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This is a story called "The Endless Hallucinatory Love of the Riders at The Long Point of Death" and this is the start of that story.
The story is advanced by use of the mouse to click on words and images.
It was made in Twine, and should play well with any screen readers.
It was meant to be played with your browser in full screen mode, which is usually toggled with the F11 key.
[img[An simple line animation of a hooded figure leaning against a tree, playing with their phone|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/riders1.gif]]
The story has variations and things that happen underneath it, so your story might not be the same as someone elses, or it might be different when you come back and explore it later.
[[Click here to move on|intro2]]
[[UMA BREAKDOWN->CREDITS]] 2021 v.0.2 generously funded by Akademie Schloss Solitude as part of the Post-Doom Web Residencies.
Well done, that is how the story progresses. It is changeble because thoughts are unreliable, and so are bodies, and so is everything else.
<<nobr>>
<<switch random(1, 6)>>
<<case 1>>
<<set $mood to "confident">>
[[A choice has already been made|core]]
<<case 2>>
<<set $mood to "anxious">>
[[A choice has already been made|core]]
<<case 3 4 5 6>>
<<set $mood to "uncertain">>
[[A choice could have been made here, but for some reason it wasnt|core]]
<<default>>
Blah. Something went wrong if this is shown.
<</switch>>
<</nobr>>You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A drawing in bright crayon of a street barricaded and on fire. creatures peer out of the darkness |https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/baricade.png]]
<<set $mood to "the gap between words and things that are not words is something that could almost be crossed">>
---
[[Return->core]][img[an image of the artist at work, click to leave and get lost in their website-> https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/uma-breakdown_feb2021_headshot_dooml.png][http://www.umabreakdown.com]]
[[Return->Start]]
you are feeling $mood
[img[A digital animation of a campfire. It is safe here, and you could just stay, but perhaps you should leave again if only to return|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/campfire.gif][Home][$done to true]]
<<nobr>>
<<switch random(1, 25)>>
<<case 1>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_1][$path1 to true]]
<<case 2>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_2][$path2 to true]]
<<case 3>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_3][$path3 to true]]
<<case 4>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_4][$path4 to true]]
<<case 5>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_5][$path5 to true]]
<<case 6>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_6][$path6 to true]]
<<case 7>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_7][$path7 to true]]
<<case 8>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_8][$path8 to true]]
<<case 9>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_9][$path9 to true]]
<<case 10>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_10][$path10 to true]]
<<case 11>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_11][$path11 to true]]
<<case 12>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_12][$path12 to true]]
<<case 13>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_13][$path13 to true]]
<<case 14>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_14][$path14 to true]]
<<case 15>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_15][$path15 to true]]
<<case 16>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_16][$path16 to true]]
<<case 17>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_17][$path17 to true]]
<<case 18>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_18][$path18 to true]]
<<case 19>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_19][$path19 to true]]
<<case 20>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_20][$path20 to true]]
<<case 21>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_21][$path21 to true]]
<<case 22>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_22][$path22 to true]]
<<case 23>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_23][$path23 to true]]
<<case 24>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_24][$path24 to true]]
<<case 25>>
[img[Move away from the campfire|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/saturnsky_black.gif][PATH_25][$path25 to true]]
<<default>>
Blah. Something went wrong if this is shown.
<</switch>>
<</nobr>>You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
The ground is flat and easy to travel, you can see the horizon as a clear arc, and the sky is devoid of any landmarks. Your mind drifts away to a story you once told yourself in a place like this, maybe a daydream.
Kurt Cobain met William Burroughs, and through Burroughs they then met Kathy Acker. 1993 and onward is very different for Kurt, different mythology, different systems, different genders. At his death, they succeeded Sylvère Lotringer as Jean Baudrillard Chair and Professor of Philosophy at The European Graduate School.
<<set $mood to "hopeful about different futures">>
---
[[Return->core]]
You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You are chasing a figure through a valley filled with fog. As you run you are filled with more and more energy and joy. The figure ahead is a large dog and as you run you see that it is carrying your severed arm and at this realisation you and dog collapse in laughter and begin rolling down the dewy banks further into the fog.
<<set $mood to "like your head has been pumped full of a cool fluid. It is not pleasant, you struggle to think">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You climb onto a creature that smells like sweet moss and it carries you across thick marshes. The sun begins to rise and as it does so it burns away the blanket of mist that covered the land. You that just below the surface of the water are countless abandoned cars. Tiny organisms skit through silt to escape the encroaching sunlight, burrowing into the rotten rips of long sodden upholstery. You realise that the creature you were riding has dissolved and now the light is reflecting up off the water surface and blinding you.
<<set $mood to "burnt by the sun but you cannot look away">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You are walking down a highway in the cool of night. The sky is so clear. Every star is visible. You sing a song to yourself;
“Hey lady
Why don’t you be my dog
And I can be your tree
And you can pee on me”
You smile, looking up at earth far above.
Up ahead you see a green metal road sign. There are two words printed in white on it, perhaps upcoming town names. They are “Cognition”, and “Emotion”. There was once a number printed next to each, either a distance or a population, or something else, but some person or persons have shot them out in a state of drunken driving exuberance.
<<set $mood to "a deep spiralling hunger">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
The glands in your face are heavy. Your cheeks feel uncomfortable and full and you can think of nothing else. The restaurant you find yourself in (You don't remember getting here, so preoccupied were you with this feeling that is constipated toothache and arousal) has a little metal napkin dispenser, its corners chrome and hard very close.
You somehow know that this will provide some relief,
and you open your mouth (filled with sharp little teeth),
As casually as you can, you dip your face to press the subdermal sac against the ridge and express some of the pungent scent within.
This is your napkin holder now.
Excellent.
You smile to yourself, feeling relief.
Then a plate drops and you realise the restaurant had been silent and you turn towards the counter and everyone is staring at you.
Oh no!
<<set $mood to "a wondderful, liberating kind of shame. Nothing will ever stand in your way.">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You are trying to fix a computer.
You have the tower case on its side and open.
You don’t know where anything is supposed to go.
Outside of this building, this temporary prefab lunar research station that is already approaching twice the recommended use time, ghosts are howling in the darkness.
You need to fix this computer and you can't remember how and you can't even remember why until in that horrible gap between what is words and what is not words you understand what is missing but it is then too late.
<<set $mood to "the lack of something misplaced">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You are chasing the one you love and they are chasing you and you are both bleeding profusely and in this place that is so small and with so little gravity you and the one you love form a ring around the planet and you are so full of joy.
<<set $mood to "unbearable, saturating joy">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You lay around my neck and drink my blood.
I find the sensation wonderful and calming.
I am relaxed and without fear, my metabolism slowed to the point where I can survive with only the small amount of oxygen your greenery expresses into our spacesuit.
<<set $mood to "weakness in every system">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You walk through the trees and the sky is all but hidden by branches. When you raise your torch the hard wide light hits the trunks of all the silver birches and flattens them out. You think how it looks like a painting and then an animal bolts from a slit between trees and stares at you its eyes red and then dips into another gap.
You keep walking and reach a clearing where some trees have been felled around some large black boulders. With the canopy open you look up and to your horror see Saturn looking back at you! In near panic you are able to see that there is a small cave at the base of the boulder, only fifty centimeters or so high and wide.
Getting down on hands and knees you push your head into the hole up to your shoulders, safe no from being seen.
<<set $mood to "calm at finally being able to turn off your vigilance">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
“NO QUIET HANDS” you shout, in unison with the rest of the crowd. Some will report later that it is a mob, but that is just an issue of perception and the gap between words and not words. “NO QUIET HANDS” you call out again against the flaming cars “ONLY JOY”, while the last constable is hung from the streetlight pole.
We have blacked the sky with smoke, Saturn can not see us here.
<<set $mood to "safe, out of sight, unseen">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You are driving for what feels like forever and then from under your seat comes a horrible meow.
<<set $mood to "the terrible porus nature of your body">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You arrive at the barricade and are utterly elated, your dress in beautiful new shapes where it has been burnt and ripped. You howl through the night light a ghost, this planet is slipping elegantly into a new arrangement. Rats stream around you, to your mind equally pleased.
<<set $mood to "utter euphoria. A WORLD OF RATS!">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
You are at the side of the path, the ground a parched dust still and deep. There is barely any atmosphere here. You squat to piss. When you stand and turn and bend to look you see that your urine has soaked into a near perfect sphere. How about that?
<<set $mood to "the power of your own agency which is connected to the agency of things beyond you">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A drawing in watercolour, ink, and pen of a really cute bat holding its wings across its body. It has really kind eyes. |https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/bat.png]]
<<set $mood to "love">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A digital drawing of a iron crown and leather gloves floating in space. The crown is inscribed with drawings of monsterous armour. In the background is a golden ringed planet and in the foreground a campfire. There seem to be pathways inscribed around the image like a map. |https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/cosmicmaggot_loresdoom.png]]
<<set $mood to "a nearby challenge">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A digital drawing of a hooded figure sitting in front of a tree and wooden hut. The figure appears hurt, with a compound fracture of the right forearm which is held to a bandaged stomach. Their other hand holds a cigarette. In front of the figure is a phone that seems to be scanning them. The tree directly behind the figure is encircled by five shapes which suggest eyes of flames. behind the tree is a gravestone inscribed with a carrion beetle, and behind that is a patch of darkness where another reclining figure can be made out, this second figure is wearing cowboy boots. The edges of the image feature white shapes like claws or leaves reaching into the centre|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/deadatthepigsancturayloresdoom.png]]
<<set $mood to "that you will never get over grief, but you might learn to folded it into you self somehow, like the severed head of a zombie kept wrapped in a scarf. That is, you are the severed zombie head, and grief is the thing that is carrying you with great care while you gnash your teeth">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A digital animation of a sickly figure lying in an ornate bed. They repeatedly let one arm drop from the edge of the bed to the floor and when they do so a beutiful golden dog apears andrests its chin on their hand.|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/death.gif]]
<<set $mood to "loss as an addition not a subtraction">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A digital drawing of a severed hand riseing out of the earth next to a turnip growing in the same soil. We can see below the surface and to the turnip's roots, as well as a human skull and some kind of creature like a cat of a slug. Above the surface of the soil the turnip hjas bright leaves like flags, it is also covered in tiny mushroom.s in the sky is a foreboding ringed planet.|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/forestdoom.png]]
<<set $mood to "rational about life as endless deviations of dying energy">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A drawing in ink, watercolour and pen of a hillside beneith a cresent moon. The hillside is cut away so we can see a figure curled up asleep within the earth, they are wearing a mask made of tree bark, a denim shirt and jeans, and a pair of fancy cowboy boots with bright green spurs. Below them is a shelf of pink and blue quartz crystal.|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/grave.png]]
<<set $mood to "the great wealth of love">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A digital animation of a gellatinus head-like form wearing a crown sitting in a vast and brightly coloured landscape. The head looks happy and behind it in the sky is a ringed planet that is crying. At the bottom of the image a is a creen flashing icon like a text prompt.|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/headonthefloor_lores.gif]]
<<set $mood to "like you might never have another thought again, there is something swollen amongst the nerves hidden in your skull. What is going on? who cares!">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[An image in collaged paper, crayon, watercolour and pen. The image is of a crowned knight with tentacles behind them like a heraldic symbol.|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/knight1.png]]
<<set $mood to "like you might never live up to what is expected">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[An image in collaged paper, crayon, watercolour and pen. The image is of a black head and shoulders and disembodied arms hovering in front of a mountain. The figure looks welcoming.|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/knight2.png]]
<<set $mood to "at ease with never living up to what is expected">>
---
[[Return->core]]You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A digital animation of a crater in a desert, a white creature with 6 legs repeatedly climbs out of the hole and disapears. There are cacti on the horizon and a moon in the sky and the landscape is bathed in purple. in bad handwriting is written in the sand "Patrolling the Mojave makes feel like pure shit".|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/mojave.gif]]
<<set $mood to "... you don't know what you are feeling like. Bad? yeah, that is probably the closest to a descripion of how you feel right now. bad">>
---
[[Return->core]]Double-click this passage to edit it.You move away from the campfire into the darkness, aware that there isn’t much time.
---
[img[A digital drawing of a toothy, antlered skull with a flower growing out of its nasal cavity. The background is a crazy geometric mess of purple, teal, and salmon, and in the foreground are the outlines of two sprouting plants as if their were glitches in the image.|https://umabreakdown.neocities.org/Post-Doom/images/scullflowerdoom.png]]
<<set $mood to "this migraine will never go away. Everythign blooms.">>
---
[[Return->core]]