Goldfish-final

\n\n           . . . your phone is [[ringing|ringing2]] . . . \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

DO ME A FAVOR?\nby David Erik Nelson\n\n\nOLD IMAGE INSERT\n<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12504841/_Twines/goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n\n\n\n# # # START STORY # # #\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n42 Boston\n42 Detroit\n42 Lansing\n42 Albany\n\n40 NYC\n40 Boulder\n40 Pittsburg\n40 Columbus \n\n41 Providence\n41 Cleveland\n41 Hatford, New Haven\n41 Chicago\n41 Cedar Rapids\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n=\npic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/9880428234/in/photolist-g46M5W-9nrh75-aeq2i1-bA4rGy-kmh1UV-cfQDEQ-cqR161-9J79kJ-4UE4nF-7XAvR9-7XxgVH-nwQkMx-7XxgSz-r3Ep5u-ato7aP-crmUP1-5MxuZ7-dpcdU6-bFRLEt-cEuYYC-9idF8G-cEuZTS-bjxMM1-r3DSK1-fwPfZd-dVLzBp-fGJB9d-9e5Jje-99K59D-4rfYej\n\n\n<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12504841/_Twines/goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n\n

< . . . your phone is [[vibrating|vibrating2]] . . . >\n\n<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12504841/_Twines/goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

your phone is [[ringing]] . . . \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

. . . your phone is vibrating, and the announcer is on the radio. She shuffles papers and stumbles as she speaks. There have been [[explosions]] . . . \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

. . . your phone is vibrating \n\nYou have a text message.\n\n''Thx! This is great! Manager's bosses super happy! Looks like we'll make quarterlies! I owe you one! :) ''\n\nThe birds are twittering in the ivy.\n\nYour phone vibrates.\n\nYou have a text message.\n\n''Sorry! Said the wrong thing in last voicemail. Clck "Clear All" not "Clean Up." [[You Don't wanna click "Clean Up"!!!|Don't wanna click "Clean Up"]] Yikes! o_O''\n\nLord Palmerston and the Goldfish-in-Chief swim around their castle, snatching flakes of food as they gently descend.\n\nYou don't feel great.\n\n . . . your phone is ringing \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

\nQUOTH CHANDRA\n\nHey, Dave.\n\nI'm getting ready to move to Atlanta for a new job and am finishing up here in Cleveland at the soon-to-be old job, so I'm behind on *everything*. Sorry it's taken me so long to write back.\n\nThanks for letting me look at the draft of "Do Me a Little Favor?" l read it on laptop & on desktop, and I liked it.\n\nThis was a really interesting way to use Twine. I like the way it really controls the pacing. The only real question I have is about the use of the brackets. They're distracting to me. I feel like the calls would be better in brackets. Brackets say voicemail to me more than they say second person action.\n\nThe story itself works. Like I said, I like the way you used the hyperlinks to control the pacing. It's clever without being precious. The fishbowl graphic is a great touch, too.\n\n-Candra

You sigh, grab Mitch's key, and before heading upstairs you grab your cellphone, too.\n\nMitch's radio quietly plays salsa music.\n\nHis laptop is shuffling through pictures of Lord Palmerston and the Goldfish-in-Chief.\n\nYou jiggle the trackpad and the screen clears.\n\nMitch's work software is really ugly: Hundreds of little text fields, drop-down menus, and radio buttons crowd the top two-thirds of the window.\n\nYou have no clue what Mitch's job is.\n\nYou scroll down to find the big white text fields. One is empty, the other filled by paired strings of numbers--some negative, some positive, all composed of two-digits with seven decimal places--followed by cities: //Boston, Detroit, New York, Boulder, Pittsburg//, and so on.\n\nYou hold down the control key and click on all the lines beginning with 40 or 42. There are eight of them. You skip the lone 41, //Chicago//. The eight lines you selected appear in the empty text field.\n\nYou click ''Confirm''.\n\nJust as Mitch described, a dialogue pops up. You [[ confirm your ''Confirm'']].\n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

You put down your spoon, grab Mitch's key, and head upstairs.\n\nMitch's radio is playing salsa music. \n\nHis laptop is sitting on the breakfast bar, the screensaver shuffling through pictures of Lord Palmerston and the Goldfish-in-Chief. \n\nYou jiggle the trackpad. \n\nThe screen clears, showing the crowded interface of the crappy business software Mitch is stuck using all day.\n\nYou pull down the system menu and click ''logout''.\n\nThe laptop asks for a password.\n\nWhose laptop needs a password to log //out//? \n\nYou sigh and head back [[downstairs]].\n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

<img src="goldfish-leap-lastpanel.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

// //''*beeeeep*''// "Hey, Dale! Mitch here. Sorry I got cut off. Just wanted to remind you to tap on the tank three times before sprinkling the flakes. Also, while you're up there, could you do me another little favor? I guess I flaked and left my laptop logged in, and if I'm logged in there I can't get logged into the system here and it's a mad house because it's the end of the quarter //and// '[[disaster time|count day]]'. Could yo--" //''*click*''// //\n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

You put down your bowl of cereal, grab Mitch's spare key, and head upstairs.\n\nMitch's radio is quietly playing salsa music, keeping the goldfish company. \n\nYou tap the tank three times. \n\nLord Palmerston and the Goldfish-in-Chief flash out from their ceramic castle and circle the top of the tank.\n\nYou sprinkle two pinches of TetraFin Goldfish Flakes on the surface of the water, then [[head back downstairs]].\n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

// //''*beeeeep*''// "Hey, Dale! Mitch here. Hoping you can do me a little favor. Crazy busy at the office today. If you could just head up to my apartment and sprinkle two pinches of [[TetraFin Goldfish Flakes]] in the bowl, that'd be grea--" //''*click*''// //\n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

Do Me a Little Favor?

\n\n\n\n                     . . . your phone is [[ringing|beep]] \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

Lord Palmerston and the Goldfish-in-Chief dart around their tank, confidently snatching up drifting flakes of food.\n\n           . . . your phone is [[ringing|fin]] . . . \n\n                     but you don't touch your phone \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

But you don't touch your phone. \n\nThere are people in Mitch's doorway. They are wearing matching blue workshirts and pants. They have laminated IDs clipped to their pockets and their names embroidered on their workshirts. The woman in front is named //Shanelle.//\n\nThey are coming in. They are here to clean up.\n\nShanelle clearly wasn't expecting anyone to be in Mitch's apartment. But she doesn't seem that put off. The gun is already in her hand. She is already raising the silenced pistol. The other cleaner is pushing a big, wheeled trash bin. He snugs the door shut behind them.\n\nIn her free hand the woman with the pistol is holding a clear plastic bag, a green twist tie, and one of those little green fishnets from the pet store.\n\n . . . your phone is [[ringing|ringing3]] \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

\n\n           . . . your phone is [[blinking|blinking2]] . . . \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

Mitch's salsa music has stopped playing.\n\nYou scroll around and finally find the green ''Clean Up'' button.\n\nThe announcer is on the air clearing her throat.\n\nYou click ''Clean Up''.\n\nYou can hear birds twittering in the ivy framing Mitch's kitchen window.\n\nYou confirm your ''Clean Up'', then confirm it again.\n\nThe screen clears. the computer shuts down without asking for a password.\n\nYour phone is [[vibrating|vibrating2]].\n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

your phone is [[blinking|blinking3]] \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

. . . in Boston, Detroit, Lansing, MI, Albany, NY--her voice hitches--New York City, Boulder, Pittsburg, Columbus, OH.\n\nChicago is conspicuously absent.\n\nEight U.S. cities have been simultaneously attacked. //Wait//, she says, //There are reports coming in: drones, //jesus!// there are many reports of drones converg--// \n\nThe radio clips to static.\n\n[//dead air//]\n\n . . . your phone is [[vibrating|vibrating3]] . . . \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

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// //''*beeeeep*''// "Sorry! The phone system is all screwy because everyone is calling in last-minute orders. You don't gotta be crazy to work here, but it sure helps, amiright! But anyway, we really are //totally// slammed, and I'm sorta in a bind. I hate to be a pest, but if you could do me a little favor and submit this last order for me, that'd be great! Since my laptop is already logged in, it'll be really, really easy. All you do is this: . . . " // \n\nMitch starts to explain about pull-down menus and text fields and "geodetic datum" and "datum shift." There's a long digression about "Universal Transverse Mercator versus Universal Polar Stereographic coordinate systems" that ends with "but that's not really important," and you abruptly realize you stopped paying attention a while ago--\n\n"//And that's it! Just click the light blue //''Confirm''// button in the lower right--that's the //''Confirm''// button between the really, really red //''Cancel''// button and the kinda pinkish //''Cancel''// button. A window will pop up that asks you to confirm the Confirm. You'll have to click //''Confirm''// there, and then you're done--\n\n"Ha! Sorry! I almost forgot to tell you what orders to submit! Just select all the lines starting in 40 or 42--but not any of the 41s! Just 40 and 42! My manager is a Cubs/Bears superfan.; don't mess with the Second City!\n\n"There should be eight lines that start with 40 or 42. Select all eight. Once it's done, click the green //''Clean Up''// button, and then shut 'er down.\n\n"Like I said: It's [[really, really easy]]. Thanks!" //\n\n[//dead air//]\n\n''*click*'' \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

\n\n\n\n                     . . . your phone is [[blinking|cut off]] \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

/* Your story will use the CSS in this passage to style the page.\nGive this passage more tags, and it will only affect passages with those tags.\nExample selectors: */\n\nbody {\n\t/* This affects the entire page */\n\tbackground-color: white;\t\n\tcolor: black;\n\n}\n.passage {\n\t/* This only affects passages */\n\t\n}\n.passage a {\n\t/* This affects passage links */\n\tcolor: orange;\n\n}\n.passage a:hover {\n\t/* This affects links while the cursor is over them */\n\tcolor: #888888;\n\t\n}

your phone is [[blinking]] . . . \n\n<img src="goldfish-leap.jpg" width=150> photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/koiquest10/">KoiQuestion</a>\n

by David Erik Nelson</a>\n<a href="http://www.davideriknelson.com">www.davideriknelson.com</a>\n\n//estimated reading time: under 10mins//\n\n\n\n<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-text=""Do Me a Little Favor?" an interactive fiction by David Erik Nelson" data-via="SquiDaveo">Tweet</a>\n// ''FEEDBACK''? <a href="http://davideriknelson.com/contact.html">dave@davideriknelson.com</a> //\n\n©2016 David Erik Nelson All Rights Reserved