Counterfeit Monkey — 111 of 292

Section 4 - Roget Close

Roget Close is west of Webster Court. "A pleasantly sheltered lane in which I learned to ride a bicycle, and where my friend Lucy used to live, before she and her parents moved off-island. Restrictions were looser even twenty years ago. Our old [schoolhouse] is just west of here."

[Instead of looking in Roget Close when Private Beach is visited and lexicon-tick is 0:

do nothing instead.]

Instead of going west in Roget Close:

say "School is out for the holiday. [run paragraph on]";

carry out the listing exits activity.

The schoolhouse is a facade in Roget Close. It fronts west. It is scenery. Understand "school" or "elementary" or "building" or "big" or "arched" or "windows" or "faded" or "floorboards" or "yard" or "schoolyard" as the schoolhouse. The description is "[one of]It's where I went to school until I was twelve, as did most of the kids in this area. It's an old building with big arched windows and faded floorboards, and in the afternoon the schoolyard smells of spilled milk going sour in the sun. [or][stopping]From this direction there's not much to see but the screen of palm trees in front."

Some handsome old houses are a backdrop. They are in Hesychius Street and Roget Close. They are scenery. They screen south. The description is "Many of them built in the mid- or late 19th century, the houses are designed for families with a number of servants. Some of the owners even continue to keep up establishments on that scale." Understand "villas" as the handsome old houses.

Some palm trees are scenery in Roget Close. Understand "screen" or "palms" as the palm trees. The description is "They aren't the very tall and graceful kind, but a stumpier variety, forming a sort of vegetative colonnade in front of the school building[if the gum is in the location and the gum is not handled]. There's some [gum] stuck to the base of the nearest tree[end if]."

Instead of climbing palm trees:

say "Were you good at pole climbing exercises in gym? Because I wasn't."

[Because it requires several levels of examination, it's likely that many players will miss the gum entirely -- which is fine, because there are several other, more prominent solutions to the spinner puzzle. The aim here is to provide a reward to people whose first instinct is deep rather than broad exploration when they're faced with a new puzzle.

Once they *have* seen the gum, it becomes more prominently visible in the room description to hint that they could interact with it if they want.]

The gum is in Roget Close. It is edible. The heft of the gum is 1. The indefinite article is "some". "Gum adheres to one of the palm trees, left no doubt by some departing school kid." The description is "The lump of blue-green gum has largely dried, but is still intensely unappetizing."

The scent-description is "spearmint".

Understand "lump" or "blue-green" as the gum.

Sanity-check eating the gum:

say "I'm afraid I've never cared for ABC gum." instead.

Sanity-check tasting the gum:

say "I'm afraid I've never cared for ABC gum." instead.

A description-concealing rule when the gum is marked for listing:

if the gum is not handled and the gum is not seen:

now the gum is not marked for listing.

Test gum with "tutorial off / look / x school / x palm / look / x gum / get gum / look / x palm trees / chew gum / eat gum / drop gum / look / get gum / put gum on spinner / get mug / x mug / wave g-remover at mug / n" in Roget Close.

Rule for listing exits while looking in Roget Close:

do nothing instead.

After going from Roget Close to the Winding Footpath:

let N be the number of entries in the described motion of the player;

if N is greater than 0:

say "[You] walk through the wealthy neighb[our]hood to Roget Close. ";

clear path-walked for the player;

increase path description count by 1;

say "[if N is greater than 0]There [you][otherwise][You][end if] slip between the houses and down a path that looks as though it might lead to someone's back yard. No one has ever put up signage to correct this misapprehension because no one who lives around here is eager to encourage strangers on the private beach.

Soon, however, the footpath begins to descend purposefully towards the level of the ocean[if the location is the final destination].[otherwise].[paragraph break][end if]";

continue the action;