(align:"=><=")+(box:"=XXXXXXXX=")[''The Dan Patch Line'':
//Imagining// Minnesota Transit
^^by Clark Glymph^^
^^[[See what a future with passenger rail could hold.]]^^](align:"=><=")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=")[<iframe src="no_reply_congratulations.html" width="600" height="600" style="border:none"> </iframe>
^^Click, and use arrows to interact with your email.^^
[[Close your email.]]](align:"=><=")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX==")[You forgot you even applied to this place...
[[First day of work->First day of work.]]]"So glad you're finally here and you found the way to my office buliding. I know it's especially hard to get past the people acting like dogs when you come in the entrance. They showed up this morning. I choose not to ask questions and neither shoud you. ANYWAYYY...
As the rebuild begins on the new train line in Minnesota, a new life unfolds before us. These great choices of passenger rail logistics and planning have been left up to me.
I, of course, have choosen to hire you, my intern, to help me with this process (text-style:"strike","blur","fidget")[and to unload all my work on to you].
I am so greatful you're here ~~~~for an unpaid postion at that~~~~. So, I've deciding you get to choose where the train should run through.
You can either choose the (link-reveal:"''west route''")[, the purposed route of a passenger rail line called the (link-reveal:"''the Dan Patch corrider''")[, a train route that once existed that ran through Minneapolis, Savage, and ended in Northfield, it was named after (link-reveal:"''Dan Patch''")[, the famous race horse that lived the rest of his days seen by many as a stop along the line]]], or the (link-reveal:"''east route''")[ the train would go to (link-reveal:"''St. Paul''")[ ,that's cool]]."
[[Choose to build along the east route.]]
[[Choose to build along the west route.]]
(link-reveal:"''Quit.''")[...are you sure you want to [[quit]] this early in the day? You'll have to walk buy the dog-acting humans again and you havn't quite recovered from a few minutes ago.]You choose to build along the ''east route''. Your internship goes by in a flash. Your tasks for your job aren't to difficult despite the fact that your boss seems to unload most of thier work on to you. You don't even think about how weird the building is that your office opperates out of. You have no issues getting sponsers for the //new// rail line and people seem to be enthusastic about the commuter trains!
Wasn't that a nice summer?
(set: $successeast to true)
[[The End.]]So you've choosen the route of the orginal ''Dan Patch route''. Though the great race horse is no longer alive to see its new glory days, you believe things will prosper through his spirit. You think to yourself now you should maybe [[check back in]] with your new boss about what else you should do.
Or... you could be a proactive intern think of [[some tasks]] to do on your own.
(align:"=><=")[''You decided to quit.''] (set: $quit to true)
(align:"=><=")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=")[(text-style:"superscript")[You went home and never thought about passenger rail again. What a sad life you live. You even had to walk past the dog people and they barked at you and you don't even know why.]]
(align:"<==>")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXX=")[(after:7s)[But after many years you are desprate for work... any work... you apply for all the intern positions you can and decide to [[check your email->See what a future with passenger rail could hold.]]. Or maybe this is truly [[the end->The End.]].]]You sit and think for a little bit. You're a creative and honestly you aren't getting paid for any of this so you might as well take advantage of your time and take the lead of how you will spend your time during this internship.
You could...
(align:"=><=")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX==")[
[[investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]]
[[look at a magic eight ball to decide your next move.]]
[[summon the late great horse, Dan Patch, and decide if this the future he truly wanted.]]]{
(track: 'choirmusic', 'stop')
}
"Hey intern!"
"Oh you want work to do...hmmm...ok there is a few tasks that I can think of. You could
(align:"=><=")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX==")[ (if: $taxes is false)[ [[do the Minneasota Department of Transportation's yearly tax report.]]]
(if: $sponsers is false)[ [[call sponsers to host a passenger-rail gala to fundraise for the train.]]]
(if: $sponsers and $taxes is true)[Wow. I can't believe I have no more work for your internship! You're more than welcome to take an (set: $successwest to true)[[early leave->The End.]]. Call me if you ever need a refrence in the future. No, no, I don't have any money for you why would you ask that. Though if you really want more work you could always...]{
}[[summon the late great horse, Dan Patch, and decide if this the future he truly wanted.]]"] (link-reveal:"''Shake the magic eight ball.''")[ It reads... "come find me"... WHAT??
(link-reveal:"''Shake Again.''")[ It reads... "Across the hall." Okaayyyy. You put down the weird magic ball. Do you:
[[head across the hall.->Check out the neighbors across the hall.]]
[[decide that its time to quit this internship before it can get any weirder.->quit]]
]]You decide to be brave after your slightly tramuatizing experince at the front entrance but you hope to maybe get to know the neighboring tenants to your office and maybe even find somewhere you can be helpful...I mean you need to put something on your resume about this experience.
You step outside the office. Where do you go now?
(align:"=><=")+(box:"=========XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX======")[ [[Check out the neighbors across the hall.]]
[[Check out the neighbors next door.]]
(link-reveal:"''Head down to the basement.''")[ There is no light switch at the top of the stairs, so it must be at the bottom. You'll have to go down in the dark. (text-style:"blurrier")[An ideal place for summoning spirits.] [[Head down anyway?]]]]
(if: $summoning is true)[ [[Check back in.->check back in]]]
Decide you want to do [[something else->some tasks]].(set: $sponsers to true)
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You call countless amounts of state and local companies to get interested stakeholders to attend a gala! But one thing people with lots of money love doing?
Spending money of course!
The gala is a great success! You even earned money since someone mistook you for a waiter. SCORE!!
[[Check back in with the boss.->check back in]]]You adventure into the into the dark basement. There is a small light switch when you reach the bottom. (link-reveal:"''Switch it on.''")[
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[
You find the candles and matches.
Perfect! Just what I need.
(if: $medium is true)[With the help of your new neighbor who offered her medium services to help summon the horse you start lighting the candles you found. (text-style:"sway")[[[Start the summoning.->Summoning]]
^^(Turn Volume Up.)^^]](else:)[You've never tried to communicate with the dead before, and you're starting to think you may some help.
You see something out the corner of your eye as you ponder.
(after:12s)[IT'S PALE GREEN PANTS WITH NOBODY INSIDE THEM!!(set:$palegreenpants to true)]
(after:14s)[[[''RUN!''->investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]]]]]]
You walk to the big black door next door next to the transportation headquarters that you found this morning. There is no sign next to the door explaining who rented out the space.
(link-reveal:"''Knock on the door.''")[ You hear a bark inside, shit, it's definetly those dog people. Do you:
(align:"=><=")+(box:"=XXXXXXXX=")[[[run back to the hallway.->investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]]
[[decide to let the people (dogs??) answer the door and discover the truth.]]]
]"What a great idea!" You think to yourself. I mean if we could get the good //thumb's up// from the great horse of the line himself we could put that on signs and things. And wouldn't that be neat!
[[Go look for supplies. ->investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]]
The door across the hall has clearly been repainted many times. You can see the chips of diffrent colored paint peeling out from underneath the current navy top layer. There is a sign on the door reading "$5 Tarot Reading".
[[Head inside.]]
[[Decide you want to go somewhere else.->investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]](set: $taxes to true)
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"fidget")[It takes you weeks but you spend hours
and blood
and sweat
and oh so many tears
but you complete all of the Minnesota's Department of Transportation's yeary taxes.]
[[Check back in.->check back in]]]{''(align:"=><=")[The End?]''
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You survived your summer internship! Congratulations. ]
(text-style:"underline")[Summary:]
(align:"<==>")+(box:"X")[(if: $successeast is true)[You successfully aided in the completion of the commuter rail line in Minnesota along the east route.](else:)[(text-style: "blurrier")[You successfully aided in the completion of the commuter rail line in Minnesota along the east route.]]
(if: $successwest is true)[You successfully aided in the completion of the commuter rail line in Minnesota along the west route.](else:)[(text-style: "blurrier")[You successfully aided in the completion of the commuter rail line in Minnesota along the west route.]]
(if: $summoning is true)[You summoned the spirit of Dan Patch!](else:)[(text-style: "blurrier")[You summoned the spirit of Dan Patch!]]
(if: $quit is true)[You quit the dubious internship in search of a diffrent //route// for yourself.](else:)[(text-style: "blurrier")[You quit the dubious internship in search of a diffrent //route// for yourself.]]
(if: $dogstory is true)[You figured out the truth behind the dog-peoples.](else:)[(text-style: "blurrier")[You figured out the truth behind the dog-peoples.]]
(if: $palegreenpants is true)[You got chased by pale green pants with nobody inside them.](else:)[(text-style: "blurrier")[You got chased by pale green pants with nobody inside them.]]]
(set: $summoning to false)
(set: $successeast to false)
(set: $successwest to false)
(set: $quit to false)
(set: $dogstory to false)
(set: $palegreenpants to false)
(set: $sponsers to false)
(set: $taxes to false)
(set: $medium to false)}
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"blink")[[[Do it all again?->Title]]]]
(text-style:"double-underline")[Acknowledgements:]
''Thank you'' to my housemates who supplied me with so much inspiration that I could not fit it all into this little hypertext piece.
<img src="inspo.jpg"></img>
Music Credits:
In taberna quando sumus by MIT Concert Choir is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/MIT_Concert_Choir/Carmina_Burana_Carl_Orff/14_1070/">Access Link</a>
choirmusic: choirmusic.mp3 {
(track: 'choirmusic', 'loop', true)
(track: 'choirmusic', 'play')
}
(set: $summoning to true)
(enchant:?page,(text-colour:(hsl:0,0.8039,0.5,0.3))+(bg:black))
As the last candle is lit, you look towards your neighbor for guidance but she has disappeared...You feel an odd presence around you.
(after:5s)[ [[Turn around.]]]The door sweaps open beckoning you to enter. And... it's just a normal guy?
[[Ask about the barking.]]
[[Decide that you are actually a wimp and close the door in his face. ->investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]](set: $dogstory to true)
"The barks? Oh those are just my housemates."
This does not make you any less confused.
"You see they're part of an acting group. They're getting over their stage fright by doing improv bits in semi-public areas. They've really been into the dog thing lately though last night it was cats... anyway they have a show next week. You shoud come see them with the other neighbor down the hall and I."
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[Take the 'Guys 'n Dolls' ticket.->investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]]
[[Decline the ticket.->investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]]](enchant:?page,(text-colour:(hsl:0,0.8039,0.5,0.3))+(bg:black))
It's him... it's ''Dan Patch''.
(after:5s)["Dan!" you say.]
(after:7s)[He doesn't respond...he's a horse.]
(after:10s)[Why did you think you could talk with the horse?
[[Walk up stairs in deep shame->check back in]]]You step inside. A women awaits you. She's sitting on a pillow on in the middle of the room. The room is empty except for a poster of season three of 'Glee' pinned up behind her. You're starting to wondering how many clients she actually gets.
She holds out her hand for what you assume is the $5.
You do not have $5
"Uhh...I'm not here for a reading" you say.
"So what do you need exactly?" she seems confused and a little dissapointed.
[["I need a favor."]]
[["I'm actually just exploring the building, I work accross the hall."]]
(set: $summoning to false)
(set: $successeast to false)
(set: $successwest to false)
(set: $quit to false)
(set: $dogstory to false)
(set: $palegreenpants to false)
(set: $sponsers to false)
(set: $taxes to false)
(set: $medium to false)"Oh well I do tarot readings..." she tell you.
"Cool, cool."
[[Leave. This is getting awkward. ->investigate what the rest of the building has to offer.]](set: $medium to true)
She seems intrested. It seems she doesn't get many visitors.
"Could you help me summon a spririt?" you ask.
"Oh, of course! Follow me I know the [[perfect place->Head down anyway?]]" she quickly replys.
You're suprised by how easy that was but you really want to summon Dan Patch so you choose not to question it.