Last Day
Earth Traveler
apocalypse ECTOComp 2020 La Petite Mort parser walkthrough
The world is about to end, and you are just a guy living on the islands of northwest Washington. What will you do on your last day?
You look at Stereo
A top-of-the-line stereo, previously owned by some record producer in Seattle, until you took it out of his house and brought it back here. You've been enjoying using it.

Stereo is currently switched off.
You take it
That's fixed in place.
You turn it on
You switch Stereo on.
Go east
This place is even more beat-up than your bedroom. You've had a couple parties in here, and parties right before the apocalypse can get a little out of hand. There's a ton of bottles and cans in here, the carpet and furniture is all stained, scraps of food are everywhere...

A doorway leads south to the street outside.
You go south
Browning Street, Nelsonville.
Ah, good old Browning Street -- too bad the end of the world had to happen, because this is a pretty nice neighborhood, a row of nice neighbors and formerly clean houses. Now, though, a lot of the people are either holed up in the church or in Port Friday, on the other side of the bay, partying.

To the east is Harbor Street, and to the west is Polk Road.

A doorway leads south to the street outside.
Go east
Harbor Street, Nelsonville.
A north-south running street. Desolate much like the rest of the town now, it does have a seafood restaurant on the east side called Nelson's Own that has its "Open" sign lit up. Apart from that, you can north to the harbor or south to Court Street.
You go east
An ancient seafood restaurant, it has been stubbornly run by its proprietor for the last month in spite of everything. Unfortunately, it has also been looted of its stocks of food heavily, and not much more food has been coming in during that time, as not a lot of people are interested in continuing their jobs right now.

A staircase leads up to the offices, and you go back west to Harbor Street.

You're surprised to see Benny sitting at a booth, eating a fish sandwich as if this was a normal Tuesday lunch. He sees you as well, and waves.
You ask Benny about the sandwich
"Where'd you get that sandwich?" you ask hungrily. "Oh, the freezer wasn't totally looted. So I made one in the kitchen, to the east there," replies Benny. "I made some fries, but this was more filling than I expected, so you can have them."
Go east
An old kitchen with a gas-powered stove and an open and empty freezer, and covered in grease. There is indeed a tub of fries sitting by one of the fryers, much to your delight. The place looks like it hasn't been used in a week though.
You eat the fries
Delicious.
You look at fries
Some nice, greasy fries, just waiting to be eaten.
Go upward
You climb up the stairs to the office and enter. Mr Wickens, the proprietor, is sitting up here, writing something as if the world isn't going to end in a couple hours.

A staircase leads back down into the restaurant.
You look at Wickens
A stout old man, who built this place God-knows-how-long ago and has run it ever since. You guess you aren't too surprised he's here until the bitter end.
You ask Wickens about the comet
Mr Wickens waves a hand dismissively. "I built this place with my own two hands, and I don't intend to abandon it. This place is... my whole life," he says almost sadly, "and I will go down with it."
You ask Wickens about the restaurant
"I'm going to keep this running until that damn comet hits," says Wickens defiantly. "And I want to protect until then too. God may end my business, but I'll be damned if I let some looter burn it down."
You ask Benny about the comet
Benny nods with an air of indifference. "Nothing I can do about it, is there?" he replies. "Too bad, I guess. If there's no reason to do anything, then there's no reason for me to not eat a delicious fish sandwich, is there?" You can't find a flaw in that logic.
You go west
Harbor Street, Nelsonville.
A north-south running street. Desolate much like the rest of the town now, it does have a seafood restaurant on the east side called Nelson's Own that has its "Open" sign lit up. Apart from that, you can north to the harbor or south to Court Street.
You go to the south
Court Street, Nelsonville
Old Court Street, the oldest street in town, and heading right on into a dead end. Well, if it didn't head right on into a group of guys with guns first. You'd better watch yourself around them.

The old church is on the west side of the street, or you could go back north to Harbor Street. You could also try going south, but
that might not be the best idea.
You go to the north
Harbor, Nelsonville
Ah, the old harbor, now looking like it's been abandoned for a hundred years. Normally there would be a fleet of all kinds of boats - yachts, trawlers, speedboats - but not anymore. They've all been stolen or spiked, and now there's just one left: an old, rustly fishing boat.

There's also an outbuilding on the far side you could enter.

You see a sailor lying on a pier, dead drunk.
You look at the sailor
He's dead. You could tell even before you got close to him, from the way the flies buzzed over his body. And in any case, you seen enough pale, bloated, rotting corpses over the last few weeks to be pretty good at telling them apart from the living.

This guy is a bit much even for you, though. His eyes have rotted or been eaten already, and the flies laid eggs in there, and the eggs have hatched. It makes even your skin crawl.

You briefly wonder if flies will survive the comet. Probably, you guess.
You take the sailor
That's fixed in place.
You examine the boat
If you plan to leave this island, looks like this is your only bet, old and rusting heap though it is.
You enter the boat
You get into the fishing boat.
You go north
Nelson Bay (in the fishing boat)
The open ocean... Nelsonville is back south, and Port Friday to the east. Yaquina Strait is further north.
Go east
Port Friday (in the fishing boat)
You cruise-- well, sputter -- into Port Friday, and enter in on quite an eyeful: there's a drug-fueled orgy happening right on the docks. And a part of you wants to leap right into it, but...
You look at the orgy
Dozens of people, fucking each other, letting themselves get fucked, snorting coke, shooting heroin... you can't even settle your eye on anything.
You join the orgy
You hop out of the boat, rip off your clothes, and join in the party. Hey, it's the end of the world, may as well go out with a bang, right?

And right at 12:43 PM, that's exactly what happens.
Exit
You get out of the fishing boat.

You cruise-- well, sputter -- into Port Friday, and enter in on quite an eyeful: there's a drug-fueled orgy happening right on the docks. And a part of you wants to leap right into it, but...
You enter the boat
You get into the fishing boat.
Go west
Nelson Bay (in the fishing boat)
The open ocean... Nelsonville is back south, and Port Friday to the east. Yaquina Strait is further north.
You go to the north
Yaquina Strait (in the fishing boat)
The open ocean... You can go west to Yaquina Bluffs, or south to Nelson Bay.
You go to the west
Stripe of Sand (in the fishing boat)
Just a tiny strip of sand, lying beneath Yaquina Bluffs with a winding path going up.
You leave
You get out of the fishing boat.

Just a tiny strip of sand, lying beneath Yaquina Bluffs with a winding path going up.
You go upward
A series of rocky cliffs near the lighthouse, and a popular jumping spot based on the number of corpses dashed against the rocks.

Of course, you could head down the normal way, down a small winding path.

A rope has been left laying out. It even already has a noose tied off on one end, but clearly hasn't been used. Probably someone who lost their nerve, not that you would really recommend suicide. It is lying right next to a large rock.
You examine the corpses
The bodies of people who decided to end the world -- for them, at least -- on their own timetable. You don't feel right calling them cowardly, or courageous for that matter
You take the rope
Taken.
You go to the northwest
You've been here a couple of times, back when you thought lighthouses were really cool. And that's the only reason to come here: the lighthouse, whose entrance lies to the northwest. There's also some bluffs to the southeast, or you could go back to the south.
Go northwest
The old lighthouse. Nobody's keeping it anymore, though. You can head up the stairs to reach the top.
Go upward
Man, this place gives a really good view. You can see the Space Needle from here, Vancouver Island... you think might even be able to see the southern tip of Alaska from here.

And of course, there's always two ways down...
You go to the south
The woods are thinning out here. You can see Yaquina Head to the north, and the rest of the woods to the southwest.
You go southwest
You walk deeper into the forest, listening to the chirping of the birds, feeling the sun on you...

The trail continues to the northeast, or back to the southwest.

You notice some shapes deep in the forest, among the trees.
You go southwest
You take the trail and leisurely stroll through the woods, admiring the scenery... too bad it's not going to be here much longer. You'd never thought about how beautiful it was before.

The trail winds away to the northeast, or back to the southeast.
You go to the southeast
A rough road, one that ends in pretty much nothing and leads onto the trail  leading northwest through Nelson Forest. You wonder why this Nelson guy got to name everything after himself.
You go east
Browning Street, Nelsonville.
Ah, good old Browning Street -- too bad the end of the world had to happen, because this is a pretty nice neighborhood, a row of nice neighbors and formerly clean houses. Now, though, a lot of the people are either holed up in the church or in Port Friday, on the other side of the bay, partying.

To the east is Harbor Street, and to the west is Polk Road.

A doorway leads south to the street outside.
Go northwest
You can't go that way.

You feel the ground start to tremble a bit under your feet.
Go southwest
You can't go that way.

The ground begins to shake even more. It's starting to feel like an earthquake, and you see a twinkle appear in the sky.
Go southeast
You can't go that way.

The twinkle starts getting bigger.
You go west
You can't go that way.

The twinkle is about half the size of the moon now. You're not sure if anything will survive this.
Enter
You can't go that way.

The comet dips below the horizon.
Go outside
But you aren't in anything at the moment.

You hear the echoing impact of the comet strike, and the ground violently rattles once more with a sense of finality. As you get back to your feet, you can see a wave of dirt and dust streaking toward you.
You wait for a while
Waiting during your last day is not something to be done lightly. Do you want to wait until the comet strikes?
Y.
Very well.