Adventure Gamers - Forums

>e

All-Purpose Office
There’s a front desk at which a receptionist meets with members of the public and assesses their needs; beyond that, the room is crowded with dozens of stations for the use of the All-Purpose Officers, and stretches back some distance. It looks like an old-fashioned newsroom.

Fully half the stations are empty, due to their owners being away on call somewhere on the island, but the rest are fully occupied — many of them by people who wear authentication monocles routinely.

I’m pretty sure that hanging out here is the best way to get caught in a hurry, though, so let’s duck back out, shall we? Maybe one of the other rooms will offer us better prospects.

Bureau Hallway
This is a long hallway with many doors leading off, the business of the bureau being varied and all-encompassing; it is for all essential purposes the chief organ of government in Atlantis, since only a few topics are brought to citizen referendum.

We can go east to the All-Purpose Office, west to the Antechamber, and down from here.

>d

Bureau Basement South
We have descended into a windowless underground passage. The hallway runs north from here, and for an eerily long way — the tunnels must extend well beyond the above-ground profile of the building.

Propped in the corner are some articles that were probably meant to be used as part of the Serial Comma Day Fair, but got confiscated instead: a seer automaton and a plywood cutout depicting Atlantida.

We can go north and up to the Bureau Hallway from here.

>x seer
It’s a robotic head inside a glass box. When turned on, it gives out fortunes. There’s an old-fashioned carnival feel about the thing, and the fact that it’s a portable size makes it a good candidate for traveling fairs.

The seer automaton is currently switched off.

>x cutout
It’s one of those plywood cutouts where a tourist sticks his head through and someone else takes a photo showing the tourist a funny pose. This one puts the tourist’s face on Atlantida, complete with flowing blue robes and expansive bosom.

>turn on seer
The seer cranks to life, looks us up and down with painted wooden eyeballs, and in a tinny voice, says, “I predict you will become BIG. Much bigger than you were yesterday.”

EDIT: It says 3 different things when you turn it on again.

>g
The seer cranks to life, looks us up and down with painted wooden eyeballs, and in a tinny voice, says, “I predict you will escape.” Asthmatic whirring. “Possibly on the back of an interstellar whale.”

>g
The seer cranks to life, looks us up and down with painted wooden eyeballs, and in a tinny voice, says, “I predict the Bureau won’t last past tomorrow.”

>wear monocle
(first taking the monocle)
(opening the backpack)
Everything turns computer-monitor green when viewed through our right eye. And staring fixedly at anything will turn up its authenticity status.

>x seer
It’s a robotic head inside a glass box. When turned on, it gives out fortunes. There’s an old-fashioned carnival feel about the thing, and the fact that it’s a portable size makes it a good candidate for traveling fairs.

The seer automaton is currently switched off.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the seer automaton with the crosshairs.

>x cutout
It’s one of those plywood cutouts where a tourist sticks his head through and someone else takes a photo showing the tourist a funny pose. This one puts the tourist’s face on Atlantida, complete with flowing blue robes and expansive bosom.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the plywood cutout with the crosshairs.

>wave r-remover at seer
We reset the device to r. It might be difficult to do that here without attracting notice.

>get all
seer automaton: We take the seer automaton.

>get cutout
That’s fixed in place.

>n

Bureau Basement Middle
The hallway continues both north and south, flanked by doors painted immutable colors: hyacinth, celadon, chartreuse.

The cute security door at the north end is solidly shut.

An adorable video camera hangs in the left corner above the door.

>x camera
It has a lens, certainly, but it is also made of pink plastic and has cat ears. And it looks like it will recognize us if we approach, perhaps?

The monocle pings happily as we sight the adorable video camera with the crosshairs.

>approach camera
The guards have apparently been instructed to allow us in, because as we approach, the door slides open.

The door seals behind us as soon as we are through.

Bureau Basement Secret Section
The heightened security on this side of the door is obvious everywhere we look. The floor is tiled in paisley tiles. The light fixtures give off pale pink light. The walls are covered in frog leather. The doors are locked with padlocks the size of handbags, locks decorated à la Louis Quinze, combination locks made of solid gold. There is not a bare noun in sight.

The cute security door at the south end is solidly shut.

The hallway runs from south (comparatively normal) to north (deeply frightening). Just west is the equipment testing room.

>w

Sensitive Equipment Testing Room
A room with no windows, no cameras, no recording equipment, and barely any furniture.

A rock sits in one corner of the room.

At the center of the room is a gleaming new T-inserter Machine. This is a state of the art device: letter removal has been well understood for decades, but insertion is much more dangerous and difficult, fraught with ambiguity.

>x machine
Made of brushed steel, it resembles an industrial espresso machine, with a space in which to insert items. A dozen small nozzles poke into this space, and the grate beneath is ready to drain off any superfluity of T-ness. There is a tiny brass plate near the base of the machine.

>x plate
DENTAL CONSONANTS LTD — ABSOLUTELY NO PALATALS OR LABIALS — GUARANTEED

I think this is a good moment for the Dental poster. 

>x rock
Heavy, dark, and roughly hexagonal, like a slice of basalt column.

>get rock
We get the rock.

>i
We are equipped with the following essentials: a backpack, a flash drive, a monocle, some Origin Paste, a pan (really the smuggled plans in disguise), your R-remover (upgraded to handle animates and abstracts), a rock, a roll, and a tub of restoration gel.

We are also carrying some ale, some asparagus, a ball, a band, a bandana, a pair of Britishizing goggles, a clock, a coat, a cross, a crumpled cocktail napkin, a draft document, a funnel, Guidebook to Anglophone Atlantis, a jotter, Journal of Third-World Economics, a keycard (which opens the small door), a leaflet, a letter, lime, a map of Slangovia, some members, a pass, a pearl, a pic, a poppy, a ring (which opens the sturdy iron gate), a seer automaton, a shopping bag, a shrimp tail, a shuttle, a silver platter, a stick, Studies in Primary Language Acquisition, a stuffed octopus, a watch, a wig, a word, and a yam.

Of that collection, the flash drive, the leaflet, and the Origin Paste are packed away in the backpack, which is gaping wide open so everyone can see what’s inside.

We are wearing the bandana, the ring (which opens the sturdy iron gate), and the wig.

Pegbiter - 28 March 2021 09:40 AM

Did anyone already have ideas about what to use the t-inserter on?

>wear monocle

Damn! I removed the monocle on purpose. Yeah, I know, you didn’t tell me to but I wanted to make it just a teeny-weeny-itsy-bitsy more difficult. Sue me! I didn’t wear the monocle in my own playthrough.

>wear monocle
Everything turns computer-monitor green when viewed through our right eye. And staring fixedly at anything will turn up its authenticity status.

>x rock
Heavy, dark, and roughly hexagonal, like a slice of basalt column.

There is a dismissive blatt from the monocle, and transposed over the rock is a faint, greenish image of Brock.

>put ale in machine
There is a loud and satisfying pop from the machine as it turns the ale into a tale.

It begins with “once upon a time,” and the letters scroll up delicately through the air when we start to read. It weaves a narrative as follows:

Once upon a time, a prophetess saw in a dream that the island of Atlantis would sink into the sea. This message fell on deaf ears, except for a clam-picker’s wife, who set out to prevent it.

In the midst of going door to door looking for anyone who could offer advice, she was interrupted by a squid. The clam-picker’s wife said, “Go away! Can’t you see I’m busy?” But the squid said, “I wanted only to give you this gift of lying.” Thinking nothing of it, the clam-picker’s wife went on her way.

The clam-picker’s wife traveled for many nights and days into the center of the island, until she came to a deep hole in the earth. Going down in the deep hole, she found stairs that descended for ten thousand steps. And at the bottom of the hole was a great cave; and there in the cave was a winch that held the island up. And beside it was a whale who was preparing to turn the winch and plunge the island into the sea.

Using the gift of lying, she was able to tame the whale.

The next morning she met the squid again. Astonished, she said, “Why did you give the gift of lying to me after I treated you unkindly?” The squid replied: “In payment, you and your family must always treat me well and bring me gifts.” Thus the island was saved from sinking.

There is a dismissive blatt from the monocle, and transposed over the tale is a faint, greenish image of an apple.

Of course, there were other options there: the T-inserter could have made two words. But it seems to be disambiguating to the tale. The question now is whether it would do so consistently or whether its behavior is underdetermined; we don’t have time for a really thorough trial set, but checking a couple more times may be indicative.

[Your score has gone up by one point and is now seventy-nine.]