Adventure Gamers - Forums

>select main
I return to the operating system.

The following options are visible on the screen:

Security Cameras
Power Grid
Requisitions
Access Records

The monocle pings happily as I sight PCOS with the crosshairs.

>select power grid
The screen flashes up a schematic of the entire Bureau — the public rooms we’re familiar with, the basement, and the special section we’re in now. It appears that three different power supplies feed these, one for the public areas and one, more heavily backed up, for most of the basement. Both of these are running.

A third power supply is located east of here, and is currently shut down, leaving the eastern rooms dark.

>select requisitions
The screen brings up what appears to be a system for requisitioning and supply for this area. The recent entries are diverse and in some cases cryptic:

34224 eBook order at request of Subject A details attached
34223 toys and diversions order at request of Subject A, children’s jacks, balls, puzzles, games
34222 espresso beans for Subject A - previous order unacceptable see attached
34221 bakery requisition
34220 coffee beans resupply for Subject A
34219 berg resupply to boiler - previous supply melted - NB new supply is required even if not used
34218 rifle resupply for handlers for Subject A, new gel required as safety measure

...and so on, scrolling back and back and back.

>select access records
This selection brings up on screen a database of “Accesses.” Still visible for today’s date is a record labeled Inquiry on Civic Unrest.

I can type search terms to look for data records.

I can also select MAIN to return to the operating system.

>type subject A
The search turns up the following results:

—: By all appearances every entry concerns “Subject A” in some way or other, so that wouldn’t narrow things down much.

>select security cameras
I select the surveillance program. It brings up a menu of possible camera views. The following options are visible on the screen:

Statue
Customs House
Front Exit
Tools Exhibit
Interrogation Rooms Circuit
Cold Storage
Subject A Porch
Subject A Dwelling Space
North Exit

I can also select MAIN to return to the operating system.

>select subject A dwelling space
Nothing shows but a steady field of static.

>select subject A porch
The camera shifts to show a dimly lit corridor cut through sedimentary rock.

>d

Tunnel through Chalk
This passage has been cut through natural cliff rock and looks older than the Bureau itself. The walls are rough-hewn, exposing sedimentary strata. Here and there it looks as though someone has actually excavated a favored rock or relic.

Blocking the far end of the corridor is a metal portcullis. It is currently lowered. From the pulley above the portcullis hangs a counter.

I can go east through the portcullis (closed) and up to the Surveillance Room from here.

There’s a faint tang of salt air.

>x portcullis
Heavy black metal bars, left from a much earlier state. It is currently lowered. From the pulley above the portcullis hangs a counter.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the portcullis with the crosshairs.

>x counter
One of those devices with a press-button to increment a number, to assist with counting things like the number of people attending an event. There’s also a loop to let the user wear it over one finger. The counter currently reads 17.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the counter with the crosshairs.

>x pulley
Rope runs from the top of the portcullis over pulleys and down to a hook. It looks like a contrivance to help open the portcullis.

On the pulley is a counter.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the pulley with the crosshairs.

Tunnel through Chalk
This passage has been cut through natural cliff rock and looks older than the Bureau itself. The walls are rough-hewn, exposing sedimentary strata. Here and there it looks as though someone has actually excavated a favored rock or relic.

Blocking the far end of the corridor is a metal portcullis. It is currently lowered. From the pulley above the portcullis hangs a counter.

I can go east through the portcullis (closed) and up to the Surveillance Room from here.

>get counter
I take the counter.

>x counter
One of those devices with a press-button to increment a number, to assist with counting things like the number of people attending an event. There’s also a loop to let the user wear it over one finger. The counter currently reads 17.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the counter with the crosshairs.

>x rope
Rope runs from the top of the portcullis over pulleys and down to a hook. It looks like a contrivance to help open the portcullis.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the pulley with the crosshairs.

>pull it
Even pulling from above, I can’t budge the portcullis. Some additional weight is required.

>x hook
Rope runs from the top of the portcullis over pulleys and down to a hook. It looks like a contrivance to help open the portcullis.

>rub gel on wet epigraph
I dip out a pea-sized quantity of gel and rub it gently onto the wet epigraph. With an audible SPLORT, the wet epigraph becomes a weight and a paper.

>x weight
Shaped like a headless pyramid. “0.5 kg” is stamped in the top together with the seal of the Bureau. It’s an official weight, intended to reassure citizens that they were getting a genuine standard measure.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the weight with the crosshairs.

>x paper
It contains a memo, dated to May of 1983. “Attention,” it says. “Due to subversive counter-propaganda altering the abstract concept, Subject A must NO LONGER BE GELLED AFTER USE, since reconstructing her may produce anomalous results. She will from now on be housed in a continuous living state in the historic apartments.”

Interesting!

The monocle pings happily as I sight the paper with the crosshairs.

>put weight on hook
This weight isn’t substantial enough, and also provides no loop or ring that would let it hang from the hook.

A breeze along the passage stirs the dust.

>u

Surveillance Room
A surveillance computer is mounted on the wall, an impressive flat screen readout displaying current activity.

Another room lies to the east. The door I came through is west, and there is also a spiral staircase down to the tunnel.

>e

Workshop
A room whose importance is obvious from how clean it is and how little furniture it is allowed to have.

A programmable dais sits in the middle of the room. It has the raw look of lab equipment rather than a nice smooth commercial instrument.

A specialized wall socket is built into the east wall, clearly not part of the ordinary power system for the Bureau.

I can go east and west to the Surveillance Room from here.

>x dais
It’s a round black metal platform with substantial stabilizing coils visible underneath, five or six feet in diameter. This is experimental lab grade letter equipment, ferociously powerful, insanely dangerous.

The dais has a big lever, a massive switch, and a dais socket (with no cord currently plugged in).

>x lever
One of those big heavy levers you see at demolitions. You won’t be tripping this thing by accident.

The big lever is currently switched off.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the big lever with the crosshairs.

>x switch
A large black switch with a red arrow painted on it. There are two stops, labeled with black marker on tape: swap homonym and synthesize. It is currently set to swap homonym.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the massive switch with the crosshairs.

>x socket
A power socket suitable for plugging a cord into.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the wall socket with the crosshairs.

>e

Generator Room
The walls are lined with concrete. Yellow paint lettering says CAUTION: HIGH ENERGY EQUIPMENT and DO NOT OPERATE WITHOUT TRAINING.

A first aid station is built onto the wall. It is closed.

Most of the room is taken up with a gigantic boiler installation that is currently off. The locking mechanism is a brushed steel bucket, currently empty.

>x station
It’s a large box mounted to the wall, with a red cross painted on the front of it.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the first aid station with the crosshairs.

>x boiler
This frighteningly massive contraption has pipes and compression tanks and steam gauges and dents and rust stains. All the gauge needles point to 0. A thick glass pane allows a view of one of the first chambers.

The boiler is currently switched off.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the boiler with the crosshairs.

>x bucket
Attached to the machine is a brushed steel bucket, with insulated walls; it looks like a large version of an ice bucket for chilling sparkling wines.

Around the outside of the bucket are all sorts of odd gears, sprockets, parts, and bits, which have been attached in a haphazard way with bolts, wire, and duct tape. Presumably this does something to items placed in the bucket.

At the lip of the bucket is a switch labeled REVERSE. The switch is currently off.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the brushed steel bucket with the crosshairs.

>x switch
The reverse switch is currently switched off.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the reverse switch with the crosshairs.

>open station
I open the first aid station, revealing some balm.

>x balm
According to the label, it is designed to relieve the pain of severe burns.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the balm with the crosshairs.

>get it
I take the balm.

>put yam in bucket
There is a churning noise from within the brushed steel bucket and “yem” appears in letters of hot pink smoke. Then the smoke dissipates without result.

>pull switch
Nothing obvious happens.