Sugarcane

The sky overhead was roiling and dark. <<print $trickster>> could see other worlds much like the one he was on form and he saw others destroy. The entire cosmos was swirling into destruction and recreation. There was no true death from where he lay, only a momentary pause in being.\n\n<<print $trickster>> wondered what would happen when he died. Would his consciousness still be? Would he form himself a new body out of the chaos once again?\n\nHe reached to his side and grasped one of the bull's glowing gold horns in his hand tightly and held it up into the sky. The glowing aura of the horn spread out, growing and splitting and dividing the cosmos. <<print $trickster>> let go of the horn, letting it hang in the sky and cast its light throughout all of space.\n\n"I don't want to die," he said.\n\nHe took the other horn and stabbed it deep into the ground before him. He had seen how the other horn had added order to the roiling heavens. It had divided them, and even now shone order and light down onto the smooth ground.\n\nThe horn sent out tendrils of light through the ground. <<print $trickster>> jumped to the side to avoid one. The tendrils grew off into infinity at the horizon of the world.\n\n<<print $trickster>> stepped back.\n\n"The order and light should protect us," he said.\n\nThe world he stood on lasted long into the infinity of time and acted as a center of light and order among the reality of darkness and chaotic swirling.

Out of the swirling mass of energy and matter, shapes began to form. \nProtons and electrons swam through the sky and began to combine.\nColors formed and faded through the newly roiling world, though there was not a soul around to see it.\n\nThere was a small spark at the center of the ungulating chaos.\nIt became <<cyclinglink $sky "light" "dark">>.\n\n[[The spark was covered by the boiling swirls of reality.|chaosChoice]]

<<set $first = "d">><<print $trickster>> walked towards where he had seen the rippling currents of the sea. Soon, he came to a coast. The water before him stretched into infinity. He stood at a boundary between the land and the sea.\n\nHe stooped at the banks of the sea and tried to scoop up the water. Before he could get the water up to his lips, it had already slipped out of his <<if $body eq "animal">>paws<<else>>hands<<endif>>.\n\nHe tried again, and once again the water slipped out before reaching his mouth. His throat cried out in pain seeing <<print $trickster>> waste the water.\n\n"What troubles you?" the sea asked <<print $trickster>>.\n\n"Oh, great waters of the world, ever since I made this body, I have been falling apart! My stomach cries for meat and my throat quests for a drink. I can sate neither," <<print $trickster>> said.\n\n"But, <<print $trickster>>, could you really think that your stomach and throat would not turn against you? It has been since the beginning of eternity that they have been fulfilled," the waters said.\n\n"They are such vile things, then! For I have made them, but they do not follow my lead?" <<print $trickster>> said.\n\n"They, and you as well, know nothing else," the water said.\n\n"<<cyclinglink $drinkwait "Perhaps I am not the real master of this form" "Then I must fight against them to show that I am the one in control">>," <<print $trickster>> said.\n\n"Perhaps you are right. Perhaps you are wrong," the seas said.\n\n[[Trickster stood from the banks.|Thirst2]]

<<if $drinkwait eq "Then I must fight against them to show that I am the one in control">><<display 'Wait'>><<else>><<display 'Drink'>><<endif>>

<<set $wait = 0>><<set $trickster = "Trickster">>\n\nIn the beginning there was nothing.\nThen from the emptyness of time and the eternity of space, something unfolded. What it was is not important, but what is important is that suddenly where there was once neverwhere and neverwhen there was now ''something''.\nOut of that void of black existance came utter and complete <<cyclinglink $start "order" "chaos">>.\n\n[[And then the World began|startChoice]]

<<silently>><<set $sky = "dark">><<endsilently>>\nIt was perfect. There was an ocean, black beneath a sky darker than the deepest of blacks. Mixed in the ocean were perfectly round spheres, rising into the sky and perfectly smooth.\n\n\n<<display 'Trickster'>>

<<print $trickster>> drank and drank and drank, creeping forward as the water level of the sea began to fall.\n\nHis stomach growled at his continued avoidance of its problems, but <<print $trickster>> paid it no heed.\n\n<<print $trickster>> drank the water until there was nothing left to drink, but still his throat was parched.\n\n"There is nothing left to drink! I should have saved some water for later," he said.\n\nHe sat down in the hollow basin where the sea once rested an began to weep.\n\n"You should have gone after the meat," his stomach said.\n\n<<print $trickster>>'s body began to fall inward. His stomach had gotten far too tired of waiting, and would tear apart the rest of <<print $trickster>>'s body to feed itself.\n\n<<print $trickster>>'s consciousness left his body and rose up as he watched the chaos of the world all fall inward to the black hole where his body once lay.\n

<<silently>><<set $sky = "light">><<endsilently>>\nThe spark grew, casting bright rays and flickers of lights across the universe.\n\n<<display 'Trickster'>>

<<print $trickster>>'s body was that of a <<cyclinglink $body "man" "shapeshifter" "animal">>.\n\n<<print $trickster>> looked at the form he had taken, and then looked at the cosmos around him. The world was <<print $sky>> and although it was not what he preferred, <<print $trickster>> did not care enough to try to change the ways of the world. Quite yet, anyway.\n\n<<print $trickster>> heard a rumbling coming from deep inside his new body. He clutched at his stomach. It seemed like there was a hole deep inside of him, consuming his life force.\n\n"Ah, silly me," <<print $trickster>> said. He coughed and his hands went to his neck. His throat, too, pained him as if he had never once taken a drink.\nSo then, just minutes after his own creation, <<print $trickster>> felt his body begin to collapse to his hunger and his throat begin to peel to his thirst.\n"Clearly, I have made an improper body," <<print $trickster>> said.\n\nHe looked out to the horizon. In one direction, he could make out the ripples of water hitting the coast against the <<print $sky>> sky. In the other, there was some kind of movement. He could only hope it was an animal, brought into existance by his hunger.\n\nHe headed towards the <<cyclinglink $dir "water" "movement">>.\n\n"Oh, failing body, [[we must solve one of these problems first|Trickster3]]. It would be a sign of a true idiot to let you rot away so soon after making you."

<<if $sky eq "light">><<display 'ChaosLight'>><<else>><<display 'ChaosDark'>><<endif>>

<<print $trickster>> leaned down into the water, letting the ripples roll into his mouth. He swallowed, and his throat sighed ast he waters rushed down.\n\n<<if $start eq "chaos">>\n <<if $sky eq "light">>\n <<display 'EndingCLT'>>\n <<else>>\n <<display 'EndingCDT'>>\n <<endif>>\n<<else>>\n <<if $sky eq "light">>\n <<display 'EndingOLT'>>\n <<else>>\n <<display 'EndingODT'>>\n <<endif>>\n<<endif>>

<<print $trickster>> stood, his throat no longer burning with desire for water.\n\nIn the light cast down from the heavens, he could see the sea stretch out into the infinite horizon. Behind him was land, and in front of him water.\n\nHis hunger was now his main problem, and he could see small bursts of movement far beneath the ripples of the surface.\n\n"Perhaps I shall catch myself some fish to eat," <<print $trickster>> said.\n\nHe dove into the water and swam into its depths. He created a plan to ensnare the fish from watching their movements and using their own bodies against them.\n\nHowever, by the time he had eaten his fill of seafood, his throat once again began to hunger for water.\n\n"My body, will you not ever settle down? Must I chase water and then food and then water for all eternity?" <<print $trickster>> said.\n\nIt was not for all eternity. It was merely until his body died and his consciousness returned to the swirling grid of thoughts.

The sky was a grid of bright points of light among the blackness of eternity. Although his stomach was beginning to feel empty once again, <<print $trickster>> decided to watch the lights. He tried to find patterns between them.\n\n"Oh, this is most boring! There are no beasts or heroes in the sky," he said. The best he could do was to imagine a small square fighting a larger rectangle. There was no fun in the order of the stars.\n\nHe reached down and took the black horn of the bull from the ground and swirled it through the sky, mixing the stars around each other and into new patterns. Instead of the grid, now it was a true spectacle of light.\n\n<<print $trickster>> lay back again and stared into the heavens, inventing the tales of the great heroes who fought the serpents and demons clawing their way through the heavens.

<<if $dir eq "water">><<display 'Thirst'>><<else>><<display 'Hunger'>><<endif>>

<<if $start eq "order">><<display 'Order'>><<else>><<display 'Chaos'>><<endif>>

Trickster

<<if $sky eq "light">><<display 'OrderLight'>><<else>><<display 'OrderDark'>><<endif>>

<<print $trickster>> bit into the meat. It was better than he had even imagined.\n\n"That was a meal fit for a king!" <<print $trickster>> said, lying back and staring up into the sky.\n\nBeside him were the bull's two horns. He had kept them aside from the preparation of the meat. He had never seen anything quite like them. Not that he had seen that much to begin with.\n\n<<if $start eq "chaos">>\n <<if $sky eq "light">>\n <<display 'EndingCLH'>>\n <<else>>\n <<display 'EndingCDH'>>\n <<endif>>\n<<else>>\n <<if $sky eq "light">>\n <<display 'EndingOLH'>>\n <<else>>\n <<display 'EndingODH'>>\n <<endif>>\n<<endif>>

<<set $wait = $wait + 1>><<if $wait gte 2>>\nHe was not hungry.\n\nHe was not thirsty.\n\n[[He was free|Creator]]\n<<else>><<print $trickster>> was still troubled.\n\n"You fool! Every moment we wait to eat, I will take more and more of this body to sustain us. I do not like the taste of <<print $body>>," <<print $trickster>>'s stomach said.\n\n"He is certainly a fool, but not for failing to eat! Every second he goes without water is another second our flesh peels and we grow weaker," <<print $trickster>>'s throat said.\n\n<<if $first eq "e">>"I have already tried to feed you, stomach, but throat's complaining made it impossible to eat!"<<else>>"I have already tried to drink from the sea, but your complaining, stomach, made it impossible to hold onto the water!"<<endif>> <<print $trickster>> said.\n\n"Then deal with the noisy one before me! Either way you must eat and drink for us to be whole," his body said.\n\n<<if $first eq "d">>[[Hunger overcame him|Hunger]]<<else>>[[Thirst overcame him|Thirst]]<<endif>>\n\n<<endif>>

Out of the cosmic <<print $start>>, a consciousness began to emerge.\nIt looked at the space around it, all of the matter in reality in perfect <<print $start>>. It--he--thought that it was good, or at least good enough.\nThe consciousness pulled himself together out of the arrayed matter, forming a body for himself to walk the world in.\nHe knew his name, and that name was <<textinput "$trickster">>\n\n[[He pulled himself from the still forming World|Trickster2]]

<<print $trickster>> took the two horns of the bull and crunched them together. He pressed as hard as he could until the horns were a ball of glowing golden light.\n\nHe reached back and threw the ball into the sky as hard as he could. As it flew farther and farther away, the world grew brighter and brighter as it could bathe in the light of the new form.\n\nIn the ball's wake, the glowing dust scattered, leaving billions of pinpoints of light across the black sky.\n\nIn the new light, <<print $trickster>> could see that he was not far from the shoreline. He had eaten enough meat for the timebeing, though he could already feel his belly emptying. He set off for the water to sate his parched throat, which had waited so patiently for him.

<<print $trickster>> drank until his throat finally stopped its complaining.\n\nHe stood, and for the time being he could tell that his throat would be quiet. He could focus on his stomach's hunger now.\n\nHe walked back towards where he had seen the movement, hoping to begin a hunt.

<<if $action eq "took off in pursuit">>He ran after the bull across the lands. The bull was too fast and eventually got too far from <<print $trickster>>. It was no use, he stopped and collapsed. His panting breaths rubbed against the parched skin of his throat. He would have to think of a way to capture the bull without running, that was for sure.\n<<else>><<print $trickster>> stopped and let the bull run away. The beast was a far faster creature than he, and <<print $trickster>> was already so low on energy. Trying to make chase would not succeed.\n<<endif>> \n\n<<if $body eq "shapeshifter">>He became a bull, hoping that in its own form he might come to some insight on how to best entrap and capture the beast.<<else>>He sat down and thought.<<endif>>\n\nThe idea came suddenly to him.\n\n"Oh foolish one! You do not need to capture the bull. He will capture himself!" <<print $trickster>> said.\n\nSo, <<print $trickster>> set off in the direction where he had last seen the bull run slowly. He approached the beast once again, and this time waited far away.\n\nSure enough, the beast lay down to sleep and <<print $trickster>> pounced, slaying the bull, and procurring the glorious meat. He salivated as he prepared his meal, cooking the meat over a fire.\n\n"Oh, but <<print $trickster>>! This meat will only make our parched throat so much worse!" <<print $trickster>>'s throat said.\n\n<<print $trickster>> pondered his throat's words. It was true, perhaps waiting until he had water would be the best course of action. On the other hand, he looked down at the meat. His hunger consumed him... He could hardly think straight with the meat already here.\n\nHe <<cyclinglink $eatwait "began to eat" "set the food aside">>.\nHis decision made, [[he stood|Hunger3]].

<<if $eatwait eq "began to eat">><<display 'Eat'>><<else>><<display 'Wait'>><<endif>>

A grid spread out from the epicenter of reality.\nProtons, electrons, neutrons all aligned themselves and spread along the lines that laced through space and time.\nAt the very center, where all the lines grew together, there was something that grew between the grid.\nIt became <<cyclinglink $sky "light" "dark">>.\n\nThen, just as quickly as it appeared out of the grid, [[the thing exploded|orderChoice]].

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Light spread out form the horns, turning the sky into a swirling mass of stars and making the water beside <<print $trickster>> glow at its depths.\n\n<<print $trickster>> removed himself from his body. It was a weakness, and the hunger for meat and drink was not where he needed to be.\n\n"Where are you going? You can't just leave us!" his stomach cried.\n\n"I do not need you anymore," <<print $trickster>> said as he rose up into the glowing heavens above.\n\nHe had a new hunger.

<<silently>><<set $sky = "dark">><<endsilently>>\nThe spark turned its surroundings darker than they had been before. Where photons had bounced meaninglessly against the pulsating chaos of matter in its infant stages, now it spiraled inward towards the center of the growing dark void.\n\n<<display 'Trickster'>>

<<set $first = "e">><<print $trickster>> set off towards where he had seen the movement. He moved slowly, picking his steps carefully to ensure his footfalls would not startle whatever had moved.\n\nIn the space ahead, <<print $trickster>> spied a beautiful bull. Its horns were <<if $sky eq "dark">>golden, glowing in the dark and<<else>>obsidian, the darkest thing around and<<endif>> protruding from its head. Its muscles moved under its skin and <<print $trickster>> liked his lips, thinking about biting into the cooked meat.\n\n"Ah, yes. You have made a good choice," <<print $trickster>>'s stomach growled.\n\n<<print $trickster>> crept forward towards the bull, planning to take it by surprise. To his dismay, the bull turned, and upon seeing his grotesque <<print $form>> features, bolted.\n \n<<print $trickster>> <<cyclinglink $action "took off in pursuit" "stayed behind to think">>.\n\n[[He decided how to get his needed meat.|Hunger2]]

<<print $trickster>> had turned away from his appetites and hungers.\n\n"Such things are the thoughts of mortals. They do not command their bodies, but their bodies command them," he said.\n\n"I do not wish to be a mortal. I can be so much more than the beasts of land and sea," he said.\n\nHe took the horns of the bull to the sea. He threw one of the <<if $sky eq "dark">>golden<<else>>obsidian<<endif>> horns into the bottomless depths.\n\n"I can slip the trap of appetite and ascend," he said.\n\nHe threw the other horn into the heavens above.\n\n<<if $start eq "chaos">>\n <<if $sky eq "light">>\n <<display 'EndingCL'>>\n <<else>>\n <<display 'EndingCD'>>\n <<endif>>\n<<else>>\n <<if $sky eq "light">>\n <<display 'EndingCL'>>\n <<else>>\n <<display 'EndingCD'>>\n <<endif>>\n<<endif>>

The waters beside him lost their glow and became dark with death. Overhead, the sky cracked into two. Light poured into one of the halves, leaving the other an abyss of the darkest being.\n\n<<print $trickster>> removed himself from his body. It was a weakness, and the hunger for meat and drink was not where he needed to be. He could shape the very nature of this world.\n\n<<print $trickster>> said as he rose up into the glowing heavens above.\n\nHe had a new hunger.\n\n

The heavens were bright. There was light beaming down at <<print $trickster>> from every direction. The lights popped out, but where for a brief instant there would be shadow, another explosion would light the sky and fill it.\n\n<<print $trickster>> was tired, his belly full for the timebeing. He wanted sleep, for his throat could wait. He had proven himself to be more powerful than his body. Now, he wanted to sleep.\n\nHe lay down on the rough ground, but could not sleep. Even under his eyelids, his eyes were bathed with light.\n\n"With such a cachophony of light, how am I supposed to rest?" <<print $trickster>> said.\n\nHe looked down and saw the dark horns of the bull, seeping darkness into the nearby ground. He picked the horns up, one in each hand, and stretched them up towards the heavens.\n\n"I shall divide the sky! I need to sleep, so with these horns I can hide this world from the light," <<print $trickster>> said.\n\nHe did so with two swings of his arms, throwing the horns into the cosmos and creating a blanket of darkness under which he could sleep.

<<silently>><<set $sky = "light">><<endsilently>>\nThe explosion scattered the array of matter, creating a fibrous web that slowly grew closer and closer together.\nMatter collided, growing denser and denser until in the cores of gigantic balls, the bones of reality itself ignited and began throwing off light into the cosmos.\n\n<<display 'Trickster'>>

<<print $trickster>> crawled forward as he drank. The water level began to fall as he took swallow after swallow of the sweet waters.\n\nBefore long, there was no water left in the basin, and he lay back. His throat still burned with desire, but for the time being it was a bearable throb.\n\nHe crawled back up from the basin to survey the world. Although his stomach still complained, his throat was able to keep it in check. THe extra strength from the water had put it into much more power.\n\nIn the light of the heavens overhead, <<print $trickster>> could see other basins full of fresh water spreading out into infinity.\n\nHe walked towards one and when he reached it began to drink it as well. He would drink all the water form the world if he had to.