Time Beyond The Line

By Amy Bradu & Jordan Gass-Poore’

An interactive piece hosted on a Java program, following a choose your own adventure story about being stuck in a time loop.

import java.util.Scanner;
public class Main {
    static String name;
    static int index;
    static boolean end = false;
    static int escape = 0;
    static int goof = 0;
    public static void accIn(){
        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
        int input = 0;
        try{
            input = in.nextInt();
            if(input > 9){
                System.out.println("That page number is beyond the size of the book, which I guess means you've escaped the time loop.  Congrats, but so you know, this is not the secret ending, you're going to need to be a little craftier to find that");
                System.exit(0);
            }
            else if (input < 1){
                System.out.println("That page number is beyond the scope of the book, which I guess means you've escaped the time loop.  Congrats, but so you know, this is not the secret ending, you're going to need to be a little craftier to find that");
                System.exit(0);
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e){
            System.out.println("Well, I guess inputting something thats not an integer is one way to get out of a time loop.  FYI, this is the super secret ending, if you're looking for the secret ending you'll have to be craftier than that");
            System.exit(0);
        }
        if (input == 2){
            pageTwo();
        }
        else if(input == 3){
            pageThree();
        }
        else if (input == 4){
            pageFour();
        }
        else if (input == 5){
            pageFive();
        }
        else if (input == 6){
            pageSix();
        }
        else if (input == 7){
            pageSeven();
        }
        else if (input == 8){
            pageEight();
        }
        else if (input == 9){
            pageNine();
        }
        else if (input == 1){
            pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static String getName(){
        String result = "o";
        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
        try{
            result = in.nextLine();
        }
        catch(Exception e){
            System.out.println("Please input a string of letters for your name");
            result = getName();
        }
        return result;
    }
    public static void pageOne(){
        if (index == 1){
            System.out.println("    The hum of the machine reached its apex, and the sound now filled the entire campus, along with the varying screams and alarms it had set off, but you didn’t really hear those, or at least you did a good enough job ignoring them, because you felt it.  Not the overwhelming heat emanating off the once icy iron of the tube, no, you felt the magnitude of your achievement, and looking at Francis, you could tell he felt it too.");
            System.out.println("    “Huh,” Francis began “We did i-”");
            System.out.println("    Laura burst through the door, her clothes permeated with a bizarre oily stain. “What the hell did you two do?”");
            System.out.println("    “You heard that all the way in the English department, that’s on the other side of campus?”, you inquired");
            System.out.println("    “Heard it? We felt it!  Ink was spilling everywhere!” She exclaimed");
            System.out.println("    “Do you just have ink lying around in there?”");
            System.out.println("    “Francis, it’s a building full of legal adults who thought majoring in creative writing was a solid choice, they are the single most likely demographic in the world to use a quill.”");
            System.out.println("    “Do we supply them with quills, like does the university have a quill budget?”");
            System.out.println("    “Well, it’s mostly BYOQ but we loan enough ink wells from the arts department to eat up a couple thousand dollars a year.”");
            System.out.println("    “THOUSAND!?”");
            System.out.println("    “Can we focus less on the existence of the ink and more on the earthquake you two knuckleheads somehow conjured up, what the hell did you two do?”");
            System.out.println("    “We broke speed, and theoretically that should’ve also broken either time or space, not sure which one yet.”");
            System.out.println("    “I’m sorry, you WHAT?”");
            System.out.println("    Francis sighed remorsefully, “We broke speed.”");
            System.out.println("    “Well can you FIX IT”");
            System.out.println("    “Uch, fine, hey " + name + " do you wanna run some tests to see which fundamental element of the universe we broke”");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 2 for “Yeah, I guess”");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 for “Nah, i'm just gonna play it by ear”");
            accIn();
            
        }
        else if (index == 2){
            System.out.println("    The hum of the machine reached its-");
            System.out.println("     “oh”, you realized, “guess it was time”.");
            System.out.println("    “So…” Francis inquired");
            System.out.println("    “Yeah, time.” You finished.");
            System.out.println("    Laura burst through the door, “What the hell did you two do?”");
            System.out.println("    “Broke time, apparently’ Francis said with a bizarre calm.");
            System.out.println("    Laura sighed, somehow more exasperated than you’d ever seen her, “Are you caught in a time loop?”");
            System.out.println("    You both nodded");
            System.out.println("    “Are you messing with me?”");
            System.out.println("    You both shook your heads.");
            System.out.println("    “Are you messing with me?” she repeated more forcefully.");
            System.out.println("    You both shook your heads a little more remorsefully.");
            System.out.println("    “Okay,” she slowly began before quickly screaming “then you’ll know to catch this!” She threw a spare wrench at Francis.  It hit him in the ribs.");
            System.out.println("    “Ow!  This is only the second iteration we’ve never told you before”");
            System.out.println("    “Oh, whoops” she giggled.");
            System.out.println("    “Jesus that really hurt! Why would you go for the wrench, there are so many other things to throw?”");
            System.out.println("    In defense she muttered, “Thought you were doing a bit.”");
            System.out.println("“Even if we were, why would this be appropriate punishment?”");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 2 to intervene");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 to kinda just let this happen, I mean you’re in a time loop anyway, this is as good a way as any to spend an iteration.");
            accIn();
        }
        else if (index == 3){
            System.out.println("	The hum of-");
            System.out.println("	“Yes, haha, I was right” celebrated Francis, before thinking on it for a moment and quickly changing his demeanor.  “Oh shit, I was right.  That’s really not good, that means-”");
            System.out.println("	“What the hell did you two do” Laura once again screamed as she burst in covered in ink");
            System.out.println("	“Uh, technically, I don’t think we did anything.”");
            System.out.println("	His words confused and terrified you.  “What is that supposed to mean”");
            System.out.println("	“It means that we’re not on the same timeline as the versions of us who built this machine, probably not even the same iteration of the universe”");
            System.out.println("	“If this is your way of getting out of trouble for starting an earthquake, you’ve got another thing coming.” Laura indignintally replied.");
            System.out.println("    “No this is, this is deathly serious.  Laura, we’re in a time loop, and I don’t think we’re gonna be able to get out.”");
            System.out.println("	Laura’s hand began moving carefully toward the table.  “If you’re really in -”");
            System.out.println("    “Please don’t throw a wrench at me again”.");
            System.out.println("    Laura’s hand began moving carefully away from the table.");
            System.out.println("    The steady hum was now faint enough to hear a pin drop, bringing out urgency in Francis as he quickly explained “Okay, we built a machine that makes things go too fast which means it has to break the laws of time, and so the moments in which it was running couldn’t exist within a normal timeline, we exist in a little circu-”");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        else if (index == 4){
            System.out.println("	The h-");
            System.out.println("	“lar blip outside of normal time or the universe, and whether our memories are even of our own lives or taken from people exactly like us in the real timeline is honestly questionable” Francis continued. With the cycle back to its beginning he took a breath and began again, slightly slower.  “Basically, our universe, our lives, are just this.  This loop.  We came into being when it did and are trapped in an eternal, sisyphean existence within it”");
            System.out.println("	I wanna take a second and apologize for Francis, very rude of him to exposit so hard that you didn’t even get any choices that time.  To make up for it here’s 3 options");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 to try and end this");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 6 to try to escape into the regular timeline");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to just have some fun, I mean this is a pocket universe that does literally nothing but reset, it is completely and entirely free of consequence.");
            accIn();
        }
        else if (index == 5){
            System.out.println("	The hum of the machin-");
            System.out.println("	“So, what are we gonna do this time?” asked Francis.");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 to try and end this pocket universe");
            if (escape < 3){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 6 to try to escape into the regular timeline");
            }
            if (goof>0){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to mess with Collesco again");
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to just have some fun, I mean this is a pocket universe that does literally nothing but reset, it is completely and entirely free of consequence.");
            }
            accIn();
        }
        else if (index == 6){
            System.out.println("	The hum of the machin-");
            System.out.println("	“So, what are we gonna do this time?” asked Francis.");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 to try and end this pocket universe");
            if (escape <3){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 6 to try to escape into the regular timeline");
            }
            if (goof>0){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to mess with Collesco again");
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to just have some fun, I mean this is a pocket universe that does literally nothing but reset, it is completely and entirely free of consequence.");
            }
            accIn();
        }
        else if (index == 7){
            System.out.println("	The hum of the machin-");
            System.out.println("	“So, what are we gonna do this ti-");
            System.out.println("	But before Francis could finish the line you’d now heard all too many times, Laura entered, and with an exasperation that cut through her usual anger said “ you know what, nope.  I’m bored, we’re not doing this anymore.  I mean, come on " + name + " how are you not getting this yet.  We get it, you’ve made it this far, you don’t wanna end the universe or whatever, fine, just figure out the secret ending already.”");
            System.out.println("	“What?” you asked");
            System.out.println("	“I’m not talking to " + name + " the character, they for sure won’t get it, I’m talking to YOU.  C’mon, the puzzle’s not that hard.”");
            System.out.println("	“Puzzle, what are you on ab-”");
            System.out.println("	“Oh shut up Francis you were just here for nonsense sci-fi exposition, you don’t matter anymore”");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 to try and end this pocket universe");
            if (escape < 3){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 6 to try to escape into the regular timeline");
            }
            if (goof>0){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to mess with Collesco again");
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to just have some fun, I mean this is a pocket universe that does literally nothing but reset, it is completely and entirely free of consequence.");
            }
            accIn();
        }
        else if (index == 8){
            System.out.println("	The hu-");
            System.out.println("	“Oh my god, what, do you need a hint or something.  Fine, I’ll give a stupid, cryptic hint.  Turn to the missing page.  Fair warning you might have to restart the program to figure out what that is.  Other fair warning, I’m getting real close to just telling you the answer, so maybe don’t continue onto the next iteration if you wanna figure it out yourself.”");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 to try and end this pocket universe");
            if (escape < 3){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 6 to try to escape into the regular timeline");
            }
            if (goof>0){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to mess with Collesco again");
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to just have some fun, I mean this is a pocket universe that does literally nothing but reset, it is completely and entirely free of consequence.");
            }
            accIn();
        }
        else if (index == 9){
            System.out.println("	“FIVE, its FIVE, literally all you had to do was turn to page FIVE, its not that hard.  It was the only page number you were never prompted with because, guess what, thats where the secret ending is.  Sorry I don’t mean to be mean or anything but I can’t believe that hint didn’t cinch it for you, whatever enjoy the secret.  Or just keep doing this, I’m not gonna stop you.”");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 to try and end this pocket universe");
            if (escape < 3){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 6 to try to escape into the regular timeline");
            }
            if (goof>0){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to mess with Collesco again");
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to just have some fun, I mean this is a pocket universe that does literally nothing but reset, it is completely and entirely free of consequence.");
            }
            accIn();
        }
        else if (index > 9){
            System.out.println("    “Okay, fine, stay here forever, see if I care, but that's it, this is the last bit of new flavor text.  I’m serious, you can check the code if you want, there is nothing else to find in here.  I mean, knock yourself out though, I guess.”");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 3 to try and end this pocket universe");
            if (escape <3){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 6 to try to escape into the regular timeline");
            }
            if (goof>0){
            System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to mess with Collesco again");
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("Turn to page 7 to just have some fun, I mean this is a pocket universe that does literally nothing but reset, it is completely and entirely free of consequence.");
            }
            accIn();
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static void pageTwo(){
        if(index == 1){
            System.out.println("    “Okay great, so, where do we start?” Laura asked");
            System.out.println("    “Uh, well, either time or space is broken so I guess we figure out which one.” Francis responded.");
            System.out.println("    “So, how do we narrow it down?”");
            System.out.println("    He thought for a minute before coming to the conclusion “We broke speed by accelerating a proton to a speed faster than that of light.  And since speed is distance over time, impossibly high speed would either require an impossibly vast distance or an impossibly small unit of time.  " + name + " which one do you wanna check first.”");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 4 for space");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 6 for time.");
            accIn();
        }
        else if(index==2){
            System.out.println("	“Would you idiots stop pelting eachother with metal and focus on the time loop” You scream, shocking them both into an upright position.");
            System.out.println("	“O-okay " + name + ", jeez” replied Laura.");
            System.out.println("	“I just want to state for the record that I did no such pelting, that was all her”");
            System.out.println("	“Oh shut up Francis it’s not -”");
            System.out.println("	“BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!  WE ARE IN A TIME LOOP AND WE HAVE TO GET OUT, NOW THINK”");
            System.out.println("	With that Francis started to think “Right, right, right, right, erm.  So, what we have in there” he gestured to the machine, “is a very fast particle, too fast, as a point of fact.  See nothing should go faster than the speed of light, something to the tune of 300 million meters per second, the proton in there is going a little closer too” he checked a screen to the side of the machine “oh wow, uh, 2 billion, so, yeah that’s probably not great.  Right now it seems to be steadily decelerating at a rate that gives us...” ");
            System.out.println("    He sat down and plugged away at his calculator for a much longer pause than any conversation should sustain, forcing Laura to break the tension with a “well at least there's some lovely weather today, so, you know that’s nice.  Nice day to be trapped in I suppo-”");
            System.out.println("    “6 minutes, at least as of when I started doing that which leaves us with, er, 30 seconds before it returns to possible speeds.”");
            System.out.println("    “What happens when it does that”");
            System.out.println("    “Well, I’ve got a guess but I suppose the best way to find out is to wait and s-”");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        else if (index > 3){
            System.out.println("Interesting, I really was just curious");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static void pageThree(){
        if (index == 1){
            System.out.println("    “I’m sorry, you’re gonna do what?”, Laura yelled, giving you the impression that she might have been a little miffed.");
            System.out.println("    Francis chimed in “You know, that’s actually not a terrible idea.”");
            System.out.println("    “AM I THE ONLY ADULT IN THE ROOM HERE?   YOU IDIOTS BROKE TIME AND SPACE AND YOU’RE NOT EVEN GONNA DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT”.");
            System.out.println("    “I’m not saying we do nothing, we’ll react to any issue that pops up, but if it’s really that important we’ll probably notice, right?”  Francis astutely noted");
            System.out.println("    “Nope, absolutely not, I refuse to let you two just sit around while the fabric of existence erodes, we have to do something.  You guys don’t even have to move or anything, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”");
            System.out.println("    “Ugh, fine.  I guess, if you could bring up some Redenbacher particles from the ground floor”");
            System.out.println("    Laura was furiously taking notes on a loose pad she found on the table near the machine “Got it, Redenbacher particles, and where are those.”");
            System.out.println("    “In the pantry”");
            System.out.println("    “The pantry?”");
            System.out.println("    “Yes.“");
            System.out.println("    “Okay, in the pantry”");
            System.out.println("    “Now, once you’ve got them, and this part is really important, in order for them work properly, you’re gonna have to put them in the microwave for 2-4 minutes, now the bag is gonna expand, don’t be alarmed by that, it’s perfectly normal, then you’re gonna wan-”");
            System.out.println("    Laura’s demeanor changed from attentive to furious in an instant as she interrupted “Are you just trying to trick me into making you popcorn”");
            System.out.println("    “Maybe”");
            System.out.println("    “I’m not making you guys popcorn”");
            System.out.println("    “Fine, then we’ll just sit here in silence, waiting for the fabric of the universe to erode, and not eat popcorn”");
            System.out.println("    You all sat in silence, waiting for the fabric of the universe to erode and not eating popcorn.  As you did, you noticed the continuing hum of the machine, nowhere near as loud as it was at its peak but still evident.  As the minutes passed, you felt it slowly and steadily decline, and within a few minutes, it seemed to be fading fully out, but in the the moment you would expect silence to finally fall");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        else if (index == 2){
            System.out.println("	You, old friend, I’ll spare most of the bickering, it was mostly just Francis complaining about how his “broken rib” was “really hurting”, but I do think you might wanna see this last part");
            System.out.println("	“I’m just saying there were better ways to figure out if we were telling the truth that didn’t involve internal bleeding.”");
            System.out.println("	“Yeah, but those wouldn’t have been as fun”");
            System.out.println("	Francis sighed angrily and was about to begin yet another monologue about his poor little bones, when he shifted course to say “Wait, everyone shut up for a second”");
            System.out.println("	“Pfft, rude” Laura replied");
            System.out.println("	“No listen”");
            System.out.println("	“To what, the humming”");
            System.out.println("	“Yes, the humming!”");
            System.out.println("	“Newsflash idiot, it’s your stupid machine, it’s been going this whole time.”");
            System.out.println("	“I know that but - would you just shush”");
            System.out.println("	Laura sighed to herself and stopped speaking.");
            System.out.println("	“There, listen, it’s getting quieter.  I think it’s starting to fade out. I think, maybe, when it goes away completely then we’ll-”");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        else if (index > 3){
            if (end == false){
            System.out.println("	“We can’t let this go on”");
            System.out.println("	“What do you mean?” Francis responded, concerned");
            System.out.println("	“This universe is so cruel.  No one has any future, all their aspirations are doomed to fail.  They’re just haplessly living out the same 10 minutes, they can’t even conceive of the profound emptiness of their existences.”");
            System.out.println("	“So what, I mean I don’t wanna get too existential but it's not like that's too much of a departure from normal life.  You said it yourself, they’re hapless, and more than that, they’re living.  Think about that.  Billions of people are out there living, and they don’t know about this, they don’t care.  How could we end that?”");
            System.out.println("	As he said this, Laura entered with her usual fury.");
            System.out.println("	“Look at her”, you said, “she’s just doing this same, unending angry walk up here over and over and she’ll never stop, she’ll never know, she’ll never be able to get out of that.  Isn’t that cruelty?”");
            System.out.println("	Laura looked at you with utter confusion “I’m sorry, what the hell are you talking about”");
            System.out.println("	Francis decided to reciprocate your choice to use me to make your points, “Hey Laura.  How would you like it if I killed you right now.”");
            System.out.println("	“I’m sorry, what?”  As she said that she began slowly walking away from Francis in fear.");
            System.out.println("	“I’m not going to kill you Laura, it's just for a thought experiment.”");
            System.out.println("	She reached over to the table and grabbed the wrench, wielding it as she said, tentatively, “I would not be a huge fan of that, no.” ");
            System.out.println("	“See” Francis said, gesturing at you, before looking back at Laura and calmly asking “Could you please not throw that wrench at me again?”");
            System.out.println("	“What on earth are the two of you talking about?”");
            System.out.println("	In unison, you both turned to her and casually said “Time loop”, before turning your attention back on each other and returning to the argument.");
            System.out.println("	“And what about us Francis, what about our lives.  I mean, what is this world to us if not just hell.  We’re trapped here, fruitlessly, eternally, to just keep playing this same, empty game.  I mean even if we did keep this going we’d, what, just sit here waiting for Godot.”");
            System.out.println("	“To keep an entire universe alive, yes, to do anything else would be unbelievably selfish.”");
            System.out.println("	The machine was now quiet enough to hear a pin drop, and all you could think to say to him was, “You hear that?  Listen to it.  Listen close.  You know what it means.  Are you ready for another go-round?”");
            System.out.println("	He sat silent for a few moments.  As he did he stared, intently at the machine, thinking over his priorities.  As the moments ticked down, the despair in his eyes grew.  Eventually, defeated he said “I think you know what it would take, do what you’re gonna do” ");
            end = true;
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("Francis recognized the look in your eyes, but he could no longer fight the need for you to do what he wasn't strong enough to.  “Do what you’re gonna do” ");
            }
            System.out.println("Turn to page 4 to do it");
            System.out.println("Turn to page 8 to spare them");
            accIn();
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static void pageFour(){
        if(index == 1){
            System.out.println("	“Okay, time it is.  In that case we’d have to figure out exactly how time being broken would manifest.  If I had to wager a bet, I’d guess it would be in time dilation centered around the machine, assuming the anomaly isn’t localised entirely within it.  So, I guess the best way to check for that would be for us to each set timers for like, 30 seconds, and each stand a little further from the machine.  If they ring in unison, time is probably okay.”");
            System.out.println("	Francis placed you immediately next to the machine, then measured out 10 meters and brought Laura to stand at the end of his tape, and stood himself ten meters further.");
            System.out.println("	“Hey why do you get to stand the furthest from the machine” nervously inquired Laura");
            System.out.println("	“Cause it’s my measuring tape” Francis shot back.  “Anyway it doesn’t matter, everyone start your timers in three, two, one”");
            System.out.println("	As you stand, waiting for the seconds to drip away and hoping beyond hope that when your countdown finally ceases, so too will the others’, you find that you can hear the hum of the machine, subtler now but still going.  And yet, as you focus your mind on the sight of the seconds counting down and the sound of the machine fading out, you find them to be almost synchronized.  You realize with only 6 more seconds that the moment your timer rings out the noise will be gone completely, and with bated breath, wait your fate as merely a an observer to the clock as it reads 5, then 4, then 3, 2 and finally");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        if(index > 3){
            System.out.println("    You looked at Laura, at the wrench in her hand, taking it without asking.  As you raised it above your head, you must have thought long and hard on what you were doing.  On the lives which would in a moment blip from existence.  But what were those lives, already, they had been lived " + index + " times, in their breif entirity.  And so, you brought the wrench down on the machine, feeling the metal crumple and bend as you did until finally, when it was beyond repair, it all stopped.");
            System.out.println("    You have made it to the Scientific ending of the book.  There is, however, a secret ending if you would like to play again.  Good luck, its a little tricky to find on your own.");
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static void pageFive(){
        System.out.println("Congratulations on finding the secret ending.  You have successfully escaped the loop without destroying the inhabitants therein by thinking outside the box.  If you've done things in the order we anticipated, this should be the last thing you're seeing, so we just wanna say, thank you for playing and we hope you had fun");
        System.exit(0);
    }
    public static void pageSix(){
        if (index == 1){
            System.out.println("	Immediately after hearing your answer Francis began scrambling, “Okay, uh, distance, distance, uh, how would a change in distance manifest.”  After a minute of quiet contemplation he thoughtfully began “Uh, so there are really two possibilities here, either the distance within the machine expanded, theoretically infinitely, making it bigger on the inside, or distance everywhere expanded.  Now, if the anomaly was localised entirely within the machine, we wouldn’t really have much to worry about, but if the entire universe dilated by some unknown factor, that, would er-”");
            System.out.println("	“Be bad” Laura finished.");
            System.out.println("	“Yeah, really bad.”");
            System.out.println("	“So how do we test for that, just like, take a ruler to something we know the length of or-”");
            System.out.println("	“No, if everything expanded so would the ruler, in fact, so would every measuring device we have.  No, it would need to manifest in some property of matter determined by distance.”");
            System.out.println("	“Volume?”");
            System.out.println("	“Well at the moment we can’t accurately measure volume since our equipment for that would’ve expanded too, but maybe density.  Yes, yes if every distance in the world, for example, doubled, well then every volume would octuple, which would mean that every density would decrease by a factor of 8.  Now if something like that happened, there’d be some observable consequence”");
            System.out.println("	“What kind of consequence, what do you think would be most affected by something like that.”");
            System.out.println("	“Is that grad student in astronomy still observing a black hole for his thesis?”");
            System.out.println("	“Uh, I think so, why?”");
            System.out.println("	“Then we gotta get to the astronomy tower, now.”");
            System.out.println("	After an exhausting jog to the other side of campus you found yourselves on the ground floor of the astronomy tower, where Anna Jordans, the department chair sat.");
            System.out.println("	After catching his breath, Francis managed to muster a “Can we see the black hole?”");
            System.out.println("	“If we let everyone who wanted to see the black hole see the black hole there’d be a line out the door, get lost”, Jordans replied.");
            System.out.println("	“No you don’t understand, we need to check -” he took another moment to breath and continued “we need to check and make sure it’s still there.”");
            System.out.println("	“The- the black hole?  Why on earth would it not be there anymore?”");
            System.out.println("	“Well, if, for the sake of argument, the volume of every object in the known universe increased by a factor of eight-”");
            System.out.println("	“Let me get this straight.  You came here to check if the volume of every object in the known universe has somehow, suddenly, increased by a factor of eight.”");
            System.out.println("	“Yes that’s exactly right”");
            System.out.println("	“It didn’t, you morons.  Do you really think that if every density in the universe had decreased that severely, the only way you’d be able to tell was by looking at a black hole.  You get that with a change of that severity your bones would have sublimated by now”");
            System.out.println("	“I hadn’t considered th-”");
            System.out.println("	Laura chimed in “OUR BONES COULD HAVE- sorry what does sublimate mean”");
            System.out.println("	Francis shamefully responded “It’s, uh, when a solid turns immediately into a gas”");
            System.out.println("	“OUR BONES COULD HAVE DONE THAT.”");
            System.out.println("	“In retrospect, yes, that was a possibility.”");
            System.out.println("	“IF WE GET THROUGH THIS I’M GONNA-”");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        if(index > 3){
            System.out.println("	“So, how do we get back” You asked Francis");
            System.out.println("	“I don’t think you understand,” he explained, “there’s no way for us to get, back, per se.  We’ve never been to the regular timeline.  Our entire existence is within this little bubble that exists to separate these moments from the regular timeline.  We are the versions of Francis and" + name + "that only exist in here.  Getting out, that’d take something even more advanced than this thing” as he said that he gestured to the machine, “and it took us months to do that.  Even if we could figure out a way to theoretically do it, there's no way it could be executed in ten minutes.”");
            System.out.println("	And once again a hapless Laura entered demanding to know why her shirt was stained.  At that moment it set in.  As Francis again informed Laura of the news and she again grabbed the wrench to throw, it set in that this was all she’d ever be.  Her entire existence was this, and aggression fueled walk to the lab, a confrontation, a devastating realization, and then forgetting.  An eternity in a stained shirt.  The same was true of yourself of course, aside from the forgetting.  There was no escape from this place.  Only an eternity of drivel, or an end to all.");
            if(escape == 0){
            System.out.println("This one won’t affect the story but, I guess I’m curious.  Which is worse?");
            System.out.println("Go to page 9 for forgetting");
            System.out.println("Go to page 2 for knowing");
            escape++;
            accIn();
            }
            else if(escape == 1){
                System.out.println("Why are you back here?  He already told you it was hopeless");
                escape++;
                index++;
                pageOne();
            }
            else if(escape ==2){
                System.out.println("You should stop coming here.  You're only going to upset yourself");
                escape++;
                index++;
                pageOne();
            }
            else if (escape == 3){
                System.out.println("I can't watch you do this to yourself.");
                escape++;
                index++;
                pageOne();
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
                index++;
                pageOne();
            }
        }
        else{
                System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
                index++;
                pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static void pageSeven(){
        if(index > 3){
            System.out.println("	Nice, I like your style.  As Francis sank into a despair at the realization that his entire existence had and always would consist of the same 10 minutes, you got up with a spring in your step and ran out of your lab, passing a furious and ink-stained Laura on the way.  As you rounded the corner, you could hear her confirming the news Francis had just given her by once again pelting him with a wrench.  You knew exactly where you wanted to go, Professor Collesco’s lab.  He, or at least the real universe’s version of him, had spent the last 5 months yelling at you and everyone in the building to be careful around his weird, gross fetal rats.  He was convinced that he was on the verge of a breakthrough, and you couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when you took them out of the freezer and started poking at them with his own tools.");
            System.out.println("	“" + name + ", what on earth are you doing here, since when do physicists have an interest in the gene expression of rodents” Collesco shouted");
            System.out.println("	“Shut up Jeremy, nothing you do or say matters, we’re literally changing the laws of physics, no one cares about your rats”  While saying this, you opened the freezer and the shock on his face was replaced with a raw terror the likes of which you’d never seen.");
            System.out.println("	“Close that freezer immediately, you’ll thaw them!”");
            System.out.println("	You took them out.");
            System.out.println("	“Put those precious children back in their home NOW, their cells very well may contain the secret to curing cancer”");
            System.out.println("	You picked up a scalpel");
            System.out.println("	“W-What are you going to do with that”");
            System.out.println("	You raised it as a the horror on Professor Collesco’s face grew by the second, and as you began to plunge the scalpel down, not knowing yourself if you would have the heart to follow through, the question is answered by the jarring sound of-");
            goof++;
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static void pageEight(){
        if(index > 3){
            System.out.println("    You looked at Laura, at the wrench in her hand, taking it without asking.  As you raised it above your head, you must have thought long and hard on what you were doing.  On the lives which would in a moment blip from existence.  You dwelled on that thought a moment too long, flinching and giving the machine a chance to grow quiet, and finally");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static void pageNine(){
        if(index < 4){
            System.out.println("This page is not an option in this iteration, I don't know why exactly you're here I guess but uh, I guess I'll just send you over to the next iteration.");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
        else{
            System.out.println("Interesting, I really was just curious");
            index++;
            pageOne();
        }
    }
    public static void main(String args[]){
        System.out.println("Hello, what's your name");
        name = getName();
        index = 1;
        pageOne();
    }
}

Process

When thinking about what to do for a multimedia piece, I came immediately to the idea of hosting a story on a Java program. In order to make this more than a gimmick, my mentor and I quickly came up with the idea of a choose your own adventure story, whose interactivity would justify the need for the underlying code. We knew we also wanted to code some meta elements into the story, which would treat the programmer more like a character, and thus thought of a situation in which the reader could get stuck, going through the same motions over and over until the programmer steps in to help. Ultimately, this led us to the story itself, a time loop. We first collaboratively wrote the actual text of the story, and when it came time to put it into the program, I took over the coding. We then tested and debugged the program collaboratively. –Amy