Can an action be out-of-world and still apply to something?

Authoring Inform 7
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I’m making an illustrated version of Never Gives Up Her Dead for commercial release.

After some experimentation, I decided to do images using the ‘footnote’ model used in some Infocom games and in the “Ibid.” example number 300 in Writing With Inform.

I have the following code:

Understand "image [number]" as looking up a footnote.

Looking up a footnote is an action applying to one number.

Check looking up a footnote:
	if the number understood > footnotes mentioned, say "You haven't seen that many images yet. Type IMAGES to see a list of all unlocked images." instead;
	if the number understood < 1, say "Images are numbered from 1."

Carry out looking up a footnote:
	choose row with assignment of number understood in the Table of Footnotes;
	let temp be drawing entry;
	display temp;

The issue is that time still progresses when looking at an image, which is kind of strange. I’d like to make it ‘out of world’, but I don’t think ‘out of world’ actions can be ‘applying to one number’.

Is there a way to use this code while using the ‘out of world’ mechanic (where scenes don’t progress and turn count doesn’t go up)?

2

The hint system in BOSH is out of world, yet the hinting action applies to one thing. Seems like a number should be okay.

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It looks like it. 18.10 has this in one of the examples:

Understand "highlighting [setting]" as setting highlighting. Setting highlighting is an action out of world, applying to one setting.

and 23.13 has

Understand "use [difficulty] puzzles" as selecting difficulty. Selecting difficulty is an action out of world, applying to one difficulty.
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Thank you both, I was able to get it working perfectly using the code provided!

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Yeah, I think it’s fine, but if not you can just fake it. From Miseries:

Examining something is acting fast. Looking is acting fast.  Taking inventory is acting fast.

The take visual actions out of world rule is listed before the every turn stage rule in the turn sequence rules.

This is the take visual actions out of world rule: if acting fast, rule succeeds.
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