Day 6, part 1 [I thought this would be the smallest update yet, but it doesn’t fit on one page]
I missed a day! I hope nothing special happens only on Fridays. I think this is why I never reviewed the game; I new there were definite unsolved things in the game, but as time passes I have new projects I want to work on or challenges in my life and I drop the game if I haven’t made much progress in a while.
First things first, I’ll examine myself:
>x me
Hold up! Before you can examine yourself, we need to do the self-examination questionnaire. And before we can do the self-examination questionnaire, I need to warn you that your answers to this questionnaire cannot be changed after you’ve completed the questionnaire. The only way to retake this questionnaire is to completely restart the game, erasing all your progress, with the command RESTART COMPLETELY.So are you ready to do the questionnaire?
>yes
Great. First question: Are you excited for some fly fishing?>yes
Oh. That brings up kind of a delicate point.So, like I said, I was really excited about the idea of writing a fishing game, but when it came time to really design and program the mechanics of fishing, my heart wasn’t in it. I’m just not a fishing guy. When I said “I endeavored to create a game that focuses on the elements of fly fishing with which I am most familiar,” I was trying to weasel my way around admitting that there isn’t really any fishing in this game. It’s more, shall we say, fishing-adjacent.
I’m sorry.
Second question: Do you like parties?
>yes
Okay, that’s good to know.Third question: What is your date of birth? Since this game takes place in the United States, please use the MM-DD format.
>11-11
Okay, so your date of birth is November 11. Is that right?>yes
Got it.Fourth question: Do you think QR codes are stupid?
>no
I know, right? What’s everybody’s problem with QR codes?Final question! Do you think bugs are cool?
>yes
Got it. Yeah, I have several friends who feel the same way.Okie doke, the self-examination questionnaire is over, and I’ve completed my personality analysis. Feel free to examine yourself whenever you’re ready.
>x me
You’re a very patient person. Very forgiving. There’s a certain enchantingness about you. And I can tell that you’re open-minded, which is a quality I value highly in text adventure players.But I can sense that you have a dark side. That’s okay. I understand that people are complicated. You don’t have to hide your complicatedness from me. Our perspectives may be different, but that’s not a bad thing. It’ll probably turn out to be a good thing, in the scheme of things. I think our skill sets will complement each other nicely going forward.
On several occasions, the game tells you that you hate bugs. I wonder if that’s changed, now?
I take all. It’s raining.
Zuleika is here again:
Gazebo
The woods open up around a ruined palace of a gazebo. Its four entrances are aligned with paths that head off in the cardinal directions. The eastern face of the gazebo is carved with a bas-relief of a man paddling a canoe.Zuleika is here again, monitoring the weather from the comfort of the gazebo. She perks up and smiles broadly when you appear, but she doesn’t seem inclined to come out into the rain.
>talk to zuleika
Zuleika glances down at your bulky waders but makes no comment.She waves as you approach.
She is able to figure out that you don’t have anything new to say, so she helps you out: “Thanks again, about the earring,” she says. It seems like she’s said that a few different times. Surely there’s something else to talk about. Try showing her some of the stuff you’ve found. Or ask her about some of her stuff.
>ask zuleika about malcolm
She valiantly avoids noticing the ridiculous waders you’re wearing.You try to bring up malcolm. Zuleika blinks. She clicks her tongue. “Hm,” she says. I get the feeling she doesn’t want to talk about that.
I show her some stuff:
show album
(to Zuleika)
She valiantly avoids noticing the ridiculous waders you’re wearing.
You hand the album over to Zuleika, and she flips through it. An old black and white photo catches her eye, and she turns the book to point it out to you. It’s the page labeled 1977
“These two remind me of my parents. Especially the man.” She taps on the photo emphatically. “Just like my dad. Very difficult to impress.”
Taking off the waders:
>show crappie
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Crappie Badge)
Taken.You show Zuleika your Crappie Badge. She squeezes it, testing the material.
“These can’t have been cheap to make,” she says. “But, if they’re like merit badges, you have to have a bunch of them manufactured and ready to go before you know how many people are actually going to earn them. Then there’s production minimums, and discounts for larger orders… I know exactly what it’s like. I’ll bet you there’s a box full of un-awarded Crappie Badges in a basement somewhere. Just like my bag of ‘LICKSTRONG’ bracelets.” She sighs. “Things never turn out the way you expect.”
>show paddle
(to Zuleika)
She takes the paddle in her hands. Don’t worry, she’ll give it back.“This takes me back,” she says. “In middle school we took this horrible field trip to Camp Somethingorother, and they made us learn how to paddle a canoe, how to use a compass, how to hide your food from bears. Pretty interesting stuff, but my friends hated it, so I had to pretend to hate it too. And then I guess I started hating it for real. The brain plays tricks on itself.”
She hands the paddle back to you with a word of advice: “Be careful out there.”
>show rod
(to Zuleika)
You show her the fishing rod. She can only feign so much interest.“I really don’t see the appeal of fishing. Sorry.”
>show brown trout
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Brown Trout Badge)
Taken.You show off your Brown Trout Badge and tell Zuleika how you found it.
“And it said ‘Tortus?’ Huh. I’ve never heard that name before.”
>show carp
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Carp Badge)
Taken.You tell Zuleika about finding the Carp Badge inside the branches of the willow tree.
“Yeah, I used to hang out under there,” she says. “Pretty cool place. But now I hang out under this gazebo, which is a pretty cool place too”
>show smallmouth
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Smallmouth Bass Badge)
Taken.You show Zuleika your Smallmouth Bass Badge and tell her about how you found it.
“I think I know the place you mean,” she says. “Why would someone bury it there? Or do you think someone just dropped it, and it got buried naturally?”
We should have paid better attention to how deep you dug, huh?
>show largemouth
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Largemouth Bass Badge)
Taken.You tell Zuleika how you came by your Largemouth Bass Badge.
“Then I guess it’s really a merit badge for rock climbing, huh? Except, the governing authority probably wouldn’t approve of using a ladder.”
> show bluegill
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Bluegill Badge)
Taken.You explain that you found the Bluegill Badge by using the metal detector in the playground.
“The playground over there?” she asks, pointing east. You explain that there’s another playground on the west side of the pond. She asks what play features it has.
“Huh. Sounds like a lot more fun than the new one.”
>show salmon
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Salmon Badge)
Taken.“A salmon! Where’d you get this?”
You tell her.
“Are you serious? Wow.”
She contemplates the object.
“Well, I guess, pink brick, pink salmon. And salmon jump upstream—Like, going upstream is like going up on the roof? Does that make sense?”
Sure it does.
>show bonefish
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Bonefish Badge)
Taken.You tell Zuleika how you found the Bonefish Badge. She strokes her chin.
“Were you supposed to get this, I wonder? Or was it hidden for someone else to find? I guess, if you’re hiding something for a specific person, you should probably leave a note for everyone else telling them to leave it alone.”
>show dolly
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Dolly Varden Badge)
Taken.You show Zuleika your Dolly Varden badge and briefly relate how you found it.
“That doesn’t make sense,” she says. “Why would there be a phone booth over there?”
That’s hard to explain.
“Why would there be a phone booth at all? It’s 2019, right?” Well, yes.
> show walleye
(to Zuleika)
(first taking the Walleye Badge)
Taken.She recognizes the Walleye Badge and smiles. “I saw one of these on a girl who used to hang out around here. Anita.”
Now replacing the waders, let’s look for bugs.
Unfortunately, though, the bugs are gone on this rainy day.
Looks like it’s time for me to give up and check on the old forum threads.
Dang, I opened one up and it had tons of stuff I never found. That’s embarassing!
It reminded me to keep reading the notebook:
August 3 - Here’s what happened when I finally showed my face at the library: Anita saw me and asked why I hadn’t been at any HCAFFE functions recently. She told me there were important events coming up that I was obligated to attend.
So I went back up to Jewel Pond for the first time in a while. Harlan Waverly has taken over as the association’s president; last night, he presided over a dangerous canoe race that involved reaching out of your canoe to grab floating flags for points. I didn’t fall into the pond, but that’s because I was watching the competition from the shoreline.
At some point I wandered off just a little, and Harlan jogged after me and issued a warning about the north side of the pond being private property, off-limits for association events. I know how intoxicating power can be, so I completely understand why he felt like he had to lecture me so sternly about something I wasn’t even planning on doing in the first place.
I told the association secretary about this and she explained that the woman who owns the land north of the pond is, in her words, a “nutbag” who constantly complains about fishing enthusiasts trespassing on her property, whether or not anyone really does any trespassing. I don’t want to cause any trouble, and like I said: I wasn’t even planning on going there in the first place.
It looks like the next part has dried out enough that you can read it safely.
>g
August 8 - Finally got around to interviewing Anita Stapella. The full transcript is in my file, but for the sake of good journaling I should add here that the one time she definitely saw the Morrecht Cregg, it retreated to the north side of the pond. So now I HAVE to go up there.
The forum thread I peeked out mentioned following GPS coordinates. I don’t know of any way to do that right now. I’ll try asking Zuleika.
>ask zuleika about gps
She valiantly avoids noticing the ridiculous waders you’re wearing.You try to bring up gps. Zuleika blinks. She clicks her tongue. “Hm,” she says. I get the feeling she doesn’t want to talk about that.
I put away the scrap with coordinates on it a while ago:
>give scrap to zuleika
She valiantly avoids noticing the ridiculous waders you’re wearing.Zuleika’s eyes widen. “Mysterious coordinates!” she says. “Like on Twin Peaks!”
I can’t steal the sanctuary equipment. So I’m still pretty stuck.
I try a different thread that the author of the last thread said was behind him.
Someone mentioned decrypting a phone secret message, but I never found any. He also mentions finding a developer notebook while cleaning the beach. So let’s try cleaning.
>clean beach
That’s such an admirable impulse! But here’s the thing: This garbage is gross. Cleaning it up with your bare hands would be unsafe. And it would be really gross.If you had gloves, that would be another story. But I didn’t put any gloves in this game!
Someone asked for hints on the same kind of things I did (wasps, cleaning beach, observatory), and none of the hints helped (apparently all of those are solved by getting in the shed and I don’t have the key, and they didn’t hint how to get that key). That thread ends right after that. They did say to look on surfaces, so I’ll try that.
Oh, you know what it might be? It could be climbing the monkey bars. I didn’t do that because it was wet. Then it was wet 4 days in a row. Today it’s wet again. So maybe it’s there? Or a badge.
I go back and look on the phone booth, examine the floor, table, and bed in the NW cabin, examine all the playground equipment, try climbing the ladder near the gazebo, I look at the desk, rack, and vivarium.
I’ll check the other thread.
Okay, after reading in depth and being spoilered on a ton of things, I find that I actually had the right key all along to that shed, and I could have progressed if I only had faith and tried.
How sad!
>unlock shed with brass key
You unlock the door.>open shed
You open the door.>in
Garden Shed
There’s a hammock hanging along the far wall of this cozy little shed, with an antique nightstand placed nearby. Closer to the door is a plastic cooler. Most of the floor is covered with a braided rug.These few pieces of furniture comprise only life’s bare essentials, and yet they leave barely enough room to stand!
On the nightstand are a can of peanuts and a lamp.
Okay, there are a ton of new things to do.
>take peanuts
Taken.
>x lamp
The lamp is a pillar of yellowish plastic atop a faux copper base. The base has a little button on it.
>take lamp
Taken.
>x peanuts
This is a truly massive can of peanuts.
>x rug
It looks like it was hand-made out of a bunch of fabric scraps. It’s a lovely piece of craftsmanship—but the water has gotten to it, and it’s a little mildewy.
>look under rug
You lift up the—oh ick ick ick there’s a bug under there. Drop the rug.
Eugh.
>open cooler
You open the plastic cooler, revealing a safari hat, a pair of sunglasses, and a scrapbook.
>get all from cooler
safari hat: You pick up the safari hat. Oh, I know what this is. It’s not a safari hat—it’s a bee veil! Is that what it’s called?
Taken.
pair of sunglasses: Taken.
scrapbook: Taken.
>wear hat
You put the hat part on your head and tug the veil part into place. Perfect.
>wear sunglasses
The sunglasses won’t go on over the bee veil!
>remove hat
You take off the bee veil.
>wear sunglasses
You put on the sunglasses.
Yeah, you look cool.
>wear veil
You put the hat part on your head and tug the veil part into place. Perfect.
>x scrapbook
This three-ring binder appears to be stuffed beyond its capacity with numerous documents, some in plastic protector pages, some unprotected, some in danger of falling out and being lost. On the cover, the name “ANITA STAPELLA” is rendered intricately in colored pencils.
The first page is a table of contents:
1 - Table of Contents
2 - Mission Statement
3 - About Tortus
4 - My Induction
5 - Inspirational Quotes
6 - About the Morrecht Cregg
7 - Artwork: Monster
8 - Photography: Approaching Storm
9 - Who Is Jack Deacons?
10 - Academic Decathlon
11 - Photography: Triumph in Denison
12 - My Dog Died
13 - Mrs. Payne’s Evaluation
14 - Photography: Triumph at Courtney High
Okay, let’s get to reading:
>read 2
This page is a sort of palimpsest. A paragraph at the top has been scribbled out with a marker, enthusiastically and thoroughly. But the printer ink underneath catches the light nonetheless, and is still legible:“Most people discover themselves in college. I want to know who I am before I get there. This scrapbook will be the summary of my personality, reduced to my most important elements. As I mature into my adult self, I’ll add pages to my scrapbook, so that I never stop growing and never forget who I am.”
The paragraphs below are written in pencil:
"I only needed six more credits to graduate, but they said I had to take a full schedule instead of going home early. So I took the easiest elective class I could find, and that was Psychology with Mrs. Payne. And she said we could make a scrapbook instead of writing a final paper, SOOOOO…
“For the record, Mrs. Payne only gave me an A- because she felt sorry for me and she didn’t want to be the reason I didn’t make Valedictorian. I don’t believe that her evaluation accurately reflects how good of a scrapbook this is.”
>read 3
A gleeful Norwich Terrier has been inexpertly cropped out of a glossy photograph and pasted here, surrounded by ribbons and flowers rendered in colored pencil.“Tortus the dog came into my life when I was ten years old. He understands me better than any human ever could. In seventh grade, I managed Tortus’s campaign for student body president. He was disqualified on a technicality, but he still split the vote enough to keep Jessica Bailey out of office.”
The vital statistics for Tortus follow:
DOB: October 26, 2009 (Scorpio)
Height: 9.5 inches
Weight: 10 pounds, 14 ounces
IQ: 136
Likes: tummy rubs, scritches, M&Ms
Dislikes: jokes about giving chocolate to dogs (sorry.)
Quote: “Woof woof, ruff ruff? Woof ruff bow wow!”>read 4
The photo on this page depicts a little girl with a giant grin and a terrified dog, surrounded by politely smiling adults in a rustic cabin. A gentleman with a bushy white beard is circled in red marker.“On my eleventh birthday I became a member of the Holler County Association of Fly Fishing Enthusiasts, because my dad made me. It turned out that I loved fly fishing, so I decided not to quit. The association president, Noah Elsworth, was the kindest non-dog I’ve ever met. In 2014 he made me the Association Events Coordinator, because he knew it would look good on college applications. Mr. Elsworth passed away in 2016.”
>read 5
Each item on this page is printed in a different font.“Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.”
- Sappho
“You can’t trust quotations. Put your trust in your own heart.”
- Che Guevara
“How frail the human heart must be — a mirrored pool of thought.”
- Studs Terkel
“Ultimately life is disease, death, and oblivion. It’s still better than high school.”
- Carrie Fisher
“Know thyself.”
- Socrates
>read 6
This page is all text, with no illustrations or ornamentation:"The Morrecht Cregg is a forest spirit from the mythology of Ireland. It takes the form of a large black dog, which sometimes walks on four legs and sometimes walks on two. A guardian of the woodlands, it watches carefully every person who approaches the forest it protects, and howls to warn off those who come too close. If the offender isn’t scared away, the Morrecht Cregg will not hesitate to kill the trespasser with its giant claws and teeth.
"I have seen the Morrecht Cregg on two occasions. Well, I’m pretty sure I saw it one time, and I’m positive I saw it another time. The first time, I saw something lurking on the far side of Jewel Pond during a potluck put on by the Holler County Association of Fly Fishing Enthusiasts. It was probably the Morrecht Cregg. The second time, it was loping through the woods around Jewel Pond while I was hiking with Tortus. It was definitely the Morrecht Cregg. I couldn’t chase after it, however, because it was on the property of Erica Nailer.
“Erica Nailer is a hideous old crone who owns the land on the north side of Jewel Pond. She hates the Holler County Association of Fly Fishing Enthusiasts for no reason whatsoever, but someday she’ll get too old to go on harassing us.”
>read 7
This page is a plastic protector containing a charcoal drawing of a werewolf-like beast, standing uncannily erect on digitigrade feet. Its fur, teeth, and claws are black. The artist has used a highlighter to color its eyes a sickly yellow.>read 8
Paper spills out of the scrapbook as you open to this page: An accordion-folded ribbon, made up of several sheets of printer paper taped together. It’s a printout of an Instagram post.At the top is a photo of a thunderhead towering over a desolate corn field, gleaming with inner lightning. The scene is shaded an unnatural blue. The caption reads “Better roll up your windows!” The photo has 705 likes, and was posted on August 16.
The taped-together strip below consists of dozens of comments on the post, most of which are some variant on “Wow!!!” or “So beautiful!!!” combined with emoji of surprised faces and clapping hands that I don’t know how to reproduce here. About two thirds of the way down, there’s a lengthy request from an apparent stranger for permission to use the photo as a book cover.
>read 9
An over-enlarged photo of a man with a thin mustache and a strained smile fills the top of this page.“Jack Deacons is a cryptozoologist from Arizona. He came to Iowa to study the Morrecht Cregg and joined the Holler County Association of Fly Fishing Enthusiasts in 2016.”
The vital statistics for Jack follow:
DOB: October 2, year unknown (Libra)
Height: About 5’9’’
Weight: unknown
IQ: “does not consider IQ tests scientific”
Likes: cryptids, cooking, solitude
Dislikes: personal questions
Mustache: unnecessary
Quote: “Fire dwells beneath the water palace.”>read 10
Several pages pulled out of a diary are stapled into a makeshift sub-book on this page."March 3 - We’re at the state Academic Decathlon competition in Denison. We’re sharing a hotel with the team from Cedar Rapids Jefferson. Mr. Brown has warned us that they always always win.
"An injustice: Jake, the only boy on the team, decided to quit Academic Decathlon right before the state competition. They had already booked a hotel room for him to have on his own. When he dropped out, they didn’t split up the girls and put two of us in the room Jake abandoned (or even better, let me have the spare room all to myself). Instead they canceled his reservation and all four girls are sharing a room, like I’ve been dreading. For diary-writing privacy I am sitting in the motel stairwell, which smells like cigarettes.
"March 3 - The first half of Academic Decathlon is done. Mr. Brown warned us that Jefferson always wins but he didn’t tell us that they dress up like it’s Lutheran Easter. They looked ridiculous, but intimidating, and our boho-chic Courtney High team was demoralized.
"In the waiting room for the speech round, I met Ben from Valley. I saw he was writing in a diary so I showed him mine and we chatted about journaling and Cedar Rapids Jefferson. He’s funny. I stole the ‘Lutheran Easter’ joke from him.
"Ben is probably the only boy on his team. I wish his school was staying at our hotel… I’d like to sneak across the hall to his room tonight… We could peruse each other’s diaries…
"March 4 - Academic Decathlon is over. Jefferson won. Courtney came in 11th place. Mr. Brown accidentally said ‘There’s always next year’ before he remembered that everyone on the team is graduating.
“I brought this diary with me and when I found Ben we swapped and read each other’s private thoughts. He was happy that I stole his joke but I think my idea about sneaking over to his room was a little too forward for him. Plus he seems to have a pretty big crush on someone named Ashlynne. I didn’t end up getting his info.”
>read 11
Four high school girls in a dingy parking lot, each pinching one corner of an illegible certificate. They stand with exaggerated poise; their smug expressions are obviously feigned.read 12
A sheet of printer paper in a plastic protector.“Tortus the dog went missing at Jewel Pond on April third, 2017. On April seventh, his body was found by Harlan Waverly. Harlan cremated Tortus without my permission and gave me his ashes.”
A drawing of a tiny urn with an orchid motif.
“Harlan said he was probably attacked by a hawk or a coyote. I have my own beliefs about what killed Tortus. Regardless, he was my best friend, and he can never be replaced.”
>read 13
A sticky note with a message in red ink:Anita,
I’m very sorry to hear about your dog. I know you must have loved him very much.
I would have liked to see more material about yourself. So much of your scrapbook is looking out at other people.
Visual unity would add to your scrapbook’s cohesiveness. Using so many different media, formats, and ornamentation techniques can become very distracting.
90/100 A-
The sticky note has been inserted into a plastic protector.
>read 14
A grassy field on a clear day: Five young women wearing purple robes and mortarboards, gleefully embracing, for the most part too blissed and exhausted to acknowledge their photographer. The girl in the center has a medallion around her neck, an unlit cigar in her hand, and a diabolical grin.
Let’s see if we missed anything.
>x nightstand
The wooden nightstand is carved in a simple wavy design. The finish is mostly rubbed away, and the surface is covered in water stains.
>take it
But it’s so cute right where it is!
Someone mentioned in some thread that the nightstand probably came from one of the cabins.
>x hammock
The hammock is two layers of nylon: Purple on the outside, and teal on the inside. The two ends are hung on extremely sturdy hooks that have been screwed into the walls of the shed.>take it
That’s not something you can carry around.>sit on it
You climb into the hammock. It is impossible to climb into a hammock gracefully, so you shouldn’t feel bad about how dumb you look.Once you’ve situated yourself, though, it’s very comfortable. Rocking back and forth… so gently…
Nice.
Let’s get some reactions:
>show scrapbook to zuleika
Zuleika backs off a bit. “Why are you wearing that? Are there bees around? Do I need to get out of here?”You assure her that you’re wearing the bee veil for completely non-threatening reasons.
As Zuleika turns the pages of the scrapbook, her eyes go wide. “Anita!” she says. “Oh my gosh! Where did you get this?”
You explain briefly how you got it.
“And she just left it lying around? Wow. Look at this.” She shows you the photo on the last page. “That’s her in the middle. With a cigar! What a troublemaker. I can’t believe she’d just forget about something like this. She must have wanted someone to find it.”
>show glasses to zuleika
She squints, still not sure why you’re wearing an apiarist’s hood.You show Zuleika your sunglasses, which you can’t really do while you’re wearing them without looking like you’re fishing for compliments.
“They’re nice,” she says. “And, to be wearing them in the rain—Quite the power move. It speaks to absolute confidence.”
>show veil to zuleika
She squints, still not sure why you’re wearing an apiarist’s hood.“It’s a still a little scary, you gotta admit. I can’t really see your face. For all I know, you’re the Jewel Pond Apiary Killer.”
Let’s try the lamp:
>x lamp
The lamp is a pillar of yellowish plastic atop a faux copper base. The base has a little button on it.
>turn it on
You push the button, and the lamp lights up. The warm light is soothing, if not particularly illuminating.
>turn it off
You push the button, and the lamp goes dark.
Obvious place to go next is the wasps.
>jump
You jump over the creek again! Nice!
Shed
A bright red shed stands here, where the path bends east and southwest. A sinister buzzing noise seems to come from all sides, and grim shapes flit in and out of your vision: wasps.
Are my jacket and my waders providing protection?
>x shed
The shed is painted cadmium red, and little rivulets of rain are trickling down the roof. The roll-up door is currently rolled down.You can see a wasp nest tucked up next to the roof.
>x nest
Yeah, that’s a wasp nest. A bloated gray tumor growing under the eaves of this unlucky shed.>break nest
Nope nope nope nope nope nope.
Makes sense.
>open door
The door rolls smoothly into the open position.
Easy peasy. Looks like we’ll make a lot of progress today. All because I didn’t try keys on the shed. I thought the brass key went to something else. How foolish I am! Although, to be fair, this happens to me almost every parser game. This is why I use walkthroughs and decompile games.
in
Inside the Shed
This shed is so spacious, it could almost be a garage. The floor is paved with brown tiles; the rear wall is decorated with a bunch of cute placards. The other two walls are pegboard bristling with metal hooks, from which some pruning shears and a grabber claw hang.The door is open, which means the wasps can get in here.
I was told what to do with these items by another thread, but I think they would have been clear regardless.
>x placards
Several cutesy placards are affixed to the rear wall. They read:
WINE AT LUNCH IS NOT A CRIME
MY GARAGE MY RULES
HANDS OFF MY CHOCOLATE
DON’T MESS WITH MAMA BEAR
CAN’T FIX STUPID
WE DON’T CALL 911 (with a picture of a shotgun)
V IS FOR VODKA
Due to reading another thread that mentioned a special message, I recognize what I will eventually need to do with these, and I tried messing with them and made a tiny bit of progress, but I’m not putting it here until I encounter that info diegetically.
>x shears
Long-handled shears with pointy blades that remind you of a heron’s greedy beak. I guess shears like this are technically called “hedge shears,” and “pruning shears” describes a smaller tool, but this is my fishing game and I can call things whatever I want.
>x claw
A claw at the end of a long pole is contracted by squeezing the handle on the other end. These things tend to disappoint when it comes to grip strength.
>take shears, claw
pruning shears: Taken.
grabber claw: Taken.
I’m glad this game doesn’t implement an inventory limit. There are so many things that could make a game more realistic (like typing LEFT LEG FORWARD. RIGHT LEG FORWARD.) or using STRAIGHT/LEFT/RIGHT instead of compass directions. Why do people insist on inventory limits as good for your gaming experience?