ClubFloyd Transcript:
Till Death Makes a Monk-Fish Out of Me
by Jon Ingold & Mike Sousa
As played on ifMUD on May 30, 2009

The idea behind ClubFloyd is that each week at a pre-arranged time, a group of people meet online to cooperatively play a game of interactive fiction.

Below is a transcript of Till Death Makes a Monk-Fish Out of Me, written by Jon Ingold & Mike Sousa. Till Death Makes a Monk-Fish Out of Me was originally released as part of the 2002 Interactive Fiction Competition, where it took second place. It went on to be nominated for foud Xyzzy Awards, including Best Game, Best Individual Puzzle, Best Story, and Best Writing. You can learn more about the game, including how to download it, by visiting the ifWiki.

WARNING! Below you will find a transcript of people playing this game, and it goes without saying that the transcript is full of spoilers. So, if you've never played this game, and think you might like to at some point, I do not recommend reading any further. Instead, you might want to return to the interactive fiction page.

Floyd | Welcome to the Cheap Glk Implementation, library version 0.9.0.
Floyd |
Floyd | tadsr - A text-only TADS 2.5.10 Interpreter.
Floyd | Copyright (c) 1993, 2006 by Michael J. Roberts.
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd | "After you, Professor," Zak says, holding open the door.  "Think - if
Floyd | this works you'll be standing on the surface in no time!"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yes, Zak, I know."
Floyd |
Floyd | TILL DEATH MAKES A MONK-FISH OUT OF ME

Floyd | Interactive Fiction
Floyd | Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 by Michael J. Sousa and Jon Ingold.
Floyd | (First-time players should type HELP)
Floyd | Release 1.1 / Serial number 021103 / TADS 2.56
Floyd |
Floyd | Machine Room

Floyd |    The floor is a tangle of cables running from the bank of heavy
Floyd | machinery to the man-sized glass cylinder in the corner; it's like a
Floyd | blender plugged into a car-battery in a giant's world.  The whole
Floyd | arrangement looks suspiciously haphazard.
Floyd |
Floyd | Dr. Kurner is already here, looking like he only just got out of bed.

Floyd |
Floyd | The others enter behind you.  "All set, Professor?" asks Zak, clapping
Floyd | you on the back.  Taking your arm he helps you into the glass tube.
Floyd | You don't need help, but this is a Momentous Occasion.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Welcome to TILL DEATH MAKES A MONK-FISH OUT OF ME.  Below is a brief
Floyd | list of some of the special commands that this game recognizes.  If
Floyd | you're new to interactive fiction, please type INSTRUCTIONS for a

Floyd | detailed introduction to text adventures.
Floyd |
Floyd | The game was coded and primarily tested by the authors using HTML TADS
Floyd | -- though testing was performed on other platforms.
Floyd |
Floyd |    SAVE        - Save the current game position

Floyd |    RESTORE     - Restore a saved game position
Floyd |    UNDO        - Take back the previous turn
Floyd |    QUIT        - End the game
Floyd |
Floyd |    CREDITS     - Show the game's credits
Floyd |    COPYRIGHT   - Copyright information

Floyd |    ABOUT       - Show some background information about the game
Floyd |    VERSION     - Show the current version of the game
Floyd |    RELEASE     - Show release history of game
Floyd |    HINT        - Hint system
Floyd |    REVIEW      - Perform a "LOOK" without affecting time or turn count
Floyd |    WINNABLE    - Is the game still in a winnable state?

Floyd |
Floyd |    SCRIPT      - Start recording a transcript of your moves to a file
Floyd |    UNSCRIPT    - Stop recording the current transcript
Floyd |
Floyd |    AMUSING     - A list of amusing things to try
Floyd |    SPAG        - Reprint of the SPAG interview

Floyd |    NOTES       - Collaboration emails between Jon and I
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any cylinder here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | This game is in a perpetual winnable state.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (Review mode - time does not pass)
Floyd |

Floyd | Inside the glass cylinder
Floyd |    Cables feed away from the base of the glass to the bank of machinery
Floyd | outside, around which the scientists huddle and confer.  Inside is your
Floyd | own little fish-tank; there's a grille to put your feet on, and some
Floyd | machinery at the top, and the Emergency Door Release Switch just about
Floyd | where your left hand is.  They're all looking at you expectantly,

Floyd | perhaps waiting for a final speech before the glass slides shut...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | What do you want to say?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | "Friends!  This is a momentous day!  I have prepared just a few words
Floyd | to be said on this occasion, if you will bear with me.  There is a
Floyd | saying in my country: he who eats of the plum tree must wonder why he
Floyd | ..."
Floyd |

Floyd | The glass door slides quickly shut.  Your view of the scientists is
Floyd | somewhat obscured by a note, taped to the inside.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (first taking the note)
Floyd | "Well, Professor.  I suspect that from now on you will not prove a
Floyd | problem in my life any more.  Your machine is under my control.  Shall
Floyd | we say: if you are reading this, you are already dead."
Floyd |
Floyd | "FIVE," booms the automated countdown voice.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |
Floyd | Written over several months, hundreds of emails, a good few feet of
Floyd | bandwidth, and a distance of several thousand miles, this is Mike's
Floyd | second collaboration (the first was "No Time To Squeal", written with
Floyd | Robb Sherwin) and Jon's third IFcomp game.  Inspired by Roger Corman,
Floyd | Isaac Asimov and Evans' the Fishmongers; it was written "on location",

Floyd | in Cambridge, Istanbul, Galway, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, with the
Floyd | programming mostly done on a laptop in Massachusetts.
Floyd |
Floyd | Bugs and feedback should be emailed to jonnyingold@netscape.net and
Floyd | mjsousa@attbi.com.  Testers are listed in the CREDITS.  Type HELP for
Floyd | in-game assistance.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | File to save game in >
Floyd | Saved.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | TILL DEATH MAKES A MONK-FISH OUT OF ME
Floyd | Release 1.1 / Serial number 021103 / TADS 2.56
Floyd |
Floyd |        Mike Sousa          Programmer
Floyd |        Jon Ingold          Writer
Floyd |

Floyd |        John Bichard        Testers
Floyd |        Vincent Lynch
Floyd |        J.D.  Berry
Floyd |        Philip Dearmore
Floyd |        Dave Gatewood
Floyd |        Diana Shalmi

Floyd |
Floyd | A huge thanks to John Bichard, tester extraordinaire.  His timely
Floyd | reports and incredible attention to detail has made this game so much
Floyd | better.  Thank you!
Floyd |
Floyd | Any bugs, typos, grammar gaffes or run-time errors are solely my fault.

Floyd | I probably added some "finishing touches" and neglected to have
Floyd | somebody else take a look.
Floyd |
Floyd | Special thanks to Mike Roberts for TADS.  I am so looking forward to
Floyd | working with T3.
Floyd |

Floyd | A big thank you to Stephen Granade -- I can't envision the comp without
Floyd | him.
Floyd |
Floyd | Most of the code is home grown, or taken from my other works.  I did
Floyd | need to borrow a couple of modules so thanks to Dan Schmidt for his
Floyd | disambig.t module.

Floyd |
Floyd | Because this was the first game that required some parsing hacks, I
Floyd | needed to borrow code there too.  A very big thanks to Suzanne Britton
Floyd | for her Chatter library.  Her parseAskobjIndirect routine saved me a
Floyd | lot of time and frustration.
Floyd |

Floyd | Last, but definitely not least, thanks Jon.  You were a pleasure to
Floyd | work with -- I'm in awe of your uncanny ability to write, create and
Floyd | problem solve.  I hope I didn't ruin the writing by adding some default
Floyd | responses here and there.  :)
Floyd |
Floyd | Release 2 notes

Floyd |
Floyd | Thanks to Paul O'Brian for his insigtful script file(s) -- numerous
Floyd | typos and default responses tweaked.  Thanks to Andrew Plotkin for
Floyd | providing different options for manipulating the Metal Rod.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You have a note.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | It's a pull switch.
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside all the scientists gather around the machinery, intent; tapping
Floyd | gauges and nodding seriously.  All except Dr. Kurner, that is, who
Floyd | stands off to one side, leaning heavily on a counter, staring at you.
Floyd |

Floyd | "FOUR."  There's a slight snigger sound just at the end; you remember
Floyd | laughing when you recorded that last week.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You tug the release.  Nothing results but a grating noise.  It's
Floyd | broken!
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey - do you suppose it should be sparking like that?" Zak pipes up.

Floyd | The others tut and mutter.
Floyd |
Floyd | "THREE."  Power begins to build.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | A sour man, five years your senior, but lower than you in rank.  You
Floyd | vaguely remember him from college but don't think you ever spoke.
Floyd | Otherwise - he was down here when you arrived.

Floyd |
Floyd | "And then there's quite a bit of smoke too, isn't there?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "TWO."  The cables on the floor wriggle like a squid.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The cables aren't important.
Floyd |

Floyd | "Maybe we should open it up and take a look?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Dr. Kurner's attention is taken briefly by a school of fish passing by
Floyd | the window.  No dedication, that man.
Floyd |
Floyd | "ONE."  The coils at the top of the cylinder make a searing noise.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your words are muffled by the glass; which steams up as you shout.  You
Floyd | could probably write in the condensation with a fingertip, though.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Anyone got a screwdriver?"  A few pat their pockets, and shrug.
Floyd |
Floyd | "ZER-OH!"  The machine blasts a spurt of searing white light, as though
Floyd | your head has come off.  The scientists outside barely seem to notice
Floyd | as they hunt around for a coin to use in the screw-head.  Just as

Floyd | everything fades fuzzily to black, you see Kurner stumble himself; then
Floyd | the world slides away...
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Consciousness projection.  They'd not said it couldn't be done, but
Floyd | they had said it was pretty unlikely.  They'd not said you were mad,

Floyd | but they had said you were a little unusual, especially in your taste
Floyd | for sushi.  But you knew, if anyone down in AtlantisLab needs anything,
Floyd | it's a holiday on the surface.  Preferably a holiday as a
Floyd | twenty-two-year-old beach dweller.
Floyd |
Floyd | Which is where you should be right now.  It feels colder than Hawaii

Floyd | should this time of year.  You have a slight headache.  It's dark - so
Floyd | you open your eyes.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | TILL DEATH MAKES A MONK-FISH OUT OF ME
Floyd | Release 1.1 / Serial number 021103 / TADS 2.56

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | File to restore game from >
Floyd | Restored.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside the glass cylinder

Floyd |    Cables feed away from the base of the glass to the bank of machinery
Floyd | outside, around which the scientists huddle and confer.  Inside is your
Floyd | own little fish-tank; there's a grille to put your feet on, and some
Floyd | machinery at the top, and the Emergency Door Release Switch just about
Floyd | where your left hand is.  Their voices are muffled by the sealed glass
Floyd | cover.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your words are muffled by the glass; which steams up as you shout.  You
Floyd | could probably write in the condensation with a fingertip, though.

Floyd |
Floyd | Outside all the scientists gather around the machinery, intent; tapping
Floyd | gauges and nodding seriously.  All except Dr. Kurner, that is, who
Floyd | stands off to one side, leaning heavily on a counter, staring at you.
Floyd |
Floyd | "FOUR."  There's a slight snigger sound just at the end; you remember

Floyd | laughing when you recorded that last week.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | When typing or writing, you need to surround the target word in quotes;

Floyd | ie, write "in".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the glass door)

Floyd | You write "help".
Floyd |
Floyd | Zak notices your message.  "I think he's talking to you, Dr. Kurner,"
Floyd | he says.  "Do you fancy lending a hand here?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey - do you suppose it should be sparking like that?" Zak pipes up.

Floyd | The others tut and mutter.
Floyd |
Floyd | "THREE."  Power begins to build.
Floyd |
Floyd | The condensation on the glass door evaporates away.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the glass door)
Floyd | You breathe on the glass door and a pool of condensation forms.  Your
Floyd | previous message "help" is now visible on the glass door.

Floyd | You write "kurner" instead.
Floyd |
Floyd | "And then there's quite a bit of smoke too, isn't there?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "TWO."  The cables on the floor wriggle like a squid.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | [One word at a time please]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the glass door)
Floyd | You write "redrum" instead.
Floyd |
Floyd | Zak notices your message.  "Hey, guys!  I'm guessing the problem's with

Floyd | the Redrummation Mechanism!"  He winks at you.  "I learnt to read
Floyd | mirror writing in the Army, you know."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Maybe we should open it up and take a look?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Dr. Kurner's attention is taken briefly by a school of fish passing by

Floyd | the window.  No dedication, that man.
Floyd |
Floyd | "ONE."  The coils at the top of the cylinder make a searing noise.
Floyd |
Floyd | The condensation on the glass door evaporates away.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | When typing or writing, you need to surround the target word in quotes;
Floyd | ie, write "xyzzy".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the glass door)
Floyd | You breathe on the glass door and a pool of condensation forms.  Your
Floyd | previous message "redrum" is now visible on the glass door.
Floyd | You write "xyzzy" instead.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Anyone got a screwdriver?"  A few pat their pockets, and shrug.
Floyd |
Floyd | "ZER-OH!"  The machine blasts a spurt of searing white light, as though
Floyd | your head has come off.  The scientists outside barely seem to notice
Floyd | as they hunt around for a coin to use in the screw-head.  Just as

Floyd | everything fades fuzzily to black, you see Kurner stumble himself; then
Floyd | the world slides away...
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Consciousness projection.  They'd not said it couldn't be done, but
Floyd | they had said it was pretty unlikely.  They'd not said you were mad,

Floyd | but they had said you were a little unusual, especially in your taste
Floyd | for sushi.  But you knew, if anyone down in AtlantisLab needs anything,
Floyd | it's a holiday on the surface.  Preferably a holiday as a
Floyd | twenty-two-year-old beach dweller.
Floyd |
Floyd | Which is where you should be right now.  It feels colder than Hawaii

Floyd | should this time of year.  You have a slight headache.  It's dark - so
Floyd | you open your eyes.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | In a drawer, sitting up
Floyd |    You are sitting up in a long metal drawer, halfway up a large wall
Floyd | of metal drawers.  Most of the others are closed; yours is open.  Below
Floyd | - about ten feet or so - is the floor of an unfamiliar room, with a
Floyd | door at the far end.  The main features seem to be metal:  metal
Floyd | ceiling, metal walls, metal piping along one side.  Coupled with the

Floyd | dim lighting, this is definitely not Waikiki Beach, by any stretch of
Floyd | the imagination.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your foot is itching.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Tied tightly around your big toe is a tag.  It reads "John Doe."  Well,
Floyd | at least you know what name you should answer to.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The toe tag is firmly attached.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Well, you seem to be naked.  This isn't your body either.  So
Floyd | everything's gone to plan; except this doesn't look a lot like Hawaii.
Floyd |

Floyd | Tied around your toe is a tag.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You stand up.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your drawer is empty bar you, without even a sheet, and is labelled
Floyd | "John Doe" at the front.  Looking around the others you see they're all

Floyd | labelled too - there's Jeremy Doe off to one side; Jack Doe a few

Floyd | levels up, and the lowest down you can read is Ms. Jenny Doe; who's
Floyd | about halfway to the ground.  The surrounding drawers are all closed.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Floyd | You have nothing, absolutely nothing.  And you're cold as a
Floyd | consequence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your drawer is already open.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The ground is too far to jump!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | One at a time, please.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's too far below for you to reach the handle.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You slide open Jeremy's drawer.  He's inside, asleep.  He seems to have
Floyd | a peg-leg.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The peg-leg is a tapering pole the length of one leg - more like a
Floyd | strut, really, or half a flamingo.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Jeremy is a large round-faced man, almost tubby, almost jovial in fact;
Floyd | apart from the missing leg which adds a sinister touch to the
Floyd | proceedings.  He is naked, and asleep, and looks very comfortable
Floyd | somehow.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You stand up, and can easily reach Jack's drawer to slide it open.
Floyd | Jack is inside, but he appears to be asleep.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can only really make out his feet from down here, but they're very
Floyd | still, so he must be fast asleep.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Don't wake him.  He looks like he's sleeping real deeply.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The peg-leg is a tapering pole the length of one leg - more like a
Floyd | strut, really, or half a flamingo.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Poking Jeremy Doe doesn't seem to have any effect.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (with the peg-leg)
Floyd | Hooking the drawer with Jeremy's leg, you slide it open.  Poor old
Floyd | Jenny rolls into view.  She looks positively knackered.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Don't wake him.  He looks like he's sleeping real deeply.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Jenny is a red-head, and a good-looking one too.  If you weren't both
Floyd | naked, and lying in cold metal drawers halfway up a wall, you'd
Floyd | consider asking her out; just to irritate your wife.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The peg is far too cumbersome for this manoeuvre, so you first give it
Floyd | back to good old Jeremy next door.
Floyd |
Floyd | It's a fair way down - so first you get a solid grip on the edge of

Floyd | your pallet, and then very gradually you slide off it.  There's a
Floyd | moment of flailing before one toe meets her drawer.  Slight kick in the
Floyd | ribs - you freeze - but she hasn't noticed.  Lucky.  Next foot, you
Floyd | can't see where it's going - oops, that felt like her head; you feel
Floyd | certain her eyes must open any second, you'll hear a complaint... no,
Floyd | no, somehow you get away with it.  The next time you put it down it's

Floyd | more or less onto a clear space - bar some hair.
Floyd |
Floyd | You let go of your drawer, now firmly astride Jenny's, and rub your
Floyd | hands.  There's a deep shadowed groove in either palm from holding up
Floyd | your weight.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You find nothing of interest.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Jenny is a red-head, and a good-looking one too.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It lies beneath you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | She'd no doubt appreciate it, of course, given that she's probably
Floyd | quite lonely here.  But you refrain, on grounds of hygiene.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You make the final fall to the ground.
Floyd |
Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a

Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.

Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't see much from here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch is about three foot square and flush with the floor.  Just by

Floyd | it is a circular recess in the wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The names read: Kathleen, Victoria, Charlotte and Rosalind.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's roughly ten centimeters wide and deep, and is barely a meter off
Floyd | the floor.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There is nothing in there.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You slide open the compartment.  Inside is a trolley on which lies what
Floyd | is clearly a corpse.  A transparent sheet covers face down to ankles,
Floyd | like it was wrapped in cling-film.  Only the feet protrude - no tag.  A

Floyd | little horrified, you slam the compartment closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You quickly slide it open and shut -- same story as the other

Floyd | compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You quickly slide it open and shut -- same story as the other

Floyd | compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Inside the compartment is an empty trolley.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The trolley is inside the compartment.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't reach it from here.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd | You can't reach it from here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You enter Rosalind's compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside Rosalind's compartment

Floyd |    A metal box, seven foot by four foot by five, arranged such that you
Floyd | could lie down spread-eagled but stoop when you stand.  The west wall
Floyd | is missing.  In the middle of the floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're already in the compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't understand that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.

Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You enter Rosalind's compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside Rosalind's compartment

Floyd |    A metal box, seven foot by four foot by five, arranged such that you
Floyd | could lie down spread-eagled but stoop when you stand.  The west wall
Floyd | is missing.  In the middle of the floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "exits".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Six feet long, three feet wide, it is essentially a tray on wheels.
Floyd | The only additions are a rubber bumper at one end and a flat metal
Floyd | rectangle at the other.  This is like the registration plate of a car,
Floyd | only blank.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You push the trolley west.

Floyd |
Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.

Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Floyd | An arc of thick rubber, designed for shock absorbance.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It is just smooth metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It is just smooth metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't see much from here.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch is about three foot square and flush with the floor.  Just by
Floyd | it is a circular recess in the wall.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatchway will not open, will not budge and will not slide either.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd | You start pushing, but with the trolley so heavy it rolls back, and
Floyd | with it so low it's hard to get more weight behind.  In the end, you
Floyd | give up.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You lie on the trolley.  It's cold.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Bottom of ramp, on the trolley
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.

Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |

Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.  In the middle of the
Floyd | floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (the trolley)
Floyd | You get off the trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | Bottom of ramp

Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four

Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.  In the middle of the
Floyd | floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Top of ramp
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for
Floyd | the Doe family.  You could take your bow, lit by the spotlight-glow

Floyd | through the window, or slip offstage through the door just beside it.
Floyd | Just left of the door is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | An article must be followed by a noun.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Anything for a little credit.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Across the glass in arcing letters is emblazoned:  "YRAUTROM" (though

Floyd | the R's are a little strange).  Which is - you're quite sure - a place
Floyd | in Jordan; and not a place in Hawaii.
Floyd |
Floyd | It is bright in the corridor beyond, which smarts your eyes a little.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's rectangular in shape and the words
Floyd |
Floyd | ** ERROR - Reset Required **

Floyd |
Floyd | are printed on the tiny display.  Near the display is a button.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The display is cleared.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's rectangular in shape and the words
Floyd |
Floyd | SYSTEM - Active
Floyd |
Floyd | are printed on the tiny display.  Near the display is a button.

Floyd |
Floyd | At the bottom of the ramp, a robot appears through the hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |

Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.  In the middle of the
Floyd | floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |

Floyd | The robot positions its hexagonal tube by the trolley base with a
Floyd | muffled clang.  It then powers away up the ramp, pushing the trolley
Floyd | ahead of it.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's too far away.
Floyd |
Floyd | At the top of the ramp, the robot does something to make the door open,

Floyd | and slips through, pushing the trolley in front of it.  Then the door
Floyd | slams shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | This game is in a perpetual winnable state.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | This game is in a perpetual winnable state.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Top of ramp
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for
Floyd | the Doe family.  You could take your bow, lit by the spotlight-glow

Floyd | through the window, or slip offstage through the door just beside it.
Floyd | Just left of the door is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door is sealed shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Top of ramp
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for
Floyd | the Doe family.  You could take your bow, lit by the spotlight-glow
Floyd | through the window, or slip offstage through the door just beside it.
Floyd | Just left of the door is a small device.

Floyd |
Floyd | At the bottom of the ramp, a robot appears through the hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It is locked, it seems.  By the side, at shoulder height, is a black
Floyd | glass palm-scanner.  Three feet below is a circular recess and to the
Floyd | left is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot - whose name appears to be Kathleen - rumbles up the ramp.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | This Hansome is Kathleen.  It is shaped like a square coffee-table
Floyd | resting on one side.  The two legs - or rather, arms - at the top each
Floyd | boast a shining disc, like eyes; though only one is a camera lens and

Floyd | the other is a stubby protrusion like a hockey puck.  The two bottom
Floyd | prongs are run with caterpillar tracks.  Slung between them is brown
Floyd | hexagonal tube.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot inserts its hockey puck into the circular recess and opens
Floyd | the door long enough for it to power through.  Then the door slams

Floyd | shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Bottom of ramp

Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four

Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You quickly slide it open and shut -- same story as the other
Floyd | compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The hatch slides open long enough to spit out an orange robot.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | There's no surface to clamber on.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot - whose name appears to be Victoria - rumbles up the ramp.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's no surface to clamber on.
Floyd |

Floyd | At the top of the ramp, the robot does something to make the door open,
Floyd | and slips through.  Then the door slams shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You enter Rosalind's compartment.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside Rosalind's compartment
Floyd |    A metal box, seven foot by four foot by five, arranged such that you
Floyd | could lie down spread-eagled but stoop when you stand.  The west wall
Floyd | is missing.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a
Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |

Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Top of ramp
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for

Floyd | the Doe family.  You could take your bow, lit by the spotlight-glow
Floyd | through the window, or slip offstage through the door just beside it.
Floyd | Just left of the door is a small device.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the hatch appears first a trolley, then a robot shepherd.  In a
Floyd | deft volley of whirrs and flicks, it opens the Charlotte compartment

Floyd | with its extending arm and shoves the trolley inside, moving forward
Floyd | itself.  The trolley bounces off the one already inside the compartment
Floyd | and comes to a rest in the room, behind the robot.  The compartment
Floyd | door swings shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Bottom of ramp
Floyd |    This is a thin room then, between the wall of square drawers like a

Floyd | tiling and another side of sheer metal, east and west respectively.
Floyd | The floor is split-level; from where you stand a ramp leads up and
Floyd | northward, and light from a window there tumbles back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | The drawers stop about five feet from ground-level; below are four
Floyd | compartments.

Floyd |
Floyd | There is a smooth hatch set into the south wall.  In the middle of the
Floyd | floor is a low flat trolley.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot - whose name appears to be Charlotte - rumbles up the ramp.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You clamber on.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot inserts its hockey puck into the circular recess and opens

Floyd | the door long enough for it to power through.  Then the door slams
Floyd | shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | File to save game in >
Floyd | Saved.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "zf".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The names read: Kathleen, Victoria, Charlotte and Rosalind.
Floyd |
Floyd | The hatch open long enough to spit out Kathleen, again.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Kathleen positions its hexagonal tube by the trolley base with a
Floyd | muffled clang. It then powers away up the ramp, taking you with it.

Floyd |
Floyd | Top of ramp, on the trolley
Floyd |    This is a small stage, facing the stalls below down a ramp to the
Floyd | south, with the royal boxes on the wall above, reserved it seems for
Floyd | the Doe family.  Above you is a circular recess which is attached to a
Floyd | door.  Just left of the door is a small device.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | What do you want to sing to?
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't reach that from the trolley.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | This Hansome is Kathleen.  It is shaped like a square coffee-table
Floyd | resting on one side.  The two legs - or rather, arms - at the top each
Floyd | boast a shining disc, like eyes; though only one is a camera lens and

Floyd | the other is a stubby protrusion like a hockey puck.  The two bottom
Floyd | prongs are run with caterpillar tracks.  Slung between them is brown
Floyd | hexagonal tube.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot extends its hockey puck to an absurd length, reaching over
Floyd | the trolley in front, to clip into the recess by the door.  The

Floyd | entrance slides open, and it passes through, taking you with it.
Floyd |
Floyd | Once in the corridor outside, you leap from the trolley before it, and
Floyd | the robot, power away.
Floyd |
Floyd | Corridor

Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor,
Floyd | lighting round the bends on either hand, but right now your eyes are
Floyd | elsewhere - drawn to the window of the room you have just left.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Here it is light, and there it is dark, and the glass acts as a mirror
Floyd | over which your haggard face looms.  Only it is not your face.  It is
Floyd | the face of Dr. Kurner.  A moment of staring is not enough, and you

Floyd | stare some more.  His nose is your nose, his eyes, wet and squinting,
Floyd | are your eyes, they move as you look over them.  You feel the tightness
Floyd | of his skin around your mouth and cheekbones.  And worse: his face is
Floyd | framed, like an advert for a circus clown, by an arcing title in large
Floyd | letters:
Floyd |

Floyd | MORTUARY
Floyd |
Floyd | Dead!  Ridiculous!  You're not dead!  You're standing upright.  Indeed,
Floyd | you're breathing!  Aren't you?  There - you blow a long breath onto the
Floyd | glass, and a pool of condensation smokes it over.  Alive.  You're
Floyd | alive.  And the sooner you can get back to your machine and get

Floyd | yourself back into your own skin, the better.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot pushes the trolley through the hatch in the southwest wall
Floyd | and disappears.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Through the portholes swim a variety of underwater fish, lit in the
Floyd | half-glow leaking from this dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | The condensation on the window evaporates away.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | What do you want to write it on?
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You breathe on the window and a pool of condensation forms.  You write
Floyd | "fuck".

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The robot's hatch is closed.

Floyd |
Floyd | The condensation on the window evaporates away.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The airlock is closed.  And it doesn't look in good repair, either.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Victoria.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The airlock is circular, and damaged, with loose wiring hanging from
Floyd | the frame. Set in the centre is the access mechanism, above is a small
Floyd | square spyhole.  The sight beyond it is not good - you can make out

Floyd | twisted metal, bent panels and wiring dripping from the ceiling like
Floyd | thick seaweed.  It appears not to have been breached, though, as there
Floyd | is no water.  Something moves about within: something large and orange.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's no verb in that sentence!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The mechanism is a large button marked ACCESS MECHANISM.  Its functions
Floyd | are probably impaired by the sparking wiring hanging from the
Floyd | doorframe.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Two wires, crudely torn.  They spark occasionally - and are quite
Floyd | possibly live!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Of course!  If you electrocute yourself - if you die - then your
Floyd | consciousness will flip back to your original body!  It's bound to,
Floyd | after all!  And then your problem is solved! ... Though you'll still
Floyd | have to help Dr. Kurner, somehow, wherever he is.  Excellent idea.

Floyd |
Floyd | You steel your courage, raise your hand... and have a moment of doubt.
Floyd | Are you sure you want to do this?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "yez".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You close your eyes, and close your hand around the two ends of the
Floyd | wires.  There is a terrible sparking as electricity leaps between them,
Floyd | flowing blue lightning between your fingers, along your skin, down your
Floyd | palm!
Floyd |

Floyd | However, due to Dr. Kurner's plastic prosthetic wrist replacement, it
Floyd | doesn't get much further than that.  Your hand comes away, a little
Floyd | blackened.
Floyd |
Floyd | The airlock door slides open.
Floyd |

Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's good that you're feeling so positive.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your hand is the colour of your wife's baked potatoes.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "lick".

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "lick".

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "taste".
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The wires don't appear appetizing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any orange here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You slip through the airlock, into a mangle of metal.
Floyd |
Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen

Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,
Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  Where the corridor is most
Floyd | crumpled, one of the panels underfoot is loose, rippling out from the
Floyd | floor.  A large orange robot is whirring back and forth here.  It is

Floyd | Rosalind.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the rumbling sound of another robot in the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | One of the panels of flooring at the southern end of this area has
Floyd | stuck up from the floor, like the bone protruding from a broken leg;
Floyd | like a wafer in an ice-cream.
Floyd |

Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | Rosalind edges forward once more, away from the airlock.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's nothing under the panel.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot moves on down the corridor, until it hits the fallen roof.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | She has not survived the impact, either.  Poor thing - you wonder how
Floyd | long she has been trapped here, whirring forward along the corridor
Floyd | until she can go no further, then back until caught in the pinched

Floyd | walls by the airlock.
Floyd |
Floyd | Rosalind whirrs slowly across the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any puck here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The panel is heavy, and one end is stuck in a pinch of metal, but this
Floyd | acts neatly as a hinge.  You prop it with a clang against the wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | Beyond is a dark hole in the flooring.  Who knows how far a drop it
Floyd | might be, how long one might tumble before finally crunching to certain

Floyd | death on the floor?
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot reaches the airlock, but cannot quite fit through the gap.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You cross yourself once.  This is it - a long jump - air whipped from
Floyd | your mouth - certain death on a solid flooring, who knows how far down.
Floyd | You can see nothing in there, it is black.  Will they ever find this
Floyd | body?  Who can say?  You close your eyes and leap into the dark.

Floyd |
Floyd | And land, an instant later, in a waist-deep hole.
Floyd |
Floyd | In a Hole
Floyd |    You are waist-high in a hole in the floor, in the middle of a
Floyd | corridor of mangled metal walls.

Floyd |
Floyd | You hear Rosalind's trudging footsteps.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The only exit is up.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear Rosalind's trudging footsteps.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You find nothing of interest.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear Rosalind's trudging footsteps.  With a loud rumble, the robot
Floyd | looms over your head, filling your vision the way a cloud can blot out

Floyd | the sun.  You cower, raising your arms instinctively over your eyes, as

Floyd | Rosalind pitches forward into the hole...
Floyd |
Floyd | But it seems the centre of those robots is just a sheet of orange

Floyd | paper, as it rips easily when it hits your head.  A crash-smash later,
Floyd | you are standing in the debris of shattered robot, half filling the
Floyd | pit.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Rosalind is in at least twelve parts, most bright orange, a few black,
Floyd | with wires spilling from several fissures.  The debris is four inches
Floyd | deep.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any orange paper here.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Amongst the orange parts you find the robot's hockey-puck arm, which
Floyd | you take.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "mourn".
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | It's a two-inch long black cylinder, as wide as your prosthetic wrist.
Floyd | One end is marked with concentric ridges - that's the end that fits the
Floyd | hatch-locks.  It must be telescopic, somehow, but you can't see a

Floyd | mechanism.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any rosalind here.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You're not skilled enough.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You pray and feel a bit better.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "die".

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You scramble out of the hole.

Floyd |
Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen
Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,

Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  The loose panel is propped
Floyd | against the wall, revealing a promising, deep hole into the bowels of
Floyd | the dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "wrist".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The wiring is dark and dead, like the hair of a drowned mermaid.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The wires slip through your hands.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the rumbling sound of another robot in the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen
Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere

Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,
Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  The loose panel is propped
Floyd | against the wall, revealing a promising, deep hole into the bowels of
Floyd | the dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The only exit is west.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like

Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The robot's hatch is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any pole here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't understand that sentence.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatchway will not open, will not budge and will not slide either.

Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Victoria.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch slides open for a brief moment, then slams shut.  You put the
Floyd | arm in once more, and this time, slip through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,

Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | The norhern hatch flips open and out pops Victoria.  She slowly lumbers
Floyd | southward, disappearing through the southern hatch.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch is shut.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Which recess do you mean, the dented recess, or the circular recess?
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch opens; you dart through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Corridor

Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |

Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch opens; you dart through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged

Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There is a dull click.  It seems not to want to work.  There could be a
Floyd | hundred finicky mechanical reasons why.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't understand the punctuation "#".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | By Airlock
Floyd |    This is just a short vestibule, from the airlock to the west to the
Floyd | main corridor back east.  The airlock door is sealed, but looking
Floyd | through its panel, you can see a long corridor, leading off into the
Floyd | distance.  This must be the umbilical to the rest of the lab.
Floyd |

Floyd | You spot a robot trudging along the curving corridor, disappearing
Floyd | through the southern hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't quite reach the catch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door is sealed shut.  You can make out the opening mechanism - on
Floyd | this door it's near the top, out of reach for stumpy Dr.  Kurner and
Floyd | probably your old self too.  Set into the centre of the door is a
Floyd | viewing panel.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Nothing fancy, just a large button that you'd need to jab.  You just
Floyd | can't reach it, that's all.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The catch is a little embedded into the wall, so the arm hits spot on
Floyd | but it isn't able to push it.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Without something to poke that catch with - a broom handle, or
Floyd | something - there's no way through that airlock.  Hopefully you can
Floyd | find something, though; as that's the way back to the lab.
Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human

Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | Kathleen slips through the northern hatch and moments later exits to

Floyd | the south.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That hatch is sealed to you, and likely to remain so.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch is shut.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch opens; you dart through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Corridor

Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |

Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door is closed and locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Victoria.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't recognize that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It is locked, it seems.  By the side, at shoulder height, is a black
Floyd | glass palm-scanner.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Flat black glass, a panel that uses all manner of fancy beams to read
Floyd | over your palm-print and check you are who you think you are.
Floyd | Unfortunately, it's not clever enough to realise you now think you are
Floyd | someone that you actually aren't.  Or you think you are someone who
Floyd | you're not, but really are.  Or something like that.  Anyway, it's a
Floyd | pig-ignorant machine.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It bleeps red, displaying "PATTERN NOT IN DATABANK".
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like

Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Flat black glass, a panel that uses all manner of fancy beams to read
Floyd | over your palm-print and check you are who you think you are.

Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Charlotte.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's a two-inch long black cylinder, as wide as your prosthetic wrist.
Floyd | One end is marked with concentric ridges - that's the end that fits the
Floyd | hatch-locks.  It must be telescopic, somehow, but you can't see a
Floyd | mechanism.

Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "think".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't recognize that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You waggle and flip the cylinder, but it refuses to extend to its full

Floyd | length.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That accomplishes nothing.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's a two-inch long black cylinder, as wide as your prosthetic wrist.
Floyd | One end is marked with concentric ridges - that's the end that fits the

Floyd | hatch-locks.  It must be telescopic, somehow, but you can't see a
Floyd | mechanism.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That accomplishes nothing.
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Kathleen.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't wear the robot arm.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Your hand is firmly attached to you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Victoria.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "wrists".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Charlotte.
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...

Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.

Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | TILL DEATH MAKES A MONK-FISH OUT OF ME
Floyd | Release 1.1 / Serial number 021103 / TADS 2.56
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You slip through the airlock, into a mangle of metal.
Floyd |

Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen
Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,
Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  The loose panel is propped

Floyd | against the wall, revealing a promising, deep hole into the bowels of
Floyd | the dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The only exit is west.
Floyd |

Floyd | You hear the rumbling sound of another robot in the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You leap into the dark and land, an instant later, in a waist-deep

Floyd | hole.
Floyd |
Floyd | In a Hole
Floyd |    You are waist-high in a hole in the floor, in the middle of a
Floyd | corridor of mangled metal walls.  It's filled with the mangled rubble
Floyd | of robot parts, all a lurid orange.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The only exit is up.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You are waist-high in a hole in the floor, in the middle of a corridor
Floyd | of mangled metal walls.  It's filled with the mangled rubble of robot

Floyd | parts, all a lurid orange.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You scramble out of the hole.

Floyd |
Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen
Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,

Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  The loose panel is propped
Floyd | against the wall, revealing a promising, deep hole into the bowels of
Floyd | the dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low
Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light

Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by
Floyd | its side.
Floyd |

Floyd | Through the door appears Victoria.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...

Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't put anything into the hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door is closed and locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch opens; you dart through.

Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a

Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room

Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is

Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The coffin is a smart black number of regular height.  It is unmarked,
Floyd | open, and waiting with a depressing certitude.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and

Floyd | closing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a

Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner.  However, your
Floyd | gaze is taken by one larger switch, marked with beautiful portent:
Floyd | PERSONAL DETONATION DISPENSEMENT.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You have a robot arm.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That switch should dole out swifter death than cyanide.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's already open.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know how to switch the switch.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and
Floyd | closing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The coffin is empty.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's glass, and stretches upwards.  During a funeral, the base seals,
Floyd | it fills with water and coffins are flushed out to be found and buried
Floyd | on land.  You'd seen it before on the designs for this place, but never
Floyd | realised they'd been so heartless as to actually build the thing.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You made that mistake when you joined AtlantisLab.  You're not doing it
Floyd | again.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "clinder".
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "cilinder".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The coffin is in the way.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't move the coffin.
Floyd |
Floyd | The familiar swish-snap sound of the robot hatch gets your attention.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You tug the switch.  It sticks halfway, and a message appears on the
Floyd | screen: DISPENSEMENT SET.  PROCEED VIA PERSONAL SETTING.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Ah, the eco-friendly waste system.  A hatch, with a short tunnel,
Floyd | another hatch, and then the sea.  Waste goes into through one door and
Floyd | is ejected into the water.  Simple, effective, and self-cleaning.  The

Floyd | waste disposal hatch is closed, and there is no immediately obvious
Floyd | control to change that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner.  The switch for
Floyd | the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The screen is flashing something about
Floyd | setting a PERSONAL.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Of course, it probably won't be happy with your print.  But you put
Floyd | your palm on the glass anyway.
Floyd |
Floyd | The computer heaves and splats.  You barely notice a squat oblong fire

Floyd | out from its base, because of a searing pain that shoots across your
Floyd | palm.  You pull back your hand, to find you have been branded!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your palm contains a brand.  Beneath it is inscribed "Press for
Floyd | detonation."
Floyd |

Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Pushing your hand doesn't do anything.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Your finger hovers over the contact.  Eyes to palm, eyes to bomb.  You
Floyd | can't help feeling it's a slightly extreme way to go.  But you press
Floyd | the button anyway.

Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just
Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You made that mistake when you joined AtlantisLab.  You're not doing it
Floyd | again.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The brand is a small black button - a tattoo just left of your
Floyd | lifeline.  Beneath it is inscribed "Press for detonation."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner, slightly stained

Floyd | with your blood.  The switch for the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The
Floyd | screen is blank.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "pdd".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner, slightly stained
Floyd | with your blood.  The switch for the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The

Floyd | screen is blank.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd | You didn't think Dr. Kurner had any left.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a

Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red

Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Of course, "black oblong" is a marketing euphemism.  It means

Floyd | "container capable of violent explosive self-destruction" or "Bomb".
Floyd |
Floyd | It's small, black, and judging by the way it slid across the floor,
Floyd | very heavy. There is a single red light on top which blinks
Floyd | intermittently.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | It's small, but it's heavy, and flat on the flat floor so you can't get
Floyd | your fingers underneath.  (That's not helped, of course, by the fact
Floyd | you can barely bend your left palm thanks to the brand.)
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't seem to do that.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Ah, the eco-friendly waste system.  A hatch, with a short tunnel,
Floyd | another hatch, and then the sea.  Waste goes into through one door and
Floyd | is ejected into the water.  Simple, effective, and self-cleaning.  The

Floyd | waste disposal hatch is closed, and there is no immediately obvious
Floyd | control to change that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up

Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,

Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just

Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | The norhern hatch flips open and out pops Charlotte.  She slowly
Floyd | lumbers southward, disappearing through the southern hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That hatch is sealed to you, and likely to remain so.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch is shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | By Airlock
Floyd |    This is just a short vestibule, from the airlock to the west to the
Floyd | main corridor back east.  The airlock door is sealed, but you recall
Floyd | that a long corridor leads off into the distance.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just

Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human
Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.

Floyd |
Floyd | The norhern hatch flips open and out pops Kathleen.  She slowly lumbers
Floyd | southward, disappearing through the southern hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch opens; you dart through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low

Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by

Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You slip through the airlock, into a mangle of metal.

Floyd |
Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen
Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,

Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  The loose panel is propped
Floyd | against the wall, revealing a promising, deep hole into the bowels of
Floyd | the dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just

Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You have a robot arm.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your left palm has been branded with a button.

Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the rumbling sound of another robot in the corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You leap into the dark and land, an instant later, in a waist-deep
Floyd | hole.
Floyd |
Floyd | In a Hole

Floyd |    You are waist-high in a hole in the floor, in the middle of a
Floyd | corridor of mangled metal walls.  It's filled with the mangled rubble
Floyd | of robot parts, all a lurid orange.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "bush".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just
Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Rosalind is in at least twelve parts, most bright orange, a few black,
Floyd | with wires spilling from several fissures.  The debris is four inches
Floyd | deep.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's a two-inch long black cylinder, as wide as your prosthetic wrist.
Floyd | One end is marked with concentric ridges - that's the end that fits the
Floyd | hatch-locks.  It must be telescopic, somehow, but you can't see a

Floyd | mechanism.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That accomplishes nothing.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You waggle and flip the cylinder, but it refuses to extend to its full
Floyd | length.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Your hand is firmly attached to you.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't recognize that sentence.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | That accomplishes nothing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You waggle and flip the cylinder, but it refuses to extend to its full
Floyd | length.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You find nothing of interest.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You waggle and flip the cylinder, but it refuses to extend to its full
Floyd | length.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You scramble out of the hole.
Floyd |
Floyd | Collapsed Corridor
Floyd |    This was the eastern quadrant of the dome, but something has fallen

Floyd | away and it is now a mangle of sheets of metal, intersecting skew-like.
Floyd | About halfway along, the roof is so low to the floor as to admit a mere
Floyd | few centimeters of space between.  Wiring hangs from the neon light,
Floyd | but only the first segment is still lit.  The loose panel is propped
Floyd | against the wall, revealing a promising, deep hole into the bowels of
Floyd | the dome.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Corridor
Floyd |    The corridor curves southeast to southwest, smooth metal walls low

Floyd | and merging over your head.  Portholes splatter the north side like
Floyd | bullet-holes.  A neon striplight runs the length of the corridor, light
Floyd | leaking round the bends until it is cut on the west side by a
Floyd | robot-hatch, and on the east by an airlock door, which is open.
Floyd |
Floyd | To the south is the door back to the mortuary, a black glass panel by

Floyd | its side.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It is locked, it seems.  By the side, at shoulder height, is a black

Floyd | glass palm-scanner.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It bleeps red, displaying "PATTERN NOT IN DATABANK".
Floyd |
Floyd | Through the door appears Victoria.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door is closed and locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot opens the hatch and rumbles through.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The robot's hatch is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch opens; you dart through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    The western side of the dome, and an area not designed for human

Floyd | personnel.  Robot hatches stand secure at the north and southern ends,
Floyd | the latter a little dented, perhaps in the same explosion that damaged
Floyd | the east side.  Portholes peer out in the dark, their ring broken by a
Floyd | passage to the west, opposite an open archway to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Through the portholes swim a variety of underwater fish, lit in the
Floyd | half-glow leaking from this dome.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a

Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red

Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You'll have to tell me how to do that.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard, and a flat black palm scanner, slightly stained
Floyd | with your blood.  The switch for the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The
Floyd | screen is blank.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Much like the others you've seen.  Around the circumference are marked
Floyd | small lines.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You clip the robot arm into the circular recess.  The screen lights up
Floyd | with a list of names.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It doesn't budge.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The list on the screen reads:
Floyd | DOE, JACK
Floyd | DOE, JENNY

Floyd | DOE, JEREMY
Floyd | DOE, JOSEPHINE
Floyd | DOE, JULIA
Floyd | DOE, JOHN
Floyd |
Floyd | Jack's name is currently blinking.

Floyd |
Floyd | The familiar swish-snap sound of the robot hatch gets your attention.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It's not a touch screen.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | What do you want to type it on?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know how to type anything on the recess.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard from which protrudes a broken robot arm and a flat

Floyd | black palm scanner, slightly stained with your blood.  The switch for
Floyd | the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The screen is displaying a list of
Floyd | names.  One - "JACK" - is flashing.
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You gather once is more than enough.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It doesn't budge.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The robot arm is already in the recess!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The arm protrudes from the recess like a broken spur from a wrecked

Floyd | ship.  Around the circumference are marked small lines.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "lines".

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You unclip the arm from the recess.  The screen flashes: "PROCESSING...
Floyd | PROCESSING...  READY", then falls dark.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You have a robot arm.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your left palm has been branded with a button.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It doesn't budge.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just
Floyd | above your wrist.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You clip the robot arm into the circular recess.  The screen lights up
Floyd | with a list of names.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The list on the screen reads:
Floyd | DOE, JENNY

Floyd | DOE, JEREMY
Floyd | DOE, JOSEPHINE
Floyd | DOE, JULIA
Floyd | DOE, JOHN
Floyd |
Floyd | Jenny's name is currently blinking.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall
Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up

Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |

Floyd | You hear the familiar snap of the robot hatch echo in the corridor.
Floyd | You turn and spot Kathleen, connected to trolley, trudging along the
Floyd | corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any trolley here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You unclip the arm from the recess.  The screen flashes: "PROCESSING...
Floyd | PROCESSING...  SYSTEM BUSY", then falls dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | Kathleen enters the room, pushing a trolley in front of it.  On the

Floyd | trolley lies Jack Doe.
Floyd |
Floyd | You clip the robot arm into the circular recess.  The screen lights up
Floyd | with a list of names.
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot pushes the trolley over to the coffin, performs an ingenious

Floyd | twist, and the body slides in.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | It doesn't budge.
Floyd |

Floyd | The robot flips the coffin shut.  The glass cylinder seals, and in a
Floyd | great spiral of water rather too much like a submarine toilet, the
Floyd | coffin is ejected outwards and upwards.  You can't help noticing its
Floyd | panel was never engraved.  An empty coffin slides into place, by some
Floyd | mechanism too fast for your watery eyes to follow.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Kathleen turns tail and leaves the room, pushing its empty trolley

Floyd | before it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |

Floyd | From the corridor outside you hear the swish-snap of the robot hatch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The computer has one main screen, a circular recess to serve as a
Floyd | monodigital keyboard from which protrudes a broken robot arm and a flat

Floyd | black palm scanner, slightly stained with your blood.  The switch for
Floyd | the PDD is stuck half-way down.  The screen is displaying a list of
Floyd | names.  One - "JENNY" - is flashing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The familiar swish-snap sound of the robot hatch gets your attention.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You unclip the arm from the recess.  The screen flashes: "PROCESSING...
Floyd | PROCESSING...  READY", then falls dark.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the familiar snap of the robot hatch echo in the corridor.
Floyd | You turn and spot Kathleen, connected to trolley, trudging along the

Floyd | corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Kathleen enters the room, pushing a trolley in front of it.  On the
Floyd | trolley lies Jenny Doe.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...

Floyd |
Floyd | The robot transfers the body to the coffin.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The robot flips the coffin shut, and it is ejected, presumably into the
Floyd | sea above.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Kathleen turns tail and leaves the room, pushing its empty trolley
Floyd | before it.

Floyd |
Floyd | You hear a great rumbling under the floor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can hear the low hum emanating from the computer bank.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You clip the robot arm into the circular recess.  The screen lights up
Floyd | with a list of names.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corridor, you hear the sound of the robot hatch opening and
Floyd | closing.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The arm protrudes from the recess like a broken spur from a wrecked
Floyd | ship.  Around the circumference are marked small lines.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The list on the screen reads:
Floyd | DOE, JEREMY
Floyd | DOE, JOSEPHINE

Floyd | DOE, JULIA
Floyd | DOE, JOHN
Floyd |
Floyd | Jeremy's name is currently blinking.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JOSEPHINE in the list begins
Floyd | to blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JULIA in the list begins to
Floyd | blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JOHN in the list begins to
Floyd | blink.
Floyd |
Floyd | The familiar swish-snap sound of the robot hatch gets your attention.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The arm goes no further in, but it is free to rotate.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You turn the arm one notch, and the name JEREMY in the list begins to
Floyd | blink.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You unclip the arm from the recess.  The screen flashes: "PROCESSING...

Floyd | PROCESSING...  READY", then falls dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | The red light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear the familiar snap of the robot hatch echo in the corridor.

Floyd | You turn and spot Victoria, connected to trolley, trudging along the
Floyd | corridor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't see any trolley here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Victoria enters the room, pushing a trolley in front of it, on which
Floyd | lies Jeremy and Jeremy's peg-leg.  It is heading for the coffin, but
Floyd | there is a sudden loud grumbling from under the floor and the robot
Floyd | stops dead.  Before you spot the connection between the trolley's

Floyd | position and the waste-disposal hatch, the trolley has been tipped up
Floyd | by a neat shudder of Victoria's lower limbs and Jeremy has slid down in
Floyd | the compartment in the floor.  The coffin remains empty, and appears
Floyd | not to have noticed that's its snack has been thrown away by the
Floyd | waiter.
Floyd |

Floyd | The robot motors quietly out of the room westward, leaving the trolley
Floyd | behind, lolling flat on the floor once more.  The waste-disposal hatch
Floyd | slides shut.  Or, well, almost shut.  Jeremy's peg-leg protrudes,
Floyd | obstructing the closing of the cover.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The hatch has gripped it obliquely, and it's trapped on something
Floyd | inside the compartment (an armpit, perhaps).
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's no verb in that sentence!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You pull at the hatch, but don't have quite enough strength to move it
Floyd | with your hands.  Jeremy's peg-leg slides a bit toward you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You lever open the hatch with the peg-leg, which finally comes free in
Floyd | your hands.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside, your eyes are met by an appalling sight.  Jeremy is crumpled in

Floyd | the bottom of the compartment, whose lower door is not sealed, but
Floyd | rather filled by a thick green sludge, which oozes between his splayed
Floyd | limbs.
Floyd |
Floyd | And as you look down, the sludge looks up.  You leap back.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You lean back toward the hole.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a surge of movement from inside the hatch, and then an
Floyd | eruption of cobalt goop as a tentacle surges out.  It feels at the air,
Floyd | back and forth like the foil of a fencer, swiping toward your face.

Floyd | You recoil, stumble, fall back flat upon the trolley.  The suckers,
Floyd | blood-tipped already, follow the sound, soon hovering mere inches from
Floyd | your face.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "tolley".
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You try to jerk the trolley to move, but to do so without moving nearer
Floyd | the squid.  The net effect - fear and no motion.
Floyd |

Floyd | From the corner of your eye you see water bubbling in through the
Floyd | hatch, the tunnel beneath which is now held open on both ends by the
Floyd | enormous arm of the squid.  This arm sweeps the room, an inch from your
Floyd | nose, unable to find you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (Undoing one command)
Floyd |
Floyd | Computer Core And Coffin Room, on the trolley
Floyd |    This appears to be the hub of the Hansome's world.  Along one wall

Floyd | runs a large computer bank, over which soft lights play in colours
Floyd | tailored for electric eyes.  The far corner of the room contains a
Floyd | large glass cylinder that disappears through the ceiling; it is open at
Floyd | the bottom, where a coffin waits. The centre of the floor is taken up
Floyd | by a circular hatch marked "Waste Disposal".  The juxtaposition is
Floyd | quite unpleasant, and if too much so, you could leave back west.

Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting in the middle of the floor is a black oblong, with a single red
Floyd | light on top which blinks intermittently.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | File to save game in >
Floyd | Saved.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - PERSONAL WITHIN BLAST RADIUS!" screams a siren from just

Floyd | above your wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the corner of your eye you see water bubbling in through the
Floyd | hatch, the tunnel beneath which is now held open on both ends by the
Floyd | enormous arm of the squid.  This arm sweeps the room, an inch from your
Floyd | nose, unable to find you.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You are flat out on the trolley and not moving an inch higher.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | That has no effect.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tentacle swoops back a little, like a hawk soaring to survey.  It

Floyd | seems to have lost you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You'll have to get off of the trolley first.

Floyd |
Floyd | The light on the black oblong winks.
Floyd |
Floyd | In a flash the tentacle has descended, enfolding and embracing the bomb
Floyd | and dragging it down through the hatch with it.  You breath a sigh of
Floyd | relief as it slides out of sight.

Floyd |
Floyd | But the waste hatch is still open, still broken, and as the tentacle
Floyd | leaves the only obstacle between the room and the sea has left too.  A
Floyd | fountain jets up into the room, catching the trolley as it splashes
Floyd | down.  You start to roll, out of the door westwards.
Floyd |

Floyd | Curving Corridor
Floyd |    You are flat out on the trolley, which is building speed as the
Floyd | crashing water from the computer room powers behind.  You clutch
Floyd | Jeremy's peg-leg for comfort, as though it'll steer you, though you're
Floyd | clearly in the lap of luck now.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You press the small black button.
Floyd |
Floyd | "!ERROR - EXPLOSIVE OUT OF RANGE!" screams a siren from just above your
Floyd | wrist.
Floyd |
Floyd | From the computer room comes a roar, and you see the trunk of the

Floyd | tentacle erupt once more, heading toward the only moving object it can
Floyd | find - you.
Floyd |
Floyd | The trolley fires further.
Floyd |
Floyd | By Airlock

Floyd |    The trolley is cannoning westward.  The sealed airlock door
Floyd | approaches like the last view of a crash-test dummy.  You can just spot
Floyd | the opening catch, way out of reach, waiting to be pushed.
Floyd |
Floyd | The squid is hot on your tail, a huntsman with the waves his hounds.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | You jab wildly for the opening catch with the peg-leg as you approach

Floyd | it.  The airlock hisses, and slides open just in time for the head of
Floyd | the trolley to shoot through.
Floyd |
Floyd | Long Tunnel
Floyd |    This is a tunnel joining the modules of the lab.  It is long,
Floyd | unmarked, a solid steel umbilical with dim lighting and no windows.

Floyd | And the floor slopes downward.
Floyd |
Floyd | You accelerate.  Sirens wind into life all about the corridor, and far
Floyd | ahead a flood door is beginning to lower.
Floyd |
Floyd | Hmm.  Someone's left a computer hotwired into a wall panel, just lying

Floyd | around in the corridor.  That's no way to access, at a guess, the
Floyd | robot's systems stored in the Mortuary block.
Floyd |
Floyd | You just notice these things, that's all.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Trolley-very-fast-squid-flood, remember?
Floyd |
Floyd | Behind you the tentacle is still coming.  It's almost upon you.  The
Floyd | flood door is now half-way to the floor.

Floyd |
Floyd | In a final surge, you crash toward the flood door, and sweep through
Floyd | just before it rams home.  There is a colossal thud from behind as the
Floyd | squid hammers into it.  But it holds.  The trolley rockets calmly into
Floyd | a wall, and you are thrown painfully, rolling further down the corridor
Floyd | where it bends to the north, head spinning with legs.  It is a while

Floyd | before you take in your surroundings once more.
Floyd |
Floyd | Intersection
Floyd |    You're in the main module, and that means you know your way around
Floyd | with your eyes shut.  With your eyes open you can also comment on the
Floyd | decor; and note that it improves substantially to the east where the

Floyd | General has his office, to the west it probably disimproves (Kurner's
Floyd | hole is over there) and north leads toward the centre of the dome which
Floyd | means one thing - toward the room with your machine.
Floyd |
Floyd | Back south is a long corridor.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | File to save game in >

Floyd | Saved.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Outside Kurner's Room
Floyd |    The corridor continues around the curve of the base to the
Floyd | northwest, to the rooms of the various scientists.  This one is of
Floyd | interest though, perhaps - it is the door to Kurner's room - chosen by

Floyd | lottery, it is the nearest to all the machinery and so the loudest to
Floyd | be in.
Floyd |
Floyd | The door itself is quite a sight if you like hybridised tech - Kurner
Floyd | being the paranoiac he is has fitted it with a Russian retinal scanner,
Floyd | a thumb-reader and a voice tag detector.

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There's a pretty formidable array of locks on the thing!
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The door chimes happily.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The door pings happily.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | You can't talk to the microphone.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Nothing happens.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | I don't know the word "voice".
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Just a microphone to read in a code-word.  Known to be temperamental
Floyd | most people don't trust these to anything you actually want to be able
Floyd | to get into.  Kurner himself always has problems because he insists on
Floyd | whispering his password.  Eventually he'll just yell "SCARECROW" and
Floyd | pretend it was a curse at the door's failures.
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd | The door fleeps happily.  It swings open.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | The corridor continues northwest and Kurner's room is directly north.
Floyd | The intersection lies east.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | Ironic, really, that if he'd just had a keyhole you'd never have broken
Floyd | in.
Floyd |
Floyd | Dr. Kurner's Office

Floyd |    - is also his room, and it's a tip.  A bed in one corner looks
Floyd | utterly pristine, under forty or fifty large books.  The desk, facing
Floyd | onto a ubiquitous porthole, has a computer screen and keyboard set into
Floyd | it but is otherwise empty.  The floor is a seaweed-sludge of screwed-up
Floyd | paper and dirty clothing.  A door leads out south, and there's a
Floyd | bathroom annex to the west.

Floyd |
Floyd | From the floor one fragment of paper catches your eye.  It reads: "If
Floyd | you are reading this, then, by Jove, it's all up with you!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | There are about a hundred scraps of paper littered around.  You pick
Floyd | one at random to read:
Floyd |
Floyd |    "If you are reading this, death is imminent!!!"

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "By the time you read this, my dear friend, death is your only
Floyd | alibi!!!"

Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd |    "If you are reading this, you are quite simply doomed!"
Floyd |

Floyd | >

Floyd |    "When you wrap your head round this, your doom approaches!!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | 80% are "Physics for Beginners", 18% are "Biochemistry for Beginners"
Floyd | and 1 book is a biography of Judy Garland.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | "Type password:"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the keyboard)
Floyd | "Incorrect password."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | (on the keyboard)
Floyd | "Incorrect password."
Floyd |
Floyd | >