My personal hope is more of Sandoval’s antics, but he’ll probably return if/when Ivan does.
Anyway: for the “first time” problem, you can also make your own flag and set it after printing the text once, to keep it from being printed again. It’s uglier but sometimes easier than convincing Inform to do the condition exactly the way you want.
Re Oglaf:
You guys are talking about the apprentice, right? I miss him too. I got used to the one-offs and the minor 2-3page arcs, but y’know, the more you follow a character, the harder it is to let them go.
Plus he was the most relatable of the whole lot, as in, being the least insane.
Yeah, Ivan is the apprentice, Sandoval is the Xoan Ambassador, and Mistress is the one to whom Ivan is apprenticed. (Word of god confirms that’s actually her name.