0.txt
From Anon Vn
Working on inserting the rest of the story. Obviously not all of it is here.
Does this freeze for anyone else?
I changed panel1_2 to panel1and2 in the CG folder, and changed the code accordingly. I also changed the music titles to lower case and deleted spaces between words to avoid complications.
;mode800 begin ; The Dandelion Girl ; *define kidokuskip caption "The Dandelion Girl beta2" versionstr "Dandygirl" , "beta2" savename `Save`,`Load`,`File ` savenumber 20 ;amount of saves effectblank 0 mp3fadeout 1500 ;fadeout time for mp3 playback transmode alpha selectcolor #ffffff,#cccccc menuselectcolor #ffffff,#aaaaaa,#999999 menuselectvoice "","","","","","","" humanz 10 rmenu `Save game`,save,`Load game`,load,`Remove window`,windowerase,`Quit`,end ;rclick menu menusetwindow 20,20,0,2,0,0,#333333 defaultfont "Arial" killmenu 1 killmenu 1 killmenu 4 killmenu 4 killmenu 3 defaultspeed 12,6,0 ;msg speed underline 599 effect 2,10,1500 effect 3,10,500 effect 4,10,3000 effect 5,10,50 effect 6,10,400 effect 7,10,6000 effect 8,10,4000 effect 9,10,500 effect 10,10,1000 effect 11,10,125 effect 12,8,1000 effect 13,9,1000 windoweffect 10,50 game *start setwindow 20, 29, 37, 4, 21, 21, 0, 7, 20, 1, 1, #999999,5,5,795,595 *game_start !sd bg "cg/jpproject.png",10 delay 3000 bg black,10 br br br br `This is a beta version. The script, art and music aren't finished yet.\\ bg "bg/greenery.png",10 delay 3000 bg black,10 br br br br ` The Curtain Falls\\ mp3loop "bgm/thecurtainfalls.mp3" delay 500 `When Mark saw that girl with golden hair, he thought of Edna St. Vincent Millay.@ br delay 300 `Why was that?@ br `......Maybe it was the way she was standing in the sun with her dandelion-hued hair dancing in the wind, reflecting the rays of the mid-noon sun.@ Maybe it was the way her white dress was swirling around her long and slender legs.@ br delay 300 `"....Where's she from?"\\ `Whatever the reason MIGHT have been, Mark got the impression that she had somehow stepped out of the past and into the present.@ br `.....But that wasn't right.\\ br delay 1000 Because, in reality the girl had stepped out of the future.@ br `Could things like that really happen...?\\ bg "bg/rockywall.png",10 delay 1000 bg "bg/hill.png",10 `He paused a little ways behind her, breathing hard from the climb.@ Initially, he hadn't even noticed her.@ br `"Ha...@ augh...@ haaa..."\\ br `She hadn't seen him yet, even now....@ and he wondered how he could make her notice him without scaring her off.@ Or would she take to the sky and fly away,@ like a frail, beautiful bird just out of his reach?\\ `"..........."@ br `He hung his head and took a deep breath.\\ br delay 1000 `....When he looked at her again,@ she had turned around and begun looking right back,@ like some kind of curious animal.\\ stop bg "cg/panel1.png",10 delay 1000 mp3loop "bgm/moodyprincess.mp3" bg "cg/panel1and2.png",10 delay 800 `The two weeks I'd saved up in Summer vacation from work went to waste--maybe.@ When my wife had been unexpectedly summoned for jury duty, I'd been forced to spend them alone.@ br `I spent days sitting inside, or climbing the rocky walls, or just lounging about waiting for time to pass.\\ br `I was pretty lonely.@ `Up till now I'd been leading a lonely existence,@ fishing off the pier in the day and reading the cool evenings away.@ It was nice, but very dismal at the same time.\\ br `.... After two days the routine had caught up with me, and I'd taken off into the woods without purpose or direction and eventually climbed up to the place where I met this strange girl.@ That was right now.\\ ;--- bg "cg/panel1.png",10 quakey 5,800 `"Haaa.... haaaa."@ br `I was wheezing horribly. Really out of breath. My lungs were on fire, and my legs felt like wooden blocks hooked to my pelvis.@ br `The girl in front of me, like a mirage, was even more breathtaking.\\ ;--- `".........?"@ bg "cg/panel2.png",10 br `She finally noticed me?@ wave "se/Footsteps.wav" bg "cg/panel4.png",10 br `"........."@ `"........."@ br Exhausted or not, though,@ I could tell that her eyes were really blue--@about as blue as the sky surrounding her.@ ....It was an embarrassing thing I kept to myself.@ br It brought on a bad case of deja vu so strong I almost embarrassed myself and reached out to touch her.\\ br ...... Better keep my hands to myself.\\ ;--- `@.... What the hell am I thinking, anyway?2 I'm forty-four, and this girl can't be much older than twenty....@ br `Anyway,@ talk, talk, talk, you idiot.\\ br `"Aha...@ ha...@ hi, there...@ nice view here, isn't it...?"@ ;--- `The girl blinked, then her face broke out into a grin.\\ bg "cg/panel4_2.png",10 mp3loop "bgm/newmeeting.mp3" br `"Ah! So, I'm not the only one who thinks so, am I~!"@ br `The strange girl spun around and swept her arm in an enthusiastic semicircle, as if motioning upward.\\ br quakex 3,300 bg "cg/panel5.png",10 `"Aha....@ no, it really is..."\\ ;--- `I nodded dumbly.@ br `Well.... she was right, I guess.@ The meadows underneath us were pretty, colored like autumn leaves, and there were some nice "suburban structures" that I could see from up here.@ br `Of course, those were in Cove City, which was a pretty nice sight from up here, too.@ It looked like a sort of medieval castle place, if you looked at it at the right angle.@ br `I could see why a young girl would like this view.\\ ;--- `"Huh...so.... I take it you're from the city too, huh?"@ bg "cg/panel6.png",10 ;HNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG br `"Fufufu.... I guess you could say that."@ br `She smiled really coyly, like she knew some kind of important secret that I didn't.@ br `.... What did she mean 'I guess you could say that'?@ br `"I'm from the Cove City of two hundred and forty years from now, you see."\\ ;--- `Oh, so that's all it? !w 3000 br wave "se/Wham.wav" `......... Wait, WHAAAAT?!\\ quakex 6,800 mp3loop "bgm/theprincessplays.mp3" bg "cg/panel33.png",10 `"........"@ br `The dandelion girl sighed and slumped her shoulders. br `"Fuu.... It's all right, it's not like I expect you to believe something so strange so easily. Still, it'd be nice if you could pretend...."@ br `Her "hinting" expression told me that this was more of an order than a request.\\ ;--- `Maybe she was delusional.@ br `.... Or maybe she was just playing a child's game. But either way, I did play along for my own ambiguous reasons.@ br `"..... That would be the year twenty-two hundred and two, A.D., right? I guess, uh... it must've, you know... changed quite a bit."@ br `"Oh, it has!"\\ ;--- bg "cg/panel8.png",10 `She'd perked right up. She said that, sounding like she was excited and frustrated at the same time.@ br `"It's part of a megalopolis now and extends all the way to there, don't you know!"@ br bg "cg/panel7.png",10 `She pointed to the fringe of the forest near us.\\ ;--- `"Two Thousand and Fortieth Street runs straight through that grove of sugar maples, and do you see that stand of locusts over there?!"@ br `I was.... starting to get a little creeped out by this girl's game, now.@ br `"Y....yeah, I see them...."\\ ;--- bg "cg/panel6.png",10 `"Well, that's where the new plaza is! Its supermarket is so big that it takes a whole half day to go through it.@ Although, you can buy almost anything in it, from aspirins to aerocars. You know?"@ br `She stopped just for a second, to take a deep breath.@ br `.... And went right along, after that.@ br `"Oh! And right next to the supermarket, where that grove of beeches is, is a big dress shop just BURSTING with the latest creations of the leading couturiers.@ I bought this dress I'm wearing there this morning! Isn't it just beautiful~?"\\ `..... How was I supposed to answer this one?@ br `"Ah... yes, it's nice."@ br bg "cg/panel8.png",10 `"Fufufu... Won't you feel how soft it is~?"@ br `.... Well, it WAS a pretty dress, and for this girl to be asking me to feel it...@ br `I'll just give it a quick inspection.\\ bg "cg/panel9.png",10 !w 2000 `Huh.... ? What's this supposed to be?@ br `It was cut out of a material I didn't recognize at all, something like cotton candy, sea foam, and snow fused into one.@ br `This was the first time I'd seen anything like it.\\ `Uh... Well, there's no limit any more to the syntheses that could be created by the miracle-fiber manufacturers, I guess...@ br `.... And that was true, apparently, to the fibs of cute little girls too.@ br bg "cg/panel15.png",1 `".... So, did you travel here by time machine, or something, young lady?"@ br `She opened her mouth in shock and covered it with her hand.@ br bg "cg/panel17.png",10 `"Oh~! How did you guess! I did, I did travel here with a time machine! My father made it, in fact~!"@ br `"..........."\\ ;--- `What the... ?@ br `I looked at her closely.@ br `"....... What is it?"@ br bg "cg/panel15.png",10 `I'd never seen such a guileless look.@ What was up with this? Was she a very good liar or just genuinely crazy?@ Or maybe she was one of those people that could train their brains to believe real nonsense.\\ `"Umm ...... You come here often, then?"@ br `"You must be a mind-reader, Mark! This is my absolute favorite favorite favorite space-time coordinate!@ I stand here for hours, sometimes, and look and look and look.@ You know, the day before yesterday I saw a rabbit, and yesterday a deer, and today, you."@ br `"... Okay, that's all fine and well.... but how can there be a yesterday if you always return to the same point in time?"@ br `The girl took a minute to consider this.\\ bg "cg/panel17.png",10 `"Ah.... I see what you mean.@ Well, the reason is because the machine is affected by the passage of time the same as anything else, you know?@ And you have to set it back every twenty-four hours if you want to maintain exactly the same co-ordinate.@ I never do that, because I much prefer a different day each time I come back. You know what I mean?"@ br `I didn't, exactly.@ br `"Okay.... So, does your father ever come with you?"\\ ;--- stop !w 3000 mp3loop "bgm/moodyprincess.mp3" `".........."@ br bg "cg/panel10.png",10 !w 1000 bg "cg/panel18.png",10 `The girl looked up into the sky, where a flock of geese was flying in a V shape, and scrunched her face up into a difficult expression.@ br `And she kept staring at them, blankly.@ br !w 3000 `".... My father is an invalid."\\ `"Eh?"@ br `"He'd love to come, if he really could....@ But, I do tell him all about what I see, really I do.....@ bg "cg/panel17.png",10 `And, uh, it's almost the same as if he really came. Wouldn't you say it was?"@ br `"Sure thing."\\ ;--- `There was a weird eagerness and genuine tenderness in what she said.@ I couldn't help but be just a little charmed by it, really. @ br `.... You idiot.@ br `"I'm sure it is...... It must be nice, you know, owning a time machine."\\ ;--- `The girl nodded seriously, then frowned.@ br bg "cg/panel16.png",10 `"Well, they're a boon to people who like to stand on pleasant meadows.@ In the twenty-third century there aren't very many left, you know...."\\ ;--- `"Heh. There aren't very many of them left in the twentieth, either.@ I guess you could say that this one is sort of a collector's item.@ I'll have to visit it more often."@ br bg "cg/panel15.png",10 `"Oh... ? Do you live near here or something, mister?"\\ ;--- ` "Oh, sort of. I'm staying in a cabin a little ways back.@ I'm supposed to be on vacation, but it's not much of one. My wife was called to jury duty and couldn't come with me.@ Since I couldn't postpone it, I've ended up as a sort of.... reluctant Thoreau, I guess."@ br `The girl nodded, leaning forward.\\ br bg "cg/panel17.png",10 ;--- `".... Oh, and also, I'm Mark Randolph. Mark is fine."@ br `"Mark? Is it?@ bg "cg/panel19.png",10 `Fufufu... Julie Danvers is mine.@ It's almost as pretty as the dandelions, here, don't you think so?@ Since I can call you Mark, you're free to call me Julie if you want."@ br `.... Eh? Where did that sudden queen-like aura come from?\\ ;--- `"Okay, then."@ br `Even if she wasn't a queen, I did think the name was beautiful.@ bg "cg/panel10.png",10 `And it was equally suiting for her. Like the dandelions, and like the clear sky.@ br `Not to mention she had a really mysterious air about her.\\ ;--- `Heh. Do you really think you're fooling me, though... ?@ br `She probably lived in that little cottage somewhere in the woods.@ If that was the case, this was just a farce she was putting up for giggles.@ Well, assuming there wasn't something mentally at odds with her.@ br `Well, I wasn't even sure how old she was, so I couldn't rule out the delusions of a hyperactive teenager.@ br `But, in any case, that was still all right.@ I'd humor her, kind of like the way parents witness and chide on their children's belief in Santa Clause, or the Easter Bunny, or the tooth fairy or something like that.@ br `Since it wasn't causing any harm.@ br `It just mattered that I could keep the smile on her face. It made me feel...@ at ease, for whatever reason.\\ ;--- `"So, Julie, what kind of work do you do? Or are you still a student?"@ bg "cg/panel17.png",10 delay 2000 bg "cg/panel19.png",10 mp3loop "bgm/theprincessplays.mp3" `"Fufufu... I look young enough to be a student, do I? That's so flattering, Mark."@ br `......... What a difficult person.@ br bg "cg/panel6.png",10 `"To be serious, I'm in training-to be a secretary, you know~"@ br `Julie got on her tip-toe, spun around and did a full pirouette, stopping in her original position and clapping her hands together.@ br bg "cg/panel8.png",10 `"~It'll be a lot of fun, don't you think so, Mark?~@ Being big and important and taking down what people are saying in a real serious kind of way. Right?"\\ ;--- `"Oh... Um, I guess so."@ br `And then, Julie's face lit up like a candle.@ br bg "cg/panel6.png",10 `"Oh, Mark! Say, what's say you make me your secretary!@ Wouldn't that be great~? That's a great idea, isn't it~?"\\ br bg "cg/static1.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static2.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static3.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static4.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static5.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static6.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static7.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static8.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static9.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static10.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static1.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static2.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static3.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static4.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static5.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static6.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static7.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static8.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static9.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static10.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static1.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static2.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static3.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static4.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static5.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static6.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static7.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static8.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static9.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static10.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/panel6.png",1 `"Oh.... Sure. That'd be nice, I guess. My wife was a secretary, once.@ You know, before the war. That's how we met and all that, and?"@ br bg "cg/static1.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static2.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static3.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static4.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static5.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static6.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static7.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static8.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static9.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static10.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static1.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static2.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static3.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static4.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static5.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static6.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static7.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static8.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static9.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static10.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/panel6.png",1 `So why did...@ why did I bg "cg/static1.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static2.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static3.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static4.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static5.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static6.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static7.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static8.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static9.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static10.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/panel6.png",1 `say that.... ?\\ bg "cg/static1.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static2.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static3.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static4.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static5.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static6.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static7.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static8.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static9.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static10.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static1.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static2.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static3.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static4.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static5.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static6.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static7.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static8.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static9.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/static10.png",1 delay 50 bg "cg/panel6.png",1 ;--- `"Was she a good secretary?"@ br `"That's.... oh, yes. She was a good secretary.@ I mean, in the end I lost her, but just as a secretary.@ Although, I mean I gained her in another way.@ So, that is to say, I never really LOST her, I guess.@ Uh..."@ br `Julie was responding with a blank look. bg "cg/panel8.png",10 `@ `"Well, anyway...."@ br bg "cg/panel6.png",10 `The girl who looked and smelled like dandelions, Julie, nodded her head enthusiastically....@ But then looked as if she'd remembered something greatly important.@ br bg "cg/panel18.png",10 `"Ah.... I almost forgot, I have to get home right away.@ I'm sure Father's home, and I have to tell him about everything that I saw today.@ Plus, I have to make his supper for him."\\ ;--- `That left me feeling a little disappointed.@ br `"I see.... Well, Julie, will you be here tomorrow?"@ br bg "cg/panel17.png",10 `"Tomorrow... ?"@ br `"Twenty-four hours from now, that is."\\ ;--- bg "cg/panel18.png",10 `"..... Sure. I've been coming here every day, so coming again tomorrow is no big deal."@ br `Julie nodded slowly, then her face twisted with a big smile.@ br bg "cg/panel6.png",10 `"Ah... Good, then. Guess I'll see you around, then."\\ bg "bg/hill.png",10 `As if seriously hurrying to her own little time machine, Julie hurried down the hill, off into the grove of sugar maple trees where would supposedly be Two-thousand-fourtieth street two-hundred years from now.@ Her beautiful white dress fluttered along with her.@ br `"............"\\ bg black,10 mp3loop "bgm/thinkingofyou.mp3" `What a charming girl.@ It must be nice to have such a young, child-like innocence,@ in which simple lies are nothing more than playful delusions.@ br `She had such an enthusiasm for life....... and a fascinating sense of wonder.\\ br `These were two things that I lacked, and which I appreciated greatly for that reason.\\ br `That being, because I'd been a serious guy for most of my life.@ I spent enough time in law school studying my way to the top,@ and when I finally formed my own practice I spent even more time working on sustaining it.@ br `.... I never really got a break from it all, I guess.\\ ;--- `Anyway, I married Anne shortly after I began that practice, when she was my secretary. @ br `Not only was the dedication I had to my work a factor in keeping me a serious man, there was a bout of difficulty surrounding the war.@ Times when I struggled, and even harder, later, when I had a wife to support on top of that.\\ ;--- `.... Come to think of it, I was still struggling.@ Even now, I was struggling against my conscience after having watched that girl.@ And there was my practice, my job, my wife...@ br `Never a break for me.\\ `It was ironic, that these few weeks of vacation I was having were quite forced, and my wife wasn't even around to help me enjoy them.@ The "vacation" had turned into more of an imprisonment.\\ br mp3loop "bgm/moodyprincess.mp3" `"...... ?"@ `Before I'd even realized it, it had apparently begun to change to night.@ The breeze of the evening,@ rolling off of the waves of the ocean, was beginning to blow and make me shiver.\\ !w 2000 "..... I guess I should head home, now."@ br `The dandelion girl,@ Julie?,@ was gone now,@ and the chirping of birds and sounds of the day that had surrounded her disappeared promptly, too.\\ `I hung my head, sighed, and headed down the gravel path toward my cozy but lonely little cabin by the lake.\\ bg black,10 !w 1000 `I'd spent the last two weeks, alone, now that I thought of it.@ They were a combination of sulking and sight-seeing,@ and something I couldn't genuinely enjoy.@ br `....... Well, maybe I wasn't entirely alone.\\ bg "bg/panel25.png",20 `I returned to the cabin,@ and got cozy the way I usually did at this time.@ br `I had a pretty simple supper.@ I went and read.@ I watched the lightningbugs which flew around and flickered like tiny lightbulbs, outside of the window.\\ !w 1500 `"..... Ah, right. I should remember to lock up before I go to bed."@ br `Mental note: taken.\\ `Well, it wasn't that I'd forget anyways.@ I just felt a subconscious need to hear myself talk out loud.@ br `I wondered...@ was it that girl's companionship that made me begin to crave more for the first time in a while?\\ br `"............ Stupid."@ br `I picked up the novel I'd begun reading the day I started coming here, and thumbed through it.\\ br `So... @ Where had I left off, again.... ?@ br `It was about a chance meeting between a young boy and a young girl,@ two people who fell in love in a Romeo-and-Juliet-esque manner,@ but with (thankfully) different results.@ br `That was....\\ `"........."@ br `Rustle. Rustle. Rustle.@ br `The sound of the pages moving, alone, was distracting enough for me.@ I couldn't focus on this, anyway.\\ br bg "bg/panel6.png",5 bg "bg/panel25.png",5 `Ah...@ why was I thinking of that person?\\ `Heheh....@ there must be something wrong with my head, huh?@ br `I'm thinking of a young girl, not of my wife,@ and I'm on the verge of having some kind of twisted fantasy.@ br `Tch.\\ `Well, did that really mean I was being unfaithful?@ Maybe I was just lonely....@ I'd been in this cabin, all by my lonesome, for a little while now.@ br And all of a sudden, a cute girl comes out of nowhere and she...\\ !w 2000 `"....... That's right.@ Anybody would feel happy to see her, and think about her for a while."@ br `So there was nothing lowly about my thoughts.@ And, even, I'd never thought anything intimate about her,@ had I? Of course not. Aha... ha...@ `Just a little, I felt the tenseness in my shoulders ease.\\ `"....... I wonder what you're doing right now, Anne?@ Tell me....@ What would you think of that young girl, who looks like the color of dandelions and wears dresses made of things I've never seen in my life.... ?"\\ !w 4000 br `I reached and took a cigarette from my pocket.@ br `.... When was the last time I smoked?@ `".... Hmph."@ `I should probably quit, huh?@ I know it's a disgusting habit.@ It's not like I'm proud to be forced to do something like this to relax, you know.\\ `I lit it, and smoked it slowly.@ It was weird... a guilty sort of feeling like you'd reached your hand into the cookie jar@ without having done so in such a long time.\\ `What was it that she said?\\ br br br br br `"The day before yesterday I saw a rabbit,@ and yesterday a deer,@ and today, you."\\ `It seemed comfortable, and sort of.... familiar, I guess.@ br `That night I thought of the strange girl,@ Julie Danvers, and fell asleep with a lot of questions about her that would be never and easily answered.....\\ bg "cg/panel12.png",20 `"La dee da~... la dee da~...."@ br `When I approached the dandelion-colored girl for the second time, she was wearing a blue dress.@ Not only that, she had a ribbon of a similar color tied neatly up in her hair.@ br `.... Cute.\\ `She was pretty captivating, today, too.@ She had a slender body, and white skin like porcelain.@ br `Some people might think that pale skin is sickly-looking, but....@ br `Well, whatever.\\ `She danced around like some kind of butterfly,@ letting the hem of her dress blow right along with her movements.@ If she were a butterfly, for real, the force of the whirlwind she was making, herself, would be enough to send her flying away.@ br `Maybe she was that kind of person, the type of girl who could live with nothing short of soaring in the sky@... like a butterfly, or a majestic bird or something....\\ `Maybe....\\ `".............."@ br `"....... Eh?"\\ `".... Ah."@ br `When had she noticed me, how long had I blanked out, and how exactly did my expression look?@ The Julie in the blue dress was leaning close and peering at my now red face, curiously.@ br `"....... ?"\\ `Augh... say something.@ br bg "cg/panel17.png",5 `Funny.@ As if she could hear me say that in my head, Julie stood upright and clasped her hands together in a sort of prayer look.@ As if to say "Please, sir, have the first word, won't you?"\\ `"........ Hey. Didn't think you'd be around, today."@ br bg "cg/panel6.png",5 `She grinned at my throaty voice.@ br `"Fufu... well, I am. And so are you, obviously."\\ `"Uh huh, well..."@ br `"...... I'm glad."\\ `.... More silence.\\ bg "cg/panel10.png",5 `While Julie was silent and staring up at the open sky, so full of possibilities,@ she didn't look particularly tense.@ I, myself, however, was wordless and utterly full of anxiety.\\ end
