Floyd | Welcome to the Cheap Glk Implementation, library version 0.9.0.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | My dad came home late one night when I was nine and threw an old copy
Floyd | of the Monster Manual by Gary Gygax onto my bed. He woke me up,
Floyd | stressed and shaking at the humiliation his friends had put him
Floyd | through earlier that evening.
Floyd |
Floyd | He asked me if I wanted the book. I was still groggy, but I picked it
Floyd | up and thumbed through it. "We didn't play Monopoly tonight, Jarret,"
Floyd | he told me. "That's because not a one of them can beat me. Instead,
Floyd | they brought out this... thing. Some 'game of the imagination'." He
Floyd | practically spat that last word. "You can move all you like without
Floyd | throwing any dice, but to actually do anything, you need to throw a
Floyd | handful!!" I was both reading entries on the different monsters and
Floyd | paying half-attention to his rant. "Five minutes in, Benson tells me
Floyd | that I come across something called a gorgon. That got me stoned. Why
Floyd | would I play a game that depicted the recreational use of marijuana
Floyd | cigarettes? I got up and left."
Floyd |
Floyd | "They let you read this during play?" I asked him. He nodded. I turned
Floyd | to page 49. "I don't think they were supposed to. It says right here
Floyd | that the gorgon can turn you to stone. It doesn't get you stoned. And
Floyd | right here are all its weaknesses! How did you not see this? Are you
Floyd | stupid or something? Or what?"
Floyd |
Floyd | My father snatched back the Monster Manual. He didn't state that what
Floyd | he was going to do was going to hurt him more than it hurt me. (I
Floyd | think all he did say was that he should have left his 'patented Duffy
Floyd | blast' on my mother's face the night I was conceived, which didn't
Floyd | make a whole lot of sense to me then.) He instead just quietly gave me
Floyd | a spanking for back talk. But as that 112 page reference to a modern
Floyd | mythology of villainy struck my bony behind, it was as if he were
Floyd | bonding the pages and me for all time. Like directed osmosis through
Floyd | anger or something.
Floyd |
Floyd | (Okay, it actually wasn't like osmosis at all, but I've sacrificed
Floyd | knowledge in basic chemistry for additional levels in Modern
Floyd | Mythology, so please cut me some slack on the occasional analogy
Floyd | outside of my experience.)
Floyd |
Floyd | In the week that followed, my father tried to ban Dungeons & Dragons
Floyd | from the house as he had previously banned video games, cursing, Cajun
Floyd | food and music recorded after 1959. I stood up to him on D&D, though,
Floyd | and he caved for the only time in my childhood. Within a week I was
Floyd | running my own games for the kids in my tract. We were creating
Floyd | adventures together with Devils, Demons and Dragons and it was one of
Floyd | the best times of my life. My old man may have never been on the short
Floyd | list for an award from the PTA, but his maniac antics did a better job
Floyd | helping me understand just what I was interested in than the fathers
Floyd | of anyone else I grew up with. And heck, he did have my back that one
Floyd | time I met D&D creator Gary Gygax himself at DragonCon and started
Floyd | kicking him in his bag of magic beans (if you're digging my ditch
Floyd | here) in misplaced, latent vengeance due to how hard the board stock
Floyd | was for those manual covers.
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't think you've truly bonded with your father until you've spent
Floyd | 36 consecutive hours in a holding cell mocking and taunting an inmate
Floyd | set consisting of multiple thirty-somethings decked out in homemade
Floyd | hobbit, fairie and chocobo costumes, where the only thing the lot of
Floyd | them had in common, aside from a complete lack of human dignity, was
Floyd | relating how difficult it was to sleep late when the sump pump went
Floyd | off.
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Necrotic Drift
Floyd | Interactive Fiction
Floyd | Copyright (c) 2004. Written and programmed by Robb Sherwin
Floyd | Release 1.03 / Serial number 040623 / Hugo 3.1
Floyd |
Floyd | I'm here this evening at an Academy Videos store thirty-five minutes
Floyd | from my home with two of my roommates and my best friend. We have to
Floyd | come all the way down here to rent because of the late fees on my
Floyd | memberships at all the video places back in the Fort. I wish I had a
Floyd | good story for why that is the case, but I don't. I'm just poor and
Floyd | had the first Lord of the Rings movie overdue for more than two weeks
Floyd | at multiple video chains. I kept it around to mainly prove trivia. (It
Floyd | will probably end up costing me more to show my friends that the elf
Floyd | character Legolas was walking on, and not in the snow, than it did for
Floyd | director Peter Jackson to implement that effect on-screen.)
Floyd |
Floyd | Supposedly, Audrey is dropping by tonight to watch a movie, which is
Floyd | why I'm even here to begin with. In the five years we've been together
Floyd | we've dumped each other a total of nine times. She is currently ahead
Floyd | of me six to three. Her most shallow dumping was when she wanted to
Floyd | exclusively hang around a hardcore goth guy who had somehow managed to
Floyd | finance or lease his own cemetery plot. That guy was the black
Floyd | fingernail Alpha male until he missed his first payment. To be fair,
Floyd | mine was when she filled out Student Loan paperwork for me without my
Floyd | knowledge or consent and almost enrolled me into classes at the nearby
Floyd | University of Central Hill. She doesn't like the fact that I work at
Floyd | the Funtime Teen Mall for $5.51 an hour at age 27.
Floyd |
Floyd | I have to work later tonight, so I guess I'd better pick something and
Floyd | get out of here quickly.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | What?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | [Your score is 0 from a trivial 601.]
Floyd | Are you sure you want to quit (YES or NO)?

Floyd |
Floyd | Thanks for playing!
Floyd |

Floyd ]                  NECROTIC DRIFT 1.03 by Robb Sherwin
Floyd | My dad came home late one night when I was nine and threw an old copy
Floyd | of the Monster Manual by Gary Gygax onto my bed. He woke me
Floyd | up, stressed and shaking at the humiliation his friends had put him
Floyd | through earlier that evening.
Floyd |
Floyd | He asked me if I wanted the book. I was still groggy, but I picked it
Floyd | up and thumbed through it. "We didn't play Monopoly tonight, Jarret,"
Floyd | he told me. "That's because not a one of them can beat me. Instead,
Floyd | they brought out this... thing. Some 'game of the imagination'." He
Floyd | practically spat that last word. "You can move all you like without
Floyd | throwing any dice, but to actually do anything, you need to throw a
Floyd | handful!!" I was both reading entries on the different monsters and
Floyd | paying half-attention to his rant. "Five minutes in, Benson tells me
Floyd | that I come across something called a gorgon. That got me stoned. Why
Floyd | would I play a game that depicted the recreational use of marijuana
Floyd | cigarettes? I got up and left."
Floyd |
Floyd | "They let you read this during play?" I asked him. He nodded. I turned
Floyd | to page 49. "I don't think they were supposed to. It says right here
Floyd | that the gorgon can turn you to stone. It doesn't
Floyd | get you stoned. And right here are all its weaknesses! How
Floyd | did you not see this? Are you stupid or something? Or what?"
Floyd |
Floyd | My father snatched back the Monster Manual. He didn't state
Floyd | that what he was going to do was going to hurt him more than it hurt
Floyd | me. (I think all he did say was that he should have left his 'patented
Floyd | Duffy blast' on my mother's face the night I was conceived, which
Floyd | didn't make a whole lot of sense to me then.) He instead just quietly
Floyd | gave me a spanking for back talk. But as that 112 page reference to a
Floyd | modern mythology of villainy struck my bony behind, it was as if he
Floyd | were bonding the pages and me for all time. Like directed osmosis
Floyd | through anger or something.
Floyd |
Floyd | (Okay, it actually wasn't like osmosis at all, but I've sacrificed
Floyd | knowledge in basic chemistry for additional levels in Modern
Floyd | Mythology, so please cut me some slack on the occasional analogy
Floyd | outside of my experience.)
Floyd |
Floyd | In the week that followed, my father tried to ban Dungeons & Dragons
Floyd | from the house as he had previously banned video games, cursing, Cajun
Floyd | food and music recorded after 1959. I stood up to him on D&D, though,
Floyd | and he caved for the only time in my childhood. Within a week I was
Floyd | running my own games for the kids in my tract. We were creating
Floyd | adventures together with Devils, Demons and Dragons and it was one of
Floyd | the best times of my life. My old man may have never been on the short
Floyd | list for an award from the PTA, but his maniac antics did a better job
Floyd | helping me understand just what I was interested in than the fathers
Floyd | of anyone else I grew up with. And heck, he did have my back that one
Floyd | time I met D&D creator Gary Gygax himself at DragonCon and started
Floyd | kicking him in his bag of magic beans (if you're digging my ditch
Floyd | here) in misplaced, latent vengeance due to how hard the board stock
Floyd | was for those manual covers.
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't think you've truly bonded with your father until you've spent
Floyd | 36 consecutive hours in a holding cell mocking and taunting an inmate
Floyd | set consisting of multiple thirty-somethings decked out in homemade
Floyd | hobbit, fairie and chocobo costumes, where the only thing the lot of
Floyd | them had in common, aside from a complete lack of human dignity, was
Floyd | relating how difficult it was to sleep late when the sump pump went
Floyd | off.

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                0 / 0
Floyd | Necrotic Drift
Floyd | Interactive Fiction
Floyd | Copyright (c) 2004. Written and programmed by Robb Sherwin
Floyd | Release 1.03 / Serial number 040623 / Hugo 3.1
Floyd |
Floyd | I'm here this evening at an Academy Videos store thirty-five minutes
Floyd | from my home with two of my roommates and my best friend. We have to
Floyd | come all the way down here to rent because of the late fees on my
Floyd | memberships at all the video places back in the Fort. I wish I had a
Floyd | good story for why that is the case, but I don't. I'm just poor and
Floyd | had the first Lord of the Rings movie overdue for more than
Floyd | two weeks at multiple video chains. I kept it around to mainly prove
Floyd | trivia. (It will probably end up costing me more to show my friends
Floyd | that the elf character Legolas was walking on, and not
Floyd | in the snow, than it did for director Peter Jackson to
Floyd | implement that effect on-screen.)
Floyd |
Floyd | Supposedly, Audrey is dropping by tonight to watch a movie, which is
Floyd | why I'm even here to begin with. In the five years we've been together
Floyd | we've dumped each other a total of nine times. She is currently ahead
Floyd | of me six to three. Her most shallow dumping was when she wanted to
Floyd | exclusively hang around a hardcore goth guy who had somehow managed to
Floyd | finance or lease his own cemetery plot. That guy was the black
Floyd | fingernail Alpha male until he missed his first payment. To be fair,
Floyd | mine was when she filled out Student Loan paperwork for me without my
Floyd | knowledge or consent and almost enrolled me into classes at the nearby
Floyd | University of Central Hill. She doesn't like the fact that I work at
Floyd | the Funtime Teen Mall for $5.51 an hour at age 27.
Floyd |
Floyd | I have to work later tonight, so I guess I'd better pick something and
Floyd | get out of here quickly.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                0 / 0
Floyd | >
Floyd | > L]
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "l]" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                0 / 1
Floyd | >
Floyd | > L
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Academy Videos
Floyd | The inside of the video store looks like it was slapped together in a
Floyd | weekend by enslaved, tool-wielding howler monkeys and routinely
Floyd | cleaned by an anosmic with all the enthusiasm of a man who lost a bet.
Floyd | Rotting floorboards create a random topography that would put the
Floyd | landshifts and valleys of the legendary Umar Hills to shame. Faded
Floyd | posters cover much of the surface area of the walls, and a few of them
Floyd | have begun peeling or been stricken with graffiti.
Floyd |
Floyd | All the available movies have been shoved into racks labeled with one
Floyd | of four categories: Action, Drama, Fantasy and Horror. Alphabetical
Floyd | order isn't implemented in any of them either, so trying to find a
Floyd | specific movie is often futile. It's usually best just to look along
Floyd | the racks and hope something good catches your eye.
Floyd | Gibs, Pang, Criswell, and the clerk are here.
Floyd |
Floyd | "So..." says Gibs, as he scans the movies half-heartedly, "You and
Floyd | Audrey are on the rocks again, eh, Duffy? What happened this time, did
Floyd | she get you enrolled into MIT?"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                0 / 2
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X ACTION
Floyd |
Floyd | It's constructed from a cheap wood board, and sags quite a bit due to
Floyd | the number of movies placed within it.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside the action rack is a movie from action rack.
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang clears his throat and holds up a copy of Blade. "I have
Floyd | found the movie for us all tonight," he states, with an annoying
Floyd | authority. "It has electronica and vampires, as all classics should."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Blade?" screeches Criswell. He's another one of my
Floyd | roommates. "They merged techno music and goths for that one. No
Floyd | chance. No way. And if you pick out one that merges country music with
Floyd | the French art film or opera with a Pixar kiddie flick I will drop
Floyd | trou and take a crap on the TV while it's playing."
Floyd |
Floyd | Criswell's only half joking, as he's demonstrated his willingness to
Floyd | do that before. When his favorite CFL football team lost in the finals
Floyd | last year he was so pissed off at the TV for depicting it that he
Floyd | grabbed a chair from the kitchen, got up and plopped a steaming load
Floyd | on top of the set. Worse, it was two weeks before anyone cleaned it
Floyd | up. We had a veritable bumper crop of flies around the house that
Floyd | year.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 3
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE ACTION MOVIE
Floyd |
Floyd | I grab a movie from the rack. And behold! It's The Lord of the
Floyd | Rings. Why on earth the dip behind the counter would deign to
Floyd | keep it in this rack is beyond my comprehension. But it
Floyd | doesn't matter. I don't really possess the discipline to go get
Floyd | something else.
Floyd |
Floyd | "OK, I'm set," says Criswell. "Truman Show. Jim Carrey is the
Floyd | funniest man alive. This'll be a gem. Hey, Duffy, you
Floyd | bringin' that chick you hang around with over tonight? Well, thank me
Floyd | later, man, 'cos she'll be all out of giggles by the time you pull off
Floyd | your pants. For once, anyway."
Floyd |
Floyd | Barnaby idly toys with a movie and then puts it back on the shelf.
Floyd | "There were some real hotties at that Bead Store, the other day," he
Floyd | says to me. "Cute, but not so cute that they would have nothing to do
Floyd | with you, I mean."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 3
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X LORD OF THE RINGS
Floyd |
Floyd | I haven't seen anything like that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 4
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X VIDEO
Floyd |
Floyd | The clerk at Academy Videos is famous through New Haz for being one of
Floyd | its most smug and sarcastic citizens. He will always criticize a
Floyd | customer's movie choice unless it's one of the ten or fifteen films
Floyd | that he thinks are classic. He is wearing a hypercolor shirt like all
Floyd | employees in the chain, as well as a pair of dirty sweatpants.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yo, fruit loops," says the clerk to the lot of us, "I'm shutting this
Floyd | store down to go get a full body massage from the Taiwanese Parlor
Floyd | down the street. Pronto. Get your movies and get out."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Full-body?" asks Barnaby. "That means they give you a hand job,
Floyd | right?" The clerk perks up and nods gleefully. "Hey, I've always
Floyd | wondered..." Barnaby decides exactly how he wants to phrase it. "Is it
Floyd | customary to let them know when you're about to come? Like, a warning?
Floyd | Or do you not have to do that because they are professionals?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Nobody says anything for a few moments. I shrug. "I guess it depends
Floyd | on whether you're a sprayer or a lumper," I say.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 5
Floyd | >
Floyd | > I
Floyd |
Floyd | I am carrying my glasses (being worn) and the DVD case.  Inside the
Floyd | DVD case is the Lord of the Rings DVD.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Anyway, I wasn't kidding around. Get your movies and get lost,"
Floyd | repeats the clerk. The clerk continues to get ready for his little
Floyd | excursion. He places his armament upon the counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yeah, yeah! I'm thinkin', I'm thinkin'..." says Criswell. I'm all
Floyd | set, but it looks like we'll have to wait for him or Pang now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 5
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE HORROR MOVIE
Floyd |
Floyd | I haven't seen anything like that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 5
Floyd | >
Floyd | > RENT DVD
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "rent" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 6
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X HORROR
Floyd |
Floyd | The horror rack used to be pretty good, but it's fallen into anarchy
Floyd | just like all the other racks. Criswell once accidentally rented
Floyd | Beaches from this rack and failed to note it was a chick
Floyd | flick. He's the only guy in the city that thinks the best horror flick
Floyd | of all-time doesn't feature Bruce Campbell or Bill Chepil or whoever,
Floyd | but rather Bette Midler.
Floyd |
Floyd | A grime-encrusted area denizen slams his hand on the door and the
Floyd | clerk reluctantly lets him in. The thing shambles his way into the
Floyd | video store. He leaves muddy streaks upon the entrance door, drawing
Floyd | the further ire of the clerk.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, what the hell is the matter with you, cracky?" I suppose that I
Floyd | disagree that the new denizen is a crackhead (he meanders more in his
Floyd | movement than he shakes, I mean). But I don't say anything. The clerk
Floyd | points a stern finger at him from across the counter. "Can't you read?
Floyd | We're closed! Get out of here!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > BUY DVD
Floyd |
Floyd | That doesn't seem to be for sale.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 7
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X CRACKHEAD
Floyd |
Floyd | This creature is covered in a thick grit. He (it?) is draped in a
Floyd | musty flannel and shambles about with an unwholesome gait. His
Floyd | forearms are unnaturally long and jaundiced, and his there are several
Floyd | patches of mosiaced-over scabs and seeping wounds covering his face
Floyd | and neck.
Floyd |
Floyd | The area denizen grabs at the clerk's neck! He gets two hands round
Floyd | the clerk's esophagus, and begins choking the life right out of him!
Floyd |
Floyd | The clerk gurgles in pain! I hear a guttural moaning sound coming from
Floyd | the attacker. The violence causes Pang and Criswell to hide in the
Floyd | back of the store.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey!" says Barnaby, "Knock it off! Let him go!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 8
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X ARMAMENT
Floyd |
Floyd | I should first say something about the city of New Haz and explain why
Floyd | a video clerk would be packing heat.
Floyd |
Floyd | Culturally, New Haz is kind of a stinking dump. It's been described as
Floyd | everything from a holding cell for miscreants and scuzzballs, to a
Floyd | bleak planned community gone horribly and violently wrong, to a
Floyd | slightly Utopian New Haven, Connecticut. I like it so much I live
Floyd | thirty-five minutes away, and believe me when I say that I would not
Floyd | work here if the Fort had a mall. Truthfully, it used to be a lot
Floyd | worse before some kid brought to justice 80% of the city's Most Wanted
Floyd | Criminals a while back. But it's nevertheless rather rough, and you're
Floyd | legally required to possess a firearm to enter the west side.
Floyd |
Floyd | This gun uses nail magazines, and fires them off slowly and messily,
Floyd | one at a time. Nice accuracy, but it has no spray or automatic
Floyd | settings. It's on the small side, as small as the manufacturer could
Floyd | go without embracing the "ladies choice" designation.
Floyd |
Floyd | This weapon has 7 shots remaining.
Floyd |
Floyd | The grimy denizen throttles the clerk!
Floyd |
Floyd | The clerk slumps to the floor, disappearing behind the register
Floyd | counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Christ, Duffy, get the goddamn gun!" screams Barnaby. The guy
Floyd | (creature, whatever it is) is between the gun and Barnaby. It emits a
Floyd | throaty snarl and slowly shambles toward him. Barnaby gives the door a
Floyd | couple solid kicks and opens it.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                7 / 9
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET ARMAMENT
Floyd |
Floyd | I casually lift the gun from the counter without the clerk really
Floyd | noticing.
Floyd |
Floyd | Barnaby takes a swing at the filthy mound. He connects to its sternum
Floyd | (a solid blow) but the guy / creature is not stunned, not driven back,
Floyd | not nearly phased by it at all.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Shoot the damn thing, Duffy!" yells Barnaby. "Now,
Floyd | goddammit!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > SHOOT ZOMBIE
Floyd |
Floyd | [Specify which gun to shoot with.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 10
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SHOOT ZOMBIE WITH ARMAMENT
Floyd |
Floyd | I shoot the creature!
Floyd |
Floyd | The creature collapses and falls to the ground.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 11
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SEARCH ZOMBIE
Floyd |
Floyd | The creature is empty.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 12
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X CLERK
Floyd |
Floyd | The clerk at Academy Videos is famous through New Haz for being one of
Floyd | its most smug and sarcastic citizens. He will always criticize a
Floyd | customer's movie choice unless it's one of the ten or fifteen films
Floyd | that he thinks are classic. He is wearing a hypercolor shirt like all
Floyd | employees in the chain, as well as a pair of dirty sweatpants.
Floyd |
Floyd | He  is currently knocked out.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 12
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X SWEATPANTS
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "sweatpants" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 13
Floyd | >
Floyd | > WAKE UP CLERK
Floyd |
Floyd | I try, but I don't get any sort of response back into wakefulness.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 14
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X ZOMBIE
Floyd |
Floyd | This creature is covered in a thick grit. He (it?) is draped in a
Floyd | musty flannel that hasn't been in fashion since Gygax was happily
Floyd | married to his first wife. His forearms are unnaturally long and
Floyd | jaundiced, and his there are several patches of mosiaced-over scabs
Floyd | and seeping wounds covering his face and neck.
Floyd |
Floyd | It  is currently knocked out.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 14
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET FLANNEL
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "flannel" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 15
Floyd | >
Floyd | > LOOK BEHIND COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't find anything behind the counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 15
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SLAP CLERK
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "slap" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 16
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SEARCH COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't find anything.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 16
Floyd | >
Floyd | > ASK GUYS ABOUT ZOMBIE
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "guys" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > ASK GIBS ABOUT ZOMBIE
Floyd |
Floyd | [ Use "TALK TO CHARACTER" to talk to a particular character in the
Floyd | game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 17
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO BARNABY
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 18
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO BARNABY
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 19
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 20
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X DRAMA
Floyd |
Floyd | The drama rack should, in theory, contain a bunch of films that are
Floyd | shown on TNN, but it instead contains a hodgepodge of differently
Floyd | genred flicks. Criswell once took the DVD that Gibs shot a couple
Floyd | years ago where he was apologizing to his girlfriend for getting into
Floyd | a threesome at this one guy Avandre's bachelor party and put it in
Floyd | this rack. That was some serious drama. But I think Gibs rented and
Floyd | destroyed it when he found out.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 20
Floyd | >
Floyd | > READ POSTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the posters.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 21
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X POSTERS
Floyd |
Floyd | An original Day of the Dead promo has been tacked onto the
Floyd | wall. That's really the only one of note. There are some other ones
Floyd | that I can't make out, and by 'make out,' I mean 'they were filmed in
Floyd | the sixties so I have no idea what their deal is.'
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 21
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET TACK
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "tack" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                              12 / 22
Floyd | >
Floyd | > L
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Academy Videos
Floyd | The inside of the video store looks like it was slapped together in a
Floyd | weekend by enslaved, tool-wielding howler monkeys and routinely
Floyd | cleaned by an anosmic with all the enthusiasm of a man who lost a bet.
Floyd | Rotting floorboards create a random topography that would put the
Floyd | landshifts and valleys of the legendary Umar Hills to shame. Faded
Floyd | posters cover much of the surface area of the walls, and a few of them
Floyd | have begun peeling or been stricken with graffiti.
Floyd |
Floyd | All the available movies have been shoved into racks labeled with one
Floyd | of four categories: Action, Drama, Fantasy and Horror. Alphabetical
Floyd | order isn't implemented in any of them either, so trying to find a
Floyd | specific movie is often futile. It's usually best just to look along
Floyd | the racks and hope something good catches your eye.
Floyd |
Floyd | There's an exit east to Main Street.
Floyd | Gibs, Pang, Criswell, the clerk, and the creature are here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Main Street                                                 17 / 23
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OUT
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Main Street
Floyd | The stench of the city of New Haz hits me like a cruel sucker-punch
Floyd | through the septum. It's a ringing, persistent odor. One of sewage
Floyd | mixed with old gasoline. I shift to breathing exclusively through my
Floyd | mouth. But fortunately we'll be out of here soon enough (and before
Floyd | the stink can settle on my clothes.)
Floyd | My car is here.
Floyd |
Floyd | Gibs, Pang, and Criswell are here.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What the hell was that in there?" asks Pang.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Who knows?" says Barnaby. "Who cares? Let's just go. At least by
Floyd | putting down the homeless guy inside he won't get grime nor slime over
Floyd | Duffy's windshield in some half-assed attempt to clean it."
Floyd |
Floyd | "I thought you knew that guy, Duffy," says Criswell, unhelpfully, as
Floyd | if that somehow explains why he was cowering in the corner.
Floyd |
Floyd | We need to get in my car and get out of here quickly -- both before
Floyd | the cops come round due to the encounter with that thing in the store,
Floyd | but also before the city's ripe stench can settle into our clothes.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Main Street                                                 17 / 24
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GO CAR
Floyd |
Floyd | The car is shut.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Main Street                                                 17 / 25
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN CAR
Floyd |
Floyd | Opened.
Floyd |
Floyd | The thing from inside breaks through a section of the door!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Main Street                                                 17 / 26
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GO CAR
Floyd |
Floyd | I get into the car. Pang, Criswell and Barnaby join me.
Floyd |
Floyd | The zombie slams its open palms against the side of the car!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Main Street                                                 17 / 27
Floyd | >
Floyd | > CLOSE DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | Closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | The zombie slams its open palms against the side of the car!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Main Street                                                 17 / 27
Floyd | >
Floyd | > START CAR OR DRIVE CAR, I GUESS.
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "or" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > START CAR
Floyd |
Floyd | (Entering my car first...)
Floyd |
Floyd | I double-check to make sure everyone's into the car.
Floyd |
Floyd | The guy from inside keeps clawing away at the passenger side of my
Floyd | car.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Drive, dammit, drive!" screeches Criswell from the backseat.
Floyd | "Get us outta here!"
Floyd |
Floyd | I put the car in reverse and prepare to get the hell out of town. The
Floyd | guy staggers over and gets right in my path.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hit 'em, Duffy!" Criswell's going crazy back there. "Run him over!"
Floyd |
Floyd | I put the car in first and stomp the accelerator more out of panic
Floyd | than anything else. The guy doesn't move, flinch, anything. I ram him
Floyd | and he smacks right into the windshield, chipping it with his elbow.
Floyd | He tumbles about and we hear him on the roof for a moment before
Floyd | seeing his face appear on the back window, shocking the hell out of
Floyd | Pang and Criswell. I downshift from third gear back into second for a
Floyd | moment which causes my car to red line and enough of a jolt for him to
Floyd | fall off completely. I see him, through the rear-view mirror, take a
Floyd | vicious fall onto the road, bouncing against it at painful angles like
Floyd | a discarded rag doll.
Floyd |
Floyd | Nobody says anything for a second, until Criswell pops opens his
Floyd | mouth. "That... man, that was awesome!!"
Floyd |
Floyd | "You don't think I killed that guy, do you? Do you think he's OK?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "It was probably a bot," says Gibs. "Look, he was trying to attack us,
Floyd | anyway."
Floyd |
Floyd | "That's true," says Pang. "Both items are totally true."
Floyd |
Floyd | I get us on the Interstate and head north, back towards home. I chuck
Floyd | the gun out the window on the way back. Nobody says anything else
Floyd | until I drop Gibs off and get the rest of us back to the house...

Floyd |

Floyd ]                              Chapter Two
Floyd | I've only been on, really, truly on... once in my life.
Floyd |
Floyd | It was about five years ago. The first week of March. The Wizards of
Floyd | the Coast (the company that publishes all the D&D books these days)
Floyd | were sponsoring a huge, two-day tournament in the Fort. I signed up
Floyd | for it with Barnaby, who used to be more into this kind of thing back
Floyd | then, and we started gaming it on a Saturday morning.
Floyd |
Floyd | It wasn't a 'competitive' tournament, per se, especially since around
Floyd | that time the two local gangs of Korean role players had pretty much
Floyd | wiped each other out when an on-line housing refresh dispute went from
Floyd | the virtual world of the internet to the physical one of reality,
Floyd | resulting in thirteen dead and seven wounded. That would have normally
Floyd | taken the edge off for the rest of us for the whole of the weekend,
Floyd | but we soon found out that WotC were putting up an eight-thousand
Floyd | dollar first prize for the weekend's 'Most Outstanding Roleplayer.'
Floyd | When I found that out, something clicked inside me, and I drew from a
Floyd | strength of personality I didn't know I had.
Floyd |
Floyd | All day the dice were with me. Just about every time I threw a
Floyd | twenty-sided die I got an incredibly favorable result. I started
Floyd | getting a bit more bold and soon found that the other kids at my table
Floyd | started following me. Looking to me for direction, for
Floyd | decisions, for witticisms. I became bolder and overly gregarious. I
Floyd | hardly needed any of the booty the game's Dungeon Master was giving us
Floyd | in-game, and won over the entire table through generosity. I was
Floyd | confident and having fun being me for the first time ever.
Floyd |
Floyd | My luck stayed with me when I went to different tables and played with
Floyd | different people. When the tournament finished the next day, I was
Floyd | awarded the top prize and a check for $8,000. I accepted it graciously
Floyd | and thanked everyone I played with for giving me the chance to shine.
Floyd | As Barnaby and I were rounding up our backpacks and bags of dice, I
Floyd | Xeroxed a copy of my character sheet, signed my name and phone number
Floyd | to it, and gave it to the cutest girl who seemed single during the
Floyd | event, someone I had played with on the first day.
Floyd |
Floyd | When I got home, I spent the entire check on a car and a new wardrobe.
Floyd | I had nothing left of it by Tuesday.
Floyd |
Floyd | Audrey didn't call the number on the sheet, maybe because it was a
Floyd | pompous act of nigh-Olympic level. But when she dropped by the Mall
Floyd | later that week I asked her out on a date. She said yes and has been
Floyd | in various states of flabbergastation with me over the years that have
Floyd | followed.
Floyd |
Floyd | I got my car, clothes and relationship within a lucky streak that
Floyd | lasted 48 hours five years ago. And I've been living off that success
Floyd | ever since. I'd confess that in my darker moments, when I am at my
Floyd | most honest, it rather spooks me to know that I have essentially been
Floyd | stagnant ever since.

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 28
Floyd | stagnant ever since.
Floyd | Living Room
Floyd | I live in a four-bedroom rented house in a college town we all call
Floyd | 'The Fort.' The exterior to this place was kind of beat up when we
Floyd | decided to rent here, and through the last three years we've worked
Floyd | our hardest to make the interior nicely match.
Floyd | Sitting corpulently in the blue couch is Pang.
Floyd | On the tattered couch are the green blanket and the pillow.  Sitting
Floyd | on the entertainment center are the television and the DVD player.
Floyd | Sitting on the table are Vecna's hand, the Dreamcast, the bottle of
Floyd | wine, a cup, the Blade DVD, the The Truman Show DVD, and the Lord of
Floyd | the Rings DVD.
Floyd |
Floyd | The other three guys who live here include Pang and Criswell and
Floyd | another guy named Leary who isn't around much. (But then, he's an
Floyd | engineer and the only guy with his life remotely in order.) Criswell
Floyd | found most of our crummy furniture when he went Dumpster Diving a
Floyd | while back, and we place blankets over the rotting parts like they
Floyd | were giant cloth band-aids to hide their pronounced ghetto factor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 29
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X WINE
Floyd |
Floyd | Okay, actually it's a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 30
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X VECNA'S HAND
Floyd |
Floyd | Vecna was a bad-ass (and quite mad) guy described in the original D&D
Floyd | game. One of the game's artifacts was his 'hand,' and this is a
Floyd | novelty item that they passed out at DragonCon a few years back.
Floyd |
Floyd | There's a knock at the door. It's probably Audrey.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 31
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE BOTTLE
Floyd |
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | There's another knock on the door. I should probably get that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 32
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | I let Audrey inside, and give her a kiss on the cheek.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hello, Jarret..." she looks over and sees Pang on the couch. Distaste
Floyd | can't help but crawl across her face. "So... what have we got planned
Floyd | for tonight?"
Floyd |
Floyd | I see Audrey for the first time. I probably should have gotten the
Floyd | door for her.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Thanks for getting the door, jerk," she says. Ouch. This isn't good,
Floyd | I've managed to come off as irritating before she'd even entered the
Floyd | house. I usually have ten minutes of grace period.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I was in the bathroom, brushing my hair so it would look nice and
Floyd | stylish for you," I say with a shrug.
Floyd |
Floyd | "It's a brush. Not a magic wand. You know... I've never met a man who
Floyd | was so obsessed with his hair. But anyway. What are we doing tonight?"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO AUDREY
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Movie Night! Movie Night sure sounds great, doesn't it?"
Floyd | (2) "I'm going to avoid that question by telling you how great you
Floyd | look, Miss Case."
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 33
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 2
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Well, that's certainly nice of you to say," says Audrey. "Thank you.
Floyd | But..." she says with just the trace of a smile, "You can't avoid the
Floyd | question forever, you know."
Floyd |
Floyd | Well, she's right about that, but I could at least probably
Floyd | try.
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "OK, to be honest, I thought we'd watch a movie."
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 34
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 1
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "A movie. Oh-kay," she says. "Which theatre?" she asks, hopefully.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Casa de Duffy, funnily enough."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Funnily enough? What's so funny, or fun, about being cooped
Floyd | up in this house for the millionth time?" She puts her hands on her
Floyd | hips, which is an subconscious indicator that she's starting to get
Floyd | agitated. "You really don't want to leave and do something?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Well, it's not ha-ha funny, no," I tell her. "Look, we got some good
Floyd | stuff. I broke the bank here. If you don't like the films then at
Floyd | least you've got me providing Tom-Servo-style running commentary."
Floyd |
Floyd | She relaxes her pose and waves her hand in a dismissal of her
Floyd | argument. "Okay, okay... but you'd better be on, Jarret
Floyd | Duffy. What's your term for it? Comedy Jupiter? It had better be
Floyd | Comedy Jupiter."
Floyd |
Floyd | "You betcha. I'll even throw in Io and Europa." I'm not quite sure
Floyd | what that means, but those were the only two moons I could recall in a
Floyd | pinch, so.
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang puts the copy of Blade into the DVD player.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 35
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SIT ON TATTERED COUCH
Floyd |
Floyd | I sit down on the tattered couch.
Floyd |
Floyd | Living Room, on a tattered couch
Floyd | This room is centered around the television, a 32" Sony that Leary
Floyd | brought when he moved in. The set sits on a wooden entertainment
Floyd | center, with 'satellite' speakers all around the room. The tattered
Floyd | white couch is perpendicular to the set, and the blue one (where Pang
Floyd | normally situates himself) is eight or nine feet directly across from
Floyd | it.
Floyd | On the tattered couch are the green blanket and the pillow.
Floyd | Sitting corpulently in the blue couch is Pang.
Floyd | Sitting on the entertainment center are the television and the DVD
Floyd | player.  Inside the DVD player is the Blade DVD.  Sitting on the table
Floyd | are Vecna's hand, the Dreamcast, a cup, the The Truman Show DVD, and
Floyd | the Lord of the Rings DVD.
Floyd | Audrey is here.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What.. aw, hell, what the hell is this, Pang?" asks Criswell, as he
Floyd | enters. "Oh, hey, by the way, I don't think we're gonna be able to
Floyd | keep beers at the neighbor's house any longer. Someone has begun the
Floyd | moving-in process. Wait, did you end up getting this fucking
Floyd | Blade thing? Oh, Kee-rist!"
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't understand why Criswell is so against this movie. I guess I
Floyd | could ask him, or something, if I really cared. Only I don't. I just
Floyd | want him gone.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Just watch the movie," says Pang.
Floyd |
Floyd | "No!" exclaims Criswell. "I'm gonna make The Call!"
Floyd |
Floyd | "You're not going to have a quorum," says Pang.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 35
Floyd | >
Floyd | > THROW HAND AT CRISWELL
Floyd |
Floyd | I'm not holding that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE HAND
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't reach Vecna's hand from the tattered couch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 35
Floyd | >
Floyd | > THROW HAND AT CRISWELL
Floyd |
Floyd | I'm not holding that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > STAND
Floyd |
Floyd | Be a little more specific about what you'd like me to stand.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 36
Floyd | >
Floyd | > STAND UP
Floyd |
Floyd | I get up off the tattered couch.
Floyd |
Floyd | Leary walks down the stairs. He gives everyone a 'hey' and waves to
Floyd | Audrey.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yo, Leary, what's your take on Blade?" asks Criswell.
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang's not thrilled about opinions being offered up on his choice
Floyd | before the opening credits are even finished.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Ehh," says Leary as he picks up the phone to make a call. "Not my
Floyd | thing. Nothing personal, Panger."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Damn fuckin' straight!" says Criswell. "I'm makin' the call! The Call
Floyd | for Ejection! Duffy? What're you saying?"
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't know how to go with this one. On one hand, it could mean that
Floyd | my movie will get played and these two morons will leave out of
Floyd | boredom. On the other hand -- just how freaking immature am I going to
Floyd | come across?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO AUDREY
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Sorry. The next movie will probably be better anyway."
Floyd | (2) "Did you particularly want to see Blade??"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 37
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 2
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Not especially," she says. "I think I saw it when it first came out."
Floyd |
Floyd | "What? Are you kidding me?" I think about the math for a second. "By
Floyd | my calculations, you were eight when it came out. You mean to tell me
Floyd | that the Neuromancer didn't like you dating me at first because at
Floyd | three years your elder, I was a bad example, but he was OK with you
Floyd | watching a movie where Snipes hacks apart vampires for 90 minutes?" I
Floyd | call her father 'The Neuromancer' because his first name is Henry, and
Floyd | the main character of the novel _Neuromancer_ is named Henry Case.
Floyd | I've been lucky in not saying it when he's been around so far.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I was very mature for my age," she replies. "I think we'd have been a
Floyd | perfect match, intellectually, if you met me when I was eight and you
Floyd | were twenty-seven.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, what about if you met me?" says Criswell.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Two," Audrey and I say at the same time.
Floyd |
Floyd | "The thumb points down, bitchkin!" says Criswell to Pang. It was
Floyd | inevitable that he was going to pull the movie no matter what popular
Floyd | choice happened to be. Criswell hops over to the DVD player and ejects
Floyd | the disc. He places The Truman Show in. "We're now starin'
Floyd | down the barrel of a whole lotta giggles," he says to Audrey.
Floyd |
Floyd | I keep one eye trained underneath the sofa in case Audrey's rolling
Floyd | eyes pop out of her head.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What are you talking about?" she says. Audrey has never, ever liked
Floyd | Criswell. "This is a drama, not a ninety minute episode of 'White Guys
Floyd | Gone Jostling.'" Criswell's head strains to the side as he
Floyd | simultaneously doesn't believe her and doesn't comprehend her.
Floyd |
Floyd | Audrey continues. "You know what drama is, right? It's the name given
Floyd | to a movie that adults tend to enjoy, as well as being the
Floyd | standard root cause of every Linkin Park song."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yeah, whatever." Criswell shrugs. "I bet you Truman here is making
Floyd | like he's talking out of his ass before the opening credits are
Floyd | finished."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO AUDREY
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "So... how is school going these days?"
Floyd | (2) "What are you doing later?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 38
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 2
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Probably storming out of here in anger," she says. I give her one of
Floyd | those looks that would look more in place on a puppet after the jaw
Floyd | string got cut. "Just kidding," she says after a beat. "You're
Floyd | working, right? I am actually going to be at the Mall, 'funnily
Floyd | enough.'" She does that, sometimes, claim my cliched remarks as her
Floyd | own. "Sydney and a few of my other friends will be at the Bead Store.
Floyd | I'll stop by."
Floyd |
Floyd | Five minutes elapse. The only possession Criswell has left is the
Floyd | dumbfounded look upon his face.
Floyd |
Floyd | Minute seven comes and Pang can't help himself any longer.
Floyd |
Floyd | "You stupid, simple... child," he says, quietly. "Next week
Floyd | go get Good Will Hunting -- Robin Williams is hilarious in
Floyd | it." Pang points his thumb down.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 39
Floyd | >
Floyd | > WAIT
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | Leary turns around from his phone call and squints a bit at the TV. He
Floyd | chuckles, points his own thumb down for a second and then turns back
Floyd | away from the living room. Pang wiggles the Vecna's Hand toy around
Floyd | with its thumb pointing down in order to taunt Criswell just a bit
Floyd | more.
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang gets up to change the movie.
Floyd |
Floyd | He places in Lord of the Rings, apparently without really
Floyd | recognizing what it is. The intro starts. Audrey lets out a sigh. I
Floyd | have no idea if I'm correctly interpreting it, but I'm guessing that
Floyd | she's resigned herself to at least watching the movie on the TV
Floyd | screen.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What the shit is this?" asks Criswell. "More fuckin' ghouls and orcs
Floyd | and shit?"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 40
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO CRISWELL
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang and Criswell both put their thumbs down as Leary leaves.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What are you two doing?" I ask. "There aren't any other movies. We
Floyd | didn't get any."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Someone has forgotten our massive porn collection," says Pang,
Floyd | matter-of-factly.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Oh, for Heaven's sake," says Audrey. She gets off the couch and
Floyd | leaves the room, heading towards my bedroom. Not, I should say, in a
Floyd | 'let's go make out' way or a 'we need to talk' way but in a
Floyd | pre-emptive strike on a fight way.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What's her problem?" asks Criswell, to Pang. "We've got
Floyd | chick-on-chick stuff."
Floyd |
Floyd | I've got a fairly high boiling point, but I've absolutely had it with
Floyd | these two. The frustrations concerning the fact that my bad decisions
Floyd | and sloth have forced me into this decision boils right over. I decide
Floyd | it's time to probably let them have it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 22 / 41
Floyd | >
Floyd | > THROW BOTTLE AT PANG
Floyd |
Floyd | I ultimately decide  that throwing the bottle of wine at Pang isn't
Floyd | such a great idea.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO PANG
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "That -- this, all of this: Not cool, dude."
Floyd | (2) "What the FUCKING HELL is wrong with you?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 27 / 42
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 2
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang doesn't say anything at first, a bit taken aback by my outburst.
Floyd |
Floyd | "You two fucking pieces of shit really make me sick. I know neither
Floyd | one of you have the looks or personality to ever get a fucking girl to
Floyd | come over here more than once, but for me, you two acting like a bunch
Floyd | of immature little fucks just pisses me the hell right off. What the
Floyd | fuck is wrong with you? How fucking old are you?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, look -- "
Floyd |
Floyd | "Just shut the fuck up, Chunky. This is the last fucking time. If this
Floyd | shit ever happens again -- if you or your little sidekick are anywhere
Floyd | NEAR me when I have her over, I will fucking break both of you."
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang doesn't say anything. He just looks over towards Criswell.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 43
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GO TO BEDROOM
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Bedroom
Floyd | My bedroom's the smallest one in the house. (I got here last so I got
Floyd | the skankiest room.) There's not a whole lot going on in here, just
Floyd | some shelves with all my crap on it and a bed. It smells a bit less
Floyd | like cigarettes than it used to since I have gone a week and a half
Floyd | since my last one.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What the hell was that?" asks Audrey. "When are you going to get
Floyd | it... this has got to stop."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO AUDREY
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "You're pissed. Aren't you?"
Floyd | (2) "Hey, sorry about that and those guys."
Floyd | (3) "What's got to stop?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 44
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 2
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Well, when is it going to stop? I mean, really. They're animals."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Oh, come on now! You're over-reacting if you really think that."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Fine, Leary isn't. But he's never around. Those other two? They're
Floyd | out there right now hurling feces at one another while masturbating,
Floyd | sorry, furiously masturbating and you know it."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Look, I can't help my roommates, OK?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yes, you can, Jarret! You're better than this! We're better than
Floyd | this. You're too intelligent and talented to be working for minimum
Floyd | wage. But because you are, you have to live with three other people."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Look, I happen to like my job. Shouldn't that account for something?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Jarret, if you had as little going for you as Pang and Criswell then
Floyd | I wouldn't care. I really wouldn't. But I know you better, and I know
Floyd | that with the smallest bit of drive or ambition you could be writing,
Floyd | writing well. The guy that I fell in love with was the
Floyd | greatest storyteller, er, albeit in the fantasy genre, that I had ever
Floyd | met. And you're just sitting on that gift. Seeing you waste yourself
Floyd | like this isn't fun."
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Well, what is fun, then? Educate me."
Floyd | (2) "What? Come on, we were just goofing around in there."
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 45
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 1
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Spending time with you is fun, normally. You know, doing date-type
Floyd | things. I am not old enough where I want to spend every evening with
Floyd | my boyfriend just sitting on a couch watching film. My sister became
Floyd | that way, but she works all day, is married and is tired when she gets
Floyd | home. I'm not ready to retire just yet."
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Hey, look, me either. OK? I'm not retiring on you."
Floyd | (2) "Look, we'll go skydiving or something, okay?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 46
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 1
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Well, I appreciate the sentiment, Jarret, but it's been like this for
Floyd | a while now. I don't know if it's just the inevitable ennui you get
Floyd | when you reach your late twenties or what, but that kind of brings me
Floyd | to what I wanted to talk about when I came over tonight..."
Floyd |
Floyd | I realize now that we're probably only just getting started with what
Floyd | she wants to discuss. Geez. Well, I'll try to keep this quick.
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Lay it on me, then. What's up?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 47
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 1
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "I'm going to be moving soon."
Floyd |
Floyd | "What? Why? Where to? Moving like you're moving to Cheyenne moving or
Floyd | moving like you're moving to Eastern Islamistan moving?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "To Texas... I'm going to Texas. Houston, specifically. A company from
Floyd | there sent some recruiters up over Christmas Break and most of us in
Floyd | my program interviewed well. After I finish up this semester I am
Floyd | taking a job with them and headed down there."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Uh... okay." Don't you break down, Duffy. Do not let this girl
Floyd | get under your skin.
Floyd |
Floyd | "And it goes without saying that I'd love it if you came with me. I
Floyd | mean, I hope you know that."
Floyd |
Floyd | "To Texas. Uh... well..."
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Look, there's not a chance in hell I'm moving to Texas."
Floyd | (2) "Houston? Why not Bangor? Or freaking Charon?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 48
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 2
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | She shakes her head, she doesn't understand what I mean.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I'm just saying, if you're going to move the hell away then don't
Floyd | beat around the bush. Get to some place that I'll really never be able
Floyd | to see you." For the record, I thought that mentioning Persephone or
Floyd | another Kuiper Belt object would have come off as too sarcastic, but I
Floyd | don't tell her that.
Floyd |
Floyd | "That's not why I am going there. Why are you being so thick with
Floyd | this? What on earth is keeping you here?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "So you want me to come with you?"
Floyd |
Floyd | She pauses before answering. "With you like this? No. No, I don't want
Floyd | this version of you coming with me. I don't think you get just how
Floyd | much I am into you, Jarret. And it's painful to see you like this. The
Floyd | guy that I fell for and have been with all these years would not get
Floyd | defensive about simply moving somewhere."
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Look... I have to get to work."
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 49
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 1
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "I understand," she says.
Floyd |
Floyd | Technically, I had a couple hours before I was due at work, but I
Floyd | might as well go in early and pick up some overtime.
Floyd | "We can talk about this after I get out of there, right?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Of course," she says. Again, in her terse form of communicating more
Floyd | without words than with.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I get out at eleven. Gibs might want me to do his radio show but I
Floyd | will blow it off if so. I'll give you a call when I get home, okay?"
Floyd |
Floyd | She nods, gives me a hug and leaves my room.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 49
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET READY FOR WORK
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "ready" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Bedroom                                                     27 / 49
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET CHANGED
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "changed" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 27 / 50
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OUT
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Living Room
Floyd | This room is centered around the television, a 32" Sony that Leary
Floyd | brought when he moved in. The set sits on a wooden entertainment
Floyd | center, with 'satellite' speakers all around the room. The tattered
Floyd | white couch is perpendicular to the set, and the blue one (where Pang
Floyd | normally situates himself) is eight or nine feet directly across from
Floyd | it.
Floyd | On the tattered couch are the green blanket and the pillow.  Sitting
Floyd | on the entertainment center are the television and the DVD player.
Floyd | Inside the DVD player is the Lord of the Rings DVD.  Sitting on the
Floyd | table are Vecna's hand, the Dreamcast, a cup, the Blade DVD, and the
Floyd | The Truman Show DVD.
Floyd | Criswell, Pang, and Audrey are here.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Oh, Jesus Christ!" exclaims Audrey. "What the hell are you two chimps
Floyd | doing? Goddess, I don't need this shit. Goodbye!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 27 / 51
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X PANG
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang used to be an athlete but he's let himself go in recent years.
Floyd | He's about 6'4" tall and 270 pounds. He's wearing a mesh orange jersey
Floyd | stuffed into a pair of scrub blue jeans.
Floyd |
Floyd | Audrey opens the door to the Front Porch, leaves, and slams it behind
Floyd | her.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > OUT
Floyd |
Floyd | I shake my head at my horrible home life and leave for work...

Floyd ]                             Chapter Three
Floyd | I'm still rather pissed off when I pull up into the Mall parking lot
Floyd | and showroom park my car. What kind of game is Audrey playing here?
Floyd | Surely she's bluffing. We've gone to Defcon 2 or maybe 3 before, but
Floyd | we were always able to talk one another down before the bombshells
Floyd | were dropped.
Floyd |
Floyd | I didn't want to have to go into work tonight worrying about this kind
Floyd | of crap. My job becomes a lot easier when I'm able to turn off the
Floyd | parts of my mind that don't deal with twenty-sided dice, Player's
Floyd | Handbooks and noticing customer body odor. The greatest curse you can
Floyd | inflict upon someone who works at the Mall is getting them to fret.
Floyd |
Floyd | (And the greatest curse you can inflict upon yourself while at the
Floyd | Mall is to attempt to stop smoking. I seriously picked a bad week for
Floyd | it.)
Floyd |
Floyd | I walk down to the east end of the Mall, avoid the guy taking surveys,
Floyd | and enter my store.

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 52
Floyd |
Floyd | Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium
Floyd | Trott had been working the evening shift; I greet him and take my
Floyd | usual place behind the counter. There's really no reason for two of us
Floyd | to close the store, except that Benji (the owner) is still a little
Floyd | freaked after someone tried to blow up his arcade next door a couple
Floyd | of weeks ago. It's unlikely that we'll have any customers, though, so
Floyd | Trott and I should be able to logout the register and drop the gate
Floyd | quickly when the time comes.
Floyd | The counter contains the Magic: The Gathering cards.
Floyd | The counter has a postcard on it.
Floyd | Trott is here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 53
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET POSTCARD
Floyd |
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | Gibs arrives from the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 54
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X POSTCARD
Floyd |
Floyd | It's a postcard sent from a friend of Trott's.
Floyd |
Floyd | It reads, "Greetings from New Mexico, Trotskie! Clara and I are
Floyd | living in a town called -- get this -- 'Rockville' of all things. It's
Floyd | right near Alamogordo, too, which is the city where Atari buried all
Floyd | those E.T. cartridges. I'll probably make the trip to check out the
Floyd | site one of these days. Clara has been completing her degree off the
Floyd | internet, and I've already cracked and released my first ware. It's
Floyd | great to be back in the loop! Keep it cool and hopefully we'll be back
Floyd | for a visit later this year. Try to remember to lovingly palm the
Floyd | breasts of the corpses you've been slabbing lately, bud! You know they
Floyd | like that. Your pal, Delarion."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, Duffy, solid. Glad you're here," says Barnaby. He puts his big
Floyd | gulp drink down by the counter. "Got a question for you."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 55
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | Barnaby nods over to Trott. "What's going on, man?" he asks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 56
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | The cards are used in a game called 'Magic:The Gathering.' It's sort
Floyd | of like poker for nerds, except that the cards have special powers and
Floyd | so forth. I've never really gotten into it. Anyway, this is a small
Floyd | box containing wrapped packs of cards. There are about fifty or so in
Floyd | a box.
Floyd |
Floyd | "It's all great here, man," says Trott to Barnaby. "Yourself?" he
Floyd | asks.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Bitchin'" says Gibs in reply.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 56
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET BOX
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't see that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | The counter is closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 57
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't, it's locked. I have no idea where the key is, either.
Floyd |
Floyd | I hear a 'pop' sound come from near the counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Aw, Christ," says Trott. "The goddamn lock just burst on the counter
Floyd | shelf. Cheap plastic crap."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 58
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | Done.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 59
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 59
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the Magic: The Gathering cards.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > PLAY CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't play with that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > PLAY MAGIC
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't play with that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 59
Floyd | >
Floyd | > READ CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the Magic: The Gathering cards.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 60
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SEARCH CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't find anything.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 61
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO TROTT
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Hey, what's up, Trott?"
Floyd | (2) "Anything interesting happen tonight?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 62
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 2
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Nah, pretty slow night actually. Benji waddled in around five or six
Floyd | and the usual bunch of backpack-wearing kids bought their Magic:
Floyd | The Gathering packs after classes let out. Other than that,
Floyd | nothing of note. Why's Benji even having two of us close the store
Floyd | these days?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "He still thinks that the bomb that was planted in the arcade a few
Floyd | weeks back had something to do with him. He's as paranoid as a
Floyd | dope-smoking Everquest player chilling in a Greek Net cafe."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 63
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO TROTT
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 64
Floyd | >
Floyd | > I
Floyd |
Floyd | I am carrying my glasses (being worn), a postcard, and the Magic: The
Floyd | Gathering cards.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 65
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X GLASSES
Floyd |
Floyd | My glasses have gone from being in style to out with such regularity
Floyd | that I don't even notice any longer. If geek chic is in these days
Floyd | then I'm all set. If not, at least I can see well.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > ABOUT
Floyd |
Floyd | Necrotic Drift
Floyd | Interactive Fiction
Floyd | Copyright (c) 2004. Written and programmed by Robb Sherwin
Floyd | Release 1.03 / Serial number 040623 / Hugo 3.1
Floyd |
Floyd | NECROTIC DRIFT was written between December of 2001 and May of 2004.
Floyd |
Floyd | Minimum Recommended Resolution: 1024x768x16b.
Floyd | Platforms Supported : All graphics-enabled Hugo platforms.
Floyd |
Floyd | Conversation and violence are oftentimes the key to solving problems
Floyd | in this game. You can instruct Duffy to speak with someone by typing
Floyd | "TALK to character" (or simply T
Floyd | character, for short). The resulting menu allows the player
Floyd | to pick from a menu of what you'd like your character to say. The game
Floyd | will then respond with the NPC's response. For details on the game's
Floyd | combat system, consult the Help Menu.
Floyd |
Floyd | It is not possible to get the game in an completely unfinishable
Floyd | state. In certain situations, the player is allowed to solve different
Floyd | puzzles at his/her leisure, and information pertaining to those
Floyd | unsolved puzzles will be repeated when necessary to cut down on
Floyd | required player memorization. Please type "HELP" for a brief
Floyd | Command Summary, further answers to common gameplay questions, and
Floyd | this ware's design notes & credits.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 66
Floyd | >
Floyd | > REMOVE GLASSES
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't remove my specs like that! They are a valuable
Floyd | information-gathering tool!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 67
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO GIBBS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 68
Floyd | >
Floyd | > L
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium
Floyd | The Emporium is rather smallish, as far as stores around here go,
Floyd | nestled into the far corners of the Mall, distant from practically
Floyd | every other decent or worthwhile store. Shelves of gaming books and
Floyd | modules are arranged everywhere, and promotional kiosks occupy the
Floyd | floorspace between the register and the far wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | The rest of the Mall is to the north.
Floyd | The counter has Barnaby's Big Gulp drink on it.
Floyd | Trott and Gibs are here.  Gibs has Gibs's lacrosse stick.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 69
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X KIOSK
Floyd |
Floyd | Benji bought up a bunch of skanky, rotting shelves from some other
Floyd | business here in the Mall that went under a while back. He moved the
Floyd | nice, clean ones that we had previously to his home when he was
Floyd | installing his home theatre system. These shelves have a stench to
Floyd | them which I'm sure probably gets into my clothes and on my person to
Floyd | a disgusting degree.
Floyd | Sitting on the shelves are some gaming manuals.
Floyd |
Floyd | Sitting on the shelves are some gaming manuals.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 70
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE DRINK
Floyd |
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 70
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X MATERIALS
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "materials" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 71
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X MANUALS
Floyd |
Floyd | We sell hundreds of different kinds of gaming manuals that support all
Floyd | manner of interests for the careful and particular fantasy gaming
Floyd | connoisseur. Car Wars (for geeks into cars), Boot Hill (for geeks into
Floyd | guns), FATAL (for geeks that are tired of their dice lying to them),
Floyd | Battletech (for geeks into giant robots), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Floyd | (for alpha, 'classic' geeks) and Bras, Blondes, and Broadswords (for
Floyd | the geek who's pretty much given up ever talking to a real, live
Floyd | woman). I've got most of the information in the manuals memorized,
Floyd | save for the last one, which I haven't had to get into yet. (AOL
Floyd | Keyword being 'yet,' I guess.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 72
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X MANUALS
Floyd |
Floyd | We sell hundreds of different kinds of gaming manuals that support all
Floyd | manner of interests for the careful and particular fantasy gaming
Floyd | connoisseur. Car Wars (for geeks into cars), Boot Hill (for geeks into
Floyd | guns), FATAL (for geeks that are tired of their dice lying to them),
Floyd | Battletech (for geeks into giant robots), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Floyd | (for alpha, 'classic' geeks) and Bras, Blondes, and Broadswords (for
Floyd | the geek who's pretty much given up ever talking to a real, live
Floyd | woman). I've got most of the information in the manuals memorized,
Floyd | save for the last one, which I haven't had to get into yet. (AOL
Floyd | Keyword being 'yet,' I guess.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 73
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE STICK
Floyd |
Floyd | Nah, that is Gibs'.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 74
Floyd | >
Floyd | > N
Floyd |
Floyd | I'm supposed to finish out this shift tonight.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 75
Floyd | >
Floyd | > L
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium
Floyd | The Emporium is rather smallish, as far as stores around here go,
Floyd | nestled into the far corners of the Mall, distant from practically
Floyd | every other decent or worthwhile store. Shelves of gaming books and
Floyd | modules are arranged everywhere, and promotional kiosks occupy the
Floyd | floorspace between the register and the far wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | The rest of the Mall is to the north.
Floyd | Trott and Gibs are here.  Gibs has Gibs's lacrosse stick.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 76
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X BOOKS
Floyd |
Floyd | We sell hundreds of different kinds of gaming manuals that support all
Floyd | manner of interests for the careful and particular fantasy gaming
Floyd | connoisseur. Car Wars (for geeks into cars), Boot Hill (for geeks into
Floyd | guns), FATAL (for geeks that are tired of their dice lying to them),
Floyd | Battletech (for geeks into giant robots), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Floyd | (for alpha, 'classic' geeks) and Bras, Blondes, and Broadswords (for
Floyd | the geek who's pretty much given up ever talking to a real, live
Floyd | woman). I've got most of the information in the manuals memorized,
Floyd | save for the last one, which I haven't had to get into yet. (AOL
Floyd | Keyword being 'yet,' I guess.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 77
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO TROTT
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 78
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SMELL KIOSKS
Floyd |
Floyd | Like old wood mixed with old feet.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 79
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | [ Use "TALK TO CHARACTER" to talk to a particular character in the
Floyd | game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 80
Floyd | >
Floyd | > READ BRAS
Floyd |
Floyd | We sell hundreds of different kinds of gaming manuals that support all
Floyd | manner of interests for the careful and particular fantasy gaming
Floyd | connoisseur. Car Wars (for geeks into cars), Boot Hill (for geeks into
Floyd | guns), FATAL (for geeks that are tired of their dice lying to them),
Floyd | Battletech (for geeks into giant robots), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Floyd | (for alpha, 'classic' geeks) and Bras, Blondes, and Broadswords (for
Floyd | the geek who's pretty much given up ever talking to a real, live
Floyd | woman). I've got most of the information in the manuals memorized,
Floyd | save for the last one, which I haven't had to get into yet. (AOL
Floyd | Keyword being 'yet,' I guess.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 81
Floyd | >
Floyd | > DRINK DRINK
Floyd |
Floyd | It's not mine.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 82
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | It's an acrylic blue countertop, useful for leaning upon during the
Floyd | workday. We keep some media inside the counter, but nothing
Floyd | particularly interesting or important.
Floyd | Behind the counter is a stool.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 82
Floyd | >
Floyd | > CLOSE STORE
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the Emporium.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 83
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X STOOL
Floyd |
Floyd | The Game Store stool is a very short and incredibly uncomfortable
Floyd | 4-legged stool that we prop ourselves on when we know that Benji isn't
Floyd | going to be around. (Benji is an incredibly irritating person to work
Floyd | for, and will yell at us if he sees us slouching on the stool. He is a
Floyd | miserable person, in this regard. ... In all regards, really,
Floyd | but still.) Trott once hurled the stool at me, and the thing really
Floyd | smarted when I got hit by the sharp legs of the thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 84
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GET STOOL
Floyd |
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 84
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X FAR WALL
Floyd |
Floyd | I haven't encountered any "far wall".  (If you're sure you need to
Floyd | refer to that, try putting it another way.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 84
Floyd | >
Floyd | > WIELD STOOL
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "wield" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 85
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X REGISTER
Floyd |
Floyd | The cash register is beige and on the large side. They come in all
Floyd | shapes and sizes and I suppose I have seen a bunch at the Mall where I
Floyd | work that differ in structure and security features... Jesus, this is
Floyd | depressing. I'm a cash register expert at age 27. What have I been
Floyd | doing with my life?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 86
Floyd | >
Floyd | > LOOK UNDER STOOL
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't find anything under the stool.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 87
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN REGISTER
Floyd |
Floyd | The register is locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > HIT REGISTER WITH STOOL
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't really fight that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 87
Floyd | >
Floyd | > CLOSE OUT REGISTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I haven't encountered any "out register".  (If you're sure you need to
Floyd | refer to that, try putting it another way.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 87
Floyd | >
Floyd | > CLOSE STORE
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the Emporium.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 88
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE MANUAL
Floyd |
Floyd | I've got all the info contained within memorized for those games I'm
Floyd | into, and somewhat proud of myself for those games that I don't have
Floyd | committed to memory, if you're digging my ditch here (and I think you
Floyd | are).
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 89
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GIVE CARDS TO TROTT
Floyd |
Floyd | My goodwill is ignored.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 89
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SELL CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | [ That sentence is not understood by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 89
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X CEILING
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't see that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]                            NECROTIC DRIFT
Floyd |    NECROTIC DRIFT
Floyd |
Floyd | 1. Introduction
Floyd | 2. System Requirements
Floyd | 3. What is Interactive Fiction?
Floyd | 4. Game Instructions -- Commands
Floyd | 5. Scoring
Floyd | 6. Hints
Floyd | 7. Credits
Floyd | 8. License and Copyright Information
Floyd | 9. About the Hugo Compiler
Floyd | 10. About the Programmer
Floyd |
Floyd | Select the number of your choice or "Q" to exit:

Floyd ]                          Regarding hints...
Floyd |
Floyd | It is not possible to get the game in an unwinnable state. General
Floyd | advice would be to role play Duffy and make those choices that he
Floyd | faces which he is seemingly incapable of making on his own, as well as
Floyd | talk at length to the other characters that you will encounter.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | For more specific help and hints with the game, try the Usenet
Floyd | newsgroup rec.games.int-fiction -- the users of this group
Floyd | are often able to help with quality hints and solid nudges.
Floyd | Additionally, you are invited to drop by the author's BBS at
Floyd | [LINK] where he will be able to
Floyd | answer any and all questions.
Floyd |
Floyd | [Press a key...]

Floyd ]                            NECROTIC DRIFT
Floyd |    NECROTIC DRIFT
Floyd |
Floyd | 1. Introduction
Floyd | 2. System Requirements
Floyd | 3. What is Interactive Fiction?
Floyd | 4. Game Instructions -- Commands
Floyd | 5. Scoring
Floyd | 6. Hints
Floyd | 7. Credits
Floyd | 8. License and Copyright Information
Floyd | 9. About the Hugo Compiler
Floyd | 10. About the Programmer
Floyd |
Floyd | Select the number of your choice or "Q" to exit:

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 89
Floyd | Returning to the story...
Floyd |
Floyd | Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium
Floyd | The Emporium is rather smallish, as far as stores around here go,
Floyd | nestled into the far corners of the Mall, distant from practically
Floyd | every other decent or worthwhile store. Shelves of gaming books and
Floyd | modules are arranged everywhere, and promotional kiosks occupy the
Floyd | floorspace between the register and the far wall.
Floyd |
Floyd | The rest of the Mall is to the north.
Floyd | Trott and Gibs are here.  Gibs has Gibs's lacrosse stick.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 90
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | Barnaby Gibbons is 5'11" tall and 175lbs, and right about my age. He
Floyd | has hazel eyes and brown hair. He's wearing a backwards baseball cap
Floyd | and a Rochester Knighthawks authentic lacrosse jersey. Barnaby makes
Floyd | his living as the host of a semi-popular sports radio show that is
Floyd | broadcast from two in the morning until six AM weekdays. I've known
Floyd | him for about a decade. He was my roommate for my three semesters at
Floyd | Syracuse University, and always keeps me rooted back in reality when
Floyd | I've been spending too much time with role-playing games. He also has
Floyd | the worst taste in music of anybody I know.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 91
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GIVE POSTCARD TO TROTT
Floyd |
Floyd | My goodwill is ignored.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 92
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 93
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X STICK
Floyd |
Floyd | Gibs's stick is a Patterson brand Men's field lacrosse stick, designed
Floyd | for the Attack-Midfield position. It has a rawhide quick wall and
Floyd | bridge, woven with black leather, at one end (for catching and
Floyd | shooting balls) and a standard wood frame and handle at the other.
Floyd | Gibs has removed the plastic butt-end for his stick and filed it down,
Floyd | as he often thrusts it at his opponents during play in one of the
Floyd | nastier leagues he plays in.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 94
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SHOW POSTCARD TO GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | Gibs doesn't seem too interested in the postcard.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 95
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SHOW POSTCARD TO TROTT
Floyd |
Floyd | Trott doesn't seem too interested in the postcard.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 96
Floyd | >

Floyd | > SHOW CARDS TO TROTT
Floyd |
Floyd | Trott doesn't seem too interested in the Magic: The Gathering cards.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > PLAY MAGIC
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't play with that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 97
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SHOW CARDS TO GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | Gibs doesn't seem too interested in the Magic: The Gathering cards.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 98
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't speak to that!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                    27 / 99
Floyd | >
Floyd | > UNLOCK REGISTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I'd rather not get involved.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > FIX LOCK
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't fix that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 100
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X LOCK
Floyd |
Floyd | It's just a little lock placed on the counter to stop the mallrats
Floyd | from stealing Magic:The Gathering cards when we're not looking. And,
Floyd | to be honest, we're almost never looking. The cheapness of the lock
Floyd | caused it to become brittle and break when Gibs set his frosty Big
Floyd | Gulp drink by it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 100
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUT DRINK ON REGISTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the register.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > POUR DRINK ON REGISTER
Floyd |
Floyd | That doesn't seem to be feasible.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > POUR DRINK ON GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | That doesn't seem to be feasible.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 101
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GIVE DRINK TO TROTT
Floyd |
Floyd | My goodwill is ignored.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 102
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X DRINK
Floyd |
Floyd | It's sixty-four ounces of refreshing lime cola in a cup that looks
Floyd | like a chalice. The 128 ounce version of this drink is called the
Floyd | 'Supreme Maw Thrust' and even though it's a better deal it doesn't get
Floyd | purchased much by many Mall denizens.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 103
Floyd | >
Floyd | > GIVE DRINK TO GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | My goodwill is ignored.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 104
Floyd | >
Floyd | > I
Floyd |
Floyd | I am carrying my glasses (being worn), a postcard, the Magic: The
Floyd | Gathering cards, Barnaby's Big Gulp drink, and the stool.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 104
Floyd | >
Floyd | > DANCE
Floyd |
Floyd | Better start with a verb.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 105
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SIT ON STOOL
Floyd |
Floyd | The stool is really uncomfortable.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 105
Floyd | >
Floyd | > HM. WE DON'T HAVE THE NAIL GUN STILL?
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "hm" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 106
Floyd | >
Floyd | > CLOSE DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | It's already open.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 107
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | The back office door is extremely aged and flaking. The door is
Floyd | currently closed and locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 107
Floyd | >
Floyd | > UNLOCK DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the back office door.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 107
Floyd | >
Floyd | > BREAK DOR
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "dor" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 107
Floyd | >
Floyd | > BREAK DOO
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "doo" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > BREAK DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | That doesn't seem to work.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 108
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | The back office door is locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 109
Floyd | >
Floyd | > DROP GATE
Floyd |
Floyd | It is not time yet.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > LOGOUT REGISTER
Floyd |
Floyd | It is not time yet.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > S
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't go that way.  I can't go anywhere. I'm working.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 109
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUT DRINK ON DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the back office door.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 110
Floyd | >
Floyd | > EXITS
Floyd |
Floyd | There's an exit north to the rest of the Mall, but I'm really not
Floyd | supposed to leave until my shift is over. (That won't be for another
Floyd | couple of hours.)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > SLEEP
Floyd |
Floyd | Not now -- I'm not very tired.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 110
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TROTT, CLOSE STORE
Floyd |
Floyd | Trott can't do that with the Emporium.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > T GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | Just talking to Gibs will suffice.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 111
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 111
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SHUFFLE CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "shuffle" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 112
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | The cards are used in a game called 'Magic:The Gathering.' It's sort
Floyd | of like poker for nerds, except that the cards have special powers and
Floyd | so forth. I've never really gotten into it. Anyway, this is a small
Floyd | box containing wrapped packs of cards. There are about fifty or so in
Floyd | a box.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 112
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the Magic: The Gathering cards.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 112
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE PACK
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "pack" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 112
Floyd | >
Floyd | > UNWRAP CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "unwrap" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > EAT CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't eat the Magic: The Gathering cards.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 112
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN BOX
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't see that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 112
Floyd | >
Floyd | > DEAL CARDS
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "deal" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > HIT LOCK
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't really fight that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 113
Floyd | >
Floyd | > THROW DRINK AT GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | I ultimately decide  that throwing the Big Gulp drink at Gibs isn't
Floyd | such a great idea.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 113
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SPIT INTO CUP
Floyd |
Floyd | [ That sentence is not understood by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 114
Floyd | >
Floyd | > THROW DRINK AT BACK DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | Nothing happens.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 114
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PEE INTO CUP
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "pee" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 114
Floyd | >
Floyd | > ORDER PIZZA
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "pizza" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 114
Floyd | >
Floyd | > CHECK TIME
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "check" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 114
Floyd | >
Floyd | > WATCH CLOCK
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "clock" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 114
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X DRYING PAINT
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "drying" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 115
Floyd | >
Floyd | > LISTEN
Floyd |
Floyd | I hear nothing unexpected.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 116
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUT MAGIC IN COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I put the Magic: The Gathering cards in the counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 117
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 117
Floyd | >
Floyd | > LOCK COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 118
Floyd | >
Floyd | > LOCK LOCK
Floyd |
Floyd | I will have to close it first.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 119
Floyd | >
Floyd | > CLOSE LOCK
Floyd |
Floyd | Closed.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 120
Floyd | >
Floyd | > LOCK LOCK
Floyd |
Floyd | Locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 121
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 122
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN LOCK
Floyd |
Floyd | The counter lock is locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 123
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUT DRINK ON COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I put the Big Gulp drink on the counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 124
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUSH COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | Pushing the counter doesn't get me anywhere.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 125
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUSH GULP
Floyd |
Floyd | Pushing the Big Gulp drink doesn't get me anywhere.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 126
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUSH GIBS
Floyd |
Floyd | Pushing Gibs doesn't get me anywhere.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 127
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUT POSTCARD ON COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | I put the postcard on the counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 128
Floyd | >
Floyd | > I
Floyd |
Floyd | I am carrying my glasses (being worn) and the stool.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 128
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PUT STOOL BEHIND COUNTER
Floyd |
Floyd | [ That sentence is not understood by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 129
Floyd | >
Floyd | > DROP STOOL
Floyd |
Floyd | Dropped.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 129
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TIME
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "time" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | [ Use "TALK TO CHARACTER" to talk to a particular character in the
Floyd | game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 130
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | The back office door is extremely aged and flaking. The door is
Floyd | currently closed and locked.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 131
Floyd | >
Floyd | > KICK DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | The back office door is covered in decades-old lead paint which gives
Floyd | it advanced armor against any attack I could strike it with.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 131
Floyd | >
Floyd | > UNLOCK DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't do that with the back office door.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 131
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TROTT, UNLOCK BACK DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | Trott can't do that with the back office door.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Benji's Gaming and Role-Playing Emporium                   27 / 131
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PEEL PAINT
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "peel" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > SCORE
Floyd |
Floyd | [Your score is 27 from a trivial 601.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > RESTART
Floyd |
Floyd | [Your score is 27 from a trivial 601.]
Floyd | Are you sure you want to restart (YES or NO)?

Floyd ]                  NECROTIC DRIFT 1.03 by Robb Sherwin
Floyd | My dad came home late one night when I was nine and threw an old copy
Floyd | of the Monster Manual by Gary Gygax onto my bed. He woke me
Floyd | up, stressed and shaking at the humiliation his friends had put him
Floyd | through earlier that evening.
Floyd |
Floyd | He asked me if I wanted the book. I was still groggy, but I picked it
Floyd | up and thumbed through it. "We didn't play Monopoly tonight, Jarret,"
Floyd | he told me. "That's because not a one of them can beat me. Instead,
Floyd | they brought out this... thing. Some 'game of the imagination'." He
Floyd | practically spat that last word. "You can move all you like without
Floyd | throwing any dice, but to actually do anything, you need to throw a
Floyd | handful!!" I was both reading entries on the different monsters and
Floyd | paying half-attention to his rant. "Five minutes in, Benson tells me
Floyd | that I come across something called a gorgon. That got me stoned. Why
Floyd | would I play a game that depicted the recreational use of marijuana
Floyd | cigarettes? I got up and left."
Floyd |
Floyd | "They let you read this during play?" I asked him. He nodded. I turned
Floyd | to page 49. "I don't think they were supposed to. It says right here
Floyd | that the gorgon can turn you to stone. It doesn't
Floyd | get you stoned. And right here are all its weaknesses! How
Floyd | did you not see this? Are you stupid or something? Or what?"
Floyd |
Floyd | My father snatched back the Monster Manual. He didn't state
Floyd | that what he was going to do was going to hurt him more than it hurt
Floyd | me. (I think all he did say was that he should have left his 'patented
Floyd | Duffy blast' on my mother's face the night I was conceived, which
Floyd | didn't make a whole lot of sense to me then.) He instead just quietly
Floyd | gave me a spanking for back talk. But as that 112 page reference to a
Floyd | modern mythology of villainy struck my bony behind, it was as if he
Floyd | were bonding the pages and me for all time. Like directed osmosis
Floyd | through anger or something.
Floyd |
Floyd | (Okay, it actually wasn't like osmosis at all, but I've sacrificed
Floyd | knowledge in basic chemistry for additional levels in Modern
Floyd | Mythology, so please cut me some slack on the occasional analogy
Floyd | outside of my experience.)
Floyd |
Floyd | In the week that followed, my father tried to ban Dungeons & Dragons
Floyd | from the house as he had previously banned video games, cursing, Cajun
Floyd | food and music recorded after 1959. I stood up to him on D&D, though,
Floyd | and he caved for the only time in my childhood. Within a week I was
Floyd | running my own games for the kids in my tract. We were creating
Floyd | adventures together with Devils, Demons and Dragons and it was one of
Floyd | the best times of my life. My old man may have never been on the short
Floyd | list for an award from the PTA, but his maniac antics did a better job
Floyd | helping me understand just what I was interested in than the fathers
Floyd | of anyone else I grew up with. And heck, he did have my back that one
Floyd | time I met D&D creator Gary Gygax himself at DragonCon and started
Floyd | kicking him in his bag of magic beans (if you're digging my ditch
Floyd | here) in misplaced, latent vengeance due to how hard the board stock
Floyd | was for those manual covers.
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't think you've truly bonded with your father until you've spent
Floyd | 36 consecutive hours in a holding cell mocking and taunting an inmate
Floyd | set consisting of multiple thirty-somethings decked out in homemade
Floyd | hobbit, fairie and chocobo costumes, where the only thing the lot of
Floyd | them had in common, aside from a complete lack of human dignity, was
Floyd | relating how difficult it was to sleep late when the sump pump went
Floyd | off.

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                0 / 0
Floyd | Necrotic Drift
Floyd | Interactive Fiction
Floyd | Copyright (c) 2004. Written and programmed by Robb Sherwin
Floyd | Release 1.03 / Serial number 040623 / Hugo 3.1
Floyd |
Floyd | I'm here this evening at an Academy Videos store thirty-five minutes
Floyd | from my home with two of my roommates and my best friend. We have to
Floyd | come all the way down here to rent because of the late fees on my
Floyd | memberships at all the video places back in the Fort. I wish I had a
Floyd | good story for why that is the case, but I don't. I'm just poor and
Floyd | had the first Lord of the Rings movie overdue for more than
Floyd | two weeks at multiple video chains. I kept it around to mainly prove
Floyd | trivia. (It will probably end up costing me more to show my friends
Floyd | that the elf character Legolas was walking on, and not
Floyd | in the snow, than it did for director Peter Jackson to
Floyd | implement that effect on-screen.)
Floyd |
Floyd | Supposedly, Audrey is dropping by tonight to watch a movie, which is
Floyd | why I'm even here to begin with. In the five years we've been together
Floyd | we've dumped each other a total of nine times. She is currently ahead
Floyd | of me six to three. Her most shallow dumping was when she wanted to
Floyd | exclusively hang around a hardcore goth guy who had somehow managed to
Floyd | finance or lease his own cemetery plot. That guy was the black
Floyd | fingernail Alpha male until he missed his first payment. To be fair,
Floyd | mine was when she filled out Student Loan paperwork for me without my
Floyd | knowledge or consent and almost enrolled me into classes at the nearby
Floyd | University of Central Hill. She doesn't like the fact that I work at
Floyd | the Funtime Teen Mall for $5.51 an hour at age 27.
Floyd |
Floyd | I have to work later tonight, so I guess I'd better pick something and
Floyd | get out of here quickly.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                0 / 0
Floyd | >
Floyd | > SPACE
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "space" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                0 / 1
Floyd | >
Floyd | > X ACTION
Floyd |
Floyd | It's constructed from a cheap wood board, and sags quite a bit due to
Floyd | the number of movies placed within it.
Floyd |
Floyd | Inside the action rack is a movie from action rack.
Floyd |
Floyd | "So..." says Gibs, as he scans the movies half-heartedly, "You and
Floyd | Audrey are on the rocks again, eh, Duffy? What happened this time, did
Floyd | she get you enrolled into MIT?"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 2
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE ACTION MOVIE
Floyd |
Floyd | I grab a movie from the rack. And behold! It's The Lord of the
Floyd | Rings. Why on earth the dip behind the counter would deign to
Floyd | keep it in this rack is beyond my comprehension. But it
Floyd | doesn't matter. I don't really possess the discipline to go get
Floyd | something else.
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang clears his throat and holds up a copy of Blade. "I have
Floyd | found the movie for us all tonight," he states, with an annoying
Floyd | authority. "It has electronica and vampires, as all classics should."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Blade?" screeches Criswell. He's another one of my
Floyd | roommates. "They merged techno music and goths for that one. No
Floyd | chance. No way. And if you pick out one that merges country music with
Floyd | the French art film or opera with a Pixar kiddie flick I will drop
Floyd | trou and take a crap on the TV while it's playing."
Floyd |
Floyd | Criswell's only half joking, as he's demonstrated his willingness to
Floyd | do that before. When his favorite CFL football team lost in the finals
Floyd | last year he was so pissed off at the TV for depicting it that he
Floyd | grabbed a chair from the kitchen, got up and plopped a steaming load
Floyd | on top of the set. Worse, it was two weeks before anyone cleaned it
Floyd | up. We had a veritable bumper crop of flies around the house that
Floyd | year.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 3
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | "OK, I'm set," says Criswell. "Truman Show. Jim Carrey is the
Floyd | funniest man alive. This'll be a gem. Hey, Duffy, you
Floyd | bringin' that chick you hang around with over tonight? Well, thank me
Floyd | later, man, 'cos she'll be all out of giggles by the time you pull off
Floyd | your pants. For once, anyway."
Floyd |
Floyd | Barnaby idly toys with a movie and then puts it back on the shelf.
Floyd | "There were some real hotties at that Bead Store, the other day," he
Floyd | says to me. "Cute, but not so cute that they would have nothing to do
Floyd | with you, I mean."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 4
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yo, fruit loops," says the clerk to the lot of us, "I'm shutting this
Floyd | store down to go get a full body massage from the Taiwanese Parlor
Floyd | down the street. Pronto. Get your movies and get out."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Full-body?" asks Barnaby. "That means they give you a hand job,
Floyd | right?" The clerk perks up and nods gleefully. "Hey, I've always
Floyd | wondered..." Barnaby decides exactly how he wants to phrase it. "Is it
Floyd | customary to let them know when you're about to come? Like, a warning?
Floyd | Or do you not have to do that because they are professionals?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Nobody says anything for a few moments. I shrug. "I guess it depends
Floyd | on whether you're a sprayer or a lumper," I say.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 5
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | "Anyway, I wasn't kidding around. Get your movies and get lost,"
Floyd | repeats the clerk. The clerk continues to get ready for his little
Floyd | excursion. He places his armament upon the counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yeah, yeah! I'm thinkin', I'm thinkin'..." says Criswell. I'm all
Floyd | set, but it looks like we'll have to wait for him or Pang now.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                1 / 6
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | A grime-encrusted area denizen slams his hand on the door and the
Floyd | clerk reluctantly lets him in. The thing shambles his way into the
Floyd | video store. He leaves muddy streaks upon the entrance door, drawing
Floyd | the further ire of the clerk.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, what the hell is the matter with you, cracky?" I suppose that I
Floyd | disagree that the new denizen is a crackhead (he meanders more in his
Floyd | movement than he shakes, I mean). But I don't say anything. The clerk
Floyd | points a stern finger at him from across the counter. "Can't you read?
Floyd | We're closed! Get out of here!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Academy Videos                                                7 / 7
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TAKE GUN
Floyd |
Floyd | I casually lift the gun from the counter without the clerk really
Floyd | noticing.
Floyd |
Floyd | The area denizen grabs at the clerk's neck! He gets two hands round
Floyd | the clerk's esophagus, and begins choking the life right out of him!
Floyd |
Floyd | The clerk gurgles in pain! I hear a guttural moaning sound coming from
Floyd | the attacker. The violence causes Pang and Criswell to hide in the
Floyd | back of the store.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey!" says Barnaby, "Knock it off! Let him go!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > SHOOT THING
Floyd |
Floyd | [Specify which gun to shoot with.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Main Street                                                  12 / 9
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OUT
Floyd |
Floyd | (opening the store door first)
Floyd | It's stuck!!
Floyd |
Floyd | The grimy denizen throttles the clerk!
Floyd |
Floyd | The clerk slumps to the floor, disappearing behind the register
Floyd | counter.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Shoot the goddamn thing, Duffy!" screams Barnaby. He kicks open the
Floyd | door to the outside and gets into a defensive posture.
Floyd | We run outside and slam the door shut. Pang gives it an angled kick,
Floyd | 'locking' it the best he can.
Floyd |
Floyd | Main Street
Floyd | The stench of New Haz suddenly hits us all like a cruel sucker-punch
Floyd | through the septum. Individually (but within moments, in concert) we
Floyd | all gasp for fresher air. We need to get in my car and get out of here
Floyd | quickly -- both before that thing finishes up in the store,
Floyd | and before the city's stink can settle in our clothes.
Floyd | My car is here.
Floyd |
Floyd | Gibs, Pang, and Criswell are here.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What... what the hell was that?" asks Pang. I don't have a
Floyd | decent answer for him. I don't know, I don't have any idea.
Floyd |
Floyd | "There are sometimes bots," starts Barnaby, before shutting up. "Oh,
Floyd | Christ, let's just get the hell out of here before it comes looking
Floyd | for us!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Main Street                                                 12 / 10
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN CAR
Floyd |
Floyd | Opened.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Floyd ]  Main Street                                                 12 / 11
Floyd | >
Floyd | > ENTER CAR
Floyd |
Floyd | I get into the car. Pang, Criswell and Barnaby join me.
Floyd |
Floyd | The thing from inside breaks through a section of the door!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > DRIVE
Floyd |
Floyd | I double-check to make sure everyone's into the car.
Floyd |
Floyd | The guy from inside starts banging and clawing at the passenger side
Floyd | of my car.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Drive, dammit, drive!" screeches Criswell from the backseat.
Floyd | "Get us outta here!"
Floyd |
Floyd | I put the car in reverse and prepare to get the hell out of town. The
Floyd | guy staggers over and gets right in my path.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hit 'em, Duffy!" Criswell's going crazy back there. "Run him over!"
Floyd |
Floyd | I put the car in first and stomp the accelerator more out of panic
Floyd | than anything else. The guy doesn't move, flinch, anything. I ram him
Floyd | and he smacks right into the windshield, chipping it with his elbow.
Floyd | He tumbles about and we hear him on the roof for a moment before
Floyd | seeing his face appear on the back window, shocking the hell out of
Floyd | Pang and Criswell. I downshift from third gear back into second for a
Floyd | moment which causes my car to red line and enough of a jolt for him to
Floyd | fall off completely. I see him, through the rear-view mirror, take a
Floyd | vicious fall onto the road, bouncing against it at painful angles like
Floyd | a discarded rag doll.
Floyd |
Floyd | Nobody says anything for a second, until Criswell pops opens his
Floyd | mouth. "That... man, that was awesome!!"
Floyd |
Floyd | "You don't think I killed that guy, do you? Do you think he's OK?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "It was probably a bot," says Gibs. "Look, he was trying to attack us,
Floyd | anyway."
Floyd |
Floyd | "That's true," says Pang. "Both items are totally true."
Floyd |
Floyd | I get us on the Interstate and head north, back towards home. I chuck
Floyd | the gun out the window on the way back. Nobody says anything else
Floyd | until I drop Gibs off and get the rest of us back to the house...

Floyd |

Floyd ]                              Chapter Two
Floyd | I've only been on, really, truly on... once in my life.
Floyd |
Floyd | It was about five years ago. The first week of March. The Wizards of
Floyd | the Coast (the company that publishes all the D&D books these days)
Floyd | were sponsoring a huge, two-day tournament in the Fort. I signed up
Floyd | for it with Barnaby, who used to be more into this kind of thing back
Floyd | then, and we started gaming it on a Saturday morning.
Floyd |
Floyd | It wasn't a 'competitive' tournament, per se, especially since around
Floyd | that time the two local gangs of Korean role players had pretty much
Floyd | wiped each other out when an on-line housing refresh dispute went from
Floyd | the virtual world of the internet to the physical one of reality,
Floyd | resulting in thirteen dead and seven wounded. That would have normally
Floyd | taken the edge off for the rest of us for the whole of the weekend,
Floyd | but we soon found out that WotC were putting up an eight-thousand
Floyd | dollar first prize for the weekend's 'Most Outstanding Roleplayer.'
Floyd | When I found that out, something clicked inside me, and I drew from a
Floyd | strength of personality I didn't know I had.
Floyd |
Floyd | All day the dice were with me. Just about every time I threw a
Floyd | twenty-sided die I got an incredibly favorable result. I started
Floyd | getting a bit more bold and soon found that the other kids at my table
Floyd | started following me. Looking to me for direction, for
Floyd | decisions, for witticisms. I became bolder and overly gregarious. I
Floyd | hardly needed any of the booty the game's Dungeon Master was giving us
Floyd | in-game, and won over the entire table through generosity. I was
Floyd | confident and having fun being me for the first time ever.
Floyd |
Floyd | My luck stayed with me when I went to different tables and played with
Floyd | different people. When the tournament finished the next day, I was
Floyd | awarded the top prize and a check for $8,000. I accepted it graciously
Floyd | and thanked everyone I played with for giving me the chance to shine.
Floyd | As Barnaby and I were rounding up our backpacks and bags of dice, I
Floyd | Xeroxed a copy of my character sheet, signed my name and phone number
Floyd | to it, and gave it to the cutest girl who seemed single during the
Floyd | event, someone I had played with on the first day.
Floyd |
Floyd | When I got home, I spent the entire check on a car and a new wardrobe.
Floyd | I had nothing left of it by Tuesday.
Floyd |
Floyd | Audrey didn't call the number on the sheet, maybe because it was a
Floyd | pompous act of nigh-Olympic level. But when she dropped by the Mall
Floyd | later that week I asked her out on a date. She said yes and has been
Floyd | in various states of flabbergastation with me over the years that have
Floyd | followed.
Floyd |
Floyd | I got my car, clothes and relationship within a lucky streak that
Floyd | lasted 48 hours five years ago. And I've been living off that success
Floyd | ever since. I'd confess that in my darker moments, when I am at my
Floyd | most honest, it rather spooks me to know that I have essentially been
Floyd | stagnant ever since.

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 12
Floyd | stagnant ever since.
Floyd | Living Room
Floyd | I live in a four-bedroom rented house in a college town we all call
Floyd | 'The Fort.' The exterior to this place was kind of beat up when we
Floyd | decided to rent here, and through the last three years we've worked
Floyd | our hardest to make the interior nicely match.
Floyd | Sitting corpulently in the blue couch is Pang.
Floyd | On the tattered couch are the green blanket and the pillow.  Sitting
Floyd | on the entertainment center are the television and the DVD player.
Floyd | Sitting on the table are Vecna's hand, the Dreamcast, the bottle of
Floyd | wine, a cup, the Blade DVD, the The Truman Show DVD, and the Lord of
Floyd | the Rings DVD.
Floyd |
Floyd | The other three guys who live here include Pang and Criswell and
Floyd | another guy named Leary who isn't around much. (But then, he's an
Floyd | engineer and the only guy with his life remotely in order.) Criswell
Floyd | found most of our crummy furniture when he went Dumpster Diving a
Floyd | while back, and we place blankets over the rotting parts like they
Floyd | were giant cloth band-aids to hide their pronounced ghetto factor.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 12
Floyd | >
Floyd | > PRESS SPACE
Floyd |
Floyd | [ The word "space" is not recognized by the game. ]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 13
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 14
Floyd | >
Floyd | > Z
Floyd |
Floyd | Time passes...
Floyd |
Floyd | There's a knock at the door. It's probably Audrey.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 15
Floyd | >
Floyd | > OPEN DOOR
Floyd |
Floyd | I let Audrey inside, and give her a kiss on the cheek.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hello, Jarret..." she looks over and sees Pang on the couch. Distaste
Floyd | can't help but crawl across her face. "So... what have we got planned
Floyd | for tonight?"
Floyd |
Floyd | I see Audrey for the first time. I probably should have gotten the
Floyd | door for her.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Thanks for getting the door, jerk," she says. Ouch. This isn't good,
Floyd | I've managed to come off as irritating before she'd even entered the
Floyd | house. I usually have ten minutes of grace period.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I was in the bathroom, brushing my hair so it would look nice and
Floyd | stylish for you," I say with a shrug.
Floyd |
Floyd | "It's a brush. Not a magic wand. You know... I've never met a man who
Floyd | was so obsessed with his hair. But anyway. What are we doing tonight?"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO AUDREY
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Movie Night! Movie Night sure sounds great, doesn't it?"
Floyd | (2) "I'm going to avoid that question by telling you how great you
Floyd | look, Miss Case."
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 16
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 1
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Movie night?" asks Audrey. "You want to sit around the house and
Floyd | watch a movie? Come on. Really?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang pops up with his opinion. "Well, I want to."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Nobody's asking you," says Audrey. Then it hits her that Pang is
Floyd | probably going to sit around for the showing. "Your little friend
Floyd | isn't around is he, Pang?" She means Criswell.
Floyd |
Floyd | "He will be in a minute. The pipes froze and burst next door and
Floyd | flooded the kitchen. He's been keeping beer there."
Floyd |
Floyd | Audrey doesn't roll her eyes or anything, but it's obvious to me that
Floyd | she envisioned something else when I asked her over. I'd love to go
Floyd | out somewhere, but I barely have enough gas to get me to work and back
Floyd | and I don't get paid until Wednesday. In a storybook world or in some
Floyd | kind of made-up dream relationship I'd just come correct and
Floyd | let her know how broke I was. We could then just play in the snow,
Floyd | frolic for a couple hours and eat pieces of our gingerbread house for
Floyd | dinner. In the world I reside in, though, in the reality I've made for
Floyd | myself that's not an option I have available.
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang puts the copy of Blade into the DVD player.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 17
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO AUDREY
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What.. aw, hell, what the hell is this, Pang?" asks Criswell, as he
Floyd | enters. "Oh, hey, by the way, I don't think we're gonna be able to
Floyd | keep beers at the neighbor's house any longer. Someone has begun the
Floyd | moving-in process. Wait, did you end up getting this fucking
Floyd | Blade thing? Oh, Kee-rist!"
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't understand why Criswell is so against this movie. I guess I
Floyd | could ask him, or something, if I really cared. Only I don't. I just
Floyd | want him gone.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Just watch the movie," says Pang.
Floyd |
Floyd | "No!" exclaims Criswell. "I'm gonna make The Call!"
Floyd |
Floyd | "You're not going to have a quorum," says Pang.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO AUDREY
Floyd |
Floyd | Please select one:
Floyd |
Floyd | (1) "Sorry. The next movie will probably be better anyway."
Floyd | (2) "Did you particularly want to see Blade??"
Floyd |
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 18
Floyd | Select an option or 0 to say nothing >>
Floyd | > 2
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | "Not especially," she says. "I think I saw it when it first came out."
Floyd |
Floyd | "What? Are you kidding me?" I think about the math for a second. "By
Floyd | my calculations, you were eight when it came out. You mean to tell me
Floyd | that the Neuromancer didn't like you dating me at first because at
Floyd | three years your elder, I was a bad example, but he was OK with you
Floyd | watching a movie where Snipes hacks apart vampires for 90 minutes?" I
Floyd | call her father 'The Neuromancer' because his first name is Henry, and
Floyd | the main character of the novel _Neuromancer_ is named Henry Case.
Floyd | I've been lucky in not saying it when he's been around so far.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I was very mature for my age," she replies. "I think we'd have been a
Floyd | perfect match, intellectually, if you met me when I was eight and you
Floyd | were twenty-seven.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, what about if you met me?" says Criswell.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Two," Audrey and I say at the same time.
Floyd |
Floyd | Leary walks down the stairs. He gives everyone a 'hey' and waves to
Floyd | Audrey.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yo, Leary, what's your take on Blade?" asks Criswell.
Floyd |
Floyd | Pang's not thrilled about opinions being offered up on his choice
Floyd | before the opening credits are even finished.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Ehh," says Leary as he picks up the phone to make a call. "Not my
Floyd | thing. Nothing personal, Panger."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Damn fuckin' straight!" says Criswell. "I'm makin' the call! The Call
Floyd | for Ejection! Duffy? What're you saying?"
Floyd |
Floyd | I don't know how to go with this one. On one hand, it could mean that
Floyd | my movie will get played and these two morons will leave out of
Floyd | boredom. On the other hand -- just how freaking immature am I going to
Floyd | come across?
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd ]  Living Room                                                 17 / 19
Floyd | >
Floyd | > TALK TO AUDREY
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't think of anything to say right now.
Floyd |
Floyd | "The thumb points down, bitchkin!" says Criswell to Pang. It was
Floyd | inevitable that he was going to pull the movie no matter what popular
Floyd | choice happened to be. Criswell hops over to the DVD player and ejects
Floyd | the disc. He places The Truman Show in. "We're now starin'
Floyd | down the barrel of a whole lotta giggles," he says to Audrey.
Floyd |
Floyd | I keep one eye trained underneath the sofa in case Audrey's rolling
Floyd | eyes pop out of her head.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What are you talking about?" she says. Audrey has never, ever liked
Floyd | Criswell. "This is a drama, not a ninety minute episode of 'White Guys
Floyd | Gone Jostling.'" Criswell's head strains to the side as he
Floyd | simultaneously doesn't believe her and doesn't comprehend her.
Floyd |
Floyd | Audrey continues. "You know what drama is, right? It's the name given
Floyd | to a movie that adults tend to enjoy, as well as being the
Floyd | standard root cause of every Linkin Park song."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yeah, whatever." Criswell shrugs. "I bet you Truman here is making
Floyd | like he's talking out of his ass before the opening credits are
Floyd | finished."
Floyd |
Floyd | >