a service that is not capped is live as far as I am concerned and as far as the utility is concerned, and I cannot sign a change of use over a live uncapped service." She wrote something. "This is not a fine and it is not a violation. It is a Tuesday. You call the utility, they cap it, they charge you six hundred dollars, I come back." <hr> <<if $player.cash gte 600>>\ <<link "Pay the utility to cap it (-$600)">><<run AddCash(-600); AddHours(4); $player.unlocks.renovated to true>><<goto "Reno One Passed">><</link>> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Capping the riser is <<Cash 600>>. You have <<Cash $player.cash>>. Come back when you have it.</div> <</if>>\ <<PNav "HQ">> <<else>>\ She came back down to the hall, took her glasses off, and looked at the ceiling. "Whoever did your roof did your roof properly. I have been in four buildings this week and three of them were lying to me." "Torin Vale." "Yes. I know." She signed it on the tablet and turned the screen round for you, which you learned later she did not have to do. <<run $player.unlocks.renovated to true>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">> <</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallB.jpg">> The utility came on the Thursday, capped it in fifty minutes, and charged you <<Cash 600>> for the fifty minutes. Okonkwo came back on the Friday, looked at the cap, looked at the seal, and signed. "That is a building again. It is not anything else yet. Do not put chairs in it." <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddEvent("Player", "RenoQuote"); AddHours(2)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/DerelictBuilding.jpg">> Torin Vale came at eight, walked the four floors in twenty minutes without writing anything down, and then wrote for a quarter of an hour on the tailgate. "Right. You want the good news in an order or all at once?" "All at once." "The frame's fine. The frame is better than fine, the frame will be here when the tyre place is a condo. Your stair is sound, your joists are dry except a bay and a half at the back of two which is dry because it already did its rotting in 2009. That's the whole good news and it's more than most people get." He turned the pad round. "Bad news: your roof is a decision somebody made in 1988 and your wiring is a decision somebody made in 1961, and you cannot open a door to the public with either of them. Roof and rewire, and I mean a proper one, not a service upgrade and a prayer. Four thousand. Materials at cost, my time at a rate I will not explain, three days, and you'll be carrying things." "And then?" "And then you get an inspector, because that's a change of use and a change of use is not something you and I get to have an opinion about." He tore the sheet off. "After that, if you want the ground floor back to one room the way it was drawn, six and a half. But do the roof first. Everything else you spend before the roof is money you are pouring through the roof, which is a joke I've made nine hundred times and will make again." <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddCash(-7500); $player.unlocks.studio to true; AddEvent("Player", "RenoStudio"); AddHours(8)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HomeStudio.jpg" "The studio">> South-facing, the whole width of the third floor. Two heads, a paper roll on a wall-mounted triple, blackout on a track, and a floor that took four days to get flat enough. The hooks in the ceiling were already there in a pattern that had meant nothing to you the first day you walked the building. Torin looked up at them for a while and then went and got the ladder and put a new eye bolt in the one that had been missing, dead centre, without being asked and without saying anything about it. <hr> <<PNav "HQStudio">><<PNav "HQ">> /* ==================================================================== */ /* STORY BEATS — the central router */ /* Included from Sleep Events, Sublet Events, Street Events, */ /* Dovehurst Events, HQ Events and Studio Events. */ /* ==================================================================== */

<<run AddCash(-6500); AddEvent("Player", "RenoTwo"); $player.dayCounter to 3; AddHours(9)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallC.jpg">> The partitions came out in a morning. They had gone in cheap and they came out cheaper, and underneath them the boards ran unbroken the whole forty-one feet from the front window to the back wall, and you could see for the first time what the room had been built to be. Torin got quiet, which was new. "There you go. That's a hall. Somebody drew that in 1907 and then a hundred years of idiots put walls in it." Plaster, then. Then the floor, sanded and sealed, and a radiator run that actually reached the back. Dov did the skirting and did it well and refused to be complimented on it. On the last afternoon Torin was up a ladder with a level when he said, without coming down: "Somebody's asking about you." "Asking who?" "Asking the Department. My licence number came up on a records request last week attached to a job number, and the job number's yours, and the request came from a law firm, and a law firm doesn't file a records request on a five-thousand-dollar roof." He came down two rungs. "I'm not worried. I do everything right, it's very boring, it's the whole business model. I'm telling you because you should know what shape it is before it arrives." <hr> Three days. Then the inspection that decides whether you can put forty chairs in it. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<run AddHours(2); AddEvent("Player", "OkonkwoPressure")>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg">> Okonkwo came at 09:30 for a 09:30 and brought somebody with her, a young man with a clipboard who did not speak and who she introduced as being from the office, which is not a thing that means anything. She measured the hall. She measured the door. She stood in the middle of the floor and turned all the way round once. "Assembly use. What number are you going to tell me?" "Forty." "Forty is fine. Forty-nine is where your life gets difficult and I imagine somebody has already told you that." <<set _snag to random(1, 3)>>\ <<if _snag lte 2>>\ She stopped at the back of the hall, where a door led to the yard, and put her hand on it. "This is your second means of egress and it opens inward and it is locked with a key. Both of those are the same problem and the problem is that in ninety seconds of smoke, forty people push." "What does it need?" "It needs to swing out and it needs panic hardware. Twelve hundred dollars if you use a real company and four hundred if you use a man with a van, and I will fail the man with the van, so it is twelve hundred." <hr> <<if $player.cash gte 1200>>\ <<link "Have it done properly (-$1,200)">><<run AddCash(-1200); AddHours(6)>><<goto "Reno Two Passed">><</link>> <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Panic hardware and a rehung door: <<Cash 1200>>. You have <<Cash $player.cash>>.</div> <</if>>\ <<PNav "HQ">> <<else>>\ She signed it standing up, which the young man from the office noticed. <hr> [[Ask her the question|Reno Two Passed]] <</if>>\

<<run $player.unlocks.hq to true>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "114 Dovehurst">> She signed the change of use at 11:20 on a Wednesday morning and emailed you the certificate before she had left the building, because she does everything the same day. At the door you asked her. "Who's calling your office about me?" She did not pretend not to understand, and she did not tell you either, and the gap between those two things was the whole answer. "Mr $player.lastName. Four inspections were reassigned to me this month. Three of them are on this block. I did not ask for them and I do not know who did." She put her glasses back on. "You should understand that this is not a threat. I am extremely good at my job. If somebody wants me looking at your building closely, the worst thing that can happen to you is that your building becomes very, very compliant." "And the best thing?" "The same thing. That is what people find difficult." <hr> Forty chairs. A radiator that works. A door that opens outward. You have somewhere to hold it. <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

/* Stage ladder. Each stage: quote → three days of work (player.dayCounter) → an Okonkwo inspection that can go wrong. */ <<if not $player.unlocks.renovated>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "RenoQuote")>>\ [[Get Torin Vale to walk the building|Reno Quote]] <<elseif not CheckEvent("Player", "RenoOne")>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 4000>>\ [[Start stage one: roof and wiring (-$4,000)|Reno One]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Making it safe is <<Cash 4000>>. You have <<Cash $player.cash>>.</div> <</if>>\ <<elseif $player.dayCounter gt 0>>\ <div class="p-locked">Torin's crew are on the roof. <<print $player.dayCounter>> more day<<if $player.dayCounter gt 1>>s<</if>>, then the inspection.</div> <<else>>\ [[Meet the inspector|Reno One Inspection]] <</if>>\ <<elseif not $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "RenoTwo")>>\ <<if $player.cash gte 6500>>\ [[Start stage two: take the partitions out (-$6,500)|Reno Two]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">The hall is <<Cash 6500>>. You have <<Cash $player.cash>>.</div> <</if>>\ <<elseif $player.dayCounter gt 0>>\ <div class="p-locked">The ground floor is a building site. <<print $player.dayCounter>> more day<<if $player.dayCounter gt 1>>s<</if>>.</div> <<else>>\ [[Meet the inspector|Reno Two Inspection]] <</if>>\ <<else>>\ <<if not $player.unlocks.gym and $player.cash gte 5000 and $player.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[Fit out the second floor as a gym (-$5,000)|Reno Gym]] <</if>>\ <<if not $player.unlocks.studio and $player.cash gte 7500 and $player.dayCounter is 0>>\ [[Fit out the third floor as a studio (-$7,500)|Reno Studio]] <</if>>\ <</if>>\

[[Look at what he's selling|Hollis Shop]] [[Talk to Hollis (30 minutes)|Hollis Talk]]

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "TapeSearch") and $npcs.hollis.dayCounter is 0 and $player.tapes.found lt 9>>\ <<PEvent true "Hollis Found" "Hollis" "He's put something under the counter for you.">>\ <</if>>\

<<if $gameDate.getHours() gte 5>><<run AddDays(1)>><</if>>\ <<run SetHours(8); SetMinutes(0); UpdateDayCounters();>>\ <<Pool>> <<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ You sleep badly, the way you have slept for two years, and wake up counting. <<else>>\ You sleep in the building. It is not comfortable and you do not care. <</if>>\ <hr> <<if GameDayIs("Monday") and $player.introComplete>>\ [[Sit down with the books|Weekly Finances]] <<else>>\ <<include [[Sleep Events]]>>\ <<include [[Day Start]]>>\ <</if>>\

<<if $bimbos.nadia>><<include [[Nadia Sleep Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>><<include [[Pip Sleep Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille>><<include [[Camille Sleep Events]]>><</if>>\ <<include [[Story Beats]]>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Boutique.jpg" "Sorel Print & Copy">> Two doors from 114 and the only lit window on the row after six. A counter, a Heidelberg that is older than the woman who runs it and better maintained, and a wall of paper samples fanned out by weight with the prices written on in pencil and corrected in pencil. There is a drawing pinned behind the register that is not a print. It is an elevation, hand-drawn, of a building that was never built, and it has been up there long enough to have gone the colour of weak tea. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Print Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[Print Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Dovehurst">><<PNav "Street">>

<div class="p-title">\ <div class="p-title__mark">BimboProtocol</div>\ <div class="p-title__sub">Four years after the building closed</div>\ <div class="p-title__rule"></div>\ <div class="p-lang">English · <<link "Español">><<run variables().lang = "es">><<goto "ES:Start">><</link>></div>\ <div class="p-title__warn">18+ This game is intended only for players aged 18 or over. If you are not, close it now.</div>\ <div class="p-form">\ <label class="p-field">First name<<textbox "$player.firstName" "Wes">></label>\ <label class="p-field">Last name<<textbox "$player.lastName" "Corbin">></label>\ </div>\ </div> [[Begin|Prologue 1]] <<if $devMode>>\ [[Skip the prologue|Start Choices]] <</if>>\

Development shortcut. Drops you into Act I with the building bought, the archive open, and the first two clients on the books. <<link [[Begin at Act I|114 Dovehurst]]>>\ <<run variables().player.introComplete = true; variables().player.cash = 3200; variables().player.unlocks.building = true; variables().player.unlocks.archive = true; variables().player.fame = 6; variables().player.tapes.found = 5; AddEvent("Player", "Bought"); AddEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen"); variables().npcs.delphine = clone(variables().minorTemplate); variables().npcs.torin = clone(variables().minorTemplate); variables().bimbos.nadia = clone(variables().bimboTemplate); variables().bimbos.pip = clone(variables().bimboTemplate); SetHours(9); >>\ <</link>> [[Back|Start]]

<<set _here to Here()>>\ <<set _home to (_here is "Sublet")>>\ <<set _out to (_here is "Street")>>\ <<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ /* ---------------- PROLOGUE ---------------------------------------- */ /* The board. Three jobs are drawn every morning; these are the ones on offer where he is standing, at the hour he is standing there. */ <<for _j range OddJobsHere()>>\ <<capture _j>><<link _j.teaser>><<run OddJobTake(_j.id)>><<goto `P(_j.passage)`>><</link>><</capture>> <</for>>\ /* Torin's weekend. Daylight, on the street or at home. */ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "PrologueOpen") and not CheckEvent("Player", "GigTorin") and (_home or _out) and BetweenTime(8, 18)>>\ [[There is a flatbed on the hydrant and a man shouting at a phone|Gig Torin]] <</if>>\ /* The listings board. Home only. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "GigData") and $player.deadline lte 13 and _home>>\ [[Something new on the job board|Gig Data Entry]] <</if>>\ /* The moral fork. Outside the bar, evening, once he has been seen around. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "GigLumen") and $player.deadline lte 13 and _out and BetweenTime(16, 22)>>\ [[A man in a good coat comes out of The Long Hour after you|Gig Lumen]] <</if>>\ /* Nadia. Must happen before the building can be bought. Shop hours. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "NadiaMet") and _out and BetweenTime(9, 17) and not GameDayIs("Sunday")>>\ [[Walk down to Dovehurst and price a flyer run|Prologue Flyers]] <</if>>\ /* Delphine's loan. The bar is open from 14:00. Either he has done the work, or the clock has run down far enough that she stops waiting. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "DelphineFront") and CheckEvent("Player", "NadiaMet") and $player.cash lt 17000 and ($player.cash gte 4500 or $player.deadline lte 3) and $player.deadline lte 6 and (_home or _out) and BetweenTime(14, 23)>>\ [[Go and ask Delphine Aubry a real question|Prologue Loan]] <</if>>\ <<else>>\ /* ---------------- ACT I ------------------------------------------- */ /* Delphine offers the back room, which is what opens the meeting loop. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "MeetingsOpen") and $player.unlocks.archive and (_home or _out) and BetweenTime(14, 23)>>\ [[Delphine left a message about her back room|Back Room Offer]] <</if>>\ /* Lumen's counsel. Post, at the sublet, morning. */ <<if not CheckEvent("Player", "LumenLetter") and $player.fame gte 15 and _home and BetweenTime(8, 12)>>\ [[There is a letter downstairs with your name spelled correctly|Lumen Letter]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenLetter") and not CheckEvent("Player", "LumenCease") and $player.fame gte 25 and _home and BetweenTime(8, 14)>>\ [[A courier is waiting outside the laundromat|Lumen Cease]] <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "LumenCease") and not CheckEvent("Player", "KesslerCall") and $player.dayCounter is 0 and (_home or _here is "114 Dovehurst")>>\ [[Your phone is ringing and the number is withheld|Kessler Call]] <</if>>\ /* The Act I climax. Everything has to be true at once. */ <<if CheckEvent("Player", "KesslerCall") and not CheckEvent("Player", "ActOneEnd") and $player.unlocks.hq and CheckEvent("Player", "MetInHQ") and CheckEvent("Camille", "Defect") and (_here is "114 Dovehurst" or _here is "Dovehurst Street")>>\ [[There is a car on Dovehurst Street that does not belong to Dovehurst Street|Act One Climax]] <</if>>\ <</if>>\

/* One copy only — SugarCube renders this passage by name. _t is the phrasebook for whichever language the current passage is in. */ <<set _t to L()>>\ <div class="p-crest">\ <div class="p-crest__mark">BP</div>\ <div class="p-crest__text"><div class="p-crest__name">Bimbo Protocol</div>\ <div class="p-crest__sub">_t.crestSub</div></div>\ </div>\ <<if $player.introComplete>>\ <div class="p-rail-group">\ <div class="p-rail-label">_t.fieldKit</div>\ <<PRail _t.travel "T" "travel" "travel">>\ <<PRail _t.journal "J" "passage:Journal" "journal">>\ <<PRail _t.details "P" "passage:Your Details" "id">>\ <<if $player.unlocks.archive>><<PRail _t.archive "A" "passage:The Archive" "archive">><</if>>\ <<PRail _t.principles "" "passage:The Principles" "book">>\ </div>\ <</if>>\ <div class="p-rail-group">\ <div class="p-rail-label">_t.system</div>\ <<PRail _t.saves "S" "saves" "save">>\ <<PRail _t.settings "" "settings" "gear">>\ <<PRail _t.shortcuts "?" "help" "keys">>\ <<if $devMode>>\ <<PRail _t.restart "" "restart" "reset">>\ <</if>>\ </div>\ <div class="p-rail-foot">\ <div class="p-version">Bimbo Protocol $versionLabel</div>\ </div>

<<set $versionLabel to "0.1"; $devMode to false; $passageRoute to 0; $passageName to ""; $lang to "en"; $gameDate to new Date("2028-03-06T07:00Z"); $player to { firstName: "", lastName: "", cash: 2400, income: 0, expenses: 310, fame: 0, fitness: 4, dayCounter: 0, deadline: 14, introComplete: false, flags: [], inventory: [], mortgage: 0, board: [], jobs: [], jobTimes: {}, jobLast: {}, boardDay: -1, unlocks: { building: false, archive: false, renovated: false, hq: false, gym: false, studio: false, clinic: false, club: false }, meetings: { appearance: 0, please: 0, bestSelf: 0, joy: 0, care: 0 }, tapes: { found: 0, decoded: [], pages: false }, techniques: [] }; $bimbos to {}; $clients to {}; $npcs to {}; $bimboTemplate to { bimbo: 0, slut: 0, exhibitionist: 0, trust: 0, happiness: 5, transformLevel: 0, trainingComplete: false, weeklyRepair: true, dayCounter: 0, cash: 0, debt: 0, flags: [] }; $minorTemplate to { happiness: 5, transformLevel: 0, dayCounter: 0, flags: [] }; >>\ <<cacheaudio "Rec" "Assets/Audio/RecText.mp3">>\ <<cacheaudio "Send" "Assets/Audio/SendText.mp3">>\ <<cacheaudio "Subway" "Assets/Audio/Subway.mp3">>\ <<cacheaudio "Club" "Assets/Audio/StripClub.mp3">>\ <<cacheaudio "Theme" "Assets/Audio/Remix.mp3">>

/* One copy only — protocol.js re-renders this passage into the right column. */ <<set _t to L()>>\ <div class="p-mod">\ <div class="p-id">\ <div class="p-id__ring"><<print $player.firstName.charAt(0).toUpperCase()>></div>\ <div><div class="p-id__name">$player.firstName $player.lastName</div>\ <div class="p-id__role"><<if $player.introComplete>>_t.address<<else>>_t.noTrade<</if>></div></div>\ </div>\ </div>\ <div class="p-mod">\ <div class="p-mod__head">_t.wallet</div>\ <div class="p-wallet">$\ <<print $player.cash.toLocaleString($lang is "es" ? "es-ES" : "en-US")>>\ <<if $player.introComplete>>+<<print $player.income>>_t.perWeek \ −<<print $player.expenses>>_t.perWeek<</if>>\ </div>\ <<if not $player.unlocks.building>>\ <div class="p-deadline"><<if $lang is "es">><<print $player.deadline>> días hasta que Dovehurst 114 vuelva al mercado libre. Cuesta <<Cash 18000>>.<<else>><<print $player.deadline>> days until 114 Dovehurst goes back on the open market. It costs <<Cash 18000>>.<</if>></div>\ <</if>>\ </div>\ <<if $player.introComplete>>\ <div class="p-mod">\ <div class="p-mod__head">_t.standing</div>\ <div class="p-meter" data-kind="fame" @data-value="$player.fame" data-max="50">\ <div class="p-meter__top">_t.awareness<<print $player.fame>> / 50</div>\ <div class="p-meter__track"><div class="p-meter__fill"></div></div>\ </div>\ <div class="p-meter" data-kind="fitness" @data-value="$player.fitness" data-max="50">\ <div class="p-meter__top">_t.conditioning<<print $player.fitness>> / 50</div>\ <div class="p-meter__track"><div class="p-meter__fill"></div></div>\ </div>\ </div>\ <</if>>\ <div class="p-mod">\ <div class="p-mod__head">_t.clock</div>\ <div class="p-clock">\ <div class="p-clock__dial"><<Time>></div>\ <div><div class="p-clock__date"><<Date>></div><div class="p-clock__part" id="p-part"></div></div>\ </div>\ <<if tags().includes("Location")>>\ <div class="p-timebar">\ <<if $gameDate.getHours() lt 23>>\ <button class="p-timebtn" @data-passage="passage()" data-setter="AddHours(1)">_t.waitHour</button>\ <</if>>\ <button class="p-timebtn" @data-passage="P('Sleep')">_t.endDay</button>\ </div>\ <</if>>\ </div>\ <<if $player.introComplete>>\ <div class="p-mod">\ <div class="p-mod__head">_t.agenda</div>\ <div class="p-agenda">\ <<include P("Agenda")>>\ </div>\ </div>\ <</if>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/StreetDoor.jpg">> Prospect Avenue. The laundromat, a locksmith, and the stairs down to the subway. Four blocks east is Dovehurst. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Street Events]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">><<PNav "Cafe">><<PNav "Print">> <<PNav "Subway">><<PNav "Sublet">> <<if $player.unlocks.building>><<PNav "Dovehurst">><</if>>\

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia>><<include [[Nadia Studio Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>><<include [[Pip Studio Events]]>><</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Loft.jpg" "Your sublet">> One room and a hotplate over a laundromat on Prospect. The rent is $310 a week and the ceiling shakes at seven every morning when the dryers start. There are sixty photocopied pages taped to the wall above the desk in the order you think they were meant to go in. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Sublet Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[Sublet Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Desk">><<PNav "Bedroom">><<PNav "Street">> <<if $player.unlocks.building>><<PNav "Dovehurst">><</if>>\

<<if BetweenTime(20, 23) and not $player.unlocks.building>>\ [[Take a night shift (+$300, back at 04:00)|Night Shift]] <</if>>\ <<if BetweenTime(5, 10) and $player.unlocks.building>>\ [[Take a day of contract work (+$300, back at 18:00)|Day Work]] <</if>>\ [[Work out (1 hour)|Workout]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg" "Your desk">> The pages, the shoebox, a laptop with a cracked hinge, and a spreadsheet you have not been able to make say $18,000 no matter how you sort it. <hr> <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[Desk Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Sublet">>

<<include [[Story Beats]]>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia>><<include [[Nadia Home Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip>><<include [[Pip Home Events]]>><</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.camille>><<include [[Camille Home Events]]>><</if>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Subway.jpg">> The R at Prospect Avenue. Everything in this city is forty minutes from everything else. <hr> <<PNav "Gym">><<if $player.unlocks.clinic>><<PNav "Clinic">><</if>>\ <<PNav "Flatiron">><<PNav "Salvage">> <<PNav "Street">> <<audio "Subway" play>>\

<<set _found to $player.tapes.found>>\ <<for _i to 1; _i lte 9; _i++>>\ <<if _i lte _found>>\ <<if HasTape(_i)>>\ <div class="p-tape"><<print _i>><<print Tape(_i).name>>worked through</div>\ <<else>>\ <div class="p-tape"><<print _i>><<print Tape(_i).name>><<capture _i>><<link "work through it (3 hours)">><<run AddHours(3); DecodeTape(_i); $passageRoute to _i>><<goto "Tape Played">><</link>><</capture>></div>\ <</if>>\ <<else>>\ <div class="p-tape p-tape--missing"><<print _i>>-not recovered</div>\ <</if>>\ <</for>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> <h4><<print Tape($passageRoute).name>></h4> <<print Tape($passageRoute).blurb>> Three hours with the deck and a notebook. His voice is flatter than you expected, and he says //right// at the end of sentences the way people do when they are checking whether the other person is still with them. <<if $passageRoute is 1>>\ You can do mirror work now. It goes in every session from here. <<elseif $passageRoute is 2>>\ The standing ask. State the thing once. Do not soften it and do not repeat it. <<elseif $passageRoute is 3>>\ Homework. The week between sessions is the session; the hour is just where you find out what happened. <<elseif $passageRoute is 4>>\ Reframing. What to do when she is angry at you and entirely correct to be. <<elseif $passageRoute is 5>>\ The long silence. He leaves eleven minutes of it on the tape and you sit through all eleven. <<elseif $passageRoute is 7>>\ Pages 31 to 40, at last, read aloud because he never typed a clean copy. <<elseif $passageRoute is 8>>\ The fifth Principle, and the two years he says he taught it wrong. <<elseif $passageRoute is 9>>\ The last session. Eleven days before the building closed. He knew. <<else>>\ Pacing. How fast is too fast, and how he found out. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Archive">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Study.jpg" "The archive">> The room behind the stud wall. Nine reels and a shoebox, and a deck Hollis sold you that plays them at very slightly the wrong speed. <hr> <h2>Tapes</h2> <<include [[Tape List]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "HQ">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg" "The Long Hour">> A long narrow room on the corner of Prospect with a bar down one side and nothing much down the other. Eleven stools. A back room behind a bead curtain that used to be a kitchen and is now twelve chairs and a card table. The clock over the register is four minutes fast and has been for twenty years, because Delphine says a bar that is late is a bar that gets sued. <hr> <h2>Events</h2> <<include [[Long Hour Events]]>>\ <h2>Activities</h2> <<include [[Long Hour Activities]]>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Street">><<PNav "Sublet">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Writing.jpg">> Sixty pages, typed on a machine, photocopied so many times the serifs have gone soft. Pages 31 to 40 are missing from every copy in circulation. <h4>The five</h4> 1. Take pride in your appearance. 2. Please those around you. 3. Be your absolute best self. 4. Be a source of joy, not stress. 5. Let yourself be taken care of. <<if $player.tapes.pages>>\ <hr> You have pages 31 to 40 now. They are not what anyone guessed. They are about what a coach owes the woman in the chair, and they are written like a man apologising in advance. <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallE.jpg" "Second floor · the office">> You sat on the floor with your back to the wall for about ten minutes, and it was in the tenth minute that you noticed you were cold on one side. The office was a rectangle. It was obviously a rectangle. The window was centred in the front wall and the fireplace was centred in the side wall and the room was still not a rectangle, because the back wall came forward. You got up and paced it. Then you went out onto the landing and paced the landing. Then you went down to the first floor and paced the room underneath. Nine inches. The back wall of that office stood nine inches proud of every other wall on that side of the building, all four floors, and the nine inches did not go anywhere. There was no chase in it, no stack, no flue. It was stud and plasterboard and it had been skimmed by somebody who was in a hurry, and along the bottom edge, where the skirting should have been fitted, there was no skirting at all, just a scribed line in pencil that somebody had drawn and never come back to. You put your palm on it. Hollow, and then, eleven inches to the left, not hollow. You went out to the flatbed's worth of tools you did not own, and did not have, and came back with a claw hammer you found in the fourth-floor back room next to the chair. <hr> [[Open it|Archive Found]]

<h2>Torin Vale</h2> Fifty-two. Contractor. Talks continuously, works well, charges what he said he would. He has been inside 114 Dovehurst before and mentioned it once, in passing, in the tone of a man mentioning the weather. <hr> <<PBack>>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/Bar.jpg">> Torin Vale takes up a stool and a half and puts his phone face down on the bar, which is the only formal manner he has. <hr> <h2>What you ask him</h2> <<if not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkJoists")>>\ <<link "Ask him what's actually wrong with the building (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 1>><<goto "Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkJoists") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkStreet")>>\ <<link "Ask him about the street (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 2>><<goto "Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkStreet") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkBefore")>>\ <<link "Ask what 114 was before it was condemned (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 3>><<goto "Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkBefore") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkWho")>>\ <<link "Ask who he did that job for (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 4>><<goto "Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkWho") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkMoney")>>\ <<link "Ask him whether he's charging you properly (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 5>><<goto "Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <<if CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkMoney") and not CheckEvent("Torin", "TalkFinish") and $player.unlocks.renovated>>\ <<link "Ask him why he took the job (30 minutes)">><<run $passageRoute to 6>><<goto "Torin Line">><</link>> <</if>>\ <hr> <<PNav "Bar">>

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallC.jpg" "114 Dovehurst · ground floor">> The code worked on the second try. The door came in about four inches and then stopped against four years of mail, and you had to put your shoulder into it, which is not the way you want to enter the thing you have just bought. Ground floor. One long room, partitioned at some point into three bad ones with stud and a door that had been kicked. Boards under carpet tile under water damage. A radiator on the back wall, cold, and above it a rectangle of paint two shades cleaner than the rest, four feet by three, where something had hung for a long time. You stood in it for a while and did not feel triumphant. You felt like a man in somebody's house. <hr> [[Upstairs|Walkthrough 2]]

<<PShot "Assets/Places/HallD.jpg" "The upper floors">> The stair turned twice and every tread was sound, which you noticed, which meant you had already started thinking like Torin. Second floor: two rooms and an office at the front over the street. Third floor, south-facing, the whole width, with hooks in the ceiling in a pattern that did not mean anything to you yet. Fourth floor and the roof hatch, and a stain coming down the north wall from the hatch to the second floor that told you what the first invoice was going to be about. In the fourth-floor back room somebody had left a chair facing the window. You went back down to the second-floor office because it was the only room in the building that still had its door on, and because you wanted to sit down. <hr> [[Sit down in the office|The Stud Wall]]

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>><<run AddEvent("Player", "MetInHQ")>><</if>>\ <<if $player.fame gte 6 and not CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight1") and not $bimbos.camille>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "CamilleSight1")>>\ <<include [[Camille Sighting 1]]>>\ <<elseif $player.fame gte 9 and CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight1") and not CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight2")>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "CamilleSight2")>>\ <<include [[Camille Sighting 2]]>>\ <<elseif $player.fame gte 12 and CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight2") and not CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight3")>>\ <<run AddEvent("Player", "CamilleSight3")>>\ <<include [[Camille Sighting 3]]>>\ <<elseif $player.fame gte 15 and CheckEvent("Player", "CamilleSight3") and not $bimbos.camille>>\ <<include [[Camille Introduces Herself]]>>\ <</if>>\

<<run $player.cash += ($player.income - $player.expenses)>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/Desk.jpg">> <h4>$player.firstName $player.lastName</h4> Weekly income: <<Cash $player.income>> Weekly outgoings: <<Cash $player.expenses>> <<if $player.mortgage gt 0>>\ <<run $player.cash -= 220; $player.mortgage -= 160>>\ <h4>114 Dovehurst</h4> You pay $220 against the note. <<Cash $player.mortgage>> of principal left. <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.nadia and CheckEvent("Nadia", "Fees")>>\ <<run $player.cash += 150>>\ Nadia paid her $150 for the week. <</if>>\ <<if $bimbos.pip and CheckEvent("Pip", "Fees")>>\ <<run $player.cash += 90>>\ Pip paid her $90, in cash, in an envelope, because she does not trust apps. <</if>>\ <h4>Total</h4> You start the week with <<Cash $player.cash>>. <hr> <<include [[Sleep Events]]>>\ <<include [[Day Start]]>>\ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */ /* The weekly meeting */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */

<<if $player.unlocks.hq>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/HallA.jpg" "114 Dovehurst">> You set the chairs out yourself. Four rows of eight, because you would rather have empty chairs than a woman standing at the back deciding she is intruding. <<else>>\ <<PShot "Assets/Places/BarBackroom.jpg" "The Long Hour · back room">> Delphine unlocks the back room at half five and leaves you to it. Twelve chairs, a card table, and a radiator that knocks. You charge $20 a head. <</if>>\ <<run AddHours(2); AddFame(1)>>\ <<if $player.fame gt 40>>\ <<run AddCash(1900)>>\ Ninety-odd women. You stop taking names at sixty because the line is out onto the pavement and the pavement is not yours. <<elseif $player.fame gt 30>>\ <<run AddCash(1000)>>\ Fifty women. For the first time the room sounds like a room and not like a handful of people being quiet together. <<elseif $player.fame gt 22>>\ <<run AddCash(520)>>\ Twenty-six. You run out of the chairs you set out and go and get more, and somebody has already gone and got them. <<elseif $player.fame gt 15>>\ <<run AddCash(400)>>\ Twenty. They arrive in twos now, which is different. It means they are telling each other. <<elseif $player.fame gt 10>>\ <<run AddCash(260)>>\ Thirteen. Somebody has put a glass of water on the table at the front without being asked. You look at it for a second longer than you mean to. <<elseif $player.fame gt 6>>\ <<run AddCash(160)>>\ Eight women. Two of them are listening properly. That is a better ratio than you had any right to. <<elseif $player.fame gt 3>>\ <<run AddCash(100)>>\ Five. One leaves at the halfway mark and takes her friend with her. <<else>>\ <<run AddCash(60)>>\ Three women come. You give the talk you have given to a mirror for two years. It is worse out loud. You make sixty dollars and lose most of it on the room. <</if>>\ <h4>What is tonight about?</h4> [[Take pride in your appearance|Meeting Appearance]] [[Please those around you|Meeting Please]] [[Be your absolute best self|Meeting Best Self]] [[Be a source of joy, not stress|Meeting Joy]] <<if HasTechnique("care")>>\ [[Let yourself be taken care of|Meeting Care]] <<else>>\ <div class="p-locked">Let yourself be taken care of. You do not understand this one well enough to teach it yet.</div> <</if>>\

/* One copy only: SugarCube registers widgets by name, so this passage serves both languages and switches on $lang. */ /* "Monday Mar 6, 2028" / "Lunes 6 Mar 2028". */ <<widget "Date">>\ <<if $lang is "es">>\ <<print String.format("{0} {1} {2} {3}", GameDaysES[$gameDate.getDay()], $gameDate.getDate(), GameMonthsES[$gameDate.getMonth()], $gameDate.getFullYear())>>\ <<else>>\ <<print String.format("{0} {1} {2}, {3}", GameDays[$gameDate.getDay()], GameMonths[$gameDate.getMonth()], $gameDate.getDate(), $gameDate.getFullYear())>>\ <</if>>\ <</widget>>\ /* Prints the time, 24 hour, zero padded. */ <<widget "Time">>\ <<if $gameDate.getHours() lt 10>>0<</if>><<print $gameDate.getHours()>>:<<if $gameDate.getMinutes() lt 10>>0<</if>><<print $gameDate.getMinutes()>>\ <</widget>>\ /* A rail button. args: label, key hint, action, icon. Both branches emit the same markup so the rail stays one visual system — the dialog openers used to fall through to a bare <<button>>, which came out wearing SugarCube's default styling. protocol.js wires data-act. */ <<widget "PRail">>\ <<set _act to _args[2]>>\ <<set _ico to _args[3] ? _args[3] : "dot">>\ <<if _act.startsWith("passage:")>>\ <button class="p-railbtn" @data-passage="P(_act.substring(8))" @data-i="_ico">_args[0]<<if _args[1]>>_args[1]<</if>></button>\ <<else>>\ <button class="p-railbtn" @data-act="_act" @data-i="_ico">_args[0]<<if _args[1]>>_args[1]<</if>></button>\ <</if>>\ <</widget>>\ /* Returns the player to wherever they were before a reference page. */ <<widget "PBack">>\ <button class="p-timebtn" @data-passage="$passageName"><<= $lang is "es" ? "Volver" : "Back">></button>\ <</widget>>\ /* Money, formatted. */ <<widget "Cash">>\ $<<print _args[0].toLocaleString($lang is "es" ? "es-ES" : "en-US")>>\ <</widget>>\

<<PShot "Assets/Places/WorkoutRoom.jpg">> Forty minutes on the floor between the bed and the desk. It is not a gym. It is the first Principle applied to yourself, which is the only way you have ever been able to make yourself do it. <<run AddHours(1); AddFitness(2)>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>

<h2>$player.firstName $player.lastName</h2> Twenty-eight. Six years of nights. You found sixty photocopied pages at the worst point of your life and they worked on you, and you have spent every hour since trying to work out why. <<PMeter "player" "fame">> <<PMeter "player" "fitness">> <h4>Money</h4> On hand: <<Cash $player.cash>> Weekly income: <<Cash $player.income>> Weekly outgoings: <<Cash $player.expenses>> <<if $player.mortgage gt 0>>\ Outstanding on the building: <<Cash $player.mortgage>> <</if>>\ <<if $player.techniques.length gt 0>>\ <h4>What you know how to do</h4> <<for _t range $player.techniques>>\ <<if _t is "mirror">>Mirror work. <<elseif _t is "ask">>The standing ask. <<elseif _t is "homework">>Setting homework. <<elseif _t is "reframe">>Reframing. <<elseif _t is "silence">>The long silence. <<elseif _t is "pacing">>Pacing. <<elseif _t is "pages">>Everything in pages 31 to 40. <<elseif _t is "care">>The fifth Principle. <</if>>\ <</for>>\ <</if>>\ <hr> <<PBack>>