text: [Themes: horror, female protagonist, Lovecraftian]
  
  > look around
  Carol's Room (Ben Collins-Sussman)
  The room is brighter, but colder. A fluorescent fixture fills the room with blue-white light, which reflects harshly off the glassy gray walls. The stubby light gray carpet dulls the sound in the room, but contributes no warmth. At least one item in the room has not changed: the bed, same frame, although the blanket is now a darker blue, and there are no pillows. A small reading light is clamped to the headboard and there are a couple books stacked next to the bed. At the foot of the bed, the heavy gold frame is back, this time occupied by Richard Nixon. On the ground far below the bedroom window, a heavy padding of snow has covered the ground. To the left of the window, the desk is a now a steel and chrome affair, very modern. A computer terminal occupies about half the desk. Above the desk, two rows of metal shelves have been installed. The record player is gone, replaced now by a reel-to-reel tape machine on the same little stand. The exit is to the south.
  
  You can see Carol and a window (closed) here.
  
  You sense that the ploughver spell has recharged.
  
  > examine the shelves
  The metal shelf immediately above the desk displays a few pieces of artwork. Above the art, the two stuffed dolls you have come to know as Master Sweetpaws the Monkey and Malice the Clown sit menacingly on the upper shelf, their lower legs dangling over the edge.
  
  > look at artwork
  Three small sculptures, none of them over about eight inches high stand on the lower shelf: a opalescent one on the left and a jet black one in the middle.
  
  > look at opalescent
  Opalescent pastel blotches swirl lazily over the ovoid sculpture. Unable to tear your eyes away, you feel yourself losing a grip on this reality.
  
  "Rover, they're gaining on us — cut in the Casimir Drive," orders the woman strapped into the acceleration couch to your right. She is of medium height, dark hair, and wearing an orange space suit with a MARSPACE insignia.
  
  To your right, a cybernetically enhanced Dalmatian leans forward from his customized couch to paw at a few buttons on the command panel. The view out the windows suddenly changes, as the slowly moving stars are replaced by the chaotic discharge aura of the zero point transition.
  
  Suddenly, one of the pirate ships flanks you, its cutting beams chewing through the lateral ablative plating.
  
  "It must have tracked our Condensate discharge," yells Janet.
  
  The dog spins his couch, deftly tracking the enemy vessel and lets loose with the rail guns, slicing the marauder into two glowing red halves.
  
  "Good boy!" Janet reaches across to scratch Rover just where he likes it, behind the ears, and pushes the Synch Regulator all the way forward, revving the ship to full Asymmetry.
  
  > examine the jet
  It looks like a brick. How is that art?
  
  "It looks like a brick," you say, pointing at it. "How is that art?"
  
  "It is a brick of sorts," replies Carol. "But it's a particularly important one. It's made of a ceramic with special properties that make it an excellent insulator. Father could explain it better than I."
  
  "So it is valuable?" you ask.
  
  "Valuable? It has no value in the here and now, but for a certain few individuals in 2003, the fact that it is on display here in 1969 rather than installed in its proper place will be a matter of some worth, at least to them."
  
  > open the window
  Carol seems to have her eye on you.
  
  > examine right
  (which of the three sculptures do you mean, the one on the left or one in the middle?)
  
  > talk right
  "Well," says Carol.
  
  > talk art
  "Sorry? Didn't follow that," says Carol.
  
  > show right to Carol
  (first taking the conspicuous absence of space)
  Your hand goes right through it.
  
  > talk absence
  "How interesting," says Carol.
  
  > look at the desk
  Curved, tubular polished steel tubes support a single sheet of glass, about a half inch thick. A matching chair is right next to the desk. The only item on the desk is a huge antiquated computer terminal.
  
  > examine the chair
  (the desk chair)
  A modern rolling chair that matches the desk.
  
  > open window
  She is so distracted by what you were just talking about that you are able to get near the window without her noticing.
  
  You pull up on the window and it slides only a fraction of an inch up in its gritty track.
  
  > Continue
  Carol is intently focused on what you are doing.
  
  > talk more
  "Well, you learn something new every day," says Carol.
  
  > open window
  She is so distracted by what you were just talking about that you are able to get near the window without her noticing.
  
  You pull up on the window and it slides only a fraction of an inch up in its gritty track.
  
  > look at Carol
  Carol now wears her hair in a tight, efficient bob, giving her a more mature appearance, but you would put her age at nineteen or twenty.
  
  Unbidden words pour from your mouth, "Such an End the New Gods will not permit; now with their Powers adjoined to mine, I do slay your Instrument and disrupt your Fusion." Suddenly, all of Christabell's power and infinitely more turn inward.
  
  "No!" screams Carol, as she tries to push a wedge of her own powers through the crimson fist tightening on your belly.
  
  But it is not enough. Within you, there is a final fluttering, and then nothing.
  
  As Carol fades, you read her final silent words on her lips, "I'm sorry." And she too is gone.
  
  "Your small Parte in this be nowe Compleat, dear Naomi," whispers Christabell. "Carol's Cycle is broken, but long will the Frewt of her Deeds despoil the Earth. In this Struggle I have been emptied of my Potence and do take my Leave, mine owne Fusion finally untangled."