  
ClubFloyd Transcript:
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.
ANOTHER WARNING! A lot (most!) of the transcripts contained on this site are, shall we say, family-friendly. This is not one of those family-friendly transcripts. Just so we're clear. |
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ToyShop & Floyditorium
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#ClubFloyd Discussion
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| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "load sleepmask midnightswordfight" | Roger says, "Sure I'm up for some late-night stabbery" | |
Floyd ]
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Have you played interactive fiction before?
Floyd |
Floyd | >
| ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "yes" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > YES Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | This game has a limited action system. All the verbs you can use at Floyd | any given time will be listed in the playscript kept in your Floyd | inventory, which you can consult with EXAMINE PLAYSCRIPT. Others Floyd | aren't likely to work, and guessing verbs isn't necessary. However, it Floyd | may help to double-check the playscript under different circumstances Floyd | to see what actions are available. Floyd | Floyd | ABOUT will show you the credits. | DavidW says, "I remember leaving the daughter in the doctor's waiting room and never finding out what happened after." | |
| Jacqueline pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | Midnight. Swordfight. Floyd | A Folly by Chandler Groover Floyd | Release 1 / Serial number 151019 / Inform 7 build 6L38 (I6/v6.33 lib Floyd | 6/12N) Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | But it must be real. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "I guess we want to check out that script" | |
| DavidW says, "yeah" | ||
| DavidW says, "parry, turn, thrust, duck." | ||
| Jacqueline frantically searches her literature dbase for references to what this is a reference. | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | landscape garden, midnight Floyd | Floyd | A fool engages a countess in a swordfight Floyd | in which the fool loses Floyd | and the countess achieves her revenge. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x) Floyd | attack, kiss Floyd | Floyd | The countess is suddenly there, only inches away. A clash is ringing Floyd | in your ears and you can see your own sword sailing out over the Floyd | garden. More importantly, you can feel her sword sinking into your Floyd | stomach. Floyd | Floyd | "Revenge," she whispers in your ear, "is always sweeter than Floyd | forgiveness." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | DavidW says, "Daffy Duck, sorta." | |
| DavidW asks, "geez. Checking instructions isn't meta?" | ||
| Roger says, "That's pretty unkind" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I feel like this is maybe from a piece of actual lit (not to be dismissive of Disney, except that clearly I am being dismissive of Disney)." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Wait, just figuring out what commands we could use so we didn't have to guess the verb like they said we didn't have to guess the verb got us stabbed?" | ||
| DavidW says, "yup" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "That is problematic." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "So, um, play again, this time attack?" | ||
| Roger says, "It's like that one duel in Highlander" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Or kiss?" | ||
| DavidW says, "I'm guessing this might be a bit like Aisle, though." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Yeah, but if so, that bit should be meta?" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "restart" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | But it must be real. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "But yes, it knows that's not a fresh load. Nice." | |
| Jacqueline says, "So: > ATTACK (?)" | ||
| DavidW says, "I suppose so, yes." | ||
| Roger says, "sure" | ||
| DavidW says, "attack countess, this time." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "attack" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK Floyd | Floyd | You'll need to ATTACK (someone or something). Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "attack countess" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | You lunge toward the countess with your cutlass. Initiative should Floyd | matter during a duel, shouldn't it? But then there is a clash and you Floyd | find your blade scraping the countess's rapier as she drives you back Floyd | with a parry. Floyd | Floyd | Sparks fly from your feuding swords. You are both dancing over the Floyd | lawn, back and forth, here and there, and somehow you are still alive. Floyd | It's unbelievable. But that comes to an end when you make a misstep Floyd | and the countess waltzes right into the opening. Floyd | Floyd | How did you get into the air? Why can't you feel anything? And what is Floyd | your body doing down there without a head? Floyd | Floyd | Oh. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | DavidW says, "as opposed to attacking others there." | |
| Roger says, "I guess this game delivers on its promise" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yep, Aisle-like, but that bit not being meta... weird." | ||
| DavidW says, "more like Rematch, I guess." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh, that." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "restart" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "kiss countess" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | You cast aside your weapon. You cannot fight the countess. This feud Floyd | is a mistake. Instead you walk across the lawn toward her. Floyd | Floyd | She must see it in your eyes. She must know how you feel. Perhaps she Floyd | even has the same feelings? Floyd | Floyd | Apparently not, because what you get is her rapier plunged into your Floyd | mouth. It keeps plunging until your lips are pressed onto its hilt. Floyd | Floyd | At least you got to kiss something. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | DavidW says, "try attack onegin next" | |
| Jacqueline says, "I'm not sure that's physically possible with a rapier, but okay." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "Okay" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "restart" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "attack Onegin" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | The countess? The countess? Why should you fight the countess when Floyd | that bastard Onegin is undoubtedly the mastermind behind this whole Floyd | charade? Floyd | Floyd | You're overcome with outrage and you lunge toward Onegin. It's Floyd | certainly a pretty sight to see him flinch, but your cutlass never Floyd | even grazes him before you've been repelled by the countess. Her sword Floyd | intercepts your own; she's faster; she has pushed you back. Floyd | Floyd | "Your challenge is with me!" she says. Floyd | Floyd | And then her rapier is in your gut, your innards spilling out. Somehow Floyd | she must have done it when your focus was on Onegin. His smile is the Floyd | last thing that you see, and your intestines are the last thing that Floyd | you feel as you try to push them back inside. Floyd | Floyd | You aren't successful. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "restart" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "maybe undo is supported" | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "attack Ferdinand" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK FERDINAND Floyd | Floyd | Something whispers in your brain, like a perverse worm, encouraging Floyd | you to attack Ferdinand, and you do. Onegin and the countess are Floyd | irrelevant. All your frustrations erupt in your own second's Floyd | direction. Floyd | Floyd | You swing around, your cutlass slashing sideways through the air, in Floyd | order to take Ferdinand by surprise, but in the brief moment before Floyd | your weapon would connect, you realize your mistake: nothing can take Floyd | Ferdinand by surprise. Floyd | Floyd | She has your wrist, her knee is in your gut, and suddenly your arm is Floyd | bending backward in her grasp. You can see in her eyes something Floyd | nobody living has seen. That is because everyone who has seen it is Floyd | dead. It is killing intent. Floyd | Floyd | "If this is how you repay your allies," says Ferdinand, "no wonder you Floyd | have enemies." Floyd | Floyd | Now she has your sword, but she does not wait too long before Floyd | returning it. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | DavidW says, "mm. I remember one game where I had to attack an elbow. We ought to examine the countess, see what details pop out." | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x her" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X HER Floyd | Floyd | Ferdinand told you to run, but you were never going to listen, which Floyd | is why she's serving as your second now. Her head is shaved completely Floyd | bald, she has grown out her moustache and goatee, and she is wearing a Floyd | captain's coat with epaulettes. It's a pity that she couldn't fight in Floyd | your place; then the match might have been more even. Floyd | Floyd | The countess is suddenly there, only inches away. A clash is ringing Floyd | in your ears and you can see your own sword sailing out over the Floyd | garden. More importantly, you can feel her sword sinking into your Floyd | stomach. Floyd | Floyd | "Revenge," she whispers in your ear, "is always sweeter than Floyd | forgiveness." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | Roger says, "An interesting experience in maxing out narrative distance" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Oh, expected HER to be set to the Countess." | ||
| DavidW asks, "Who did you examine?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "HER" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "undo" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "oops" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "countess" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x countess" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | The countess cuts a formidable figure with her rapier upraised, its Floyd | point a silver promise in the moonlight. Her face is partly hidden by Floyd | a mask, her lips a scarlet smile underneath. Even encumbered by her Floyd | outrageous gown (and it is indeed outrageous) you have no doubt that Floyd | she is the better swordsman, and she seems to have no doubt about it Floyd | either. Floyd | Floyd | She is suddenly there, only inches away. A clash is ringing in your Floyd | ears and you can see your own sword sailing out over the garden. More Floyd | importantly, you can feel her sword sinking into your stomach. Floyd | Floyd | "Revenge," she whispers in your ear, "is always sweeter than Floyd | forgiveness." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | DavidW says, "mask. gown." | |
| Jacqueline says, "We have INVENTORY, EXAMINE, ATTACK, and KISS" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "i" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > I Floyd | Floyd | You are carrying a playscript and a cutlass, and you are wearing Floyd | motley. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "I suppose at some point we ought to try to figure out why the duel started." | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X ME Floyd | Floyd | You're dressed as a chequered jester with enormous sleeves and Floyd | jingling bells. You expected to spend this night playing practical Floyd | jokes on the other guests, stealing kisses. Fighting a duel for your Floyd | life was never on the agenda. Floyd | Floyd | The countess is suddenly there, only inches away. A clash is ringing Floyd | in your ears and you can see your own sword sailing out over the Floyd | garden. More importantly, you can feel her sword sinking into your Floyd | stomach. Floyd | Floyd | "Revenge," she whispers in your ear, "is always sweeter than Floyd | forgiveness." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | Roger says, "allegedly. I'm not sure I believe that." | |
| Jacqueline says, "This seems a poor choice of costume for a swordfight." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "We really need to be more forward thinking in the future if we figure out how to live through this." | ||
| DavidW says, "try attacking or examining the gown." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "attack gown" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK GOWN Floyd | Floyd | You lunge toward the countess with your cutlass. Initiative should Floyd | matter during a duel, shouldn't it? But then there is a clash and you Floyd | find your blade scraping the countess's rapier as she drives you back Floyd | with a parry. Floyd | Floyd | Sparks fly from your feuding swords. You are both dancing over the Floyd | lawn, back and forth, here and there, and somehow you are still alive. Floyd | It's unbelievable. But that comes to an end when you make a misstep Floyd | and the countess waltzes right into the opening. Floyd | Floyd | How did you get into the air? Why can't you feel anything? And what is Floyd | your body doing down there without a head? Floyd | Floyd | Oh. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | Jacqueline says, "No diff than attacking her, methinks." | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x gown" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X GOWN Floyd | Floyd | A thousand luminescent jellyfish have been stitched together to create Floyd | the countess's gown. They cannot breathe well in the open air, but Floyd | their gasping only makes them glow more wonderfully. Their tentacles Floyd | and arms drag out behind her in a stinging, lightning-crackled trail, Floyd | but the countess moves just as gracefully as the jellyfish themselves Floyd | would in water. Floyd | Floyd | She is suddenly there, only inches away. A clash is ringing in your Floyd | ears and you can see your own sword sailing out over the garden. More Floyd | importantly, you can feel her sword sinking into your stomach. Floyd | Floyd | "Revenge," she whispers in your ear, "is always sweeter than Floyd | forgiveness." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | DavidW says, "jellyfish. Actual jellyfish." | |
| DavidW says, "Maybe there's some way to electrocute her." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "attack jellyfish" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK JELLYFISH Floyd | Floyd | You lunge toward the countess with your cutlass. Initiative should Floyd | matter during a duel, shouldn't it? But then there is a clash and you Floyd | find your blade scraping the countess's rapier as she drives you back Floyd | with a parry. Floyd | Floyd | Sparks fly from your feuding swords. You are both dancing over the Floyd | lawn, back and forth, here and there, and somehow you are still alive. Floyd | It's unbelievable. But that comes to an end when you make a misstep Floyd | and the countess waltzes right into the opening. Floyd | Floyd | How did you get into the air? Why can't you feel anything? And what is Floyd | your body doing down there without a head? Floyd | Floyd | Oh. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | Jacqueline says, "meh" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Wait, electrocute? They aren't electric eels." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Did you mean get them to sting her?" | ||
| DavidW | lightning-crackled trail | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh. That. Hrm" | ||
| Roger says, "This is a grim reality" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Ideas?" | ||
| Roger asks, "Can I take the con and thrash for a bit?" | ||
| DavidW says, "examine more people and things." | ||
| Jacqueline exclaims, "Sure!" | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "doff mask" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > DOFF MASK Floyd | Floyd | You aren't wearing the countess's domino mask. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "doff my mask" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > DOFF MY MASK Floyd | Floyd | You aren't wearing the countess's domino mask. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "take mask" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE MASK Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "examine mask" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > EXAMINE MASK Floyd | Floyd | A domino mask fashioned entirely from pearls covers the countess's Floyd | face. Far from romantic, it seems to lend the skin around her eyes a Floyd | lesioned, bubbling appearance, or perhaps suggest frog-eggs or caviar. Floyd | Nobody else would be able to wear such a thing without looking a Floyd | fright; the countess makes it look impeccable. Floyd | Floyd | She is suddenly there, only inches away. A clash is ringing in your Floyd | ears and you can see your own sword sailing out over the garden. More Floyd | importantly, you can feel her sword sinking into your stomach. Floyd | Floyd | "Revenge," she whispers in your ear, "is always sweeter than Floyd | forgiveness." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | DavidW says, "we should try 'wake up'" | |
| Roger says (to floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | Ballroom Floyd | On the floor you can see a white glove where it has been Floyd | contemptuously thrown down, and expanding outward from this glove the Floyd | world takes form. There are dancers surrounding you in a circle, but Floyd | they are not dancing: they are staring at you and staring at the Floyd | glove, and their eyeballs never cease staring because they are frozen. Floyd | Floyd | There has been some hitch and time stands still. Floyd | Floyd | A chandelier hangs overhead, candles unflickering. Everything is Floyd | mirrored in the marble floor. Toward the future you can glimpse the Floyd | grand staircase, where the countess is ascending with her back turned Floyd | after having delivered her challenge. Floyd | Floyd | Maybe you ought to try examining your playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "well hunh" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > WELL HUNH Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "okay, yielding control. Thanks DW. Not sure what has happened, but good work" | |
| DavidW says, "We've got backwards in the script, I think." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Wi-uld." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | ballroom, evening Floyd | Floyd | A fool receives a challenge from a countess Floyd | and explores various avenues Floyd | to thwart the countess prior to their duel. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | kiss (when wearing motley) Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "What sort of command is 'future' or 'past'?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "I suppose we shall learn" | ||
| DavidW asks, "Or 'clockwise' or 'counter-clockwise'?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Perhaps those are for dancing>" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Jacqueline), "maybe." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x glove" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X GLOVE Floyd | Floyd | A simple white glove. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "past" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > PAST Floyd | Floyd | Time doesn't bend that way from here. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "I don't see any good gameplay reason to make it so hard to get to this point" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Seems risky." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Like, you run the risk that people won't get past it and see all the work you put into the rest of your game." | ||
| DavidW says, "We might have to revisit that point to learn more info." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Also, it said you wouldn't have to guess verbs beyond what's in the script, and yet we did just that." | ||
| DavidW says, "the phrase 'wake up' was in the text." | ||
| DavidW says, "italicized." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "OH" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "WAS IT?" | ||
| DavidW says, "yes" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I just went back and looked and I'm still missing it. Weird." | ||
| DavidW | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is <i>wake up</i> from this nightmare. | ||
| Roger says, "Hunh" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "So, it doesn't say that at first." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "It says something about it not feeling real, but not that." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "And so I started ignoring (near)duplicate text." | ||
| DavidW says, "That's why using UNDO is risky,." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Well, we didn't use undo at first." | ||
| DavidW says, "I'm still not sure what to do in the ballroom." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Anyway, I still feel it's risky to assume that the average player is smarter than I am." She then laughs a small, self-deprecating laugh. | ||
| Roger says, "Just grind away, I think" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x dancers" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X DANCERS Floyd | Floyd | You cannot recognize anyone behind their masks. There is a jackal in a Floyd | tailcoat, and a nymph with shellfish in her hair, and an enchantress Floyd | with gold orbs for eyes, and someone with marzipan skin, and an alpine Floyd | maiden with a shepherd's crook, and an antlered baron, and a raven in Floyd | a judge's wig, and a sequined succubus, and other masqueraders more Floyd | fantastic still, but the one thing they all have in common is that Floyd | their frozen gazes are condemning you: Guilty, they seem to say, Floyd | guilty. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x countess" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | Looking at the countess now, you can still feel the shame and Floyd | confusion and rage that washed over you when she first threw down this Floyd | glove -- or was it the only time she threw down the glove? Is this Floyd | moment the same as the other? You were too shocked to respond, and Floyd | could only watch her sail away through the crowd, up the grand Floyd | staircase, like some royal frigate among smaller vessels bobbing in Floyd | her wake. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Emily arrives, full of funk, but no fun. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x jackal" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X JACKAL Floyd | Floyd | It's strange, but when you look at the individual dancers their Floyd | details warp as though you were looking at something from inside a Floyd | fishbowl. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "i" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > I Floyd | Floyd | You are carrying a playscript, and you are wearing motley. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x motley" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X MOTLEY Floyd | Floyd | You thought you would look rather charming in motley when you selected Floyd | this costume, but considering the circumstances you look more like a Floyd | genuine fool than you ever intended -- with or without the Floyd | costume. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x chandelier" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X CHANDELIER Floyd | Floyd | You once heard a story about a chandelier falling on a crowd during a Floyd | dance and crushing everyone under its weight. It just goes to show Floyd | that you never know when death will come calling, or how. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x floor" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X FLOOR Floyd | Floyd | You look down and find your reflection looking back from the polished Floyd | marble. Apart from you, your mirrored double is the only thing that Floyd | moves in this ballroom. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x staircase" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X STAIRCASE Floyd | Floyd | Grand staircase? Monumental staircase is more like it. Battalions Floyd | could march down those red-carpeted steps with room to spare, but Floyd | right now the countess has the staircase to herself with her tentacled Floyd | gown trailing behind her. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | ballroom, evening Floyd | Floyd | A fool receives a challenge from a countess Floyd | and explores various avenues Floyd | to thwart the countess prior to their duel. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | kiss (when wearing motley) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Here, easier to read: inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to, future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), counter-clockwise (cc), wear, undress, wake up, kiss (when wearing motley)" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take glove" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE GLOVE Floyd | Floyd | You try to lift the white glove, but your muscles strain and it Floyd | remains stuck to the marble. This glove is the core around which the Floyd | entire evening is anchored, and nothing will ever budge it from the Floyd | spot. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "(Easier to read due to lack of mark-up, though in the final transcript they'll look nearly the same to the reader.)" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "c" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > C Floyd | Floyd | Time doesn't bend that way from here. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "Not a dance move." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Time doesn't bend that way from here. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Grand Staircase Floyd | When you reach the grand staircase landing, the countess is already Floyd | gone, which is to say that she was never here at this particular Floyd | moment. Perhaps she just left or perhaps she's about to arrive, but Floyd | the salient point is that you're not going to find her. Floyd | Floyd | Ferdinand, however, is leaning against a balustrade, her gaze cast Floyd | toward the dancers in their formations below. She isn't one for Floyd | dancing herself unless it's atop freshly slain enemies. Her cutlass, Floyd | which you will borrow later in your duel with the countess, is leaning Floyd | against the balustrade beside her. Floyd | Floyd | The ballroom is in the past now, and in the future you will look Floyd | behind a polar bear. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "It seems that plays are a genre unto themselves in IF. I'm having trouble thinking of non-IF examples in computer games where this is a thing. Is it a thing elsewhere?" | |
| Jacqueline asks, "So, um, look behind the polar bear?" | ||
| DavidW says, "well, hold on." | ||
| DavidW says, "The game 'geography' has a time element." | ||
| DavidW says, "Future and past are like east and west." | ||
| DavidW says, "so the bear is in the 'next' room in the future direction." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x ferdinand" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > X FERDINAND Floyd | Floyd | Your oldest friend, Ferdinand might also be your only friend left now. Floyd | There's no one more experienced when it comes to warfare, and in most Floyd | situations you'd take whatever tactical advice she had to give. But Floyd | when she drew you aside earlier tonight and told you that your goose Floyd | was going to be cooked -- that the countess, indeed, was stoking the Floyd | fire -- you assured her that you'd baste yourself thoroughly first. Floyd | She didn't think it was funny. She also knew she wouldn't change your Floyd | mind. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "ask ferdinand about cutlass" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > ASK FERDINAND ABOUT CUTLASS Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x cutlass" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > X CUTLASS Floyd | Floyd | Ferdinand's cutlass has lopped away more heads than ever rolled during Floyd | a revolution. But although she's agreed to lend you her weapon for the Floyd | upcoming duel, you'll probably lose your own fingers before you even Floyd | scratch the countess with it. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "It's TALK TO" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to ferdinand" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO FERDINAND Floyd | Floyd | You can't talk to Ferdinand. She is paralyzed and will remain Floyd | paralyzed in this moment. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss ferdinand" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS FERDINAND Floyd | Floyd | You respect Ferdinand far too much to take any liberties with her, Floyd | even as a joke. There's also the fact that she'd have your head if she Floyd | ever found out that you'd stolen a kiss. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x dancers" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > X DANCERS Floyd | Floyd | Right now the dancers appear to be engaged in a minuet, although Floyd | nobody is moving and there's no music. You always found the minuet Floyd | rather tedious, but this takes it to a new level. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "continue into the future?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Sure" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | Dmitri's chest is pressed against the wall, arms overhead with his Floyd | fingernails raking down the wallpaper. Onegin is straddling his rear, Floyd | gripping his waist, paused mid-thrust with his cock halfway inside Floyd | Dmitri's cunt -- or maybe halfway out? Floyd | Floyd | As the countess's minion, it is Onegin's duty to carry her weapon, and Floyd | right now her rapier is resting nearby on the floor in an opened case. Floyd | Floyd | The polar bear itself is at least three meters tall, preserved Floyd | taxidermically in a perpetual roar with claws outspread. Traveling Floyd | counter-clockwise would reorient you toward the black salon, and the Floyd | grand staircase is in your past. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline makes a mental note to include the Adult warning. | |
| DavidW asks, "I guess Dmitri is trans?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "That is one interpretation, and possibly better than the theory on which I was working." | ||
| DavidW asks, "I admit I was confused with Ferdinand; that's normally a male name, isn't it?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Is this another one of those games where there was a warning in the blurb but not in the actual game? Because this scene feels like it came out of nowhere." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Can we do something to sabotage her weapon? While Onegin is distracted?" | ||
| DavidW says, "I think something like that is expected. We've seen two weapons out, not including the fleshy one." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "Thank you, David. Well done." | ||
| Jacqueline golf claps. | ||
| Roger says, "I'd rather stick him into the bear" | ||
| DavidW says, "Perhaps some good can be had by swapping the two swords, but I don't see what good it would do just yet." | ||
| vimes arrives, full of funk, but no fun. | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | behind a polar bear, evening Floyd | Floyd | A voyeur observes a liaison Floyd | and exploits the opportunity Floyd | to replace a weapon. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | kiss (when wearing motley) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Yep" | |
| DavidW says, "huh. Replace a weapon. Right there." | ||
| Roger says, "Well then" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "take countess's weapon" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE COUNTESS'S WEAPON Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "take weapon" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE WEAPON Floyd | Floyd | When you try to take the rapier, you feel something resist, and then Floyd | it occurs to you: there will always need to be some weapon in this Floyd | case, otherwise the countess would be unarmed during the duel later. Floyd | You'll need to find a replacement and drop it here if you want to Floyd | remove the rapier. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "The cutlass?" | |
| DavidW says, "I think a toy weapon would be a useful substitute. A rubber one, perhaps." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "True, should such a thing exist here." | ||
| DavidW says, "The countess will stab us with whatever weapon is left here, I think." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Well, let's not put Onegin's weapon in there, then." | ||
| Roger says, "I might guess the answer is further in the past" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x dmitri" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > X DMITRI Floyd | Floyd | It's unbelievable. Dmitri ought to know better than this. There must Floyd | be, what, a few hundred people attending this masquerade ball, and he Floyd | has to cavort with that bastard Onegin? You can't fathom what's going Floyd | through his head, but at least there's one upshot: he has Onegin Floyd | distracted, and the countess's unguarded weapon is yours to meddle Floyd | with. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "This is a clever technique I'm not sure I've seen before." | |
| Roger says, "TOPPLE BEAR ONTO LOVERS" | ||
| Roger asks, "Which?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Roger), "I think our direction options are past and cc, currently." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x onegin" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > X ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | Onegin, that bastard. He's just got to fuck everything in your life, Floyd | doesn't he? First it was spreading that rumor (probably) and now it's Floyd | this. You wonder how people like him even come to exist. What Floyd | influences must have converged to plant him right here, at this Floyd | moment, with Dmitri, behind this godforsaken polar bear. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to Roger), "The technique of things being frozen, with past and future as directions." | |
| DavidW says, "One of zarf's games had something like this. Delightful Wallpaper." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Huh. I've heard of that and probably even played it, but don't recall it." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Then again, some years I hide my own Easter eggs." | ||
| DavidW says, "You're moving influences onto frozen characters in Edward Gorey -like tableaus." | ||
| vimes says, "i very much need to play delightful wallpaper, it seems" | ||
| Roger says, "It's a quite zarfian game" | ||
| DavidW says, "yes. The zarfness is strong in that one." | ||
| DavidW asks, "shall we proceed counter-clockwise?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "sure" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Black Salon Floyd | Black sable tapestries hang from the ceiling and walls, and black Floyd | velvet carpets the floor. Scarlet radiance slants through scarlet Floyd | windowpanes. An ebony grandfather clock has stopped keeping the time Floyd | at one quarter to twelve. Floyd | Floyd | There is nobody here. Floyd | Floyd | Clockwise you will look behind a polar bear, and when you glance back Floyd | toward the past you can see a celebration in the banquet hall where Floyd | everyone has gathered to drink, feast, and make merry. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I don't feel up for driving this morning, DW. Glad you're at the helm." | |
| Roger says, "me also" | ||
| DavidW says, "I've been awake all night, but I've eaten and had aspirin." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x tapestries" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X TAPESTRIES Floyd | Floyd | Such trappings bring to mind the plush interiors that cushion Floyd | high-class coffins. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x windows" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X WINDOWS Floyd | Floyd | When you glance outside through the scarlet windowpanes you can see Floyd | great tripods burning. Heretics writhe in their flames. It's a Floyd | glorious auto-da-fe. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Look behind them?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "The tapestries, I mean." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "look behind tapestries" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > LOOK BEHIND TAPESTRIES Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I mean, I know it's not in the script..." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x tripods" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X TRIPODS Floyd | Floyd | You see nothing special about the heretics burning on the tripods. Floyd | They're what you might call "garden variety." But you'll be in a Floyd | similar spot if you can't finagle some method to outwit the countess Floyd | soon. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Oh, and I think we should possibly examine the script all the time." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | black salon, one quarter to twelve Floyd | Floyd | A fool makes an acquaintance Floyd | when a grandfather clock Floyd | fails to express any hour. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | kiss (when wearing motley) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x clock" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X CLOCK Floyd | Floyd | Two long cast-iron hands mark the time at one quarter to twelve. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "hm, are we supposed to mess with the clock? I don't understand." | |
| Jacqueline asks, "Stop it?" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "So that it doesn't chime when time is timing?" | ||
| Roger says, "We're already into the duel by that point, but maybe" | ||
| Roger says, "Maybe just check out the polar bear" | ||
| DavidW says, "well, I'm thinking if it's possible to change the clock's time, we might move in time too, offsetting all the other events in the other locations." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Try it" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "set clock to 11:30" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > SET CLOCK TO 11:30 Floyd | Floyd | No, you can't set that to anything. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "push minute hand" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > PUSH MINUTE HAND Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "stop clock" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > STOP CLOCK Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "I guess it's not in the script." | |
| Jacqueline says, "The only other thing is to make the clock's chimes break, but that seems harder." | ||
| DavidW asks, "shall we continue into the past?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Sure" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Banquet Hall Floyd | Somehow a rift must have opened, because obese cherubs are pouring Floyd | through the air onto the banquet-table; or at least, they would be Floyd | pouring if they were in motion. There are several hundred, faces Floyd | grimacing and feathered wings shedding blue pinions, and in their Floyd | conglomerate they have impacted the table at one end, sending the Floyd | other end skyward like a see-saw. Some even appear to be crawling Floyd | upward along the table as rats would a mast aboard a sinking ship. Floyd | Floyd | This arrangement has naturally relocated the banquet itself into Floyd | midair, where roasts and cakes and goblets and plates hang with their Floyd | glazes and their silver sparkling. A tremendous kielbasa glistens Floyd | temptingly. Floyd | Floyd | When it comes to the diners, most have already departed, although a Floyd | few remain watching the cherubs with mild interest from seats pushed Floyd | back against the walls. One lady dressed as a swan is eating angels on Floyd | horseback, with a champagne flute daintily suspended in her other Floyd | hand. Floyd | Floyd | A clockwise inclination would direct you into the aftermath, while Floyd | moving counter-clockwise would steer you toward the cloak room, and in Floyd | the future yawns the black salon. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I have a feeling this may take more than one run, fwiw." | |
| Roger says, "Obviously we must get stabbed with a tremendous kielbasa" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "You might be joking but I think you might be onto something." | ||
| DavidW says, "I was thinking Dmitri might want the kielbasa." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I actually do want to try to put it in the weapon case." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take kielbasa" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE KIELBASA Floyd | Floyd | You pry the kielbasa from midair and heft it in one hand to test its Floyd | weight. Yes, yes, this kielbasa will make for a perfectly delicious Floyd | weapon in the right context. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "I must say, there's a backstory I'm having trouble understanding. This plainly isn't normal Earth stuff happening." | |
| Jacqueline says, "I'm curious to go put it in the case, but maybe we should explore more." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x swan" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > X SWAN Floyd | Floyd | She has outdone herself. Apart from her two human hands, this lady Floyd | looks exactly like a swan. It is uncanny. She would probably Floyd | waddle and peck breadcrumbs if she could move. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x angels" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > X ANGELS Floyd | Floyd | The "angels" are oysters, and they are "on horseback" because they've Floyd | been wrapped in bacon. These angels have also been speared with a Floyd | skewer, which the swan-lady is holding to her beak between thumb and Floyd | forefinger. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "We're not in imminent danger of death, so sure, let's be leisurely" | |
| DavidW says, "ok, not literal angels." | ||
| DavidW says, "But even Lady Gaga might hestitate at a jellyfish dress that crackles lightning." | ||
| Roger says, "hmmm I'm surprised there's still more past" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x flute" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > X FLUTE Floyd | Floyd | It is never too early or late for champagne. When there's no occasion Floyd | for champagne, then the champagne makes the occasion. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x cherubs" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > X CHERUBS Floyd | Floyd | For some reason artists always represent cherubs as adorable little Floyd | darlings when the truth is that they're hideous. Their skulls are Floyd | elongated, their black eyes bulbous, their tiered teeth serrated, and Floyd | their flesh cracked where an ordinary infant would have folds. A Floyd | piranha would look friendlier. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x banquet" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > X BANQUET Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "c" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > C Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Aftermath Floyd | Splintered glasses, paper streamers, confetti, and cigarette butts Floyd | litter the floor. You cannot step anywhere without crunching something Floyd | underfoot. The banquet-table has been thoroughly demolished, cracked Floyd | into two halves that lean inward toward a sunken middle. Floyd | Floyd | Everyone else is gone, but Dmitri is sitting at the table as though Floyd | nothing has happened, reading a book and nursing a martini. Floyd | Floyd | "Well, well," he says when you enter, "look who the cat dragged in!" Floyd | Floyd | Moving counter-clockwise would return you to the banquet hall when it Floyd | was slightly more intact. Slightly. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "Shall we smooch some random crap" | |
| DavidW asks, "weird. Dmitri isn't frozen?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Things appear to now be unfrozen." | ||
| DavidW says, "In this location." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "yes" | ||
| DavidW says, "I think this is before Dmitri is f**ked, though." | ||
| DavidW says, "We went into the past from salon to banquet hall." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x dmitri" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > X DMITRI Floyd | Floyd | Vines dripping with muscatel grapes are draped like laurels around Floyd | Dmitri's ears, and he has a toga knotted over one shoulder. He's not Floyd | an adolescent but he's still blooming with youth like one. Some people Floyd | never seem to age, not even when time's moving properly. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | aftermath, early morning Floyd | Floyd | A fool engages in conversation Floyd | with an interested party, Floyd | or perhaps with a disinterested one. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | kiss (when wearing motley) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x book" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > X BOOK Floyd | Floyd | "They're fables," explains Dmitri. "Someone left this book behind and Floyd | I've just been skimming the stories. Here, listen to this one." Floyd | Floyd | He clears his throat and then begins: Floyd | Floyd | "Sly Bertrand and Ratto in company sat Floyd | (the one was a monkey, the other a cat) Floyd | before a fire to watch chestnuts roasting. Floyd | Said Bertrand to Ratto, his voice imploring: Floyd | Floyd | "'My brother, you ought to exhibit your skill Floyd | and fish out those nuts so we can eat our fill. Floyd | Your paws are suited expertly to the task Floyd | whereas I am afraid mine would just burn, alas.' Floyd | Floyd | "'It is done,' answered Ratto, extending a paw Floyd | and attempting to dig through the ash with his claw. Floyd | One after another out the chestnuts popped Floyd | though Ratto was still scorched before he had stopped. Floyd | Floyd | "Yet the poor cat had nothing to eat Floyd | for the monkey had made his retreat Floyd | with the chestnuts in hand; peasants bring Floyd | power in this manner to their king. Floyd | Floyd | "I believe that the phrase 'cat's paw' is derived from this fable," Floyd | says Dmitri, "but what I want to know is why a monkey and cat Floyd | were eating roasted chestnuts in the first place." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Draconis arrives, full of neither funk nor fun. | Jacqueline says, "Draconis, I'm not even sure how to catch you up to speed short of us taking a break and showing you the transcript." | |
| Draconis says, "Okay." | Jacqueline says, "But your help would be welcomed, methinks." | |
| DavidW says, "I suppose they were eating chestnuts because they were hungry. I'm eating peanuts." | ||
| Draconis says, "I can check in next week then." | ||
| Draconis says, "gah" | Jacqueline says (to Draconis), "Nah, stay." | |
| Draconis says, "I can check in next week if that's easier." | ||
| Draconis says, "Okay." | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of Roger&DW), "Would you all be cool with a short break while I send Draconis what's happened so far?" | ||
| Roger says, "I doubt you'll be any more lost than the rest of us" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Roger), "Exactly." | ||
| Roger says, "I could take a break" | ||
| DavidW says, "sure. break it is." | ||
| Jacqueline | [LINK] | ||
| Roger says, "Contains adult language and situations" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "DEFINITELY contains adult language and situations." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "And I'm not really sure why the author had to go there. You could describe the same scene without being quite so graphic." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Except that perhaps the character is meant to be taken really off guard, and they wanted us to feel that way too. If so: SUCCESS" | ||
| Roger says, "I'm pretty unclear overall what the author is trying to accomplish, really" | ||
| DavidW says, "Sometimes authors have more than one agenda." | ||
| DavidW says, "Considering that our character can dress/undress and that we're at a costume party, almost certainly we'll have to disguise ourselves as someone else at one point." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Quite likely" | ||
| Draconis asks, "Reading the transcript, and...wait, jellyfish??" | ||
| DavidW says, "yes, the countess's dress has live jellyfish on it." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yep" | ||
| DavidW says, "We also have heretics burning on crosses outside." | ||
| Draconis says, "Better than inside, I suppose." | ||
| DavidW says, "and a 'rift' sent cherubim crashing into the banquet hall." | ||
| Draconis asks, "I'm getting a bit confused with pronouns here. So Ferdinand is 'she', and Dmitri is 'he'?" | ||
| Draconis says, "(I'm used to those both being very masculine names.)" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yes" | ||
| DavidW says, "The game's pretty clear, though that Dmitri, a 'he', has female genitals." | ||
| DavidW says, "So I'm assuming Dmitri is a trans man until new evidence contradicts it." | ||
| Draconis says, "Similarly that Ferdinand has a beard and moustache. (That's why I was initially confused when X HER referred to Ferdinand; pronouns hadn't been used at that point.)" | ||
| Draconis says, "No idea if that'll prove relevant but you never know." | ||
| DavidW says, "It's possible, I suppose, that bodies are flexible in this setting. Maybe anyone can toggle their nether parts at will." | ||
| Roger says, "Possibly it's just an artifact of the extreme cosplaying here" | ||
| Roger says, "Like our swanlady friend" | ||
| DavidW says, "We could be all fish." | ||
| DavidW says, "Fish can go from male to female." | ||
| Roger says, "Seems as likely as anything else" | ||
| Roger says, "Hmmm we haven't done anything to slight anyone yet; I guess we should do that at some point too" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hm, I was just thinking of the characters as being themselves because they are, not because it's part of some game mechanic/dynamic." | ||
| DavidW says, "That's the trouble with a game set in the 'fantastic' setting; there's too many possibilites. That's why I wanted to check if actual angels were being eaten." | ||
| Doug arrives, full of fun and funk. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to dmitri" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO DMITRI Floyd | Floyd | "Honestly," says Dmitri, "I'm surprised you're still alive. I suppose Floyd | that you must have done something tricky to manage that, eh? Put your Floyd | finger on the record to stop the universe from turning, then slipped Floyd | out the back door to dodge your appointment with the countess? Floyd | Otherwise you'd be dead. You're an incompetent swordsman. I've seen Floyd | you. But I guess it doesn't matter: you're here now, whenever Floyd | now is in the grand scheme. Floyd | Floyd | "I'm afraid that you won't find many others still hanging around Floyd | though. They've all gone. It's dreadfully late -- or maybe dreadfully Floyd | early? Early and late are the same when the hour is right. But you Floyd | know me. I never sleep." Floyd | Floyd | He pauses to turn a page in his book. Floyd | Floyd | "Can't wake up when I do," he says. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Wait, so is Draconis caught up?" | |
| Jacqueline asks, "Is the break over?" | ||
| Draconis says, "Almost." | ||
| DavidW says, "oh sorry" | ||
| Draconis says, "Done." | ||
| Draconis says, "And probably just as confused as you." | ||
| DavidW asks, "So this is *after* the swordfight?" | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of Doug), "Have you played?" | ||
| Doug says, "yep" | ||
| Draconis asks, "Could we check our script again?" | ||
| Draconis says, "Might suggest subjects." | ||
| Draconis says, "Otherwise ask about the RECORD." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "oh, we're in mid-convo with Dmitri." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "countess" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | "I'll tell you how I first saw the countess," says Dmitri. "It was a Floyd | twilight evening some years back, and I was standing outside with the Floyd | crowd on the steps leading into the opera house. If you aren't Floyd | familiar with the opera house, it's situated beside a canal, and a Floyd | long stairway runs down from the piazza to the water. People arrive in Floyd | gondolas, and naturally there's a lot of preening and parading on that Floyd | staircase. Floyd | Floyd | "Well, from where I was standing I could see something marvelous Floyd | coming down the water. It was like a carriage, like a chariot, Floyd | completely gold and drawn by seven bottlenose dolphins. They were Floyd | pulling it through the canal just like a horse would pull a carriage Floyd | on a street. But what's a bottlenose dolphin, you ask? I didn't know Floyd | at the time, but since then I've learned that they're a highly Floyd | endangered marine mammal. They look like very large, sleek fish, and Floyd | supposedly there aren't more than fifty still alive. And Floyd | seven were pulling that chariot through the canal. You can Floyd | imagine the spectacle when it drew to a stop at the staircase and its Floyd | passenger emerged. That passenger was none other than the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "You don't need me to describe her appearance. She's always the most Floyd | gorgeous person in the room -- or, in this case, on the waterfront. Floyd | Everything she wore shimmered with diamonds. The world seemed to come Floyd | into more focus around her, to clarify, like something magnified under Floyd | a jeweler's loupe. You could feel that everybody in the crowd had Floyd | either fallen in love with her immediately (if they weren't in love Floyd | with her already), or that they were just boiling with jealousy, but Floyd | she didn't pay any attention to them. She didn't climb the staircase Floyd | either. Instead she went over to a walkway extending beneath a nearby Floyd | bridge's underpass and came out again with the most grimy little Floyd | urchin in the city. That child had been camped beneath that underpass Floyd | for weeks, eating rats from a sewage pipe that emptied into the canal. Floyd | Since there weren't many rats, the child wasn't very healthy. The Floyd | countess took the child and actually wrapped it in her own cloak, Floyd | right there in front of everybody at the opera house, and then she Floyd | helped it step into her chariot and drove away again without even the Floyd | slightest hello or goodbye to her socialite peers. Floyd | Floyd | "What an outrage that scene caused! I can hardly remember the opera Floyd | itself because I was still thinking about the countess during the Floyd | whole performance. Later on, the scandal was splashed all over the Floyd | papers, but the countess never cared. She had seen someone in need and Floyd | that was the only thing that mattered to her. Now I have it on good Floyd | authority that her street urchin eats all the rats that anyone could Floyd | ever want." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "This game if nothing else keeps surprising me" | |
| Draconis says, "Indeed." | ||
| DavidW says, "I keep getting surprised by textdumps in this game." | ||
| Draconis asks, "Can we ask about TIME or the RECORD?" | ||
| DavidW says, "let me know when I can continue" | ||
| Roger says, "I've absorbed it" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "time" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > TIME Floyd | Floyd | "What does anyone know about time?" says Dmitri. "It's always slipping Floyd | away like an eel when you want it to stay put, and when you've got no Floyd | use for it, why, then of course it drags its feet worse than a convict Floyd | with a ball and chain. Time's a contrarian, that's what it is. It Floyd | never makes any sense, so finally you stop trying to look for any Floyd | sense in it." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "record" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > RECORD Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "urchin" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > URCHIN Floyd | Floyd | "That street urchin will probably be an earl or something by the time Floyd | that the countess is finished," says Dmitri. "You know that she's more Floyd | than a countess herself? She's got enough titles and styles in Floyd | different countries and districts and principalities or whatever that Floyd | she can pick what she wants to be called. It wouldn't be wrong to Floyd | address her as a baroness, a duchess, even a grand princess, Floyd | but she prefers countess. For the word's ring, I suppose." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "ferdinand" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > FERDINAND Floyd | Floyd | "You're lucky to have Ferdinand on your side," says Dmitri. "The Floyd | countess is formidable, but even she's as meek as a kitten in Floyd | comparison. I can't begin to guess how many kills old Floyd | Ferdinand must have under her belt. Of course it was all done in the Floyd | line of duty, or whatever other nonsense people will say to try making Floyd | it palatable. But facts are facts. Floyd | Floyd | "What does Ferdinand see in you, anyway? You're certainly not her peer Floyd | in martial prowess, and not in social status either. I don't think you Floyd | can claim to match her intellectual level. Maybe she keeps you around Floyd | like a little pet dog. Am I in the right ballpark? You're like a shih Floyd | tzu for her. Something she can take out every once in a while and play Floyd | with and then put back into a kennel without feeling too guilty about Floyd | it. Not that I think she can feel guilty about anything. She Floyd | must have killed her conscience a long time ago. Probably her first Floyd | victim. Floyd | Floyd | "Then again, perhaps I'm being too hard on her. I suppose life has Floyd | taken its toll on Ferdinand just like everybody else. The difference Floyd | is that not everybody else has a little pet shih tzu to distract Floyd | themselves." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "Ouch." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "onegin" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | "What could I tell you about Onegin that you don't already know?" asks Floyd | Dmitri. "You don't want to know anything about him. No, what you Floyd | really want is to know about me and Onegin, but Floyd | there's nothing to tell about that either. There's nothing between us. Floyd | Floyd | "Of course I won't deny that I've fucked him, but he's just another Floyd | notch in my bedpost. A handsome notch, but still a notch. Your problem Floyd | is that you think he's such a bastard you can't fathom why I'd do it. Floyd | And that is your problem, not mine. He might be a perfectly Floyd | disagreeable character -- pompous, egomaniacal, even a little Floyd | thick-skulled -- but that doesn't mean I can't have a good time with Floyd | him. You see, the difference between us is that whereas you Floyd | take everything much too personally, I just take things as Floyd | they come. I've told you the same thing before, but did you listen to Floyd | me? No. And you won't listen to me now. Forget about Onegin. Bury this Floyd | ridiculous vendetta you have with him. It makes you look like a Floyd | child." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to Dmitri), "Thanks." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "bear" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > BEAR Floyd | Floyd | "You saw us behind the polar bear, did you?" asks Dmitri. "I don't Floyd | care. I have nothing to hide. I'll admit I'm a little annoyed that Floyd | you'd sit there and watch like a voyeur, but I'm not going to let Floyd | myself get angry over it. I'm not the one who needs to grow up. You Floyd | are." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "So now we know there's a vendetta with Onegin..." | |
| Draconis says, "ME" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "vendetta" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > VENDETTA Floyd | Floyd | "Do you even know why you have a vendetta with Onegin?" asks Dmitri. Floyd | "I'd be shocked if you did. The worst thing he's ever done to you is Floyd | just exist on the same planet. He barely even acknowledges that Floyd | you exist. I can understand why there'd be no warmth between Floyd | you, but this lust for blood you've got is something else entirely. Floyd | It's pathetic is what it is." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "planet" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > PLANET Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "dmitri" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > DMITRI Floyd | Floyd | "Even after all this time, you don't know who I am," says Dmitri. Floyd | "It's hard for two people to really know each other, naturally, but Floyd | I'm not talking about that deeper level. I'm talking about the Floyd | surface, the little things that go into everyday life. Sometimes when Floyd | I'm talking to you I feel like you're talking to someone else behind Floyd | me. Like words leave your mouth and go over my head to this other Floyd | person. And you seem satisfied with their response, whatever it is, Floyd | because I don't give you a response. I can't. You don't hear Floyd | me. But you don't want to, because you already think you know my Floyd | answer. You've invented another me to suit yourself. Well, here I am Floyd | now. I refuse to be that other person's shadow anymore." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis asks, "Do we know our name?" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "jellyfish" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > JELLYFISH Floyd | Floyd | "Yes, the countess is always on the cutting edge when it comes to Floyd | fashion," says Dmitri. "Who else would wear a gown made out of living Floyd | jellyfish? Nobody. The jellyfish would sting most other people. But do Floyd | they sting the countess? Oh no, because they love her." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "no" | |
| Draconis asks, "Can we ask about ME then?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "me" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > ME Floyd | Floyd | "You know what I think about you," says Dmitri. "I've told you many Floyd | times... so many times... but now I recognize it was my fault. Not Floyd | that I'm apologizing. If anyone deserves an apology, it's me Floyd | for putting up with what I did. What I mean is that people will always Floyd | be themselves. No matter how many masks they wear. No matter how many Floyd | costumes. Trying to change them is the greatest fool's errand in the Floyd | world. Do you know how much agonizing it took me to reach that Floyd | conclusion? I kept trying to resist. I wanted to believe that if I Floyd | pushed a little harder, said the right thing, used the rights words in Floyd | the right combination, everything would change like winter into Floyd | spring. I was an idiot. An absolutely blithering moron. I won't say Floyd | that I'm smarter now, but I am more pragmatic. Nowadays I'm Floyd | content with much smaller victories -- like drinking a very well-made Floyd | martini." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis asks, "Or about LOVE?" | |
| Draconis asks, "Or CHANGE?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "martini" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MARTINI Floyd | Floyd | "Nothing slips down quite as smoothly as a martini," says Dmitri. Floyd | "They must be mankind's greatest achievement." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "champagne" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > CHAMPAGNE Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "love" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > LOVE Floyd | Floyd | "Love?" says Dmitri, and he stifles a laugh. "Yes, I suppose love is Floyd | playing a role in tonight's farce. The question is why, since Floyd | nobody's in love with anyone. Some people just think that Floyd | they are. I won't name names, but I will say it makes them look... Floyd | foolish. And I'm not just talking about you either." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "change" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > CHANGE Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Ask him about the kielbasa. (Just kidding.)" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "sex" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > SEX Floyd | Floyd | "You saw us behind the polar bear, did you?" asks Dmitri. "I don't Floyd | care. I have nothing to hide. I'll admit I'm a little annoyed that Floyd | you'd sit there and watch like a voyeur, but I'm not going to let Floyd | myself get angry over it. I'm not the one who needs to grow up. You Floyd | are." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "gender" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > GENDER Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "party" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > PARTY Floyd | Floyd | "Attending these masquerade parties is like playing russian roulette," Floyd | says Dmitri. "Someone always dies, and yet invitations have never been Floyd | in higher demand. You remember last time it was that poor girl Floyd | Matilda? And the year before that, they found the duke's cousin hanged Floyd | in the kitchen pantry. This year it's your turn apparently." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "MATILDA or COUSIN or DUKE" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | "Matilda, that poor girl," says Dmitri. "It's terrible what happened Floyd | to her. Drowned in the fountain last year. She wasn't exactly an Floyd | innocent lamb -- in fact, she was a spoiled brat -- always sticking Floyd | her tongue out and snubbing her nose -- but it was an Floyd | endearing snobbiness, if you know what I mean. She almost did Floyd | it on purpose, adopted a character to poke fun at herself. Anyway, my Floyd | point is that she had no enemies. Nobody could figure out a motive for Floyd | why someone would want to kill her. Floyd | Floyd | "Everyone was shocked, of course, but no one took it worse than the Floyd | countess. Those two had been great friends. You should've seen the Floyd | countess out there bawling by the fountain. They had to pry the corpse Floyd | away from her with a crowbar. Grief like that, you think that it only Floyd | exists in novels, but then you see it firsthand and realize you never Floyd | understood the world at all." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cousin" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > COUSIN Floyd | Floyd | "Can you imagine opening a door and being confronted by a dead body Floyd | hanging from the rafters?" asks Dmitri. "I still remember the Floyd | screaming from the cook. She said that she'd been going to get Floyd | saffron, and what she got was that. Everyone suspected Floyd | suicide, although the duke himself wouldn't humor the notion. Floyd | He said murder. Someone always has to say murder." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "duke" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > DUKE Floyd | Floyd | "The duke shot himself later on," says Dmitri. "That was definitely Floyd | suicide. It didn't happen at a party though." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "murder" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MURDER Floyd | Floyd | "It's never been determined that a murder actually took place," says Floyd | Dmitri. "Inquiries were made; they went nowhere; people moved on. That Floyd | doesn't mean there aren't still suspicions in the air. Sometimes they Floyd | flash out like knives when you least expect it. But it's almost a Floyd | game. No one takes these things seriously." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "glove" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > GLOVE Floyd | Floyd | "Throwing a glove at somebody is the traditional way to demand a Floyd | duel," says Dmitri. "But the countess isn't wearing gloves tonight, Floyd | which means that she brought one on purpose just to challenge Floyd | you. The whole thing was premeditated." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "Ooh." | |
| Draconis says, "Now we're getting somewhere." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "masquerade" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MASQUERADE Floyd | Floyd | "Attending these masquerade parties is like playing russian roulette," Floyd | says Dmitri. "Someone always dies, and yet invitations have never been Floyd | in higher demand. You remember last time it was that poor girl Floyd | Matilda? And the year before that, they found the duke's cousin hanged Floyd | in the kitchen pantry. This year it's your turn apparently." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), " heretics" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > HERETICS Floyd | Floyd | "They're a highly dependable fuel source, heretics," says Dmitri. "I Floyd | hear that in the countryside they spring up just as easily as weeds, Floyd | although you'll occasionally spot them sprouting between the social Floyd | cracks in more urban areas too. Some people are scared that we might Floyd | burn them all and run out, but I say fiddlesticks. All you need to do Floyd | to make more heretics is tweak the official definition a little." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "clock" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > CLOCK Floyd | Floyd | "That salon is a ghastly chamber," says Dmitri. "It's the sort of Floyd | place that makes you giggle because you're nervous, and then you want Floyd | to get out as soon as possible. No wonder it's always deserted. And to Floyd | make matters worse, they say that it's... haunted isn't the right Floyd | word, but visited. I wouldn't set foot in its precincts at Floyd | all when the clock isn't working." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "CHERUB" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cherub" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > CHERUB Floyd | Floyd | "Beastly pests," says Dmitri. "There's nothing worse than a cherub Floyd | infestation. Did you ever hear about the RMS Lusitania? It Floyd | had a cherub infestation. The things made a nest in the boiler room Floyd | and eventually ate through the hull. Everyone blamed that ship's Floyd | sinking on a torpedo, but torpedoes don't leave bite-marks and Floyd | perfumed guano behind, do they?" Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "o.o" | |
| DavidW says, "perfumed guano" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "lusitania" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > LUSITANIA Floyd | Floyd | "Beastly pests," says Dmitri. "There's nothing worse than a cherub Floyd | infestation. Did you ever hear about the RMS Lusitania? It Floyd | had a cherub infestation. The things made a nest in the boiler room Floyd | and eventually ate through the hull. Everyone blamed that ship's Floyd | sinking on a torpedo, but torpedoes don't leave bite-marks and Floyd | perfumed guano behind, do they?" Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "swan" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > SWAN Floyd | Floyd | "Oh yes, I saw that lady in the swan costume earlier," says Dmitri. Floyd | "At first I thought she was a swan. I was ready to herd her Floyd | outdoors. But then she turned around and gave me such a Floyd | savage expression that I knew she couldn't be a swan. She had Floyd | to be at least a baroness." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kielbasa" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > KIELBASA Floyd | Floyd | "It certainly is a big kielbasa," says Dmitri. "What are you going to Floyd | have with it: sauerkraut, pickles, mustard, fried onions? Maybe some Floyd | vodka? Or are you just going to smack someone over the head with it Floyd | like it's a baseball bat?" Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "The jokes write themseleves here, so there's no need." | |
| DavidW says, "I'm running out of topics and thinking of saying farewell." | ||
| Roger says, "I've got a few" | ||
| DavidW asks, "yes?" | ||
| Draconis asks, "Doesn't the person challenged to a duel get to choose the weapons?" | ||
| Roger asks, "What was the dance again? Waltz? Minuet?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "dance" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > DANCE Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to flo), "Waltz" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "waltz" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > WALTZ Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "minuet" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MINUET Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to flo), "second" | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "second" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > SECOND Floyd | Floyd | "Dueling has a certain etiquette," says Dmitri. "Duelists have seconds Floyd | to help sort the rules out and keep everything by the book, because we Floyd | can't have people killing each other in an uncivilized manner." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "second" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > SECOND Floyd | Floyd | "Dueling has a certain etiquette," says Dmitri. "Duelists have seconds Floyd | to help sort the rules out and keep everything by the book, because we Floyd | can't have people killing each other in an uncivilized manner." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "garden" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > GARDEN Floyd | Floyd | "Landscape gardens are bizarre," says Dmitri. "Some people build old Floyd | towers in their gardens -- well, let me correct myself: they're Floyd | designed to look old. They're called follies and they're Floyd | absolutely useless. Uninhabitable, hollow shells for the most part. Floyd | But they contribute to the garden's picturesque scenery, Floyd | because who wouldn't want a romantic old pile in the corner? Floyd | Floyd | "Occasionally you'll even find fake hermits employed to live in these Floyd | follies like wild men. That makes it more charming, to have a fake Floyd | hermit living in a fake ruin. Who are the hermits? Poor people who Floyd | need money. What is their job description? To sit around and never Floyd | bathe and look contemplative. It's harder than it sounds. And if they Floyd | make a mistake and do something as contemporary as trimming their hair Floyd | or wearing shoes, why, then they aren't paid. Floyd | Floyd | "This palace's garden doesn't have a folly, thankfully." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "very belatedly, here is the blurb from the comp page: 'A fool receives a challenge from a countess. // Violence. Sex. Profanity. Sausage.'" | |
| Roger says, "Fake hermits were a real thing, I seem to recall" | ||
| Doug says, "so yeah, content warnings" | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "music" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MUSIC Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks (of Roger), "wow, really?" | |
| Roger exclaims, "Yeah!" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fountain" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > FOUNTAIN Floyd | Floyd | "Matilda, that poor girl," says Dmitri. "It's terrible what happened Floyd | to her. Drowned in the fountain last year. She wasn't exactly an Floyd | innocent lamb -- in fact, she was a spoiled brat -- always sticking Floyd | her tongue out and snubbing her nose -- but it was an Floyd | endearing snobbiness, if you know what I mean. She almost did Floyd | it on purpose, adopted a character to poke fun at herself. Anyway, my Floyd | point is that she had no enemies. Nobody could figure out a motive for Floyd | why someone would want to kill her. Floyd | Floyd | "Everyone was shocked, of course, but no one took it worse than the Floyd | countess. Those two had been great friends. You should've seen the Floyd | countess out there bawling by the fountain. They had to pry the corpse Floyd | away from her with a crowbar. Grief like that, you think that it only Floyd | exists in novels, but then you see it firsthand and realize you never Floyd | understood the world at all." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "cunt" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > CUNT Floyd | Floyd | "You saw us behind the polar bear, did you?" asks Dmitri. "I don't Floyd | care. I have nothing to hide. I'll admit I'm a little annoyed that Floyd | you'd sit there and watch like a voyeur, but I'm not going to let Floyd | myself get angry over it. I'm not the one who needs to grow up. You Floyd | are." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "cutlass" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > CUTLASS Floyd | Floyd | "A cutlass is a standard enough sword," says Dmitri. "What makes Floyd | Ferdinand's cutlass special is that it belongs to Ferdinand. That Floyd | sword has glutted itself on more blood than I care to think about. Floyd | It's something that someone would hang in a museum -- that admirers in Floyd | future generations will undoubtedly handle like a sacred relic -- but Floyd | in your hands it's no more dangerous than a stick. Still better than Floyd | nothing, I guess." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to Doug), "Hm, I remember that now, but you can have 'sex' without having 'erotica' / 'porn'" | |
| Roger says (to floyd), "rapier" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > RAPIER Floyd | Floyd | "The thing about a dueling rapier is that it hasn't got a good edge," Floyd | says Dmitri. "It requires a certain advanced talent to wield Floyd | correctly, especially if you're wielding it with the intent to kill. Floyd | But the countess shouldn't have any problems. She's a practiced Floyd | duelist. When she goes for the throat, she gets the throat, and Floyd | sometimes she takes the head too." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "motley" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MOTLEY Floyd | Floyd | "In olden times it was only the court fool who could speak Floyd | uncensored," says Dmitri. "Everything a fool said was discredited Floyd | simply because a fool had said it, which allowed these court fools to Floyd | speak the truth disguised as nonsense. That's why you find your Floyd | costume so appealing, isn't it? I know you well enough. But what you Floyd | haven't considered is that any society that still needs fools to hide Floyd | the truth in jokes must be repressed. It's only when fools are retired Floyd | for good that we'll have actual freedom. In that light, your motley Floyd | could almost be considered a symbol for oppression, couldn't it? So Floyd | much for fun and games." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says (to Jacqueline), "also chicks with dudes' names" | |
| Roger says (to floyd), "domino" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > DOMINO Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "mask" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MASK Floyd | Floyd | "Identity is the greatest prison in the world," says Dmitri. Floyd | "Everyone's trapped in their own. And while wearing a costume doesn't Floyd | allow you to escape, it does make you forget for a while. But then the Floyd | morning breaks and you see how your make-up is smeared and your hair's Floyd | come undone and the diamonds in your rings are just rhinestones. Floyd | You've spilled wine on yourself. You're hungover. That's the real you, Floyd | and you don't want to look in the mirror at it." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "time" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > TIME Floyd | Floyd | "What does anyone know about time?" says Dmitri. "It's always slipping Floyd | away like an eel when you want it to stay put, and when you've got no Floyd | use for it, why, then of course it drags its feet worse than a convict Floyd | with a ball and chain. Time's a contrarian, that's what it is. It Floyd | never makes any sense, so finally you stop trying to look for any Floyd | sense in it." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "playscript" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > PLAYSCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | "Don't tell me you don't know what a playscript is," says Dmitri. Floyd | "It's something that's got everything written down -- scenes and stage Floyd | directions and all that. Actors use them to memorize lines for plays. Floyd | However, when they finally recite the lines they try to pretend that Floyd | they're speaking spontaneously. That's what makes them actors." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "Okay I think I'm spent" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "book" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > BOOK Floyd | Floyd | "I won't recite it again. You can read it for yourself," says Dmitri, Floyd | opening the book to the right page. Floyd | Floyd | Sly Bertrand and Ratto in company sat Floyd | (the one was a monkey, the other a cat) Floyd | before a fire to watch chestnuts roasting. Floyd | Said Bertrand to Ratto, his voice imploring: Floyd | Floyd | 'My brother, you ought to exhibit your skill Floyd | and fish out those nuts so we can eat our fill. Floyd | Your paws are suited expertly to the task Floyd | whereas I am afraid mine would just burn, alas.' Floyd | Floyd | 'It is done,' answered Ratto, extending a paw Floyd | and attempting to dig through the ash with his claw. Floyd | One after another out the chestnuts popped Floyd | though Ratto was still scorched before he had stopped. Floyd | Floyd | Yet the poor cat had nothing to eat Floyd | for the monkey had made his retreat Floyd | with the chestnuts in hand; peasants bring Floyd | power in this manner to their king. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis asks, "Shall we say FAREWELL and go use this kielbasa?" | |
| Roger says, "yes let's" | ||
| DavidW says, "farewell, yes, but there's still more rooms to explore." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "farewell" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > FAREWELL Floyd | Floyd | Dmitri turns his attention back to his reading and his martini. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "l" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > L Floyd | Floyd | Aftermath Floyd | Splintered glasses, paper streamers, confetti, and cigarette butts Floyd | litter the floor. You cannot step anywhere without crunching something Floyd | underfoot. The banquet-table has been thoroughly demolished, cracked Floyd | into two halves that lean inward toward a sunken middle. Floyd | Floyd | Everyone else is gone, but Dmitri is sitting at the table as though Floyd | nothing has happened, reading a book and nursing a martini. Floyd | Floyd | Moving counter-clockwise would return you to the banquet hall when it Floyd | was slightly more intact. Slightly. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x table" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > X TABLE Floyd | Floyd | Apparently the cherubs succeeded in smashing the banquet-table, Floyd | although you don't know where they've gone now. Probably sucked back Floyd | into another rift. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I feel as if I would have enjoyed the conversation more had we had our own voice in it as well." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Banquet Hall Floyd | Somehow a rift must have opened, because obese cherubs are pouring Floyd | through the air onto the banquet-table; or at least, they would be Floyd | pouring if they were in motion. There are several hundred, faces Floyd | grimacing and feathered wings shedding blue pinions, and in their Floyd | conglomerate they have impacted the table at one end, sending the Floyd | other end skyward like a see-saw. Some even appear to be crawling Floyd | upward along the table as rats would a mast aboard a sinking ship. Floyd | Floyd | This arrangement has naturally relocated the banquet itself into Floyd | midair, where roasts and cakes and goblets and plates hang with their Floyd | glazes and their silver sparkling. Floyd | Floyd | When it comes to the diners, most have already departed, although a Floyd | few remain watching the cherubs with mild interest from seats pushed Floyd | back against the walls. One lady dressed as a swan is eating angels on Floyd | horseback, with a champagne flute daintily suspended in her other Floyd | hand. Floyd | Floyd | A clockwise inclination would direct you into the aftermath, while Floyd | moving counter-clockwise would steer you toward the cloak room, and in Floyd | the future yawns the black salon. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "So CW and CCW move time forward and back in one location." | |
| Draconis says, "P and F move along our own path." | ||
| Draconis asks, "Is that correct?" | ||
| DavidW says, "well, c and cc seem to be more sideways-ish" | ||
| DavidW says, "Not always the same location." | ||
| [LINK] | ||
| DavidW says, "and I don't quite understand how it fits vis-a-vis future/past." | ||
| Draconis says, "I think it goes in with Dmitri's comment about 'turning the record'." | ||
| DavidW says, "Anyway, I want to see the cloak room." | ||
| Draconis says, "CW and CCW are rotating it." | ||
| DavidW says, "Perhaps there's a cloak of darkness in there." | ||
| Draconis says, "Sounds good." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Cloak Room Floyd | You find yourself lost in a forest. The trees are coat-stands draped Floyd | with cloaks. Among the cloaks someone has hung a butchered pig Floyd | carcass. Clockwise, the banquet awaits. Floyd | Floyd | In the past you can see the palace doors opened wide to the night. Floyd | Guests are thronging through them to the masquerade, their stream Floyd | bordered by footmen holding lanterns high, and foremost in this crowd Floyd | is the countess. Floyd | Floyd | She is the jewel set in the evening's crown. Onegin has her hand, but Floyd | she is not looking at him; she is looking at everybody, enchanting Floyd | them with her smile. Her domino mask is lowered and you can see her Floyd | face. She is more beautiful than anyone. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to Roger), "I knew of follies (and have seen one or two), but didn't know of the garden hermits." | |
| Draconis says, "Or a hook we can pull for a secret passage." | ||
| Doug says, "yay Cloak of Darkness" | ||
| Draconis asks, "All cloakrooms have those, right?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x pig" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X PIG Floyd | Floyd | This pig carcass has been expertly butchered, with the belly slit wide Floyd | enough for a person to easily slip inside. As a costume, you must Floyd | admit that the idea is genius. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Oh dear." | |
| Jacqueline says, "I think I see where this may go." | ||
| DavidW asks, "Why would we want to be a pig?" | ||
| Roger says, "why wouldn't we want to be a pig" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "To pay David Cameron a visit?" | ||
| DavidW says, "It's not kosher." | ||
| Roger says, "I ran across garden hermits in some D&D research I believe" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "Try explaining that to Cameron." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x countess" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | You are in love with the countess. There, you can admit it. When you Floyd | look at her like this, you cannot help but be in love. Even though she Floyd | loathes you and you've come to loathe her too. Even though she wants Floyd | to fly your flayed hide for a flag. You are in love. It is horrible Floyd | news. But you aren't alone, because everyone loves the Floyd | countess. That's what makes her the countess. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "you have no idea where this will go." | |
| Draconis says, "I see a connection between the pig and the kielbasa..." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "I completely believe you." | ||
| Draconis asks, "Can we take the pig carcass?" | ||
| DavidW asks (of Draconis), "I'm sure we can, but why?" | ||
| Roger says, "for the shenanigans" | ||
| Doug says, "but I'd like to hear where you think it will go!" | ||
| DavidW says, "Are we gonna have a sexual dalliance with someone in it?>" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to David), "Why?! Why, sir. This is INTERACTIVE FICTION, that's why." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Take all the things, man." | ||
| Draconis says, "Rule one, anything not nailed down is MINE." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Exactly." | ||
| Doug says, "You must admit that the idea is genius." | ||
| Draconis says, "Rule two, anything I can pry loose is not nailed down." | ||
| DavidW says, "Taking the pig costume means leaving the jester one, I bet." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Draconis), "hee" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take pig" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE PIG Floyd | Floyd | You lift the pig carcass down. It's a bit unwieldy, but you'd rather Floyd | leave a baby behind on a sinking ship than allow this opportunity to Floyd | pass. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "We could also hide something else in the pig." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | cloak room, evening Floyd | Floyd | A fool finds amongst the coat-stands Floyd | a costume more ingenious Floyd | than human words can put into language. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | kiss (when wearing motley) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undress" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDRESS Floyd | Floyd | You disrobe from your jester's motley and feel decidedly less Floyd | tricksterish. You won't be stealing any kisses now. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wear pig" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR PIG Floyd | Floyd | You hunch your shoulders together and crawl into the pig carcass. Now Floyd | the sky is no longer a limit. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I feel like we didn't steal too many kisses as it was." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "put motley on hook" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > PUT MOTLEY ON HOOK Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "indeed!" | |
| DavidW says, "We haven't stolen any kisses yet." | ||
| Doug says, "there's been a dearth of kissing." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | cloak room, evening Floyd | Floyd | A pig finds amongst the coat-stands Floyd | a costume more ingenious Floyd | than human words can put into language. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | fly, oink (when wearing the butchered pig) Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis asks, "We can FLY??" | |
| Draconis says, "Let's do it!" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh dear." | ||
| DavidW says, "When pigs fly." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > FLY Floyd | Floyd | You fly upward but the trees close overhead: their branches form a Floyd | ceiling, and you're still inside the palace. You thump your head and Floyd | flutter back down to the floor. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "wait, actual trees?" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x trees" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X TREES Floyd | Floyd | These coat-stands haven't actually sprouted from the ground, but they Floyd | might as well have. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "ok" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "oink" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > OINK Floyd | Floyd | You oink with meaning. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "Let's go duel" | |
| Draconis says, "!" | ||
| DavidW asks, "can't we explore more?" | ||
| Draconis says, "We can have a flying kielbasa fight!" | ||
| Draconis says, "Well, we COULD." | ||
| Draconis says, "But we could also have a FLYING KIELBASA FIGHT." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I feel like I'm along for the ride. Do what you all will." | ||
| DavidW says, "we could oink behind the bear too." | ||
| Jacqueline sings, "Everybody was kielbasa fiiightiing..." | ||
| Draconis says, "PUT BOTULINUM TOXIN IN KIELBASA. GIVE KIELBASA TO COUNTESS. OINK." | ||
| Jacqueline) DavidW says, "we could oink behing the bear too, iykwimaityd." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "darn it. Why is there no typo tally in this room?" | ||
| Roger says, "I think we've squeezed the goodness out of this location" | ||
| Jacqueline squints at Roger. | ||
| DavidW says, "I need a bathroom break." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Okay" | ||
| Doug says, "the typo tally is counterclockwise." | ||
| Draconis goes counterclockwise. | ||
| Draconis gets dizzy. | ||
| Draconis goes clockwise for a while. | ||
| Doug says, "oink." | ||
| Draconis says (to Doug), "But you aren't wearing a pig!" | ||
| Roger says, "Inside a pig it's too dark to drink a martini" | ||
| Draconis says, "Separate note, it seems the Sausage Duel was with trichinella, not botulinum. My bad." | ||
| [LINK] | ||
| Roger says, "Martinis used to be 1/3 vermouth" | ||
| DavidW says, "back" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Roger), "Now we just pour a spash of vermouth into the cap from the vermouth bottle and pass the cap over the martini without actually adding the vermouth." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "Yay. Let us continue to be surprised with where this will go." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x onegin" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | Onegin, that bastard. He's strutting and puffing his chest, skin Floyd | painted red from head to toe, wearing horns and bat-wings with his Floyd | cock hanging out like some archfiend with nothing to hide. What an Floyd | obnoxious exhibitionist. You'd think that the guests were all gazing Floyd | at him from the grin on his face, but he's nothing next to the Floyd | countess. He's just her pawn. He won't confess it to himself, but it's Floyd | the truth. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "That's...a bit different from the masquerades I've seen." | |
| DavidW says, "no comment" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "We're going to end up doing him, or being done by him. There Doug: that's what I'm expecting." | ||
| Draconis asks, "Do we even know the PC's gender?" | ||
| Doug says, "DO is not in the playscript" | ||
| DavidW says, "no, I don't know." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "Not right now it's not." | ||
| Draconis says, "I'd guess male just because the fool is stereotypically male. But from what we've seen gender norms are very different in this universe." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Maybe you just didn't find that scene." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah, I think our gender is intentionally vague." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] At the Threshold Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | At the Threshold Floyd | The palace doors stand open, but no one has arrived yet. Floyd | Floyd | A landscape garden stretches away into the past. Floyd | Floyd | In the future, guests will deposit their cloaks in the cloak room. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "my theory about the genderweirdness is that it's a play and the actors are crossdressing." | |
| Roger asks, "What's P? Past?" | ||
| DavidW says, "yes" | ||
| Draconis says (to Roger), "Past." | ||
| Roger says, "Oh" | ||
| Draconis says (to Doug), "Ooh, interesting." | ||
| Draconis says, "Hadn't thought about that." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x doors" | ||
Floyd ] At the Threshold Floyd | > Floyd | > X DOORS Floyd | Floyd | Whenever you are standing at a doorway, you never know if you are Floyd | stepping in or stepping out. Divergent possibilities tug at you. You Floyd | wonder whether you've made the right choice. But then you're stepping Floyd | through the door and into whatever you're stepping into. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "but CMG has remained silent about it." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x garden" | ||
Floyd ] At the Threshold Floyd | > Floyd | > X GARDEN Floyd | Floyd | This garden is where you will duel the countess at midnight. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "Maybe we can push the bear onto the lovers after all" | |
| Doug says, "i.e. it's intentionally vague and ambiguous." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | You are standing alone on a long manicured lawn bordered by cypress Floyd | trees, whose moon-cast shadows divide the grass into neat quadrants as Floyd | though it were a rugby field. Floyd | Floyd | Below the lawn, further into the past, there is a great and gurgling Floyd | fountain, and in the future you can see the palace windows alive with Floyd | candlelight and merriment. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "It seems it's a play set in the future (given that dolphins are so close to extinction that no one has heard of them), or perhaps just in a parallel universe (given the rift of cherubs, and how they are a pest that take down ships like torpedos)." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x trees" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > X TREES Floyd | Floyd | Columns in a colonnade -- that's what these cypress trees seem like. Floyd | This garden is a temple and they gird its sacred space. That's what Floyd | the landscape architect must have been thinking. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x moon" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > X MOON Floyd | Floyd | There's a blue moon in the sky tonight. It looks just like a skull. Floyd | You've known visions more reassuring. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "(still reading Wikipedia) huh, 'devils on horseback' are dried fruit wrapped in bacon." | |
| Roger says, "I'll vote for a dream, if I must" | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of Roger), "Dream or nightmare?" | ||
| Draconis says, "We could still WAKE UP." | ||
| DavidW says, "Cheese wrapped in bacon is the thing now." | ||
| Draconis says, "It's in the playscript." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Save first." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh. I've heard about this moon. I'll shut up, but can't wait to see." | ||
| DavidW says (to Draconis), "I'm worried 'wake up' would return us to the duel." | ||
| DavidW asks, "I'm curious about the fountain. Will we see Matilda?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x fountain" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > X FOUNTAIN Floyd | Floyd | Disaster seems to dog these masquerade parties. Last time it was Floyd | Matilda that they found drowned in the fountain with her hair Floyd | streaming around the water-lilies. Nobody could discover how it Floyd | happened. This time it will be you that they find dead on the lawn, Floyd | and everyone will know how it happened. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Fountain Floyd | You gaze into the fountain's murky depths. Its water is stagnant and Floyd | green from many years without cleaning, and unchecked lilies spill Floyd | over its rim. Below its surface floats a drowned body. Floyd | Floyd | In the future you will stand alone in a landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "Wait WHAT" | |
| Draconis says, "X BODY" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x body" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X BODY Floyd | Floyd | Before your eyes she rises from the fountain's sludge. Her skin is Floyd | slick and green and semi-transparent like gelatin. You can see her Floyd | dead organs inside, rotten, black, and her black veins running through Floyd | her green body. Her hair drips down over her face. When she looks at Floyd | you, her gaze is blank; she does not have pupils or irises, only Floyd | whites as slimy as a dead frog's underbelly. Floyd | Floyd | She settles herself on the fountain's stone rim, dripping and Floyd | drooping, her shoulders slouched. Floyd | Floyd | She waits. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "Aren't you glad we dressed in a pig carcass for this?" | |
| Roger says, "Yup" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Talk to her?" | ||
| DavidW says, "We can be dead bodies together." | ||
| Roger exclaims, "finally, smoochies!" | ||
| Draconis says, "TALK TO BODY" | ||
| Draconis says (to Roger), "Nope." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to body" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO BODY Floyd | Floyd | She cannot talk to you, although her tongue is swollen with unspoken Floyd | words. Only the dead can commune with the dead. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says (to Roger), "We don't have the motley on." | |
| Roger says, "CURSES" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "oink" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > OINK Floyd | Floyd | You oink with bravado. Floyd | Floyd | The drowned girl draws one finger across her throat. Well, she can Floyd | just go join the club with everyone else who wants you dead tonight. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says (to Roger), "Necrophilia will have to wait." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > FLY Floyd | Floyd | You rise into the night sky and the garden and the palace and the Floyd | world diminish underneath your hooves until they appear small enough Floyd | to step on, but you don't step on them. You fly higher and higher Floyd | until the atmosphere thins into nothing. Shooting stars are brushing Floyd | past your cheeks. You can see little planets in the distance hanging Floyd | like humid nightblue fruit dependent from the heaventree. Floyd | Floyd | But your goal is not that far away. You fly upward toward the moon Floyd | until you are flying downward toward the moon, and then you alight on Floyd | its lunar surface. | DavidW says, "w u t" | |
| Jacqueline grins. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | Floyd | Moon Floyd | A cratered wasteland. Soft cheese squishes underneath your weight and Floyd | smoke rises from foreboding chasms cleft into the glowing camembert. Floyd | Floyd | Before you a great beast is sprawled, slaughtered. It has been dead Floyd | for eons and its form has decomposed to the bare bone. It is larger Floyd | than any other animal, some colossus from legend, its death-grip Floyd | encapsulating a lunar mountain over which it has collapsed. Floyd | Floyd | Into its forehead, in the exact spot at which a bindi would be Floyd | applied, is plunged a gleaming vorpal blade. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I love this so much." | |
| Jacqueline exclaims, "!!!!" | ||
| Jacqueline exclaims, "Take it!" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take camembert" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE CAMEMBERT Floyd | Floyd | Acquiring cheese from the moon would not help you against the Floyd | countess, would it? Unless perhaps she suffers from lactose Floyd | intolerance, in which case you might slip the cheese... no, no, that's Floyd | much too indirect. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "and the waistcoat too" | |
| Jacqueline says, "(I mean that I love the moon as a cratered wasteland of camembert. I'm not sure about the other stuff. But I think the blade will be handy.)" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take blade" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE BLADE Floyd | Floyd | You begin to climb the beast beginning at a nearby talon sunk into the Floyd | moonscape. It is rather a large talon, perhaps one thousand meters Floyd | (give or take), but luckily the talon is sloped, and soon enough you Floyd | are standing atop a knuckle from which you can survey a considerable Floyd | metacarpus extending toward an even more considerable radius and ulna. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd | metacarpus extending toward an even more considerable radius and Floyd | ulna.How awkward, mountaineering on a giant skeleton! Any footholds Floyd | you find are porous holes in the bone. You have no gear to help. It is Floyd | all desperate scrambling and split-second decisions. At one point you Floyd | come across a crack in the humerus large enough to swallow a house. Floyd | Thankfully you can flutter over it. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | At last you arrive at a wide scapula. Many hours have elapsed, and Floyd | your own bones ache from the ascent. You determine to rest for the Floyd | night. Floyd | Floyd | Well, it is not really a night. There aren't normal nights when you Floyd | are on the moon, and besides, space/time is still bent into a pretzel. Floyd | But the constellations turn and fireflies twinkle in the gloom. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd | But the constellations turn and fireflies twinkle in the gloom.It is Floyd | at this juncture that you notice a strange lowing. You peer over the Floyd | scapula toward a crater in the mountainside below. Inside this crater Floyd | are numerous creatures like cows, but they are larvae. They are Floyd | embedded in the lunar cheese, which is dripping from some petrified Floyd | organ still attached to the giant skeleton's pelvis. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | In the morning you begin to descend again along the cervical vertebrae Floyd | attached to the skull. It is a descent, because the skeleton is Floyd | slouched over the mountain with its head downward. That is how it must Floyd | have fallen when it was slain. Floyd | Floyd | It was indeed slain. You can make no mistake about that. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd | It was indeed slain. You can make no mistake about that.Finally you Floyd | are scrambling over its cranium, and there in the bone is stuck the Floyd | vorpal blade. Everything is eerie and quiet, and somehow it seems as Floyd | though you have come to this spot by appointment. That you are not Floyd | alone. That the vorpal blade is studying you as you are studying it. Floyd | Floyd | It occurs to you that the blade might be some keystone holding the Floyd | situation together, and that by drawing it out you might reawaken the Floyd | monster or trigger another unforeseen calamity. But you have Floyd | determined to take it, and therefore you are going to take Floyd | it. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You grip the handle and you pull. The vorpal blade slides free as Floyd | easily as a knife from butter -- or in this case, a sword from Floyd | camembert. | Jacqueline leans forward. | |
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd | camembert.Nothing terrible happens. You have drawn the blade and it is Floyd | yours, and without delay you return to the moon's surface. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | Floyd | Moon Floyd | A cratered wasteland. Soft cheese squishes underneath your weight and Floyd | smoke rises from foreboding chasms cleft into the glowing camembert. Floyd | Floyd | Before you a great beast is sprawled, slaughtered. It has been dead Floyd | for eons and its form has decomposed to the bare bone. It is larger Floyd | than any other animal, some colossus from legend, its death-grip Floyd | encapsulating a lunar mountain over which it has collapsed. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "Dun dun dun..." | |
| Jacqueline says, "That was kind of amazing." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x blade" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > X BLADE Floyd | Floyd | Nothing is more dangerous than a vorpal blade. Even glancing at its Floyd | edge threatens to slice your eyeballs open. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x beast" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > X BEAST Floyd | Floyd | Monsters like this should not exist. They are the fever dreams that Floyd | hermits have in the desert. They dwell under the floorboards in the Floyd | mind, and you can hear them scratching if you listen close enough. But Floyd | somehow this one must have gotten out. It must have grown. You're glad Floyd | that something killed it long ago. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "So we give her the kielbasa and this is our weapon. This plan pleases me." | |
| Doug asks, "and what was killed by the vorpal blade?" | ||
| Roger asks, "traditionally, you mean?" | ||
| Draconis says, "The Jabberwock." | ||
| DavidW says, "yeah." | ||
| Draconis asks, "Traditionally, though, aren't duelists supposed to have the same weapons?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "No" | ||
| DavidW says, "Traditionally, the accused picks the weapons." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "They -- oh, true." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "They get to pick, but then you're right, both get that weapon, I think." | ||
| Doug says, "traditionally, you can't time travel." | ||
| Roger says, "They would often roll dice for the daggers, with the longer one being the advantage" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "Yeah, I think a lot of bets are off here." | ||
| DavidW says, "Shame we can't both have kielbasas." | ||
| Roger says, "yeah I'm feeling a bit less bloodthirsty than usual. But I'll get over it" | ||
| Draconis says, "Maybe we can." | ||
| Draconis asks, "What if we go back in time and take the kielbasa...AGAIN??" | ||
| Roger says, "Alright let's go cut some bitches up" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "l" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > L Floyd | Floyd | Moon Floyd | A cratered wasteland. Soft cheese squishes underneath your weight and Floyd | smoke rises from foreboding chasms cleft into the glowing camembert. Floyd | Floyd | Before you a great beast is sprawled, slaughtered. It has been dead Floyd | for eons and its form has decomposed to the bare bone. It is larger Floyd | than any other animal, some colossus from legend, its death-grip Floyd | encapsulating a lunar mountain over which it has collapsed. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "eat cheese" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > EAT CHEESE Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to Roger), "Must we leave the moon? I want to stay here forever." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x mountain" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > X MOUNTAIN Floyd | Floyd | You can't accurately judge the mountain's size with that monster Floyd | draped over it. The proportions involved seem too fantastic. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "Escape to Cheese Mountain" | |
| Roger says, "Maybe we can retire here after vengeance &c" | ||
| DavidW says, "Easy brie-zy, mac n cheezy." | ||
| Doug says, "if it were a many-worlds thing, then people might notice the different weapons when time unfroze, but it might be a Back to the Future thing where the photograph erases itself." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Any game that specifies the cheese of the moon as camembert and goes into osteological detail to the extent this game has wins my heart. I forgive it for the intentionally jarring pr0n earlier." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "yay" | ||
| Roger says, "Are we sure maga didn't write this" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I'm not, actually." | ||
| Emily says, "in case it was unclear why I liked this game so much" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Emily), "haha" | ||
| Jacqueline) Emily says, "All those things Jacqueline said, plus sausages and a masquerade..." | ||
| Emily says, "pretty much yes" | ||
| Jacqueline chuckles. | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Emily), "Your predictable nature is endearing." | ||
| DavidW says, "I wonder if there's a way to talk to Matilda. We need a death costume, I think." | ||
| Draconis says, "I am slightly disappointed at the lack of giant moon spiders, I must admit." | ||
| DavidW says, "Like a mummy, maybe." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "We are inside a slaughtered pig, but perhaps, yeah." | ||
| Emily says (to Jacqueline), "aw" | ||
| Roger says, "beepbeep" | ||
| DavidW says, "Dmitri has a toga costume; I don't see how that would help us." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Were it not for the fact that Chandler Groover has written other things, I would be calling maga right now asking if he wrote this. Because he conspicuously did not review it (because there were so many comp games and we were moving at the time)." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "credits" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > CREDITS Floyd | Floyd | Midnight. Swordfight. is copyright 2015 by Chandler Groover. Floyd | It may be distributed for free, but not sold or included in any Floyd | for-profit collection without written permission from the author. It Floyd | was made for the 2015 Interactive Fiction Competition. Floyd | Floyd | Many thanks to Adam Bredenberg, ffif, Kaosubaloo, PhoenixNine, Floyd | verityvirtue, and David White for beta-testing! Floyd | Floyd | The game's online background image is modified from Bal masqué Floyd | donné pour le mariage du dauphin by Charles-Nicolas Cochin, made Floyd | in 1745. Floyd | Floyd | The game's cover image is modified from The Monkey and the Floyd | Cat by Abraham Hondius, made in 1670. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Also, Chandler Groover also wrote Down, the Serpent and the Sun, and one now sees the delightful parallels." | |
| Draconis asks, "Are you sure maga didn't write that one too?" | ||
| Roger says, "We might be able to double-kill tilda now" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Draconis), "Not 100% sure, no." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "But damn, Chandler Groover has written a ton of things. I may have to go play them all now." | ||
| Doug says, "also Toby's Nose, winner of Spring Thing" | ||
| DavidW says, "Toby's Nose is good." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "How have I not really got Groover on my radar?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Weird." | ||
| Doug says, "you've been busy this year!" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I have. It is true." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I do slightly miss the days where I could sit an binge IF." | ||
| DavidW says, "anyway, I assume the next step is 'fly'." | ||
| Roger says, "Sounds good to me" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > FLY Floyd | Floyd | You rise into the night sky and the moon diminishes underneath your Floyd | hooves. As you fly higher you find yourself flying lower, breaking Floyd | back into the world's atmosphere. Floyd | Floyd | This re-entry stings a little, but sooner than later it's over and Floyd | you've returned to that wretched masquerade party. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | You are standing alone on a long manicured lawn bordered by cypress Floyd | trees, whose moon-cast shadows divide the grass into neat quadrants as Floyd | though it were a rugby field. Floyd | Floyd | Below the lawn, further into the past, there is a great and gurgling Floyd | fountain, and in the future you can see the palace windows alive with Floyd | candlelight and merriment. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Thank goodness that pig's thick hide protected us upon re-entry." | |
| Doug says, "now we are wrapped in bacon!" | ||
| DavidW says, "deja vu" | ||
| Doug says, "AFGNCAAPs in bacon" | ||
| Roger says, "Perhaps we are meant to see Matilda's killer" | ||
| Draconis says, "We are an angel on horseback!" | ||
| Doug says, "AFGNCAAPs on horseback I meant." | ||
| Roger says, "Haha so we are" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "heh" | ||
| Doug says, "where's that braino tally" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Fountain Floyd | You gaze into the fountain's murky depths. Its water is stagnant and Floyd | green from many years without cleaning, and unchecked lilies spill Floyd | over its rim, on which a dead girl is sitting. Floyd | Floyd | In the future you will stand alone in a landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x lillies" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X LILLIES Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x fountain" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X FOUNTAIN Floyd | Floyd | You can't even see your reflection. Algae and scum have congealed into Floyd | a green sludge inside the basin. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "x lilies" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X LILIES Floyd | Floyd | A thin phlegm coats the lilies and glistens in the moonlight. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | Her skin is slick and green and semi-transparent like gelatin. You can Floyd | see her dead organs inside, rotten, black, and her black veins running Floyd | through her green body. Her hair drips down over her face. When she Floyd | looks at you, her gaze is blank; she does not have pupils or irises, Floyd | only whites as slimy as a dead frog's underbelly. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "x playscript" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X PLAYSCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | landscape garden, evening Floyd | Floyd | A pig properly attired Floyd | lends an ear Floyd | to lamentations from the dead. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | fly, oink (when wearing the butchered pig) Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "awww no stabbing yet" | |
| Roger says, "Snickersnackdom deferred" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | She cannot talk to you, although her tongue is swollen with unspoken Floyd | words. Only the dead can commune with the dead. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Emily goes home. | ||
| Emily has disconnected. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "listen" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > LISTEN Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "yay snickersnacking" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x ear" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X EAR Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "Maybe we can take her tongue for later" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x tongue" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X TONGUE Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "maybe if we lend an ear she can make a silk purse" | |
| DavidW says, "I think we need to be in a corpse costume." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undress" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDRESS Floyd | Floyd | You clamber out from the pig carcass. Now the sky is once more is the Floyd | limit. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X ME Floyd | Floyd | Even though you're not dressed in a costume anymore, you still feel Floyd | like a fool. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "ooh, a typo!" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > FLY Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "brb (toilet)" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | landscape garden, evening Floyd | Floyd | A nonentity properly attired Floyd | lends an ear Floyd | to lamentations from the dead. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wear motley" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR MOTLEY Floyd | Floyd | You don your jester's motley and potential pranks inspire you. Floyd | Everything in this wide world is kissable. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | You bend toward her but then you flinch, repelled by a stench like Floyd | flowers left to rot inside a vase. Floyd | Floyd | She stares back at you with her white frog-belly eyes. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | She cannot talk to you, although her tongue is swollen with unspoken Floyd | words. Only the dead can commune with the dead. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | landscape garden, evening Floyd | Floyd | A fool properly attired Floyd | lends an ear Floyd | to lamentations from the dead. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | kiss (when wearing motley) Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "Perhaps another costume lies elsewhere or -when" | |
| DavidW says, "I really think there must be another costume." | ||
| Draconis says, "Probably. The description says 'properly attired'." | ||
| Roger says, "Or we can start killing things" | ||
| DavidW says, "I'm not sure where, though." | ||
| Draconis says, "I wish I could use Trizbort here..." | ||
| Doug says, "Roger's thirst must be slaked" | ||
| DavidW says, "I've been drawing a map" | ||
| Draconis asks, "Oh?" | ||
| Roger says, "maybe we can kill the swan" | ||
| Roger says, "Or climb into the polarbear" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "It says we can hear her lamentations" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "But also, kiss her?" | ||
| DavidW says, "But as far as I know, we've been everywhere, unless wake up takes us even further into weirdness." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "We are 'properly attired'" | ||
| Roger says, "We tried to kiss her" | ||
| DavidW says, "I tried to kiss her." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh, while I was in the restroom, yeah. Missed that." | ||
| Draconis says (to Jacqueline), "It said the same in the pig suit." | ||
| Draconis says (to Jacqueline), "But we still can't hear her." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Also, I've smelled that smell, and it doesn't smell much like flowers left to rot inside a vase." | ||
| Roger says, "Let's revisit some places and times and sees what comes of it" | ||
| DavidW says, "We can try to kiss the swan or Dmitri, I suppose." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss kielbasa" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS KIELBASA Floyd | Floyd | A kielbasa this tremendous demands a smooch equally tremendous, and Floyd | you plant one with passion. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis asks, "Didn't we try Dmitri?" | |
| DavidW says, "Fan art of the kielbasa kissing will be welcome." | ||
| DavidW says, "No, we never tried to kiss him." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hooray that kissing the kielbasa was anticipated." | ||
| Draconis says (to DavidW), "If I were sufficiently artistic I would attempt it." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | You are standing alone on a long manicured lawn bordered by cypress Floyd | trees, whose moon-cast shadows divide the grass into neat quadrants as Floyd | though it were a rugby field. Floyd | Floyd | Below the lawn, further into the past, there is a great and gurgling Floyd | fountain, and in the future you can see the palace windows alive with Floyd | candlelight and merriment. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x windows" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > X WINDOWS Floyd | Floyd | Black silhouettes are poised in the yellow palace windows, and even Floyd | though they aren't moving they still convey some sense of happiness. Floyd | It is like you are looking at puppets for a shadow-play, abandoned but Floyd | still waiting to be animated. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "We'd probably cut our lips off if we kiss our other weapon" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] At the Threshold Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | At the Threshold Floyd | The palace doors stand open, but no one has arrived yet. Floyd | Floyd | A landscape garden stretches away into the past. Floyd | Floyd | In the future, guests will deposit their cloaks in the cloak room. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Cloak Room Floyd | You find yourself lost in a forest. The trees are coat-stands draped Floyd | with cloaks. Clockwise, the banquet awaits. Floyd | Floyd | In the past you can see the palace doors opened wide to the night. Floyd | Guests are thronging through them to the masquerade, their stream Floyd | bordered by footmen holding lanterns high, and foremost in this crowd Floyd | is the countess. Floyd | Floyd | She is the jewel set in the evening's crown. Onegin has her hand, but Floyd | she is not looking at him; she is looking at everybody, enchanting Floyd | them with her smile. Her domino mask is lowered and you can see her Floyd | face. She is more beautiful than anyone. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss countess" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | You can't reach the countess without walking into the past. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x mask" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X MASK Floyd | Floyd | A domino mask fashioned entirely from pearls. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x footmen" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X FOOTMEN Floyd | Floyd | These footmen form a gauntlet that the guests are passing through, Floyd | like statues lining a pathway. Their features are somehow both neutral Floyd | and severe, statues indeed, and they are wearing silver-threaded Floyd | livery. Their lower bodies dissolve into shadow because the light from Floyd | their lanterns does not reach that far. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x cloaks" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X CLOAKS Floyd | Floyd | In order to progress you have to push your passage through the cloaks. Floyd | They are musky with perfume, cologne, and once you've advanced their Floyd | folds close back behind you. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "search cloaks" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > SEARCH CLOAKS Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "l" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > L Floyd | Floyd | Cloak Room Floyd | You find yourself lost in a forest. The trees are coat-stands draped Floyd | with cloaks. Clockwise, the banquet awaits. Floyd | Floyd | In the past you can see the palace doors opened wide to the night. Floyd | Guests are thronging through them to the masquerade, their stream Floyd | bordered by footmen holding lanterns high, and foremost in this crowd Floyd | is the countess. Floyd | Floyd | She is the jewel set in the evening's crown. Onegin has her hand, but Floyd | she is not looking at him; she is looking at everybody, enchanting Floyd | them with her smile. Her domino mask is lowered and you can see her Floyd | face. She is more beautiful than anyone. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x smile" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > X SMILE Floyd | Floyd | You are in love with the countess. There, you can admit it. When you Floyd | look at her like this, you cannot help but be in love. Even though she Floyd | loathes you and you've come to loathe her too. Even though she wants Floyd | to fly your flayed hide for a flag. You are in love. It is horrible Floyd | news. But you aren't alone, because everyone loves the Floyd | countess. That's what makes her the countess. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "c" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > C Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Banquet Hall Floyd | Somehow a rift must have opened, because obese cherubs are pouring Floyd | through the air onto the banquet-table; or at least, they would be Floyd | pouring if they were in motion. There are several hundred, faces Floyd | grimacing and feathered wings shedding blue pinions, and in their Floyd | conglomerate they have impacted the table at one end, sending the Floyd | other end skyward like a see-saw. Some even appear to be crawling Floyd | upward along the table as rats would a mast aboard a sinking ship. Floyd | Floyd | This arrangement has naturally relocated the banquet itself into Floyd | midair, where roasts and cakes and goblets and plates hang with their Floyd | glazes and their silver sparkling. Floyd | Floyd | When it comes to the diners, most have already departed, although a Floyd | few remain watching the cherubs with mild interest from seats pushed Floyd | back against the walls. One lady dressed as a swan is eating angels on Floyd | horseback, with a champagne flute daintily suspended in her other Floyd | hand. Floyd | Floyd | A clockwise inclination would direct you into the aftermath, while Floyd | moving counter-clockwise would steer you toward the cloak room, and in Floyd | the future yawns the black salon. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss swan" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS SWAN Floyd | Floyd | Always better to peck a swan than to have a swan peck you. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "True enough" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x table" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > X TABLE Floyd | Floyd | It is a massive table that would seat at least a hundred were it not Floyd | being upended by a cherub horde. Fortunately no one is sitting at the Floyd | table. Everyone seems to have anticipated the interruption and moved Floyd | away in time. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| CMG arrives, full of fun, but no funk. | * Jacqueline has added CMG to the channel. | |
| DavidW asks, "Should we visit Dmitri again or visit Dmitri/Onegin?" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to cmg), "We are very well into a game that is difficult to explain." | ||
| Doug says, "CMG is the author. :)" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Have you played Mi-- OHO" | ||
| inky says, "ha ha" | ||
| CMG exclaims, "Yeah, I got here late to watch!" | ||
| Doug says, "and I think he would agree that it's difficult to explain :)" | ||
| DavidW says, "Explanations suddenly became a lot easier." | ||
| Jacqueline laughs at herself. "Welcome! I guess I'm glad you weren't here when I was gushing about your writing skills." | ||
| Doug says, "I showed him the temp transcript, hope that's ok." | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of CMG), "Sorry, we just decided on this yesterday. I should have contacted you. How did you find out we were playing this?" | ||
| CMG says, "I heard about a typo. I will fix it in an update." | ||
| Doug says, "I fetched him from the Euphoria chatroom" | ||
| Roger asks, "Are you now, or have you ever been, maga?" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "Certainly. Chandler, if you want me to update the temp transcript, I can." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Roger), "haha" | ||
| CMG exclaims, "Have I ever been maga? Not to my knowledge. Please don't let me distract you from the game though!" | ||
| Roger says, "Back to killing it is" | ||
| Draconis asks (of CMG), "Are you SURE? Maybe you were maga and didn't know it?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "c" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > C Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Aftermath Floyd | Splintered glasses, paper streamers, confetti, and cigarette butts Floyd | litter the floor. You cannot step anywhere without crunching something Floyd | underfoot. The banquet-table has been thoroughly demolished, cracked Floyd | into two halves that lean inward toward a sunken middle. Floyd | Floyd | Everyone else is gone, but Dmitri is sitting at the table as though Floyd | nothing has happened, reading a book and nursing a martini. Floyd | Floyd | Moving counter-clockwise would return you to the banquet hall when it Floyd | was slightly more intact. Slightly. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss dmitri" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS DMITRI Floyd | Floyd | You steal a kiss from Dmitri and he promptly rubs his cheek to remove Floyd | any residue left by your lips. Floyd | Floyd | "Just wonderful," he says. "Exactly what I needed. I must've Floyd | been begging for that and I didn't even know it." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to dmitri" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO DMITRI Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "KISS DMITRI'S GENITALIA" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "vorpal blade" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > VORPAL BLADE Floyd | Floyd | "A vorpal blade isn't a real weapon," says Dmitri. "It's invented, Floyd | imaginary, from a poem. The most relevant stanza goes: Floyd | Floyd | "One, two! One, two! and through and through Floyd | the vorpal blade went snicker-snack! Floyd | He left it dead, and with its head Floyd | he went galumphing back. Floyd | Floyd | "That's why a vorpal blade is so deadly, you understand. It can cut Floyd | through anything simply because it doesn't exist. When Floyd | something doesn't exist, there's nothing it can't do." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "BTW, I've updated the temp transcript to include stuff up to just now:" | |
| Jacqueline | [LINK] | ||
| Draconis asks, "What happens if you try to cut a vorpal blade with a vorpal blade?" | ||
| DavidW says, "Possibly it slices itself in half." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I think there's only one. So successfully cutting a vorpal blade with a vorpal blade opens a rift in the space-time continuum and we all disappear." | ||
| Draconis says, "Or cherubim appear." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "moon" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > MOON Floyd | Floyd | "Supposedly people act more irrationally during a full moon," says Floyd | Dmitri. "More accidents happen. More people are killed. It may be Floyd | superstition, but the night sky is brighter with a full moon, isn't Floyd | it? Therefore people stay awake later, and that provides a larger Floyd | window for mishaps. The moon doesn't change anyone. They're just as Floyd | irrational as always." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "cheese" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > CHEESE Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "devil" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > DEVIL Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "death" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > DEATH Floyd | Floyd | "Attending these masquerade parties is like playing russian roulette," Floyd | says Dmitri. "Someone always dies, and yet invitations have never been Floyd | in higher demand. You remember last time it was that poor girl Floyd | Matilda? And the year before that, they found the duke's cousin hanged Floyd | in the kitchen pantry. This year it's your turn apparently." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger asks, "Have we found the kitchen or its pantry?" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "pig" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > PIG Floyd | Floyd | "It's extraordinarily difficult to butcher a pig correctly," says Floyd | Dmitri. "They're like lobsters in the sense that they ought to be kept Floyd | alive until the last instant before they're eaten. To that end, many Floyd | butchers have great nets in their shops where they keep the pigs Floyd | contained beneath the ceiling, just as a balloon vendor would use a Floyd | net to prevent their balloons from escaping. Then, whenever anyone Floyd | asks for a pig, the butcher just has to pop back and grab one." Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Since the author is now here, I have a question -- and feel free to take the Fifth -- but just how much drug use was involved in conceiving and writing this game?" | |
| DavidW says, "Thus was born net income." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "jabberwock" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > JABBERWOCK Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "jabberwocky" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > JABBERWOCKY Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "alice" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > ALICE Floyd | Floyd | "I've got nothing to say about that," says Dmitri. Floyd | Floyd | In order to speak with Dmitri, just mention whatever subject you'd Floyd | like to hear his opinion about, or you could say farewell. Floyd | Floyd | > | CMG says, "No drug use was involved in writing this game." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Fascinating." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "(Kidding, of course.)" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "farewell" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > FAREWELL Floyd | Floyd | Dmitri turns his attention back to his reading and his martini. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "IF is its own drug!" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Banquet Hall Floyd | Somehow a rift must have opened, because obese cherubs are pouring Floyd | through the air onto the banquet-table; or at least, they would be Floyd | pouring if they were in motion. There are several hundred, faces Floyd | grimacing and feathered wings shedding blue pinions, and in their Floyd | conglomerate they have impacted the table at one end, sending the Floyd | other end skyward like a see-saw. Some even appear to be crawling Floyd | upward along the table as rats would a mast aboard a sinking ship. Floyd | Floyd | This arrangement has naturally relocated the banquet itself into Floyd | midair, where roasts and cakes and goblets and plates hang with their Floyd | glazes and their silver sparkling. Floyd | Floyd | When it comes to the diners, most have already departed, although a Floyd | few remain watching the cherubs with mild interest from seats pushed Floyd | back against the walls. One lady dressed as a swan is eating angels on Floyd | horseback, with a champagne flute daintily suspended in her other Floyd | hand. Floyd | Floyd | A clockwise inclination would direct you into the aftermath, while Floyd | moving counter-clockwise would steer you toward the cloak room, and in Floyd | the future yawns the black salon. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Black Salon Floyd | Black sable tapestries hang from the ceiling and walls, and black Floyd | velvet carpets the floor. Scarlet radiance slants through scarlet Floyd | windowpanes. An ebony grandfather clock has stopped keeping the time Floyd | at one quarter to twelve. Floyd | Floyd | There is nobody here. Floyd | Floyd | Clockwise you will look behind a polar bear, and when you glance back Floyd | toward the past you can see a celebration in the banquet hall where Floyd | everyone has gathered to drink, feast, and make merry. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "EXAMINE RADIANCE" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x radiance" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X RADIANCE Floyd | Floyd | When you glance outside through the scarlet windowpanes you can see Floyd | great tripods burning. Heretics writhe in their flames. It's a Floyd | glorious auto-da-fe. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "We've seen that." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > X BEAR Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | Dmitri's chest is pressed against the wall, arms overhead with his Floyd | fingernails raking down the wallpaper. Onegin is straddling his rear, Floyd | gripping his waist, paused mid-thrust with his cock halfway inside Floyd | Dmitri's cunt -- or maybe halfway out? Floyd | Floyd | As the countess's minion, it is Onegin's duty to carry her weapon, and Floyd | right now her rapier is resting nearby on the floor in an opened case. Floyd | Floyd | The polar bear itself is at least three meters tall, preserved Floyd | taxidermically in a perpetual roar with claws outspread. Traveling Floyd | counter-clockwise would reorient you toward the black salon, and the Floyd | grand staircase is in your past. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "at first I thought 'tripods' meant it was a War of the Worlds thing" | |
| Draconis says, "Let's swap this weapon." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "So replace the weapon." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "put kielbasa in case" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > PUT KIELBASA IN CASE Floyd | Floyd | That can't contain things. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "TAKE RAPIER" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take rapier" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE RAPIER Floyd | Floyd | You have multiple weapons you could swap with the rapier. In order to Floyd | take the rapier, try dropping one of them. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis asks, "DROP KIELBASA then?" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "drop kielbasa" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > DROP KIELBASA Floyd | Floyd | You drop the tremendous kielbasa into the opened case on the floor, Floyd | also taking the initiative to remove the rapier while you're at it. Floyd | Let's see how well the countess fights with that for a Floyd | weapon. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "Now let's go give Ferdinand our vorpal sword." | |
| DavidW says, "ok" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Grand Staircase Floyd | Ferdinand is leaning against a balustrade, her gaze cast toward the Floyd | dancers in their formations below. She isn't one for dancing herself Floyd | unless it's atop freshly slain enemies. Her cutlass, which you will Floyd | borrow later in your duel with the countess, is leaning against the Floyd | balustrade beside her. Floyd | Floyd | The ballroom is in the past now, and in the future you will look Floyd | behind a polar bear. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "drop blade" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > DROP BLADE Floyd | Floyd | You prop the vorpal blade against the balustrade and take Ferdinand's Floyd | cutlass, and already you can taste imminent victory. With a vorpal Floyd | blade at your disposal, even an amateur such as yourself will be Floyd | unstoppable. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undress" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDRESS Floyd | Floyd | You disrobe from your jester's motley and feel decidedly less Floyd | tricksterish. You won't be stealing any kisses now. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wear pig" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR PIG Floyd | Floyd | You hunch your shoulders together and crawl into the pig carcass. Now Floyd | the sky is no longer a limit. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | Dmitri's chest is pressed against the wall, arms overhead with his Floyd | fingernails raking down the wallpaper. Onegin is straddling his rear, Floyd | gripping his waist, paused mid-thrust with his cock halfway inside Floyd | Dmitri's cunt -- or maybe halfway out? Floyd | Floyd | As the countess's minion, it is Onegin's duty to carry her weapon, and Floyd | right now her tremendous kielbasa is resting nearby on the floor in an Floyd | opened case. Floyd | Floyd | The polar bear itself is at least three meters tall, preserved Floyd | taxidermically in a perpetual roar with claws outspread. Traveling Floyd | counter-clockwise would reorient you toward the black salon, and the Floyd | grand staircase is in your past. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "oink" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > OINK Floyd | Floyd | You oink with determination. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "Thought something might happen there. Although I wasn't sure what, since everyone's frozen here." | |
| Jacqueline asks, "Wait. What are we wearing?" | ||
| DavidW says, "I put the pig back on." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh, that's what I get for stepping away for gelato." | ||
| DavidW says, "I'm sorta glad we don't need to be in a particular room to change outfits." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "Yeah" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "So now we move forward?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Grand Staircase Floyd | Ferdinand is leaning against a balustrade, her gaze cast toward the Floyd | dancers in their formations below. She isn't one for dancing herself Floyd | unless it's atop freshly slain enemies. Her vorpal blade, which you Floyd | will borrow later in your duel with the countess, is leaning against Floyd | the balustrade beside her. Floyd | Floyd | The ballroom is in the past now, and in the future you will look Floyd | behind a polar bear. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "Reckon so" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Ballroom Floyd | On the floor you can see a white glove where it has been Floyd | contemptuously thrown down, and expanding outward from this glove the Floyd | world takes form. There are dancers surrounding you in a circle, but Floyd | they are not dancing: they are staring at you and staring at the Floyd | glove, and their eyeballs never cease staring because they are frozen. Floyd | Floyd | There has been some hitch and time stands still. Floyd | Floyd | A chandelier hangs overhead, candles unflickering. Everything is Floyd | mirrored in the marble floor. Toward the future you can glimpse the Floyd | grand staircase, where the countess is ascending with her back turned Floyd | after having delivered her challenge. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x dancers" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X DANCERS Floyd | Floyd | You cannot recognize anyone behind their masks. There is a jackal in a Floyd | tailcoat, and a nymph with shellfish in her hair, and an enchantress Floyd | with gold orbs for eyes, and someone with marzipan skin, and an alpine Floyd | maiden with a shepherd's crook, and an antlered baron, and a raven in Floyd | a judge's wig, and a sequined succubus, and other masqueraders more Floyd | fantastic still, but the one thing they all have in common is that Floyd | their frozen gazes are condemning you: Guilty, they seem to say, Floyd | guilty. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "vorpal lightsabre" | |
| Jacqueline asks, "So, have we figured out what the hell we did to piss off the Countess so?" | ||
| DavidW says, "no obvious 'death' outfit there." | ||
| Roger says, "I think that happened long ago" | ||
| DavidW says (to Jacqueline), "no, not really. We know she brought the glove ahead of time." | ||
| Roger says, "Yeah, that" | ||
| DavidW says, "And that a murder per masquerade seems to be traditional." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "Yeah. So she isn't doing this on a whim. But we don't yet know why. Hm." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Maybe she killed the others." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x enchantress" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > X ENCHANTRESS Floyd | Floyd | It's strange, but when you look at the individual dancers their Floyd | details warp as though you were looking at something from inside a Floyd | fishbowl. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "And we were just the best she could come up with this time." | |
| DavidW says, "well, I would like to talk to Matilda about the countess." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yes" | ||
| Roger says, "Maybe we'll be close enough to death after some murderage" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Roger), "Hm. Wonder if we'll still be able to play after that." | ||
| Roger says, "There's always save" | ||
| DavidW asks, "should we try saving and waking up, see if our situation has improved?" | ||
| Doug says, "I hope it's not a spoiler to say you don't need to save." | ||
| Doug says, "although I suppose it won't hurt." | ||
| DavidW clears the save counter. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "SAVE" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cf1" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > SAVE Floyd | %% Enter a save filename to write: Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > SAVEOk. Floyd | Floyd | > | says, "It never hurts just in case we hit a crash, which sometimes happens due to Floyd rather than the game." | |
| Doug says, "good point." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | Draconis says, "Attack!" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "attack countess" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | It only requires a thought and you are already moving, less from your Floyd | own volition than from the blade's volition in your hand. It knows Floyd | your wants and knows how to meet them, and suddenly you have leapt Floyd | into the air and the countess is beneath you with her tremendous Floyd | kielbasa lifted to deflect your blow. Floyd | Floyd | There is no deflection. Your vorpal blade slices through her weapon Floyd | without any resistance. You cannot even feel the slice; your blade Floyd | might as well have been passing through air. Floyd | Floyd | "Impossible," the countess says, but that is all she has the chance to Floyd | say before you are kneeling on the ground at her feet. You are still Floyd | holding the blade in your hand and now its edge is buried in the lawn Floyd | beneath the countess, having taken a vertical route through her body. | hzomb says, "script" | |
| Roger says, "That was easy" | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | beneath the countess, having taken a vertical route through her body. Floyd | She wobbles in place, reaching about with one hand as if for support, Floyd | and then she takes a woozy step forward. Her bisected figure comes in Floyd | half. One side slumps backward onto the lawn and the other continues Floyd | standing upright, that disoriented hand still grasping in midair for Floyd | nothing. It is almost as though she does not realize she is dead. Floyd | Floyd | You pull your vorpal blade skyward again, dislodging it from the lawn, Floyd | and in the arc it makes it seems to shatter the countess. It draws her Floyd | veins and tendons and her muscles along with it like a puppet yanked Floyd | by strings, and she is not even a person anymore: she is a gory shower Floyd | sprinkling across the garden. What remains where she once stood are Floyd | only bones. They are quite bare. Vultures could not have picked them Floyd | any cleaner. Floyd | Floyd | "Now that," says Ferdinand, "is how to win a duel." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Snicker-snack indeed! *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I am glad we saved, because I'm kind of curious what happens if we did this half-way." | |
| Jacqueline asks, "Like, what if we'd not given her a kielbasa, would we still win with the vorpal blade? What if we had a normal weapon, but she had a kielbasa?" | ||
| Roger says, "let's see" | ||
| DavidW says, "I suspect we also missed some details of backstory." | ||
| CMG says, "You may want to look behind the curtain." | ||
| Doug says, "maybe look behind... yeah." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "I definitely think we missed some backstory." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "curtain" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | A paleontologist, upon finding a cache filled with dinosaur bones, was Floyd | pleased to discover that they formed a single specimen, a veritable Floyd | monster. It went into the textbooks. Not until many years later did Floyd | other paleontologists begin to poke at the bones and doubt this Floyd | original configuration. They rearranged the bones into another Floyd | specimen, and it went into the textbooks instead. Well, it happened Floyd | again, with reconfiguration after reconfiguration, and new dinosaur Floyd | after new dinosaur. The poor textbooks were panting to keep up. Floyd | Finally the paleontologists were flustered enough to tromp back and Floyd | examine the cache's location, which happened to be on a farmer's Floyd | property. When they consulted the farmer about it, they were told it Floyd | was a mass grave for chickens. Floyd | Floyd | This game has no optimal ending. It has certain elements (weapons, Floyd | costumes) that can be reconfigured to produce more than twenty-five Floyd | different outcomes. Some involve violence. Others do not. You can Floyd | change what happens to suit your preferences. Floyd | Floyd | All endings will lead you here behind the curtain. | DavidW asks, "wow. That many endings?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Also, I am now trying to figure if 'she is not even a person anymore: she is a gory shower sprinkling across the garden' should be my ifMUD logon or logoff message." | ||
| hzomb says, "You should have read the beta vorpal blade ending." | ||
| Roger says, "Perhaps we could otherwise just fly away forever" | ||
| DavidW says, "I've been wondering if we gave the vorpal to the countess and we have the kielbasa during the battle." | ||
| hzomb says, "That's an alternative." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "oooh yeah" | ||
| DavidW says, "We could also attack the kielbasa instead of the countess." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last
Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN?
Floyd | >
| ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "attack kielbasa" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK KIELBASA Floyd | Floyd | It only requires a thought and you are already moving, less from your Floyd | own volition than from the blade's volition in your hand. It knows Floyd | your wants and knows how to meet them, and suddenly you have leapt Floyd | into the air and the countess is beneath you with her tremendous Floyd | kielbasa lifted to deflect your blow. Floyd | Floyd | There is no deflection. Your vorpal blade slices through her weapon Floyd | without any resistance. You cannot even feel the slice; your blade Floyd | might as well have been passing through air. Floyd | Floyd | "Impossible," the countess says, but that is all she has the chance to Floyd | say before you are kneeling on the ground at her feet. You are still Floyd | holding the blade in your hand and now its edge is buried in the lawn Floyd | beneath the countess, having taken a vertical route through her body. | Draconis asks, "What if we kill Ferdinand or someone else instead?" | |
| DavidW says, "oh, same thing" | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | beneath the countess, having taken a vertical route through her body. Floyd | She wobbles in place, reaching about with one hand as if for support, Floyd | and then she takes a woozy step forward. Her bisected figure comes in Floyd | half. One side slumps backward onto the lawn and the other continues Floyd | standing upright, that disoriented hand still grasping in midair for Floyd | nothing. It is almost as though she does not realize she is dead. Floyd | Floyd | You pull your vorpal blade skyward again, dislodging it from the lawn, Floyd | and in the arc it makes it seems to shatter the countess. It draws her Floyd | veins and tendons and her muscles along with it like a puppet yanked Floyd | by strings, and she is not even a person anymore: she is a gory shower Floyd | sprinkling across the garden. What remains where she once stood are Floyd | only bones. They are quite bare. Vultures could not have picked them Floyd | any cleaner. Floyd | Floyd | "Now that," says Ferdinand, "is how to win a duel." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Snicker-snack indeed! *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kill onegin" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > KILL ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | The countess? The countess? Why should you fight the countess when Floyd | that bastard Onegin is undoubtedly the mastermind behind this whole Floyd | charade? Floyd | Floyd | You're overcome with outrage and you lunge toward Onegin, and when the Floyd | countess tries to intercept you with her tremendous kielbasa, your Floyd | vorpal blade slices through it. Floyd | Floyd | Nothing can intercept a vorpal blade. Floyd | Floyd | The countess cannot comprehend what has happened. She is staring at Floyd | the severed stump left in her hand, but you've already finished your Floyd | business. The same slice that went through her weapon also went Floyd | through Onegin. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke
Floyd | through Onegin.
Floyd | He is looking at you in horror, and you can't blame him for that,
Floyd | although you don't feel sorry when his horrified head pops off his
Floyd | shoulders like a champagne cork. A bloody geyser rises from his neck
Floyd | and continues to rise for far longer than it has any right to do,
Floyd | scattering at its pinnacle into a scarlet shower that patters down
Floyd | over the garden. Warm droplets speckle your skin.
Floyd |
Floyd | The countess sinks onto her knees at the sight, her gown ballooning
Floyd | around her. Blood is still spouting, still raining from Onegin's
Floyd | standing corpse, and his head hasn't come back down yet.
Floyd |
Floyd | The countess says: "I surrender."
Floyd |
Floyd | You didn't even have to ask, and a good thing too, because you likely
Floyd | wouldn't have.
Floyd |
Floyd | When Onegin's head finally does land on the lawn, the countess faints.
Floyd | You can't blame her either.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | *** Snicker-snack indeed! ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last
Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN?
Floyd | >
| Roger says, "No, countess... *I* am your father" | |
| hzomb asks, "Do we have to kill anybody?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Wow." | ||
| DavidW says (to hzomb), "The curtain said there are endings without violence." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "One day I'm going to write a retrospective of the most amusingly-written gore scenes in IF, and this will be on the list." | ||
| hzomb says, "There's more." | ||
| Doug says, "now we get into the "Violence." part of the game" | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of Doug), "Just now?" | ||
| Roger says, "And the Sausage" | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of Doug), "As in, we have not really seen violence yet?" | ||
| DavidW says, "I suppose if we 'wake up' while wearing the pig outfit, we could fly from the duel." | ||
| Doug says, "well, no, I am late" | ||
| hzomb asks, "Do we only have to kill one?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I was gonna say." | ||
| Doug says, "although I think there are more gory endings." | ||
| Doug says, "also much less." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks (of CMG), "Have you written any static fiction?" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss countess" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb exclaims, "No!" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | landscape garden, midnight Floyd | Floyd | A pig engages a countess in a swordfight Floyd | in which the pig... Floyd | and the countess... Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x) Floyd | attack, wake up Floyd | fly, oink (when wearing the butchered pig) Floyd | Floyd | The countess is suddenly there, only inches away, but before she has Floyd | the chance to strike with her tremendous kielbasa, your own sword Floyd | rises to parry the blow. You did not even attempt to react; your Floyd | vorpal blade did it for you. Floyd | Floyd | It also did much more than that. It has sliced her weapon in half, Floyd | leaving the countess to stand there, stupefied, holding a severed Floyd | sausage stump. She cannot process what has happened, and she never Floyd | will. | Draconis says, "We aren't a fool any more." | |
| hzomb says, "So you could fly." | ||
| Roger says, "Oh yeah" | ||
| DavidW says, "oh." | ||
| CMG says, "I have. A few books and short stories." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "push space" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | will. Floyd | Your arm is moving here and there, zigzagging through the air, and Floyd | you can barely process what is happening. But you know that Floyd | you want it to happen. You know that it means you will win. Floyd | Floyd | When the vorpal blade has finished, your arm flicks it downward as an Floyd | artist might flick down a brush to dislodge clinging paint. But there Floyd | is nothing clinging to the blade. Its work was much too clean and Floyd | quick. Floyd | Floyd | The countess is still poised before you, but she is not moving Floyd | anymore. When she finally blinks, that is when thin red lines in a Floyd | grid begin to manifest across her face, and then across her entire Floyd | body, and without further ado she tumbles apart into neat little cubes Floyd | expertly butchered. It is like watching a house of cards topple, with Floyd | no structural support to hold anything together. Floyd | Floyd | You hear someone applauding: Ferdinand. Floyd | Floyd | "Bravo!" she says. "Bravo! I couldn't have done any better myself." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Snicker-snack indeed! *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Crazy thing. Here's another game where I would likely not have played long by myself, but because of CF I got to see the end and it's a favorite." | |
| Jacqueline asks (of CMG), "I'd like to read some of those. Are they easy to track down?" | ||
| DavidW says, "wow. diced countess." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > FLY Floyd | Floyd | You rise into the night sky and the palace and your problems shrink to Floyd | pinpricks below you. Someone is shouting something (it's the countess Floyd | probably) but you don't hear what they're saying. You're not going to Floyd | fight this silly duel, not when the heavens beckon, not when you can Floyd | step into the stars. Floyd | Floyd | An interstellar wind tickles your chin. Floyd | Floyd | You won't return now that you've flown this far. | Roger says, "Yeah I'll reiterate that the beginning was less-inviting than this game deserved, in my opinion" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "push space" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | You won't return now that you've flown this far. Floyd | You leave the world and head for another. There are others Floyd | out there. Worlds where gumdrops grow on trees, where people sleep Floyd | during the day and awaken at night, where rivers run with honey, and Floyd | where all seasons are autumn. Nobody should settle for one they Floyd | dislike. Floyd | Floyd | During your travels you meet another pig beside a stellar stream. Floyd | You've both stopped for a drink. Floyd | Floyd | "Where are you going?" inquires the pig. Floyd | Floyd | When you answer "somewhere else," it says: "Me too." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Ever onward. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | hzomb says, "The romance ending." | |
| Draconis says, "Is that a reference to Lucian? :D" | ||
| hzomb asks, "Wait can you kiss the countess?" | ||
| DavidW says, "Pigs... in... Spaaaaaaace" | ||
| Roger says, "Presumably we could kiss if we were enmotleyed" | ||
| CMG says, "My books are ebooks on Amazon and my stories are in some random webzines." | ||
| Draconis says, "The rivers of honey, all seasons being autumn..." | ||
| DavidW says (to hzomb), "I'd have to restore and change outfits." | ||
| hzomb says, "We haven't oinked." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | CMG says, "You can wake up to toggle back and forth without restoring a saved game." | |
| Roger says, "That is also true" | ||
| Draconis heads back home. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "oink" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > OINK Floyd | Floyd | You oink like a pig rooting for truffles, and the countess's fighting Floyd | stance slackens. She looks at you with a new expression, as though she Floyd | has just seen you for the first time, and then she begins looking to Floyd | the left and right. Floyd | Floyd | "What's going on?" she demands. "Where did this pig come from?" Floyd | Floyd | Ferdinand and Onegin are also in apparent confusion, peering over Floyd | their shoulders, glancing back toward the palace. Soon the countess Floyd | has Onegin searching behind the cypress trees, behind the fountain, Floyd | behind anything that might serve for a hiding spot, but you -- her Floyd | rightful opponent -- are nowhere to be found. Floyd | Floyd | "How could you ever let this pig onto the grounds?" she is snapping at Floyd | Onegin. "Aren't there meant to be protocols? Aren't guests meant to Floyd | have invitations? And now look at me, standing here, about to duel a Floyd | pig! Where's that silly jester gone? Go and find out now, and don't Floyd | come back until you've brought the right person -- person Floyd | being the operative word!" | hzomb exclaims, "Didn't need to kill anyone!" | |
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke
Floyd | being the operative word!"
Floyd | Meanwhile Ferdinand has hooked you with a leash and is guiding you
Floyd | away from the garden.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Good move," she says when you're both alone in a little courtyard.
Floyd | "I'm glad that you finally took my advice and opted to escape rather
Floyd | than fight."
Floyd |
Floyd | You oink again. It won't do to break character now. But Ferdinand
Floyd | knows what you mean: Thank you for everything.
Floyd |
Floyd | "You're welcome," she replies. "Now we need to get you on a train
Floyd | bound somewhere far away. Eventually the countess will figure out what
Floyd | happened, and you won't want to be anywhere in the country when she
Floyd | does. The trick will be to put you someplace where they don't eat
Floyd | pork. You do make for a tasty-looking pig."
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | *** Those who oink and run away may live to oink another
Floyd | day. ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last
Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN?
Floyd | >
| Jacqueline says, "These are great endings." | |
| Doug asks, "Lucian?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > WAKE UP Floyd | Floyd | Please give one of the answers above. Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | Ballroom Floyd | On the floor you can see a white glove where it has been Floyd | contemptuously thrown down, and expanding outward from this glove the Floyd | world takes form. There are dancers surrounding you in a circle, but Floyd | they are not dancing: they are staring at you and staring at the Floyd | glove, and their eyeballs never cease staring because they are frozen. Floyd | Floyd | There has been some hitch and time stands still. Floyd | Floyd | A chandelier hangs overhead, candles unflickering. Everything is Floyd | mirrored in the marble floor. Toward the future you can glimpse the Floyd | grand staircase, where the countess is ascending with her back turned Floyd | after having delivered her challenge. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "i" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > I Floyd | Floyd | You are carrying motley, a rapier, a cutlass, and a playscript, and Floyd | you are wearing a pig carcass. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undress" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDRESS Floyd | Floyd | You clamber out from the pig carcass. Now the sky is once more is the Floyd | limit. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "Ha she doesn't even care if she's sausage-wielding when against the pig" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wear motley" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR MOTLEY Floyd | Floyd | You don your jester's motley and potential pranks inspire you. Floyd | Everything in this wide world is kissable. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss countess" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | You cast aside your weapon. You cannot fight the countess. This feud Floyd | is a mistake. Instead you walk across the lawn toward her. Floyd | Floyd | She must see it in your eyes. She must know how you feel. Perhaps she Floyd | even has the same feelings? Floyd | Floyd | You take her hand -- the same hand that threw down that glove before Floyd | -- and press it to your lips. Her breathing flutters; her chest Floyd | heaves; she opens her mouth but she doesn't speak, and then her bones Floyd | are water, she is melting in your arms, bent backward as you bend over Floyd | to bind your breath with hers. Floyd | Floyd | Are those fireworks in the night sky above the palace? Are those Floyd | tender violins playing? You feel her smile on your lips, her hands Floyd | wrapping around your shoulders, and then you close your eyes. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "push space" | ||
Floyd | wrapping around your shoulders, and then you close your eyes. Floyd | You open your eyes. | hzomb doesn't like violins | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "push space" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | Something long and wet and spicy has just smacked your pate with a Floyd | thwap, and you aren't embracing the countess at all. You're Floyd | crouched on the ground and she's slapping you with a tremendous Floyd | kielbasa. Floyd | Floyd | "Mongrel! Imbecile!" she is shouting. "You aren't fit to kiss my Floyd | feet!" Floyd | Floyd | The truth is that you didn't even make it to her feet before she Floyd | started clobbering you, and you remain huddled in a ball until she's Floyd | through venting her wrath. Then she drops the kielbasa and stalks back Floyd | into the palace with Onegin following. Floyd | Floyd | "I don't know what that was," says Ferdinand. "You certainly did take Floyd | a beating tonight, but to call it a duel? At least the countess now Floyd | seems satisfied. You have the most peculiar luck, I swear." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Love conquers all. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "haha" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Though I'm not sure love conquered anything there." | ||
| Roger says, "The true love between a person and a sausage" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss onegin" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | What are you doing out here fighting a duel? You came to this Floyd | masquerade party for one reason and one reason only: to steal kisses Floyd | from people. Floyd | Floyd | You cast aside your weapon and lunge toward that bastard Onegin, Floyd | seizing his cheeks and then planting your lips against his before he Floyd | can resist. You are falling with him -- he is falling backward, Floyd | toppled by your impact -- and you land on the lawn in a heap together. Floyd | Limbs tangled. Bodies writhing. Chests heaving with passion. Floyd | Floyd | Passion isn't always romantic. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Passion isn't always romantic. Floyd | You can feel and hear a thwap against your back: the countess Floyd | is standing nearby, throttling you with a tremendous kielbasa. But it Floyd | doesn't matter. Your feud has always been with Onegin, and as you look Floyd | into his furious eyes your kiss deepens. Floyd | Floyd | Finally he musters the strength and self-possession to shove you away, Floyd | but you only dart back and peck his shoulders, his legs, his feet as Floyd | he attempts to flee. You are chasing him in circles around the garden Floyd | and he's cursing you as the countess pursues you both with her Floyd | kielbasa. Floyd | Floyd | You won't stop, not for him and not for her. They wanted blood but you Floyd | gave them nonsense instead, and now they'll have to live with it. Floyd | Floyd | That's what they get for fighting with a fool! Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Love conquers all. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | Roger says, "Finally we can step back from murder and content ourselves with sexual assault" | |
| hzomb says, "It was sex or death." | ||
| Roger says, "That strong tag looks malformed" | ||
| DavidW says, "There's probably a taxes ending too." | ||
| hzomb says, "It's feudal." | ||
| Doug asks, "can you attack the playscript?" | ||
| Doug says, "or kiss it" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "attack script" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | You take out your playscript and tear it in half. Who wrote these Floyd | scenes? They make no sense. You won't perform this dreck. Instead you Floyd | toss the script into the wind and its sheets blow across the garden. Floyd | Floyd | "What are you doing?" says the countess. "Come back here!" Floyd | Floyd | You don't come back. You're walking away from this production. They Floyd | can find someone else to play your role if the duel is that important Floyd | because, frankly, you don't understand a thing. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | because, frankly, you don't understand a thing. Floyd | You didn't know what you were getting into, but you didn't know it Floyd | would be this. It almost feels like there's a conspiracy against you. Floyd | Well, of course there is: you're supposed to be killed, after Floyd | all. Floyd | Floyd | That's not going to happen. Not if you don't say your lines. Not if Floyd | you don't play along. Floyd | Floyd | Let them boo and complain. Let them throw rotten fruit. Let them fill Floyd | the newspapers with scathing reviews. Let them call you a prima donna. Floyd | Floyd | You are going to live. That's what counts. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Fuck the script. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | Roger says, "Good thinking, DW" | |
| Doug says, "I guess you don't need a vorpal blade for that" | ||
| DavidW says, "guess not" | ||
| Doug says, "yes, good thinking DW :)" | ||
| hzomb asks, "So how many endings is that?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yes, well done, DW." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I am going to step away now, tackle some unpacking. Thank you, Chandler. That was fantastic." | ||
| Doug says, "I think CMG has stated that he miscounted and there are more than 25 endings" | ||
| hzomb applauds CMG | DavidW says (to hz,), "I haven't been counting." | |
| hzomb applauds CMG | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I'll leave the transcript open for people if they want to continue pecking at this. (Pun not intended. Honest.)" | ||
| Roger says, "It's a suitably rewarding experience, yeah" | ||
| Doug says, "but yes, there are many other weapon configurations" | ||
| CMG says, "Yeah there are more than 25. I don't really know the true number." | ||
| DavidW says, "I'm pleased with what we found. I do need a lie-down, though." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "kiss script" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | You press your lips against your playscript. Oh, what a blessing and Floyd | torment its words are tonight! Sometimes you wish you could rip it in Floyd | half, and sometimes you cherish its lines. It's just too bad that Floyd | bastard Onegin gets to play a part. Floyd | Floyd | The countess is suddenly there, only inches away, but before she has Floyd | the chance to strike with her tremendous kielbasa, your own sword Floyd | rises to parry the blow. You did not even attempt to react; your Floyd | vorpal blade did it for you. Floyd | Floyd | It also did much more than that. It has sliced her weapon in half, Floyd | leaving the countess to stand there, stupefied, holding a severed Floyd | sausage stump. She cannot process what has happened, and she never Floyd | will. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | will. Floyd | Your arm is moving here and there, zigzagging through the air, and Floyd | you can barely process what is happening. But you know that Floyd | you want it to happen. You know that it means you will win. Floyd | Floyd | When the vorpal blade has finished, your arm flicks it downward as an Floyd | artist might flick down a brush to dislodge clinging paint. But there Floyd | is nothing clinging to the blade. Its work was much too clean and Floyd | quick. Floyd | Floyd | The countess is still poised before you, but she is not moving Floyd | anymore. When she finally blinks, that is when thin red lines in a Floyd | grid begin to manifest across her face, and then across her entire Floyd | body, and without further ado she tumbles apart into neat little cubes Floyd | expertly butchered. It is like watching a house of cards topple, with Floyd | no structural support to hold anything together. Floyd | Floyd | You hear someone applauding: Ferdinand. Floyd | Floyd | "Bravo!" she says. "Bravo! I couldn't have done any better myself." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Snicker-snack indeed! *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | Roger says, "I don't feel compelled towards completionism on this one" | |
| Doug says, "I can show you my favorite ending" | ||
| Roger says, "I'd be up for that" | ||
| hzomb asks, "Did you find the rags?" | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | DavidW says (to hzomb), "no" | |
| CMG says, "It wasn't designed for completionism." | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | Ballroom Floyd | On the floor you can see a white glove where it has been Floyd | contemptuously thrown down, and expanding outward from this glove the Floyd | world takes form. There are dancers surrounding you in a circle, but Floyd | they are not dancing: they are staring at you and staring at the Floyd | glove, and their eyeballs never cease staring because they are frozen. Floyd | Floyd | There has been some hitch and time stands still. Floyd | Floyd | A chandelier hangs overhead, candles unflickering. Everything is Floyd | mirrored in the marble floor. Toward the future you can glimpse the Floyd | grand staircase, where the countess is ascending with her back turned Floyd | after having delivered her challenge. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Grand Staircase Floyd | Ferdinand is leaning against a balustrade, her gaze cast toward the Floyd | dancers in their formations below. She isn't one for dancing herself Floyd | unless it's atop freshly slain enemies. Her vorpal blade, which you Floyd | will borrow later in your duel with the countess, is leaning against Floyd | the balustrade beside her. Floyd | Floyd | The ballroom is in the past now, and in the future you will look Floyd | behind a polar bear. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "You can literally kiss anything." | |
| Doug says (to Floyd), "i" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > I Floyd | Floyd | You are carrying a pig carcass, a rapier, a cutlass, and a playscript, Floyd | and you are wearing motley. Floyd | Floyd | > | CMG says, "Did you manage to figure out the clock? This is the part that stumped everyone." | |
| Doug says, "oh right!" | ||
| Doug says, "no they did not" | ||
| Roger says, "We fiddled with the clock a bit then gave up" | ||
| CMG says, "I still haven't finished reading the transcript." | ||
| DavidW says, "no, we didn't figure out the clock." | ||
| Doug says, "I can let someone else drive if you want to do that" | ||
| Doug says, "that's a fairly significant bit" | ||
| CMG says, "I saw some more verbs in the transcript that I didn't know to programe. *sigh*" | ||
| hzomb aww | ||
| Roger says, "If you want to just show us, Doug, that's good enough for me" | ||
| Doug says, "well, I'll continue with my fave ending first" | ||
| CMG says, "More edits for the update." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | Dmitri's chest is pressed against the wall, arms overhead with his Floyd | fingernails raking down the wallpaper. Onegin is straddling his rear, Floyd | gripping his waist, paused mid-thrust with his cock halfway inside Floyd | Dmitri's cunt -- or maybe halfway out? Floyd | Floyd | As the countess's minion, it is Onegin's duty to carry her weapon, and Floyd | right now her tremendous kielbasa is resting nearby on the floor in an Floyd | opened case. Floyd | Floyd | The polar bear itself is at least three meters tall, preserved Floyd | taxidermically in a perpetual roar with claws outspread. Traveling Floyd | counter-clockwise would reorient you toward the black salon, and the Floyd | grand staircase is in your past. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "drop cutlass" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > DROP CUTLASS Floyd | Floyd | You drop the cutlass into the opened case on the floor, reclaiming the Floyd | tremendous kielbasa for yourself. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Grand Staircase Floyd | Ferdinand is leaning against a balustrade, her gaze cast toward the Floyd | dancers in their formations below. She isn't one for dancing herself Floyd | unless it's atop freshly slain enemies. Her vorpal blade, which you Floyd | will borrow later in your duel with the countess, is leaning against Floyd | the balustrade beside her. Floyd | Floyd | The ballroom is in the past now, and in the future you will look Floyd | behind a polar bear. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "drop kielbasa" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > DROP KIELBASA Floyd | Floyd | You prop the tremendous kielbasa against the balustrade and reclaim Floyd | the vorpal blade. This might make for a decent joke, but the joke will Floyd | be at your expense. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "wake" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "attack ferdinand" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > ATTACK FERDINAND Floyd | Floyd | Before the countess has the chance to strike, you lunge in the last Floyd | direction that anyone would expect: toward your own second, Ferdinand. Floyd | Floyd | Your tremendous kielbasa is raised overhead like an axe, but before Floyd | you have the chance to strike, Ferdinand has seized your Floyd | wrist, her knee is in your gut, and you've dropped your weapon on the Floyd | lawn. You're doubled over in anguish, and then you feel and hear a Floyd | thwap and then another thwap, because Ferdinand has Floyd | appropriated the kielbasa and is smacking you relentlessly with it. Floyd | Floyd | "Down, dog!" she barks. "You mangy cur! I've never seen such Floyd | disrespect! Attacking your own ally! Have you lost your mind?" Floyd | Floyd | The countess and Onegin can only stare as Ferdinand chases you across Floyd | the garden, slapping you with the tremendous kielbasa at every step. Floyd | Finally you collapse, but she just grabs your ankle and prepares to Floyd | drag you away. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke
Floyd | drag you away.
Floyd | "I hope you understand that the duel's off," she tells the countess.
Floyd | "I'm not releasing this traitor until I've delivered my own
Floyd | retribution, and believe me, it will be significant."
Floyd |
Floyd | "I don't blame you," says the countess. "By all means."
Floyd |
Floyd | But when Ferdinand has pulled you a considerable distance into a
Floyd | little courtyard and you two are alone, she releases you and laughs.
Floyd |
Floyd | "It worked!" she says. "In a million years I never thought it would,
Floyd | but you were right!"
Floyd |
Floyd | You can't help but think that she might have overplayed her role in
Floyd | the plan, but you're in no position to grumble. You are alive, and
Floyd | soon you are laughing along with Ferdinand.
Floyd |
Floyd | "You may not be a warrior," she says, "but when it comes to nonsense
Floyd | you're a champion."
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | *** The best defense is a good kielbasa. ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last
Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN?
Floyd | >
| hzomb says, "Sororicide" | |
| Roger says, "Quite enjoyable" | ||
| Doug says, "ok, back to the clock." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | Ballroom Floyd | On the floor you can see a white glove where it has been Floyd | contemptuously thrown down, and expanding outward from this glove the Floyd | world takes form. There are dancers surrounding you in a circle, but Floyd | they are not dancing: they are staring at you and staring at the Floyd | glove, and their eyeballs never cease staring because they are frozen. Floyd | Floyd | There has been some hitch and time stands still. Floyd | Floyd | A chandelier hangs overhead, candles unflickering. Everything is Floyd | mirrored in the marble floor. Toward the future you can glimpse the Floyd | grand staircase, where the countess is ascending with her back turned Floyd | after having delivered her challenge. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Grand Staircase Floyd | Ferdinand is leaning against a balustrade, her gaze cast toward the Floyd | dancers in their formations below. She isn't one for dancing herself Floyd | unless it's atop freshly slain enemies. Her tremendous kielbasa, which Floyd | you will borrow later in your duel with the countess, is leaning Floyd | against the balustrade beside her. Floyd | Floyd | The ballroom is in the past now, and in the future you will look Floyd | behind a polar bear. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "f" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > F Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | Dmitri's chest is pressed against the wall, arms overhead with his Floyd | fingernails raking down the wallpaper. Onegin is straddling his rear, Floyd | gripping his waist, paused mid-thrust with his cock halfway inside Floyd | Dmitri's cunt -- or maybe halfway out? Floyd | Floyd | As the countess's minion, it is Onegin's duty to carry her weapon, and Floyd | right now her cutlass is resting nearby on the floor in an opened Floyd | case. Floyd | Floyd | The polar bear itself is at least three meters tall, preserved Floyd | taxidermically in a perpetual roar with claws outspread. Traveling Floyd | counter-clockwise would reorient you toward the black salon, and the Floyd | grand staircase is in your past. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Black Salon Floyd | Black sable tapestries hang from the ceiling and walls, and black Floyd | velvet carpets the floor. Scarlet radiance slants through scarlet Floyd | windowpanes. An ebony grandfather clock has stopped keeping the time Floyd | at one quarter to twelve. Floyd | Floyd | There is nobody here. Floyd | Floyd | Clockwise you will look behind a polar bear, and when you glance back Floyd | toward the past you can see a celebration in the banquet hall where Floyd | everyone has gathered to drink, feast, and make merry. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x clock" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X CLOCK Floyd | Floyd | Two long cast-iron hands mark the time at one quarter to twelve. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x hands" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X HANDS Floyd | Floyd | These hands don't look like they're going start ticking anytime soon. Floyd | But they might be taken. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "oh" | |
| Doug says (to Floyd), "get hands" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > GET HANDS Floyd | Floyd | When you remove the cast-iron hands from the clock-face, they coil and Floyd | twist in your own hands, black vipers. You drop them on the carpet and Floyd | they slither away into the shadows. Floyd | Floyd | Something stirs in the salon. Floyd | Floyd | You aren't alone here. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "oho" | |
| Doug says, "although my thinking when I played this game originally was to use them as a weapon." | ||
| says (to floyd), "look" | ||
| Jacqueline dropped back in to see what was happening. | ||
| says (to Floyd), "look" | ||
| Doug says (to hzomb), "you can use '>look' to give floyd commands" | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "look" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > LOOK Floyd | Floyd | Black Salon Floyd | Black sable tapestries hang from the ceiling and walls, and black Floyd | velvet carpets the floor. Scarlet radiance slants through scarlet Floyd | windowpanes. An ebony grandfather clock tells no time. Floyd | Floyd | In one corner slouches the Red Death. Floyd | Floyd | Clockwise you will look behind a polar bear, and when you glance back Floyd | toward the past you can see a celebration in the banquet hall where Floyd | everyone has gathered to drink, feast, and make merry. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "I expected to get a hint about the clock elsewhere." | |
| Roger says, "Oh no, the red baron" | ||
| Doug says, "the hands were fairly prominent in the clock description, I thought" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Whoa. The Red Death." | ||
| Doug says, "being wrought iron" | ||
| hzomb | #clubfloyd | DavidW says, "All clocks have hands." | |
| Roger says, "@recap #sf 12" | ||
| hzomb | '>x clock | ||
| hzomb | 'Two long cast-iron hands mark the time at one quarter to twelve. | Roger says, "oops. I think we tried to push the hands or something and then wrote them off" | |
| DavidW says, "That's not significant." | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "x death" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X DEATH Floyd | Floyd | Garbed in the grave's dirt-bedraggled and worm-eaten habiliments, the Floyd | Red Death couldn't look more like a corpse if it were displayed on a Floyd | bier. Crimson drops bead from every pore in its flesh, and the bags Floyd | beneath its eyes have drooped to expose whites thoroughly bloodshot. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to death" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO DEATH Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What are you doing in here?" Floyd | "Where did you come from?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "what" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHAT Floyd | Floyd | "That's not a very polite way to begin a conversation," says the Red Floyd | Death with a pout. "Just barging around like a reporter asking Floyd | questions. Not even a how-d'ye-do..." Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What are you doing in here?" Floyd | "Where did you come from?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "how" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > HOW Floyd | Floyd | "Very well, thank you!" says the Red Death. "Although I'm a bit Floyd | muddled." Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What are you doing in here?" Floyd | "Where did you come from?" Floyd | "Why are you feeling muddled?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "why" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHY Floyd | Floyd | "It's difficult to explain," says the Red Death. "I'd intended to make Floyd | my debut here at midnight, on the very stroke. But for some reason I Floyd | just cannot put my finger on the time this evening. Is it Floyd | twelve o'clock, or isn't it? Has the hour struck already, or hasn't Floyd | it? There's a muddle if I've ever known a muddle!" Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What are you doing in here?" Floyd | "Where did you come from?" Floyd | "Why does your schedule need to be so precise?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "why" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHY Floyd | Floyd | "It's only a whim, but I stick to my whims," says the Red Death. "The Floyd | first time I ruined a masque ball, I did it promptly at midnight, and Floyd | it was a rousing success -- as gruesome as you please! You should have Floyd | seen them running down the halls in such a pandemonium. They didn't Floyd | know who they'd invited to the party! Although they hadn't Floyd | invited me precisely. But in any event, since then it has Floyd | become a tradition for me to make my appearance at midnight. I Floyd | wouldn't have it any other way." Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What are you doing in here?" Floyd | "Where did you come from?" Floyd | "When did you attend your first masque ball?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "wear tapestries" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR TAPESTRIES Floyd | Floyd | (first taking the sable tapestries) Floyd | You have no reason to remove these tapestries from this salon, but Floyd | pulling them aside does reveal... nothing interesting. Too bad there's Floyd | not an arras anywhere. Then you might've found a dead counselor or Floyd | something. Floyd | Floyd | "I always check behind tapestries too," says the Red Death. "In case Floyd | someone's trying to hide from me. I don't allow that." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "when" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHEN Floyd | Floyd | "At midnight, of course," says the Red Death. "However, if you meant Floyd | to ask about the date or the month or the year or even the century, Floyd | then I haven't the foggiest idea. Trifles like that tend to slip Floyd | through my mind like a sieve. What pointless details! I've never been Floyd | able to figure out why people are so obsessed with calendars. When Floyd | you're as experienced as I am, then you'll realize that emotions are Floyd | what matter." Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "Who hosted your first masquerade? You must remember that at Floyd | least." Floyd | "What are you doing in here?" Floyd | "Where did you come from?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "who" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHO Floyd | Floyd | "Oh, I remember who, certainly," says the Red Death. "She was a Floyd | marquise with a penchant for tormenting chimpanzees. She would buy Floyd | them in great quantities from local zoos and then subject them to Floyd | electric plates. On the night that I made my appearance, a guillotine Floyd | had been erected in order that each party guest might try pulling the Floyd | lever and decapitating their own ape. The irony is that only people Floyd | are susceptible to my disease and, when I was through, the surviving Floyd | chimpanzees had their own party with the corpses. They put the Floyd | marquise under the guillotine a few times before that evening ended!" Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What are you doing in here?" Floyd | "Where did you come from?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "oh, also Dmitri said this when you asked about the clock: "I wouldn't set foot in its precincts at all when the clock isn't working."" | |
| hzomb says, "Motivation." | ||
| Doug says, "which is maybe a bit subtle" | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "where" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHERE Floyd | Floyd | "Where did anything come from?" asks the Red Death. "It's a grand old Floyd | question but I'm not in the mood for metaphysical chestnuts tonight." Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What are you doing in here?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "what" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHAT Floyd | Floyd | "I'm here in my usual role as plague-bearer," says the Red Death. Floyd | "It's my duty, you see, to travel about the countryside and lay waste Floyd | to whatever civilizations fall within my pathogenic purview. To be Floyd | honest, it grows a tad dull once you've been at the job for as long as Floyd | I have. You've always got your bleeding and your lesions and your Floyd | vomit. Throw in a few thousand rats here and there, some mass graves, Floyd | some plague-doctors, and every programme runs about the same." Floyd | Floyd | The Red Death suppresses a yawn with one hand. Floyd | Floyd | "That's why I like dropping in on masque balls from time to time. An Floyd | extravagant setting tends to generate more extravagant horror. It's Floyd | more entertaining for me to watch, although I suppose that it's just Floyd | as miserable for the participants no matter what." Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What do you think about this rumor that's going around?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "You can ask Dmitri about red death." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "what" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHAT Floyd | Floyd | "Rumor? What rumor?" asks the Red Death. Floyd | Floyd | You explain all about the rumor. Floyd | Floyd | "Well, when you put it like that," says the Red Death, "I should have Floyd | to conclude that you're the victimized party. However, since you're Floyd | also the one telling me this story, your account may be Floyd | biased. I'm afraid I can't give my opinion, except to agree that Floyd | Onegin does sound like a bastard." Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "What would you do in my situation?" Floyd | "How-d'ye-do?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "what" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WHAT Floyd | Floyd | "I would do what I always do," says the Red Death. "The answer to Floyd | everything is wholesale slaughter. You cannot balk at the countess's Floyd | challenge. You must throw it back into her face with enough force to Floyd | bury her six feet underneath the nearest cemetery plot. And ideally in Floyd | a bloody, unrecognizable mess." Floyd | Floyd | You have a few lines you could recite. Floyd | Speaking the first word is enough: Floyd | Floyd | "How about lending me a hand with the countess?" Floyd | "Goodnight, sweet prince." Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "haha - that was great about the rumor" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "how" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > HOW Floyd | Floyd | Scratching its chin for a moment, the Red Death considers your Floyd | proposition. Floyd | Floyd | "You know, it's not a halfway bad notion. I'm in a pickle myself, what Floyd | with the hours having gone all sideways this evening, but your duel is Floyd | scheduled for midnight precisely. If I were to pass on my mantle, so Floyd | to speak, then you would know just when to start the ball rolling -- Floyd | and no one, please let me reassure you, survives against my contagion. Floyd | Your countess wouldn't stand a chance." Floyd | Floyd | A ghastly smile creeps across the Red Death's face, running from ear Floyd | to ear just like a glasgow souvenir. Floyd | Floyd | "All right," it says. "You've got yourself a deal. But remember: only Floyd | start infecting people on the stroke!" Floyd | Floyd | Suddenly its graveclothes are empty, and after an odd hesitation they Floyd | crumple to the carpet, leaving you alone once more with only the Floyd | hourless grandfather clock. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "l" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > L Floyd | Floyd | Black Salon Floyd | Black sable tapestries hang from the ceiling and walls, and black Floyd | velvet carpets the floor. Scarlet radiance slants through scarlet Floyd | windowpanes. An ebony grandfather clock tells no time. Floyd | Floyd | In one corner are empty graveclothes. Floyd | Floyd | Clockwise you will look behind a polar bear, and when you glance back Floyd | toward the past you can see a celebration in the banquet hall where Floyd | everyone has gathered to drink, feast, and make merry. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Emily arrives, full of funk, but no fun. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x graveclothes" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > X GRAVECLOTHES Floyd | Floyd | These blood-speckled bandages reek with disease. It's almost as though Floyd | someone rotted away wearing them long before they were ever buried. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "Natty." | |
| DavidW says, "oh geez. This seems nasty." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Wait, if we wear these can we talk to the girl?" | ||
| Roger says, "Now Matilda will talk to us, at least" | ||
| hzomb says, "Go on you know you want to." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undress" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDRESS Floyd | Floyd | You disrobe from your jester's motley and feel decidedly less Floyd | tricksterish. You won't be stealing any kisses now. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take graveclothes" | ||
Floyd ] Black Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE GRAVECLOTHES Floyd | Floyd | You pinch and lift the graveclothes gingerly. Could a more repulsive Floyd | costume be imagined? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wear graveclothes" | ||
Floyd ] Red Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR GRAVECLOTHES Floyd | Floyd | As you shuffle into the graveclothes, a strange malevolence steals Floyd | over the scenery; or perhaps you yourself have become that strange Floyd | malevolence. Your fingertips drip with infection. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "This is masterful." | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "script" | ||
Floyd ] Red Salon Floyd | > Floyd | > SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | red salon, hourless Floyd | Floyd | A corpse makes an acquaintance Floyd | when a grandfather clock Floyd | fails to express any hour. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | infect (when wearing graveclothes) Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "You should type script in each room for clues." | |
| DavidW says, "we're gonna scare the swan girl." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Banquet Hall Floyd | Somehow a rift must have opened, because obese cherubs are pouring Floyd | through the air onto the banquet-table; or at least, they would be Floyd | pouring if they were in motion. There are several hundred, faces Floyd | grimacing and feathered wings shedding red pinions, and in their Floyd | conglomerate they have impacted the table at one end, sending the Floyd | other end skyward like a see-saw. Some even appear to be crawling Floyd | upward along the table as rats would a mast aboard a sinking ship. Floyd | Floyd | This arrangement has naturally relocated the banquet itself into Floyd | midair, where roasts and cakes and goblets and plates hang with their Floyd | glazes and their copper sparkling. Floyd | Floyd | When it comes to the diners, most have already departed, although a Floyd | few remain watching the cherubs with mild interest from seats pushed Floyd | back against the walls. One lady dressed as a swan is eating angels on Floyd | horseback, with a champagne flute daintily suspended in her other Floyd | hand. Floyd | Floyd | A clockwise inclination would direct you into the aftermath, while Floyd | moving counter-clockwise would steer you toward the cloak room, and in Floyd | the future yawns the red salon. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb gets tissues. | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "c" | ||
Floyd ] Aftermath Floyd | > Floyd | > C Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Aftermath Floyd | Splintered glasses, paper streamers, confetti, and cigarette butts Floyd | litter the floor. You cannot step anywhere without crunching something Floyd | underfoot. The banquet-table has been thoroughly demolished, cracked Floyd | into two halves that lean inward toward a sunken middle. Floyd | Floyd | Everyone else is gone, but Dmitri is sitting at the table as though Floyd | nothing has happened, reading a book and nursing a martini. Floyd | Floyd | Moving counter-clockwise would return you to the banquet hall when it Floyd | was slightly more intact. Slightly. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Banquet Hall Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Banquet Hall Floyd | Somehow a rift must have opened, because obese cherubs are pouring Floyd | through the air onto the banquet-table; or at least, they would be Floyd | pouring if they were in motion. There are several hundred, faces Floyd | grimacing and feathered wings shedding red pinions, and in their Floyd | conglomerate they have impacted the table at one end, sending the Floyd | other end skyward like a see-saw. Some even appear to be crawling Floyd | upward along the table as rats would a mast aboard a sinking ship. Floyd | Floyd | This arrangement has naturally relocated the banquet itself into Floyd | midair, where roasts and cakes and goblets and plates hang with their Floyd | glazes and their copper sparkling. Floyd | Floyd | When it comes to the diners, most have already departed, although a Floyd | few remain watching the cherubs with mild interest from seats pushed Floyd | back against the walls. One lady dressed as a swan is eating angels on Floyd | horseback, with a champagne flute daintily suspended in her other Floyd | hand. Floyd | Floyd | A clockwise inclination would direct you into the aftermath, while Floyd | moving counter-clockwise would steer you toward the cloak room, and in Floyd | the future yawns the red salon. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Cloak Room Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Cloak Room Floyd | You find yourself lost in a forest. The trees are coat-stands draped Floyd | with cloaks. Clockwise, the banquet awaits. Floyd | Floyd | In the past you can see the palace doors opened wide to the night. Floyd | Guests are thronging through them to the masquerade, their stream Floyd | bordered by footmen holding lanterns high, and foremost in this crowd Floyd | is the countess. Floyd | Floyd | She is the jewel set in the evening's crown. Onegin has her hand, but Floyd | she is not looking at him; she is looking at everybody, enchanting Floyd | them with her smile. Her domino mask is lowered and you can see her Floyd | face. She is more beautiful than anyone. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] At the Threshold Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | At the Threshold Floyd | The palace doors stand open, but no one has arrived yet. Floyd | Floyd | A landscape garden stretches away into the past. Floyd | Floyd | In the future, guests will deposit their cloaks in the cloak room. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | You are standing alone on a long manicured lawn bordered by cypress Floyd | trees, whose moon-cast shadows divide the grass into neat quadrants as Floyd | though it were a rugby field. Floyd | Floyd | Below the lawn, further into the past, there is a great and gurgling Floyd | fountain, and in the future you can see the palace windows alive with Floyd | candlelight and merriment. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Fountain Floyd | You gaze into the fountain's murky depths. It is stagnant and red with Floyd | thickened blood, and unchecked lilies spill over its rim, on which a Floyd | dead girl is sitting. Floyd | Floyd | In the future you will stand alone in a landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "uh... where's Matilda?" | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "x girl" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X GIRL Floyd | Floyd | Her skin is peeled away and you can see her crimson muscles stretched Floyd | and woven on her bones. Her red veins are pumping with blood and her Floyd | red heart contracting inside her ribcage. Her face is framed with Floyd | flaming hair. When she looks at you, her eyes are two embers; they Floyd | burn through you as though you were paper. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "oh there." | |
| DavidW says, "'stand alone' confused me." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | "...oh yes... how lovely... to have someone to talk to... to listen... Floyd | oh no, I would enjoy it, please... nobody ever listens... just a silly Floyd | girl, they say... what can a silly girl have to say about anything... Floyd | but I do have things to say, I do... I have my own dreams... maybe Floyd | they're silly dreams... a silly girl with silly dreams... they mock me Floyd | when my back is turned... I know it... but you listen, you listen, you Floyd | understand me, you know me..." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "dreams" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > DREAMS Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "listen" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > LISTEN Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "script" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | landscape garden, evening Floyd | Floyd | A corpse properly attired Floyd | lends an ear Floyd | to lamentations from the dead. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | infect (when wearing graveclothes) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | "...you may not think you know me... oh, you do... thank you for Floyd | that... it means... you can't know what it means... my own family Floyd | aren't this kind... they have responsibilities, they have important Floyd | things to do... they don't have time... they never hear me when I Floyd | speak... even when I yell, I scream at them... I feel like a fool... Floyd | but I'm invisible... sometimes I think that I have always been a Floyd | ghost... that I was born into this world as a phantom... a silly Floyd | notion from a silly girl..." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb passes tissues out. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | "...sometimes I knock against the wainscoting... they don't hear me... Floyd | like I'm a rat behind the wainscoting... that's what they think... Floyd | only a rat... their own daughter... but they love me, they love me, Floyd | they do... only it's changed... our lives have changed... the years Floyd | have changed us like old keys... now we don't fit the locks... doors Floyd | won't open... I rattle handles... nobody hears... no one listens..." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | "...when I look into this fountain I can see myself... I see the moon Floyd | in the sky... I can see everything reflected... an underside... to Floyd | everything... there is another meaning but I've lost it like a coin in Floyd | the fountain... you don't know what it's like... don't say you do... Floyd | you'll never know... you shouldn't know... I wouldn't wish this on Floyd | anybody... this transparency... where you look through your own Floyd | reflection and you can't see anything... no matter how close you lean Floyd | to the water..." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x fountain" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > X FOUNTAIN Floyd | Floyd | Brimming with blood, this fountain festers like an open sore in the Floyd | world. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "You can ask Dmitri about the fountain." | |
| DavidW says, "I wonder if we can talk to the dead monster on the moon in this." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | "...even now I can still feel that hand on my head... pushing me Floyd | down... holding me there... a human touch... a word... a glance... can Floyd | mean so many things... but what does anyone else know about love... Floyd | without having been there, without having been me... when we walked Floyd | outside onto the lawn... and we could see the stars... the fountain in Floyd | the night... and when we sat here together and I said..." Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "...you said..." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | "...oh yes... how lovely... to have someone to talk to... to listen... Floyd | oh no, I would enjoy it, please... nobody ever listens... just a silly Floyd | girl, they say... what can a silly girl have to say about anything... Floyd | but I do have things to say, I do... I have my own dreams... maybe Floyd | they're silly dreams... a silly girl with silly dreams... they mock me Floyd | when my back is turned... I know it... but you listen, you listen, you Floyd | understand me, you know me..." Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "I was amused to get to the Red Death in this game shortly after having played Sequitur's game Prospero in sub-Q. Great minds think alike." | |
| DavidW says, "her speech cycles, i guess. We've seen that before." | ||
| Roger says, "This is the sort of game that could support footnotes" | ||
| Doug asks (of CMG), "where does the "online background image" appear?" | ||
| DavidW asks, "Can I try talking to the dead giant on the moon?" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "We haven't yet discussed Death with Dmitri, right?" | ||
| DavidW says (to Jacqueline), "correct" | ||
| CMG says, "Oh that's if you play it on Quixe." | ||
| Doug says, "ohh, I see. the Play Online link on ifdb, as opposed to the Play On-line button." | ||
| DavidW says, "well, death, yes. red death, no." | ||
| hzomb says, "There is a lot for red death (can paste)." | ||
| CMG says, "I didn't like how the Parchment version looked so I made that background image. It's just window dressing." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Well, that's why I capitalized Death. I meant the Red Death." | ||
| DavidW asks, "so, visit Dmitri?" | ||
| Doug says, "I never figured out if there's more info to get from Matilda" | ||
| DavidW asks, "Do we need to be a jester again first?" | ||
| hzomb says, "No we drained Matilda." | ||
| hzomb says, "You could try other costumes." | ||
| Doug says, "her dialog is anticlimactic." | ||
| hzomb asks (of Doug), "What were you hoping for?" | ||
| Doug says, "I enjoyed that there are three different conversation UIs in this game though." | ||
| Doug asks (of hzomb), "more clues to her murder, I guess?" | ||
| Roger says, "I thought it might be procedurally-generated when I saw it all elliptical like that" | ||
| hzomb says, "CMG has issues with procedural content." | ||
| Doug says, "my suspicion is that the countess thinks the PC killed Matilda, hence the duel" | ||
| Roger says, "I dunno, let's go infect everyone" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to hzomb), "Yeah, she acts as if she's about to tell you about her murder, then she cycles." | ||
| hzomb asks, "Why can't ghosts get to the point?" | ||
| Doug says, "I think it's anticlimactic because you have to do a lot in order to talk to her at all" | ||
| Doug says, "but then what she says isn't all that useful" | ||
| CMG says, "Matilda's dialogue was not procedurally generated. I took great care to write it like that." | ||
| Roger says, "Yeah I see that now" | ||
| DavidW says, "I think the infection is supposed to be just for the midnight duel? Although I'm not sure what could stop us from using it elsewhen." | ||
| hzomb says, "Other people are frozen (except Dmitri)." | ||
| Doug says, "but I am probably missing something." | ||
| Roger says, "Infectous Kielbasa" | ||
| Doug says, "what could stop you is a warning from the Red Death!" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I want to talk to Dmitri." | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "infect matilda" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT MATILDA Floyd | Floyd | It isn't midnight yet, and even if it were, this girl is dead already. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "of course all warnings are meant to be ignored in IF." | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undress" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDRESS Floyd | Floyd | You peel away the blood-speckled graveclothes and the world feels less Floyd | malevolent. You won't be infecting anyone now. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wear pig" | ||
Floyd ] Fountain Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR PIG Floyd | Floyd | You hunch your shoulders together and crawl into the pig carcass. Now Floyd | the sky is no longer a limit. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > FLY Floyd | Floyd | You rise into the night sky and the garden and the palace and the Floyd | world diminish underneath your hooves until they appear small enough Floyd | to step on, but you don't step on them. You fly higher and higher Floyd | until the atmosphere thins into nothing. Shooting stars are brushing Floyd | past your cheeks. You can see little planets in the distance hanging Floyd | like humid nightblue fruit dependent from the heaventree. Floyd | Floyd | But your goal is not that far away. You fly upward toward the moon Floyd | until you are flying downward toward the moon, and then you alight on Floyd | its lunar surface. | ||
| DavidW pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | Floyd | Moon Floyd | A cratered wasteland. Soft cheese squishes underneath your weight and Floyd | smoke rises from foreboding chasms cleft into the glowing camembert. Floyd | Floyd | Before you a great beast is sprawled, slaughtered. It has been dead Floyd | for eons and its form has decomposed to the bare bone. It is larger Floyd | than any other animal, some colossus from legend, its death-grip Floyd | encapsulating a lunar mountain over which it has collapsed. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "visting the giant" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "undress" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDRESS Floyd | Floyd | You clamber out from the pig carcass. Now the sky is once more is the Floyd | limit. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "wear graveclothes" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR GRAVECLOTHES Floyd | Floyd | As you shuffle into the graveclothes, a strange malevolence steals Floyd | over the scenery; or perhaps you yourself have become that strange Floyd | malevolence. Your fingertips drip with infection. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "is once more is the limit" | |
| Guest2 arrives, full of fun and funk. | ||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "talk to giant" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO GIANT Floyd | Floyd | This beast has probably been dead for more millennia than humankind Floyd | has known the spoken word. Its bones aren't going to shake off the Floyd | dust and have a conversation anytime soon. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "aw" | |
| Doug says, "no jabberwocky resurrection for you" | ||
| DavidW says, "at least it was anticipated." | ||
| hzomb says, "I wished for past here." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Darn" | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "past" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > PAST Floyd | Floyd | Time doesn't bend that way from here. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug asks, "wait, you tried talk and not infect?" | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "wear clothes" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR CLOTHES Floyd | Floyd | You're already wearing the graveclothes. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "we can only infect at midnight." | |
| Doug says, "oh right, because that's how you talked to matilda" | ||
| Doug says, "maybe it's midnight on the moon" | ||
| DavidW asks, "is 'midnight' meaningful on the moon?" | ||
| hzomb says, "Sure, there is day and night on the moon." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect beast" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT BEAST Floyd | Floyd | It's always moontime here. Midnight doesn't figure into moontime. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "there you go" | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "wear pig" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR PIG Floyd | Floyd | You hunch your shoulders together and crawl into the pig carcass Floyd | (after removing the graveclothes). Now the sky is no longer a limit. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > FLY Floyd | Floyd | You rise into the night sky and the moon diminishes underneath your Floyd | hooves. As you fly higher you find yourself flying lower, breaking Floyd | back into the world's atmosphere. Floyd | Floyd | This re-entry stings a little, but sooner than later it's over and Floyd | you've returned to that wretched masquerade party. | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "look" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | You are standing alone on a long manicured lawn bordered by cypress Floyd | trees, whose moon-cast shadows divide the grass into neat quadrants as Floyd | though it were a rugby field. Floyd | Floyd | Below the lawn, further into the past, there is a great and gurgling Floyd | fountain, and in the future you can see the palace windows alive with Floyd | candlelight and merriment. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "future" | ||
Floyd ] At the Threshold Floyd | > Floyd | > FUTURE Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | At the Threshold Floyd | The palace doors stand open, but no one has arrived yet. Floyd | Floyd | A landscape garden stretches away into the past. Floyd | Floyd | In the future, guests will deposit their cloaks in the cloak room. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "aw we could have kissed the jabberwock" | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "undo.undo" | ||
Floyd ] At the Threshold Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDO.UNDO Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] At the Threshold Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | At the Threshold Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "heh" | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "kiss" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | Moon Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb asks, "What's the other outfit called?" | |
| hzomb asks, "The kissing one?" | ||
| Doug says, "motley" | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "wear motley" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR MOTLEY Floyd | Floyd | You don your jester's motley (after removing the pig carcass) and Floyd | potential pranks inspire you. Everything in this wide world is Floyd | kissable. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "I'm going to lie down now. Multi-UNDO makes me nauseous." | |
| hzomb says, "sorry" | ||
| Doug says, "sorry, this is a silly tangent." | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "kiss" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS Floyd | Floyd | You'll need to KISS (someone or something). Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "on with infecting the duel" | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "kiss giant" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS GIANT Floyd | Floyd | You shiver at the thought. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "kiss moon" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS MOON Floyd | Floyd | What a creamy and marvelous flavor! No earthly camembert compares. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "i" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > I Floyd | Floyd | You are carrying graveclothes, a pig carcass, a vorpal blade, a Floyd | rapier, and a playscript, and you are wearing motley. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "kiss rapier" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS RAPIER Floyd | Floyd | You consider kissing the countess's rapier, but the farther you keep Floyd | it away from your head, the safer you'll probably feel. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "kiss vorpal" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS VORPAL Floyd | Floyd | You press your lips against the vorpal blade. It is sharp and cold and Floyd | clean like some instrument sanitized for surgery. You can taste its Floyd | sharpness and its sharpness is cutting cleanly and coldly your lips, Floyd | your tongue, your skin, your bone. Even the blood running down your Floyd | throat is clean and cold. The blade is passing through you, or perhaps Floyd | you are passing through it, but in either case it has opened the Floyd | world. That world is peeling away on either side, sliced vertically Floyd | like an opening through a curtain, until you can see dark leaves Floyd | overhead and smell dark earth and hear branches bending and snapping. | ||
| Guest3 arrives, full of neither funk nor fun. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | overhead and smell dark earth and hear branches bending and snapping. Floyd | You are in a dark woodland clearing, the vorpal blade shining in your Floyd | hand although the forest light is weak. It must be shining from Floyd | within. Against your back you can feel bark. You are resting against a Floyd | tumtum tree. At some distance there is a sundial, old and mossy and Floyd | hourless in the gloom, standing solitary on a grass plot riddled with Floyd | abandoned burrows. Floyd | Floyd | You are not alone in the forest. Something is whiffling among the Floyd | trees and you struggle to recall a warning someone gave you about this Floyd | situation, but your uffish thoughts cannot remember the words. You Floyd | have the vague sensation that you ought to be at home, preparing to Floyd | broil your dinner, rather than waiting out here for whatever is Floyd | advancing through the trees. Floyd | Floyd | Nothing is clear anymore, but someone is supposed to kill Floyd | something, at any rate. And yet now that you think about it, Floyd | nothing was ever clear in the first place. Floyd | Floyd | Its eyes are aflame and it burbles as it comes, its jaws biting, its Floyd | claws catching. At least this creature isn't a countess. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Out of the frying pan, into the tulgey wood. *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | hzomb says, "oops" | |
| Doug says, "whoops!" | ||
| Roger says, "whuuu" | ||
| hzomb says, "its jaws (it's)" | ||
| hzomb says, "oops no" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Predictably anticipated." | ||
| hzomb says, "yes. its claws (it's)" | ||
| hzomb says, "no. Getting tired." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | Moon Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "wear pig" | ||
Floyd ] Moon Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR PIG Floyd | Floyd | You hunch your shoulders together and crawl into the pig carcass Floyd | (after removing your motley). Now the sky is no longer a limit. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > FLY Floyd | Floyd | You rise into the night sky and the moon diminishes underneath your Floyd | hooves. As you fly higher you find yourself flying lower, breaking Floyd | back into the world's atmosphere. Floyd | Floyd | This re-entry stings a little, but sooner than later it's over and Floyd | you've returned to that wretched masquerade party. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | You are standing alone on a long manicured lawn bordered by cypress Floyd | trees, whose moon-cast shadows divide the grass into neat quadrants as Floyd | though it were a rugby field. Floyd | Floyd | Below the lawn, further into the past, there is a great and gurgling Floyd | fountain, and in the future you can see the palace windows alive with Floyd | candlelight and merriment. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "x fountain" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > X FOUNTAIN Floyd | Floyd | Disaster seems to dog these masquerade parties. Last time it was Floyd | Matilda that they found drowned in the fountain with her hair Floyd | streaming around the water-lilies. Nobody could discover how it Floyd | happened. This time it will be you that they find dead on the lawn, Floyd | and everyone will know how it happened. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "kiss fountain" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS FOUNTAIN Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "oh, I guess we didn't need to return to wake up" | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "wear motley" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR MOTLEY Floyd | Floyd | You don your jester's motley (after removing the pig carcass) and Floyd | potential pranks inspire you. Everything in this wide world is Floyd | kissable. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "kiss fountain" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS FOUNTAIN Floyd | Floyd | The gurgling fountain is in the past. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "wear clothes" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR CLOTHES Floyd | Floyd | As you shuffle into the graveclothes (after removing your motley), a Floyd | strange malevolence steals over the scenery; or perhaps you yourself Floyd | have become that strange malevolence. Your fingertips drip with Floyd | infection. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "look" | ||
Floyd ] Landscape Garden Floyd | > Floyd | > LOOK Floyd | Floyd | Landscape Garden Floyd | You are standing alone on a long manicured lawn bordered by cypress Floyd | trees, whose moon-cast shadows divide the grass into neat quadrants as Floyd | though it were a rugby field. Floyd | Floyd | Below the lawn, further into the past, there is a great and gurgling Floyd | fountain, and in the future you can see the palace windows alive with Floyd | candlelight and merriment. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "now we can wake up" | |
| hzomb says, "Yes." | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "wake" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| hzomb pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > Floyd | Floyd | I beg your pardon? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "script" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | landscape garden, midnight Floyd | Floyd | A corpse engages a countess in a swordfight Floyd | in which the corpse... Floyd | and the countess... Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x) Floyd | attack, wake up Floyd | infect (when wearing graveclothes) Floyd | Floyd | The countess is suddenly there, only inches away, and her cutlass Floyd | slices through your kielbasa and sinks promptly into your neck with a Floyd | horrible crunch. Those were vertebrae, weren't they? Floyd | Floyd | Bringing a sausage to a swordfight was the last mistake you'll ever Floyd | make. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | ||
| hzomb pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb asks, "Who wants to do it?" | |
| Roger says, "go for it" | ||
| CMG says, "Did you examine the polar bear? I'm pleased with that one." | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "infect" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT Floyd | Floyd | What do you want to infect? Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "I reckon we must have" | |
| hzomb asks, "Who should it be?" | ||
| Roger says, "The comtesse first, let's say" | ||
| hzomb says (to Roger), "It's not in rcap." | ||
| Doug asks, "we examined the polar bear when we first saw it, or did it change?" | ||
| hzomb says, "recap" | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "countess" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "infect countess" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT COUNTESS Floyd | Floyd | You raise your arm toward the countess. That's enough. Floyd | Floyd | She drops her cutlass on the lawn. Floyd | Floyd | After a moment, blood wells from under her domino mask, scarlet rivers Floyd | running down her cheeks. She lifts a hand to pull the mask away but it Floyd | doesn't come away. It is stuck, and when she pulls harder there is a Floyd | ripping sound. She cannot see what she has done, but around her eyes Floyd | the skin has erupted with bubbling lesions like frog-eggs or caviar. | Doug says, "that was the porn that jarred Jacq" | |
| Jacqueline says, "I don't think we did x the bear." | ||
| hzomb says, "spoiler: blood" | ||
| Roger pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke
Floyd | the skin has erupted with bubbling lesions like frog-eggs or caviar.
Floyd | Now she is screaming. She sees her bloody hands. She knows that she is
Floyd | horribly broken. Meanwhile more blood is pouring from her every pore,
Floyd | drenching her gown, drenching the grass around her. Her body is
Floyd | melting into blood, her shape dissolving into it, until she is a
Floyd | shrieking heap upon the ground
Floyd |
Floyd | Her shrieks are in the wind. Around the garden cypresses rustle and
Floyd | the fountain plashes as both seconds fall, bleeding with her. It is a
Floyd | comprehensive plague.
Floyd |
Floyd | In the palace guests are falling too. Their shadows are erratic in the
Floyd | candlelit windows. You cannot picture them as real people. They are
Floyd | puppets and their strings have just been cut. It is a pandemonium, but
Floyd | it will all be over soon enough. It will end when the last reveler
Floyd | falls in the blood-bedewed halls, when the last screams are carried
Floyd | away by the breeze, when the candles blink out one by one as they
Floyd | gutter in wax.
Floyd |
Floyd | And then darkness and decay and the Red Death will hold illimitable
Floyd | dominion over all.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | *** Memento mori. ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last
Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN?
Floyd | >
| Jacqueline says, "It's not in the transcript (I tried >X BEAR and >X POLAR)" | |
| | DavidW says (to Floyd), "x bear" | ||
| Roger says, "We infect the countess. It is super-effective." | ||
| hzomb says, "It's near the start." | ||
| hzomb pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > Floyd | Floyd | Please give one of the answers above. Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN? Floyd | > | Doug says, "I like how her jeweled mask foreshadows the bubbling lesions." | |
| hzomb says, "We just killed everone. Have some heart people." | ||
| hzomb says, "everyone." | ||
| Roger says, "They all deserved it" | ||
| CMG says, "It's not really plot-important. I just like that bit of text about the bear." | ||
| Doug | Far from romantic, it seems to lend the skin around her eyes a lesioned, bubbling appearance, or perhaps suggest frog-eggs or caviar. | ||
| hzomb says, "And we died." | ||
| Doug says, "oh, more literally foreshadowed than I remembered" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "Ah, my search wasn't cycling back to the beginning." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Okay wait, I still can't find it. What's the bear description?" | ||
| Doug asks (of CMG), "do you mean something other than finding Dmitri & Onegin going at it behind the bear?" | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "wake up" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "l" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | Ballroom Floyd | On the floor you can see a red glove where it has been contemptuously Floyd | thrown down, and expanding outward from this glove the world takes Floyd | form. There are dancers surrounding you in a circle, but they are not Floyd | dancing: they are staring at you and staring at the glove, and their Floyd | eyeballs never cease staring because they are frozen. Floyd | Floyd | There has been some hitch and time stands still. Floyd | Floyd | A chandelier hangs overhead, candles unflickering. Everything is Floyd | mirrored in the marble floor. Toward the future you can glimpse the Floyd | grand staircase, where the countess is ascending with her back turned Floyd | after having delivered her challenge. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "p" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > P Floyd | Floyd | Time doesn't bend that way from here. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "cc" | ||
Floyd ] Ballroom Floyd | > Floyd | > CC Floyd | Floyd | Time doesn't bend that way from here. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "future" | ||
Floyd ] Grand Staircase Floyd | > Floyd | > FUTURE Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Grand Staircase Floyd | Ferdinand is leaning against a balustrade, her gaze cast toward the Floyd | dancers in their formations below. She isn't one for dancing herself Floyd | unless it's atop freshly slain enemies. Her tremendous kielbasa, which Floyd | you will borrow later in your duel with the countess, is leaning Floyd | against the balustrade beside her. Floyd | Floyd | The ballroom is in the past now, and in the future you will look Floyd | behind a polar bear. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "g" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > G Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | Dmitri's chest is pressed against the wall, arms overhead with his Floyd | fingernails raking down the wallpaper. Onegin is straddling his rear, Floyd | gripping his waist, paused mid-thrust with his cock halfway inside Floyd | Dmitri's cunt -- or maybe halfway out? Floyd | Floyd | As the countess's minion, it is Onegin's duty to carry her weapon, and Floyd | right now her cutlass is resting nearby on the floor in an opened Floyd | case. Floyd | Floyd | The polar bear itself is at least three meters tall, preserved Floyd | taxidermically in a perpetual roar with claws outspread. Traveling Floyd | counter-clockwise would reorient you toward the red salon, and the Floyd | grand staircase is in your past. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "Thanks" | |
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "script" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | behind a polar bear, evening Floyd | Floyd | A voyeur observes a liaison Floyd | and exploits the opportunity Floyd | to replace a weapon. Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x), take, drop, talk to Floyd | Floyd | future (f), past (p), clockwise (c), Floyd | counter-clockwise (cc) Floyd | wear, undress, wake up Floyd | infect (when wearing graveclothes) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "wear motley" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR MOTLEY Floyd | Floyd | You don your jester's motley (after removing the graveclothes) and Floyd | potential pranks inspire you. Everything in this wide world is Floyd | kissable. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "x bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > X BEAR Floyd | Floyd | Kappiataitok, king among polar bears in life, gathering dust here now Floyd | in death. No hunt was ever greater than the hunt that felled His Floyd | Majesty. It's said that thirty hunters lost their lives during the Floyd | climb in crevices, and thirty more in snowstorms raging hard enough to Floyd | freeze a beating heart, and thirty more when Kappiataitok emerged to Floyd | find his glacial sanctum populous with infidels. They could not Floyd | conquer him with spears; the ice ran red with blood from everyone; and Floyd | thirty more were dead before the king rose with a roar and broke away Floyd | across the floes. But he had been wounded in the ankle and could not Floyd | escape, and after thirty more and thirty more had fallen to his claws, Floyd | he fell beneath the aurora and never woke into this world again. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > X BEAR Floyd | Floyd | Kappiataitok, king among polar bears in life, gathering dust here now Floyd | in death. No hunt was ever greater than the hunt that felled His Floyd | Majesty. It's said that thirty hunters lost their lives during the Floyd | climb in crevices, and thirty more in snowstorms raging hard enough to Floyd | freeze a beating heart, and thirty more when Kappiataitok emerged to Floyd | find his glacial sanctum populous with infidels. They could not Floyd | conquer him with spears; the ice ran red with blood from everyone; and Floyd | thirty more were dead before the king rose with a roar and broke away Floyd | across the floes. But he had been wounded in the ankle and could not Floyd | escape, and after thirty more and thirty more had fallen to his claws, Floyd | he fell beneath the aurora and never woke into this world again. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "sorry" | |
| Roger says, "I guess we didn't after all" | ||
| Doug says, "my fault, you were driving" | ||
| Doug says, "yeah huh, when we did it before it just showed the room desc again." | ||
| hzomb asks, "So did we kiss anything here?" | ||
| hzomb covers eyes. | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Kappiataitok was so not in the transcript." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Anyway." | ||
| CMG says, "If you're in a room adjacent to "Behind the Polar Bear" then examining the bear moves you into the room. But in the room, you can examine the bear." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yay that we've seen Kappiataitok now." | ||
| Doug says, "ohhh" | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "kiss bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS BEAR Floyd | Floyd | Even standing on your tiptoes, you cannot reach the polar bear's jaws, Floyd | and you settle for giving it a peck on the foot instead -- an Floyd | appropriate supplication before royalty. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "relevant to #hawaii talk" | |
| Doug says (to Floyd), "wear graveclothes. talk to bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR GRAVECLOTHES. TALK TO BEAR Floyd | Floyd | As you shuffle into the graveclothes (after removing your motley), a Floyd | strange malevolence steals over the scenery; or perhaps you yourself Floyd | have become that strange malevolence. Your fingertips drip with Floyd | infection. Floyd | Floyd | These frozen tableaux aren't going to provide very lively Floyd | conversation. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "aw" | |
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "Heh. True. Though that will be meaningless to this transcript." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT BEAR Floyd | Floyd | It isn't midnight yet. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "get bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > GET BEAR Floyd | Floyd | This polar bear is much bigger than you are. You'd never be able to Floyd | lug it around, and besides, you'd have little use for it. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "wear bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR BEAR Floyd | Floyd | (first taking the polar bear) Floyd | This polar bear is much bigger than you are. You'd never be able to Floyd | lug it around, and besides, you'd have little use for it. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Roger says (to floyd), "talk to bear" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK TO BEAR Floyd | Floyd | These frozen tableaux aren't going to provide very lively Floyd | conversation. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "look" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > LOOK Floyd | Floyd | Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | Dmitri's chest is pressed against the wall, arms overhead with his Floyd | fingernails raking down the wallpaper. Onegin is straddling his rear, Floyd | gripping his waist, paused mid-thrust with his cock halfway inside Floyd | Dmitri's cunt -- or maybe halfway out? Floyd | Floyd | As the countess's minion, it is Onegin's duty to carry her weapon, and Floyd | right now her cutlass is resting nearby on the floor in an opened Floyd | case. Floyd | Floyd | The polar bear itself is at least three meters tall, preserved Floyd | taxidermically in a perpetual roar with claws outspread. Traveling Floyd | counter-clockwise would reorient you toward the red salon, and the | Doug says, "ah well." | |
Floyd | grand staircase is in your past.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
| ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "kiss onegin" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > KISS ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | That's not in the playscript. Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "We're grave" | |
| hzomb says, "ok" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to hzomb), "Were you thinking of tapping him on the shoulder and saying, 'Mind if I cut in?'" | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "infect onegin" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | It isn't midnight yet. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug asks, "did we want to infect other things at the stroke?" | |
| hzomb says, "It is in character - they're helping you in the duel." | ||
| hzomb says, "You can try different targets in the duel." | ||
| Roger says, "Sure, we can infect other folks, the playscript, etc etc, why not; we've come this far" | ||
| Roger says, "I guess we haven't generally tried targetting ourselves either" | ||
| hzomb says, "We did the blade." | ||
| Guest2 goes home. | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "i" | ||
Floyd ] Behind a Polar Bear Floyd | > Floyd | > I Floyd | Floyd | You are carrying motley, a pig carcass, a vorpal blade, a rapier, and Floyd | a playscript, and you are wearing graveclothes. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "wake" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | You open your eyes. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | You open your eyes. Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect script" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | You must supply a noun. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect me" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT ME Floyd | Floyd | You are already teeming with infection. Floyd | Floyd | The countess is suddenly there, only inches away, and her cutlass Floyd | slices through your kielbasa and sinks promptly into your neck with a Floyd | horrible crunch. Those were vertebrae, weren't they? Floyd | Floyd | Bringing a sausage to a swordfight was the last mistake you'll ever Floyd | make. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect onegin" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT ONEGIN Floyd | Floyd | You raise your arm toward Onegin. That's enough. Floyd | Floyd | At first it seems that nothing has happened. After all, the bastard is Floyd | painted red from head to toe. It isn't immediately obvious that his Floyd | pores have begun to ooze blood. Floyd | Floyd | But then he notices. He looks down at himself, unable to tell where Floyd | the pain is coming from, and you smile at the answer: Everywhere. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke
Floyd | the pain is coming from, and you smile at the answer: Everywhere.
Floyd | Now he is screaming. He doesn't know where to put his hands. He is
Floyd | stepping around as though he were stepping on hot coals because even
Floyd | his soles are bloody. He is a devil writhing in a pit. He is a sinner
Floyd | being flayed alive. His flesh is slipping from him in red slabs,
Floyd | splattering onto the lawn, leaving his raw muscles exposed to the
Floyd | nighttime air.
Floyd |
Floyd | He has collapsed in agony, and the countess and your second have also
Floyd | collapsed in their own crimson puddles. It is a comprehensive plague.
Floyd |
Floyd | In the palace guests are falling too. Their shadows are erratic in the
Floyd | candlelit windows. You cannot picture them as real people. They are
Floyd | puppets and their strings have just been cut. It is a pandemonium, but
Floyd | it will all be over soon enough. It will end when the last reveler
Floyd | falls in the blood-bedewed halls, when the last screams are carried
Floyd | away by the breeze, when the candles blink out one by one as they
Floyd | gutter in wax.
Floyd |
Floyd | And then darkness and decay and the Red Death will hold illimitable
Floyd | dominion over all.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | *** Memento mori. ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last
Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN?
Floyd | >
| Doug says, "still comprehensive." | |
| Doug says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect all" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT ALL Floyd | Floyd | You can't use multiple objects with that verb. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect ferdinand" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT FERDINAND Floyd | Floyd | You raise your arm toward Ferdinand. That's enough. Floyd | Floyd | She knows what you've done almost before you've done it. There's Floyd | nothing she can do to save herself, but that doesn't stop her from Floyd | rushing to grapple your arm -- as if disabling you would reverse the Floyd | disease. Floyd | Floyd | You pull your arm away. It's effortless. Her grip is weak. You can't Floyd | understand why you ever viewed her as a friend, as an ally, when she's Floyd | just as bloodthirsty as the rest. | ||
| Doug pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke
Floyd | just as bloodthirsty as the rest.
Floyd | She does not scream when she begins to bleed from every pore. Her bald
Floyd | head is a red skull dripping blood. Her gaze into your face is
Floyd | ferocious. She won't surrender and she fights to hold herself
Floyd | together, but then she buckles and vomits everything onto the lawn:
Floyd | bile and blood.
Floyd |
Floyd | Now she is convulsing on the ground, and the countess and that bastard
Floyd | Onegin are convulsing in their own crimson puddles. It is a
Floyd | comprehensive plague.
Floyd |
Floyd | In the palace guests are falling too. Their shadows are erratic in the
Floyd | candlelit windows. You cannot picture them as real people. They are
Floyd | puppets and their strings have just been cut. It is a pandemonium, but
Floyd | it will all be over soon enough. It will end when the last reveler
Floyd | falls in the blood-bedewed halls, when the last screams are carried
Floyd | away by the breeze, when the candles blink out one by one as they
Floyd | gutter in wax.
Floyd |
Floyd | And then darkness and decay and the Red Death will hold illimitable
Floyd | dominion over all.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | *** Memento mori. ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last
Floyd | command, view the CREDITS, or look behind the CURTAIN?
Floyd | >
| hzomb says, "Genocide." | |
| Doug says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect moon" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT MOON Floyd | Floyd | You must supply a noun. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, ";" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Wow." | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "infect sausage" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT SAUSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | Doug says, "hm, I guess only people are nouns here" | |
| hzomb asks, "Did we bring it?" | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "i" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > I Floyd | Floyd | You are carrying a tremendous kielbasa and a playscript, and you are Floyd | wearing graveclothes. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "infect kielbasa" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT KIELBASA Floyd | Floyd | You must supply a noun. Floyd | Floyd | > | hzomb says, "yes" | |
| CMG says, "Moon and playscript aren't implemented for some reason. More things to fix. Hooray." | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect garden" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > INFECT GARDEN Floyd | Floyd | You must supply a noun. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to CMG), "Sorry. It's just one of the many services we provide." | |
| Doug says (to Floyd), "wear pig" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR PIG Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | CMG says, "I don't know why it's giving that message. I wrote rejection messages for trying to use infect on inanimate objects." | |
| hzomb says, ">version" | ||
| hzomb says (to Floyd), "version" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > VERSION Floyd | Floyd | Midnight. Swordfight. Floyd | A Folly by Chandler Groover Floyd | Release 1 / Serial number 151019 / Inform 7 build 6L38 (I6/v6.33 lib Floyd | 6/12N) Floyd | Identification number: //53B82FD1-5E12-41C5-9754-38E286481BBA// Floyd | Interpreter version 1.3.1 / VM 3.1.2 / Library serial number 080126 Floyd | Standard Rules version 3/120430 by Graham Nelson Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x script" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X SCRIPT Floyd | Floyd | Scene: Floyd | landscape garden, midnight Floyd | Floyd | A corpse engages a countess in a swordfight Floyd | in which the corpse... Floyd | and the countess... Floyd | Floyd | Stage directions: Floyd | inventory (i), examine (x) Floyd | attack, wake up Floyd | infect (when wearing graveclothes) Floyd | Floyd | The countess is suddenly there, only inches away, and her cutlass Floyd | slices through your kielbasa and sinks promptly into your neck with a Floyd | horrible crunch. Those were vertebrae, weren't they? Floyd | Floyd | Bringing a sausage to a swordfight was the last mistake you'll ever Floyd | make. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "infect curtain" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x curtain" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > X CURTAIN Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | CMG says, "You can only infect people, but the other things SHOULD give replies and they are not. Bleh." | |
| hzomb asks, "Is release 1 the latest version?" | ||
| Doug says, "alas" | ||
| Roger says, "A quirk in the rules ordering perhaps" | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x weapons" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > X WEAPONS Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x weapon" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X WEAPON Floyd | Floyd | (your weapon) Floyd | You're wielding a tremendous kielbasa. It's a joke, of course, because Floyd | you'll have just as much luck with this kielbasa for a weapon as you Floyd | would with a sword. The countess is going to absolutely slaughter you Floyd | tonight. Floyd | Floyd | She is suddenly there, only inches away, and her cutlass slices Floyd | through your kielbasa and sinks promptly into your neck with a Floyd | horrible crunch. Those were vertebrae, weren't they? Floyd | Floyd | Bringing a sausage to a swordfight was the last mistake you'll ever Floyd | make. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | Floyd | On the Stroke Floyd | How did you ever get into this predicament? A rumor, a glove thrown Floyd | down onto a dance-floor? Now you're standing in the moonlight and your Floyd | knees are knocking together, although you hope that no one notices. Floyd | You're still dressed for a masquerade and nothing feels quite real. Floyd | Perhaps it isn't real... and all you need to do is wake up from Floyd | this nightmare. Floyd | Floyd | The scene is set: landscape garden. Floyd | Floyd | The cast: your second, Ferdinand, handing your weapon over; your Floyd | rival's second, Onegin, handing her weapon over; and your Floyd | rival -- the countess. Floyd | Floyd | "En garde!" the countess cries. Floyd | Floyd | > | CMG says, "I haven't updated the release number. Maybe I should. Something in the code must be overriding those descriptions for infect." | |
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x vorpal" | ||
Floyd ] On the Stroke Floyd | > Floyd | > X VORPAL Floyd | Floyd | You squint but can't see that. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Doug says (to Floyd), "x countess's weapon" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > X COUNTESS'S WEAPON Floyd | Floyd | Through some twist in fate, the countess is wielding a cutlass Floyd | tonight. Perhaps it's not her typical rapier, but she's just as Floyd | dangerous with any blade. Floyd | Floyd | She is suddenly there, only inches away, and her cutlass slices Floyd | through your kielbasa and sinks promptly into your neck with a Floyd | horrible crunch. Those were vertebrae, weren't they? Floyd | Floyd | Bringing a sausage to a swordfight was the last mistake you'll ever Floyd | make. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** Curtain. *** Floyd | Floyd | But the curtain can be raised again... | Doug says, "oh right, I gave her my cutlass" | |
| Doug says, "well anyway, there are other weapon arrangements, but I don't recall them leading to significantly different endings." | ||
| Doug asks (of CMG), "are there other clues we missed? about the duel, or the murders, or the vendetta?" | ||
| hzomb says, "There is a xvffvat ending." | ||
| Guest3 goes home. | hzomb asks, "Did we talk to Dmitri?" | |
| CMG says, "I don't think I should comment on the story." | ||
| hzomb says, "It's for each reader to draw their own interpretation." | ||
| hzomb says, "(Another xvffvat ending.)" | ||
| Doug says, "well, I wasn't looking for specific, just wondering whether you think there's anything significant that we missed. But probably you haven't finished reading the transcript" | ||
| Doug says, "*specifics" | ||
| Doug says, "but I could also see you not wanting to answer that too. :)" | ||
| hzomb says, "I don't see any Dmitri talk in recap." | ||
| Doug says, "there was lots of Dmitri talk" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to CMG), "There's another channel (#cf-spoilers) if you want to talk there. It won't be included in the final transcript." | ||
| Roger says, "Yeah we chatted him up quite a bit" | ||
| hzomb says, "ok. Just Red Death to ask about." | ||
| CMG says, "Yeah I've been skimming the transcript while also trying to read the live chat. But I'd still refrain from pointing to clues about the murders, etc." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh, I guess it's actually #cfspoilers, but anyway I've added you to it." | ||
| Doug says, "I guess I was more just wondering if there is a definite answer to be found, or if it's all just incomplete hints" | ||
| Doug says, "i.e. is it a solvable mystery like Toby's Nose, or more of a fill-in-your-own-blanks thing" | ||
| CMG says, "I do not consider it to be as open-ended and wishy-washy as some reviwers have claimed. I'll say that." | ||
| Doug says, "but I am happy to continue wondering." | ||
| CMG says, "It's not solvable like Toby's Nose where the answer will be spelled out in bold letters. You have to think about the story." | ||
| Roger says, "Not me! I'm taking this at face value." | ||
| CMG says, "You can take it at face value. That's a valid choice." | ||
| Doug tries to peel off Roger's mask but it won't budge! | ||
| hzomb says, "For the longest time I tried to force it into a moral choices mold." | ||
| hzomb says, "It's interesting how drama and morality point opposite ways. Infect = kill all = DRAMATIC = IMMORAL." | ||
| hzomb says, "But the script and the roles suggest a stage setting." | ||
| Roger says, "It threads an interesting path through parser and choice" | ||
| hzomb asks, "You mean the restricted verb set?" | ||
| Roger says, "yeah" | ||
| hzomb says, "You can't drop the infected clothes. In moral terms: the game won't let you put a weapon of mass destruction beyond use." | ||
| hzomb says, "In game terms, dropping a costume makes no sense: you would be restricting dramatic options." | ||
| hzomb says, "It's hard to argue that the work is realistic which would give credence to a moral choices view." | ||
| hzomb says, "But on the other hand, other characters can't change their roles (e.g. can't swap costumes). You control their fates." | ||
| hzomb says, "Which raises doubts that it is a simple stage setting." | ||
| CMG exclaims, "I really appreciate how you're thinking about it, hzomb!" | ||
| hzomb says, "It took a long time to understand how I was thinking about Midnight." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Thank you, everyone." | ||
| hzomb says, "The voyeurism scene did jar me. For a while I had a fantasy of an entirely female case." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I think next week, which is the last week before we do New Year's stuff, we'll play Sub Rosa, which appears to be the next Floydable game." | ||
| hzomb says, "<3" | ||
| Roger says, "Huzzah" | ||
| hzomb says, "That's an intricate one to get the best score." | ||
| Roger says, "Thanks everyone for this week" | ||
| hzomb also tested Sub Rosa. | ||
| hzomb asks, "Is the update out?" | ||
| hzomb says, "They are planning an update (which I've tested)." | ||
| Doug says, "FYI, Sub Rosa is quite long/difficult. at least, I didn't come close to finishing it in 2 hours." | ||
| Doug says, "it's pretty great though" | ||
| hzomb says, "It depends if you want a perfect score." | ||
| hzomb says, "You can possibly solver the puzzles in 90 minutes and let the score slide." | ||
| Doug says, "well, my score was 0/7" | ||
| Roger disappears through an invisible gap in the MUD. You think you may have heard the sounds of chatting before the gap closed again. | Doug says, "also DavidW has played it so we wouldn't have his expertise available" | |
| Doug says, "though of course he could hint us when we get stuck." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Sometimes all we do is a taste test. That's okay." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Gives us all a sense of whether or not we'd personally want to continue." | ||
| Doug says, "fair enough." | ||
| Doug says, "poor Map" | ||
| hzomb says, "It took me three plays of Map to figure out how to make the first choice." | ||
| hzomb asks, "Was it like that for you?" | ||
| hzomb says, "I examined everything. And it was emotionally overwhelming." | ||
| Doug says, "I did not find Aunt May on the first day, but I figured out how things generally worked by the third day I think" | ||
| Doug says, "I didn't go back to replay yet though" | ||
| Doug says, "I did finish during my 2-hour judging window." | ||
| Doug says, "actually I think I went a little over" | ||
| Doug says, "but yeah, Map did not go over well at Club Floyd" | ||
| Doug says, "they quit on day 2" | ||
| hzomb says, "It's a downer character." | ||
| Roger says, "Alas we did" | ||
| Doug says, "yeah, it's definitely a bleak start. well, bleak throughout, mostly" | ||
| hzomb says, "The light at the end of the tunnel is the prospect of sorting her life out." | ||
| Doug says, "but it does take a long time to figure out the overall structure of the game" | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of hzomb), "But at what personal expense to our own lives?" | ||
| Doug says, "and it's a little misleading that you can explore and examine stuff as in a typical parser game." | ||
| hzomb says, "I didn't suffer but I did get very emotional reading it. It was a heavy experience." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "It's like the Interactive Fiction of Dorian Gray... we get sadder as the protagonist turns their life around." | ||
| Doug says, "I mean, I wouldn't want to turn it into a pure choice game, but it's an interesting design question" | ||
| hzomb asks, "It could be a shorter sharper choice game. But would it be poignant?" | ||
| Doug says, "and I think it didn't match up with Club Floyd's usual MO" | ||
| Doug says, "which is to be very cautious and examine/do everything before moving on" | ||
| hzomb says, "Examining for clues vs for flavour." | ||
| Doug says, "like today, it was interesting how long it took before we went back to the duel" | ||
| hzomb says, "You could just touch on a few things in Map and get the gist." | ||
| Doug says, "I think people were expecting that we had to get everything just right before returning to the duel" | ||
| hzomb says, "I had the opposite fear that people would breeze through in 10 minutes and dismiss the work." | ||
| Doug says, "yeah, I was glad that eventually DavidW noticed the "wake up" clue. It's funny how people miss that (I totally missed it myself)" | ||
| Doug says, "well, eventually I saw it, but" | ||
| Roger says, "I did get the sense that we would need to go off-script somehow" | ||
| hzomb says, "Yeah I wondered if script should run automatically. Or announce changes." | ||
| hzomb says, "It's surprising that the script changes without you doing anything." | ||
| Doug says, "the script actually expands to include WAKE UP" | ||
| Doug says, "after dying 3 or 4 times, I think" | ||
| Roger says, "ah" | ||
| Doug says, "and it's also mentioned in the room description, but it's easy to ignore that since the rest of it is the same every time" | ||
| Doug says, "I mean, I think the way it works is just fine, it's just funny that it's still easy to miss" | ||
| hzomb says, "I also didn't twig at first that the script changes when you wear a new costume." | ||
| hzomb says, "The costumes work well in the formalism. But I still find it clunky switching between verb sets." | ||
| hzomb says, "Typically your character learns new verbs but doesn't lose them (you don't drop items often)." | ||
| hzomb says, "(for games in general.)" | ||
| Doug says, "true" | ||
| Doug says, "I didn't mind it that much. It helps that you can WEAR a costume and it auto-removes the old one" | ||
| hzomb says, "Yes, the author thinks a lot about how to make it simple and convenient (part of the motivation for the restricted verb sets)." | ||
| Doug says, "ok, time for me to get some food. Thanks for playing & chatting, everyone!" | ||
| Doug has had his fill of playing for now, and goes back to the Lounge. | Jacqueline exclaims, "Yes. Thanks, all!" | |
| hzomb says, "Thanks I enjoyed it." | ||
