A Packing Adventure

You are standing in a box maze of twisty little passages, looking all alike.   There are exits to the north, south, east, and west.  From somewhere behind you, you sense heated air emerging from some sort of vent.  A cat meows in the distance. 

There is a scrap of paper on the floor. 

> take paper

Taken.

> read paper

Most of the paper is in a barely-decipherable scribble, but you can make out the following note: "Check ref. in Haight."

> N

You are standing in a box maze of twisty little passages, looking all alike.  There is a tan couch to the east, but you can't reach it because of the boxes.  Two armchairs stand to your west, one of them covered with curtains.  There are exits to the north and south. 

Something appears to be moving under the curtains. 

> take curtains

A black-and-white cat appears.  It stares at you with considerable disdain, then vanishes.

> N

You have entered a strange room of mostly empty bookshelves.  Boxes clutter the floor at various points, including several half-open boxes of DVDs.  There is an exit to the south.

> look DVDs

There are several DVDs of Hamlet here.  One of them has a post-it note attached.

> read note

In the same barely-decipherable scribble, the note informs you that "You're supposed to be checking the ref. in Haight, you idiot."

A cat meows in the distance, somewhat more urgently.

> S

You are standing in a box maze of twisty little passages, looking all alike.  There is a tan couch to the east, but you can't reach it because of the boxes.  Two armchairs stand to your west.  There are exits to the north and south. 

> check inventory

Note

Curtains

Paper bag

Flashlight

Pen

> look bag

The bag contains a chocolate-chip cookie.

> eat cookie

You feel much more energetic.

> S

You are standing in a box maze of twisty little passages, looking all alike.  There are exits to the north, south, east, and west.

Wow, that cat sounds hungry.

> W

You are standing in a hallway.  For some reason, there are no boxes here.  There are exits to the north, south, east, and west.

> N

You are standing in an extremely discombobulated office.  A computer sits on a rolltop desk.

> look computer

There is a conference paper on the screen.  At the bottom of the page, in blinking magenta letters, you see the words "HURRY UP AND CHECK THAT REF. IN HAIGHT."

Dude, that cat is starving.

> S

Hallway.

> S

You are standing in a bedroom.  Rows of boxes occupy virtually the entire floor.  The boxes are labeled with strange abbreviations, like "Anth," "H," and "Bio."

> find Haight

Yo, Haight!

> look Haight

I don't see a Haight here.

> what is Haight

Presumably, "Haight" refers to Gordon Haight's authoritative biography of George Eliot.

> look "bio"

There are thirty boxes labeled "bio."  Which one do you want me to look at?

> look all "bio"

Unfortunately, you can't reach most of them.  They're stacked at the back of the room, behind "H," "20th C," and "Lit Crit."

> unstack boxes

I would do that, except that there's no place to put them.

> how the *!@!*#!? am  I supposed to check Haight?

Watch your language! Your mother reads this blog.

> just tell me how I'm supposed to check Haight

I'd suggest using the university library, except that  it's closed for the next two weeks.  Your next best option is to go to the Huntington Library.  Of course, that's on the other side of the country.

> I thought this was "Adventure," not the Kobayashi Maru

Failure builds character.

You hear a strange growling noise from behind you, as though you were being stalked by some ferocious predator.

Did you forget to feed the cat?

> feed cat

There's no food here.

> find food

Here it is!

*crunch*

You have been eaten by an unfed cat.  Play again? Y/N

 

Comments

[Dame Eleanor Hull]

I'm having the same library problem. But at least the cats haven't eaten me yet.

[Anastasia]

This post is deeply geeky and I totally love it! I played scads of text-only adventure games as a kid.