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{{real world}} | {{real world}} | ||
{{Infobox Story | {{Infobox Story SMW | ||
|main character = | |main character = | ||
|featuring = | |featuring = | ||
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|setting = | |setting = | ||
|publisher = Obverse Books | |publisher = Obverse Books | ||
|writer = | |writer = Kevin Burnard | ||
|anthology = | |anthology = The Boulevard: Volume One (anthology) | ||
|release date = | |release date = 1 June 2022 | ||
|series = ''[[Faction Paradox (series)|Faction Paradox]]'' | |series = ''[[Faction Paradox (series)|Faction Paradox]]'' | ||
|prev = The Sisters Of The Little Moments (short story) | |prev = The Sisters Of The Little Moments (short story) | ||
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== Summary == | == Summary == | ||
''to be | <!-- | ||
===0=== | |||
[[You (You are the Absurd Hero)|You]] wake up on a road, an incorporeal [[Sisyphus (You Are the Absurd Hero)|man]] standing above you. He says he's trapped in an alternate reality, the [[Boulevard of Alternate Brutalities|Boulevard]], but can be freed if you buy a certain book, ''[[The Book of the War]]'', and perform a certain ritual. Offering you the power to rewrite time if you help him, he hands you a note that you will write tomorrow, vanishing. | |||
Do you write the note? 1A | |||
Or do you refuse? 1B | |||
===1B=== | |||
Not only are you on the same road as before, but a weight is crushing your body, breaking it. A bolder rolls up the length of your body, flattening you bit by bit. You wish it would stop, that you could avoid what led you here. Yet still it moves. | |||
We must imagine you happy. 0 | |||
===1A=== | |||
Okay, okay, you write the note. But what next? The book costs an absurd amount. Just bonkers. Who has that kind of money for a random book? Certainly not you. Oh, but, rewriting time. That's some strong motivation. Some ''really'' strong motivation You could sell everything you own, that might be enough. Or, hell, you could do something bad and then undo the consequences once you get the book. Why don't you steal things? | |||
Do you steal the book? 1AA | |||
Do you steal the money for the book? 1AB | |||
Or do you think stealing is ''morally wrong'', and you're no fun? 1B | |||
===1AA=== | |||
The plan? As simple as it is elegant. Step one - you order something from the same person who sells ''The Book of the War'', getting a return address from the packaging. Step two - You don a ski mask and parkour up the balcony, having practiced this move for some time. Step three - you enter the unlocked building in the middle of the night. And you're in. Looking around the room, it seems a bit spooky, but that's all you have time to notice before chanting starts, pledges to a [[Grandfather Paradox|Grandfather]], to the [[loa|spirits]], and an invocation that insists you choke. You fall down, air flowing out of your lungs, a woman standing over you, holding a book and keys. She mutters her distaste for criminals as you die. | |||
If you're trying for a life of crime, why not do it properly? 1A | |||
===1AB=== | |||
A screenwriter, [[Tucker (You are the Absurd Hero)|Tucker]], goes on and on about the difficulties of robbing a bank these days, how much security they have. Handing you his card, he mentions he's been planning a heist movie, so it's been on his mind a lot. But he just can't get it to work, given the realities of the situation. But, hey. This is your bank right here. Maybe there's another option. | |||
Like a good little capitalist drone maybe you could just sell everything you own, that might be enough? 1ABA | |||
Or maybe, you really like heist movies. Like, you '''''really''''' like heist movies. Yeah, that's you. You're robbing the bank. 1ABB | |||
Do you think this all seems too difficult, and it's easiest just to give up? 1B | |||
Or, do you think you could always just take the book from the owner instead? 1AA | |||
===1ABA=== | |||
You try to check the order status in the library, thin from starvation, but the librarian exiles you, it's closing time. You walk through the rain, your possessions gone, no rent, no phone or computer. All of it gone, all to buy the book. Soon it will all be worth it though, the package will arrive in the place you once called home. Soon. You try to cross the street, and a car almost hits you, knocks you down. More cars come, rolling over you, shattering your bones - a familiar sensation - as you crawl on. Until finally a mail truck passes over you. | |||
Choose something other than the capitalist option? 1AB | |||
A woman tells you that you should be dead. [[Sibling (rank)|Sister-in-waiting]] [[Annie (You are the Absurd Hero)|Annie]] is carrying paper, and you bite her because she annoys you. She drops the paper, along with a clang of metal, before reaching down and stabbing you in the chest, grabbing her papers and leaving. | |||
Death is preferable to capitalism. You're dead. 1AB | |||
You roll over on the street to find a key jutting into your back. It's marked with ###. No clue what that means. But your wounds have healed, and the sun is shining above you. You return to the library and check the order status again. It's arrived. | |||
Okay, fine, you're alive. 2A | |||
Or do you mess this up somehow? 1B | |||
===1ABB=== | |||
Okay, okay, talking to Tucker convinced you. The best option is to just go for it - the sheer insanity of the idea means that they won't expect it, and it'll work. And you know what? It ''did''. You and Tucker got the cash, but not cleanly. The cops are onto you, surrounding the bank, and your gun is fake. So you do what any self respecting bank robber would do. Bluff. You pull the piece on Tucker, threatening to take him out if they don't let you go. But they've blocked the exits, and won't let you out, one pulls the trigger as you dive. | |||
Did you dive forward? 1ABBA | |||
Or did you dive backwards? 1ABBB | |||
===1ABBA=== | |||
You dash forward with Tucker, the bullets missing you as you manage to run into a police car. None of the fun toys are present, but the keys still are. The two of you drive away, the cops following after in a high speed chase, a helicopter shadowing you from above. | |||
Do you flee somewhere dry? 1ABBAA | |||
Do you flee somewhere wet? 1ABBAB | |||
Or do you turn yourself in? 1B | |||
===1ABBB=== | |||
The front of the bank quickly becomes a less than safe place to be - the police are determined to storm the bank, and do so in full force. You dive out the back door, a [[Abel (You are the Absurd Hero)|stranger]] pulling you into an odd looking alley. You confirm your purchase of the book on your phone as he grills you about your relationship to Faction Paradox, how you're planning to break one of their worst members out of prison. You didn't know any of this, but you don't trust this man. Well, you didn't. [[Parent (rank)|Mother]] [[Camus (You are the Absurd Hero)|Camus]] greets you as his body hits the floor, telling you that she just needs to stop this incident right here - stop Sisyphus from escaping before you get time travel. And so you die. | |||
Or do you? Maybe you ''can'' try again. 1ABB | |||
===2A=== | |||
Having drunk enough blood you've begun to hear his voice. Blood is a symbol, symbols are power. You can hear the voice of [[Godparent (rank)|Godfather]] [[Sisyphus (You Are the Absurd Hero)|Sisyphus]]. Your old mailbox won't open though, you sold the key along with everything else. But you break it open, you need the book. A nearby officer asks you to go with him. | |||
Do you go with him? 2AA | |||
OR DO YOU TAKE HIS BLOOD? 2AB | |||
===2AA=== | |||
As you sit in the car picking at the cuffs with the key in your back pocket, the officer puts on an audiobook. The key doesn't go in. You're stuck, as a voice, your Will tells you that you can always fight, there's always a way out. The audiobook tells the Greek tale of Sisyphus, pushing a boulder. That seems familiar somehow. Over the radio a call comes in, a suspect at the docks. | |||
Do you use the book to finish the story? 1ABBAB | |||
Do you unleash your Will? 2AAA | |||
Or do you give up? 1B | |||
===2AB=== | |||
You cut the officer's neck, drinking the blood that flowed from his neck. Sisyphus thinks you're nutty - that wasn't needed. As you collect the book from the destroyed mailbox, another man comes up and finishes off the blood from the body. As you turn to leave the man leaps on you as well, still hungry. | |||
Fine, guess you're getting in the car. 2AA | |||
===1ABBAA=== | |||
===1ABBAB=== | |||
As you drive with Tucker through the docks, the radio plays the myth of Sisyphus, how he was sentenced to push a boulder up a hill for all eternity. You're headed to the end of the pier, a row of cars behind. The only person on the pier is a woman. You know her. [[Parent (rank)|Mother]] [[Camus (You are the Absurd Hero)|Camus]] is her name. | |||
Do you talk to her? 1ABBABA | |||
Do you run from her and her sword? 1ABBABB | |||
Or do you surrender? 1B | |||
===2AAA=== | |||
You free your Will, and watch with it as you see yourself driving on the docks, chased by police. Your Will explains that you're not on earth, but in the Boulevard, trapped here for trying to free Sisyphus all those years ago. Your Will tries to grasp hold of the key, to take it from you and escape. Mother Camus intervenes, stops the prison. She removes the bestial entity your Will has become, the key with it, and insists that you and Sisyphus return to your cell. A boulder falls on you. | |||
Head back to the start. 0 | |||
===1ABBABA=== | |||
Camus tells you that you know what you've done - you need to be punished, and anything you do [[Faction Paradox]] will just undo. You insist you're innocent, you haven't done anything. But if need be you can change back whatever they change. Camus agrees, but says it would start a [[Time War]], and people pay the price. | |||
Do you continue on and win? | |||
Or, last chance, do you pay the price? 1B | |||
You accelerate into the sea - Tucker is hit, wounded, blood spilling out of his chest. Sisyphus tells you the ritual needs only two things, the book and blood. You resurface with Tucker's body, finding it to be night, the cops having left. | |||
Do you return with the body? 1ABBABAA | |||
Or do you think something is fishy? 1ABBABAB | |||
===1ABBABB=== | |||
Camus punctures one of your tires, pitching you into the sea. You sink down into the ocean, the car sinking to the bottom. Later, Tucker wakes up in the hospital, half dead from drowning. He asks the nurse if they saved you. They didn't - you're dead. | |||
Or might you make a trade with fate to save yourself? 1ABBABA | |||
===###=== | |||
There is a C<br> | |||
r<br> | |||
a<br> | |||
c<br> | |||
k in the universe. All at once, all places. A [[Time field|crack in a wall]]. You are dead. Trapped in the Boulevard as the crack engulfs you. | |||
===1ABBABAA=== | |||
As you arrive home you find others inside, one of them chiding the other for her mistakes. As the latter apologises over and over, she's beheaded, no amount of apologies can make up for her failures. The remaining woman grabs you and forces you to bring ''The Book of the War'' and explain how Sisyphus intended to free himself using it. You explain that Sisyphus wants to become like [[Shift (Alien Bodies)|the creature]] in the book, a conceptual entity. He already has a legend, he wants to become it. As she considers the issue, you take her sword and stab her, kill her. Using her blood you complete the ritual, the myth of Sisyphus arises from the book. And Mother Camus stands in the doorway once more, glancing at the scene. She closes the book and you find yourself outside. She sighs, feels some small measure of pity for you, as this will never end. You fall to the ground. Onto a road you can remember so well. | |||
Continue? 0 | |||
===1ABBABAB=== | |||
--> | |||
== Characters == | == Characters == | ||
[[Tucker (You are the Absurd Hero)|Tucker]] | |||
== Worldbuilding == | == Worldbuilding == | ||
