Counterfeit Monkey — 168 of 292

Section 2 - Private Solarium

The Private Solarium is east of Personal Apartment. It is indoors and forbidden. It contains a coffee table and a chaise longue. The description of the coffee table is "Antique as well, most likely. It is the same handsome wood as the furnishings in the rest of the apartment."

Rule for listing exits when looking in the Private Solarium:

do nothing instead.

The coffee table is scenery. On the coffee table is a silver tray. On the silver tray are some jacks, a cloth napkin, some crumbs, and a dirty coffee cup. The silver tray is not fixed in place.

The description of the jacks is "A set of children's playing jacks[if the jacks are not handled and the jacks are on the silver tray]. They are lined up, with curious precision, into the letter A[end if]."

Rule for writing a topic sentence about the silver tray when the silver tray is on the coffee table:

say "Left on [a coffee table] (as though waiting for maid service) is [a silver tray]. [run paragraph on]"

The chaise longue is a chair. The description of the chaise longue is "It implies afternoons of elegant indolence. Many of them." It is scenery. On it is an ebook reader.

The description of the silver tray is "Just matte enough to give no reflections, and stamped with a classical Atlantean pattern of overlapping olive branches and chard leaves."

The description of the cloth napkin is "Good linen in eau-de-nil, monogrammed with a large A, and smeared with a few smudges of honey." It is floppy and wearable. The heft of the cloth napkin is 1.

The description of the crumbs is "At a guess, they come from some sort of breakfast roll or pastry." The crumbs are edible. The heft of the crumbs is 1. Instead of taking the crumbs: say "[You] know they'll only make a mess."

The description of the coffee cup is "The residual liquid in the bottom reveals that the person whose breakfast this was takes a small amount of milk and no sugar." The coffee cup is a container.

The description of the ebook reader is "An expensive recent model, silver-backed, with a glossy touch screen." The ebook reader is a computer. Book search is a search engine. The ebook runs book search. The data table of book search is the Table of Dull Data. Understand "list" or "list of books" as the ebook reader.

Understand "scroll [something]" as scrolling. Scrolling is an action applying to one thing. Check scrolling: say "I'm not sure how you can scroll [a noun]." instead.

Instead of scrolling the ebook reader:

choose a random row in the Table of Dull Data;

say "[You] scroll through a selection of [title entry]. [data entry][paragraph break]".

The description of Book search is "There is a long, scrolling list of books, with titles on economics, biography, linguistics, and history. A search bubble allows the user to search for specific genres or titles."

Table of Dull Data

The tall window is an attackable door. "A window in the north wall, cut out through the cliff face, gives a view of [if the current daytime is sunset]the ocean in fading sunlight[otherwise if the current daytime is evening]tranquil sea under a darkening sky[otherwise]brilliant sunlight and the hot sea[end if]." It is north of Private Solarium and south of the Precarious Perch.

The description of the tall window is "[if the tall window is open]The window stands open.[else]The window is closed.[end if]".

After examining the tall window, try searching the tall window.

Instead of going south through the tall window when the tall window is locked:

say "It's locked again. There's no way for us but forward from here."

Rule for writing a paragraph about the tall window when the location is the Precarious Perch:

if the tall window is open:

say "The window in the cliff face opens onto the solarium to the south.";

otherwise:

say "It's hard to see through the tall window to the room behind: mostly it reflects the sea."

Instead of searching the tall window:

if the player is in Precarious Perch:

if atlantida-refreshed is in Private Solarium:

say "Atlantida waves to us, then turns back to deal with any approaching guards.";

now atlantida-refreshed is in the personal apartment;

else:

say "The room is there, to be sure, but no one is coming just yet.";

otherwise:

say "Through the window, there's a beautiful view of the sea; but further inspection also reveals a narrow strip of grassy ledge, really only just wide enough to stand on, before a steep descent over stones."

Check attacking the tall window with something:

say "[The second noun] bounce[s] harmlessly off the window glass. It must be artificially strengthened or something." instead.

Instead of climbing the tall window:

try entering the tall window.

Instead of going through the closed tall window:

say "The window is shut: you'd break the glass."

Official Grounds is a region. The Antechamber, Rotunda, Tools Exhibit, All-Purpose Office, Bureau Hallway, Bureau Basement South, Bureau Basement Middle, Bureau Basement Secret Section, Wonderland, and Sensitive Equipment Testing Room, Equipment Archive, Cold Storage, Display Reloading Room, Workshop, Generator Room, Surveillance Room, and Oracle Project are in the Official Grounds.

The Antechamber, All-Purpose Office, Bureau Hallway, Bureau Basement South, Bureau Basement Middle, Bureau Basement Secret Section [, Wonderland, Display Reloading Room, Oracle Project, Workshop, Equipment Archive, and Cold Storage] are privately-controlled.

Report facing in Official Grounds when the location is Wonderland or the location is Basement Secret Section:

if the noun is up or the noun is down:

say "There are no obvious exits that way." instead;

say "None of the doors in that direction look useful to us, and some of them look frightening." instead.