A minor adjustment...

I have an object, a portable supporter, which the player can use to propel himself into another room. However, the player has to do something with the object, first, which enables it to propel him. Fine enough. But since the appearance of the object is significantly altered by doing this thing, I want there to be an ‘initial appearance’ of the object that reflects this change, should the player leave the room(by the way he came in) and then return. Now, once he has handled the object, I understand it would be reported by a ‘You can see a …’ message, regardless of what was done with it. This does not reflect the change made in the object that I want. How can I change this message??

Thanks

A thing can be licked or unlicked. A thing is usually unlicked.
Understand the licked property as describing a thing.

Licking is an action applying to one thing.
Understand "lick [something]" as licking.

Carry out licking (this is the licking rule):
	now the noun is licked.

To lick is a verb.
Report licking (this is the report licking rule):
	say "[We] [lick] [the noun]." (A).
	
Living Room is a room. "This is an almost entirely nondescript living room."

The sofa is a portable enterable supporter in the Living Room.

Rule for writing a paragraph about the sofa:
	say "A small sofa squats here, [if unlicked]sadly unlicked[else]thoroughly licked[end if]."

Test me with "take sofa / drop sofa / l / lick sofa / l / take sofa / drop sofa / l".

Another option would be to keep the default behavior (omit the rule for writing a paragraph about) and implement both a printed name and an initial appearance that are conditional on the change to the object:

The sofa is a portable enterable supporter in the Living Room. The printed name is "[if unlicked]un[end if]licked sofa". "A small sofa squats here, [if unlicked]sadly unlicked[else]thoroughly licked[end if]."

After licking the sofa, say "[We] [lick] the sofa." [avoid "You lick the licked sofa."]

Thanks, Vince, I recall using the ‘rule for writing a paragraph about…’ in another much more complicated situation I brought up a while back. I should have remembered that.