text: > describe your surroundings
  A cramped and not altogether pleasant booth, though you guess in this kind of establishment you're not paying for quality so much as cheap coffee. The booth has been defaced more times than you care to count, though some of the graffiti is quite amusing. Frobisher sits in the far corner of the booth.
  
  You can leave the booth to the northeast.
  
  > talk to Frobisher
  "What can you make with the ring?" Frobisher asks.
  
  > look at the booth
  The cramped booth you're currently seated in. The sooner you're out of here, the better.
  
  > Meld ring with the note
  You concentrate on the ring and the note and bring your meld ability to bear, but nothing happens. The items cannot be melded with each other.
  
  "A good try," says Frobisher, "but that's not what I had in mind."
  
  > examine the graffiti
  It mainly involves the city council and the people in charge. It features a goat, a nun's outfit and... well, you might be better off not reading the rest of it.
  
  > Meld ring with graffiti
  Unfortunately, your meld ability is limited in that you are unable to meld something that you are not physically holding. Also, the items in question can only be of a certain size - no melding buildings or aircraft for you!
  
  You have heard rumours of other people, whose gift is far more advanced than your own, who can meld items simply by looking at them, but perhaps they are simply rumours and nothing more.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a ring
  a note
  an ID card
  some lipstick
  
  > meld the lipstick with the ring
  You concentrate on the lipstick and the ring and bring your meld ability to bear, but nothing happens. The items cannot be melded with each other.
  
  "A good try," says Frobisher, "but that's not what I had in mind."
  
  > buy the coffee
  You order a drink and, indeed, it's every bit as bad as you expected.
  
  > Meld  ring with the waitress
  Unfortunately, your meld ability is limited in that you are unable to meld something that you are not physically holding. Also, the items in question can only be of a certain size - no melding buildings or aircraft for you!
  
  > examine waitress
  Pretty, but looks rushed off her feet.
  
  > Go southwest
  A cramped and not altogether pleasant booth, though you guess in this kind of establishment you're not paying for quality so much as cheap coffee. The booth has been defaced more times than you care to count, though some of the graffiti is quite amusing. Frobisher sits in the far corner of the booth.
  
  You can leave the booth to the northeast.
  
  > wear the lipstick
  No, it makes you look like you make a living dancing on tables. You honestly don't know why you bought it.
  
  > Unmeld lipstick
  You concentrate on the lipstick and your meld ability takes hold, tearing apart the molecules of the lipstick and reforming them into a bracelet and a chisel.
  
  > Examine bracelet
  A metal bracelet which feels very cold to the touch.
  
  > examine the chisel
  A rusted and somewhat battered chisel which you got when you demelded the lipstick.
  
  > Unmeld ring
  You concentrate on the ring and bring your meld ability to bear, but nothing happens. It seems the ring hasn't been melded from anything and therefore it can't be unmelded into something else.
  
  > Meld ring with the bracelet
  You concentrate on the ring and the bracelet and bring your meld ability to bear, but nothing happens. The items cannot be melded with each other.
  
  "A good try," says Frobisher, "but that's not what I had in mind."
  
  > Meld ring with the chisel
  You concentrate on the ring and the chisel and bring your meld ability to bear, but nothing happens. The items cannot be melded with each other.
  
  "A good try," says Frobisher, "but that's not what I had in mind."
  
  > Unmeld note
  You concentrate on the note and bring your meld ability to bear, but nothing happens. It seems the note hasn't been melded from anything and therefore it can't be unmelded into something else.
  
  > Unmeld Iunmeld i d.
  You concentrate on the ID card and bring your meld ability to bear, but nothing happens. It seems the ID card hasn't been melded from anything and therefore it can't be unmelded into something else.
  
  > meld the ithe d with the ring
  You bring your meld ability to focus on the ID card and note. You watch as they become melded together... their molecules becoming one... transforming into something else...
  
  Leaving you holding a key.
  
  "Very good," says Frobisher, his eyes aglow. "You made a key, and not just a normal key either. Tell me, can you guess what lock it might open?"
  
  "The gate outside the cafe would be my first guess."
  
  "Why don't you try it and see?"
  
  > Go east
  This is Tiamont Plaza, the heart of the city's Upias District (named after some long-dead scholar, you think). Few people are about, and those you see hurry past quickly, as if unwilling to spend any more time here than they really have to. A large stone statue has been erected here and looks to have become a target for the locals and their graffiti.
  
  To the north (though blocked by a large gate) is Morring Row, south is Belmont Avenue, southeast is a winding path between tall buildings, west lies Rowena's Coffee House and northwest is City Library.
  
  > open gate
  You slip the key into the lock and turn it. There is a click!
  sound from the gate and the key literally sinks into the gate. You try to grab hold of it before it can be absorbed - it's your ID card, after all! - but it's gone.
  
  A moment later, the gate swings open.
  
  > talk to Frobisher
  "The gate swallowed the key!" you say (which sounds worryingly weird to you, like the gate came to life and literally ate the key). "My ID card was part of that. How do I get it back?"
  
  "I'm merely here as a go-between for my associate," says Frobisher, "so I'm afraid I don't know. However, my associate mentioned that once the gate was open, you would be able to find an item on the other side that would give you your ID card back."
  
  Your head is spinning. "That doesn't make any damn sense..."
  
  "Nevertheless, that is what my associate said. If you find this item - whatever it may be, he didn't tell me - bring it to me and we will see what can be done about it."
  
  "Or maybe I should just go home and leave you and your crazy associate out of my life..."
  
  Frobisher frowns. "Without your ID card? I wouldn't advise that, Miss. Charles. The council tend to frown on citizens who have 'lost' their ID cards."
  
  > go east
  This is Tiamont Plaza, the heart of the city's Upias District (named after some long-dead scholar, you think). Few people are about, and those you see hurry past quickly, as if unwilling to spend any more time here than they really have to. A large stone statue has been erected here and looks to have become a target for the locals and their graffiti.
  
  To the north is Morring Row, south is Belmont Avenue, southeast is a winding path between tall buildings, west lies Rowena's Coffee House and northwest is City Library.
  
  > go to the north
  To the northwest stands the grandly-titled Emperor Tavern, a massive structure looming over the whole of Morring Row and putting everything else into the shade. In truth, there's very little here aside from the tavern, a park off to the northeast and Tiamont Plaza to the south. An alley can be seen off to the west, running alongside the tavern.
  
  Someone walking past mutters, "Who left that damn gate open? It's locked for a reason, you know," and gives you a pointed look before disappearing into the park.
  
  For more information on your melding ability, type 'Meld
  Info'.
  
  > Meld info
  No one really knows how melding works. Is it a genetic defect? The result of shady experiments? Latent psychic powers? Even you don't know and you've lived with it all your life.
  
  It doesn't run in the family because your mother didn't have it and neither did your sister. You never met your father but he was a low-life thief who died after being shot whilst robbing a jewellery store. If he could meld, he'd have sold his ability to the highest bidder and to hell with the risks involved or the morality of doing such a thing.
  
  Melding has limits, though it tends to differ from person to person. Some (like you) can only meld items they have physical hold of; some (like you) can only meld one item with another; some (like you) can only meld an item they've seen before (so no melding nuclear weapons or futuristic laser guns!)
  
  Melding is random - something that has frustrated melders for years now. While it would be the ultimate source of income if it could be directed, melding unfortunately doesn't work that way. So while you might want to meld together a cheese grater and an iron and have it produce a cheque for a million credits, you can't. What you end up with when you meld two items together is unknown until the melding process is over and done with.
  
  Most melders can only meld. Some (like you) can also unmeld - or demeld - items; i.e. meld two items together then unmeld them into their base items. All melders are limited, however, in that they can only demeld items they themselves have melded together.
  
  Except you. You can demeld anything that's previously been melded, no matter who did the melding.
  
  Technically, melding isn't illegal but it's definitely not something you want to go around advertising you can do. While no one can simply meld a nuclear weapon out of two random items, the general public believe all the terrible stories they've heard about melders over the years: melding two people together (and no, you can't meld living matter) to form a third person; melding harmless items into bombs; melding killing random people close to the melder; and so on...
  
  You're sure the stories of melders being abducted by the guards and held in secret government labs are just pure rumour, but it doesn't pay to take risks.
  
  > examine Tavern
  A little too grandiose for your liking, but there's no
  denying it's an impressive site.
  
  > examine the alley
  A grimy alley running along the side of the Emperor Tavern.
  
  > go west
  City alleys are supposed to be cleaned every day, but apparently the crew responsible for this alley didn't get the memo. It's knee-deep in trash and smells like an open sewer. Just being here makes you feel queasy.
  
  A breath of fresh air flows from the east.
  
  > examine trash
  Some of it looks - and smells! - like it's been here for months, if not years. The smell is enough to make your eyes water.
  
  > take the trash
  You wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Literally.
  
  > go to the east
  To the northwest stands the grandly-titled Emperor Tavern, a massive structure looming over the whole of Morring Row and putting everything else into the shade. In truth, there's very little here aside from the tavern, a park off to the northeast and Tiamont Plaza to the south. An alley can be seen off to the west, running alongside the tavern.
  
  > go to the north-west
  Before today, you'd only heard of the Emperor Tavern but never visited it. It has a somewhat ominous reputation which might be all rumour and no substance, but seeing it from here you can well imagine its reputation is well-founded.
  
  What you see is a large room, massive in fact, in which literally hundreds of people sit around circular tables, drinking beer, smoking all manner of illegal substances, and gambling. Yes, gambling. Banned within the city limits it might be, but here you see it in abundance.
  
  You can make your way deeper into the tavern to the north, west or northwest or you can return to Morring Row to the southeast.
  
  As you step inside the tavern, and before you've had time to properly look around, a man almost walks into.
  
  "Terribly sorry," he says, not sounding it one bit, then walks away.
  
  Hmm... curious. You wonder why he pushed a slip of paper into your hand...?
  
  > look at the slip
  It reads, simply, 'Another test. Let's see what you can
  unmake of this'.
  
  > Unmeld slip
  You concentrate on the slip of paper and your meld ability takes hold, tearing apart the molecules of the slip of paper and reforming them into a mirror and a passcard.
  
  Is this what Frobisher wanted from you? Maybe you should go back and speak to him about either the mirror or the passcard and see what he has to say.
  
  > examine the mirror
  Your own face peers back at you. You look tired.
  
  > Go south
  This is Tiamont Plaza, the heart of the city's Upias District (named after some long-dead scholar, you think). Few people are about, and those you see hurry past quickly, as if unwilling to spend any more time here than they really have to. A large stone statue has been erected here and looks to have become a target for the locals and their graffiti.
  
  To the north is Morring Row, south is Belmont Avenue, southeast is a winding path between tall buildings, west lies Rowena's Coffee House and northwest is City Library.
  
  > Go west
  One of many coffee houses that have sprung up across the city offering cheap, barely drinkable (in your opinion) coffee to people with more money than common sense. This one is of fairly typical design: numerous tables and booths, an harassed looking waitress (the only employee that you can see) and an atmosphere thick with the smell of burnt coffee beans. Only one booth is free at this moment, this being due southwest.
  
  To the east lies Tiamont Square.
  
  > go to the south-west
  A cramped and not altogether pleasant booth, though you guess in this kind of establishment you're not paying for quality so much as cheap coffee. The booth has been defaced more times than you care to count, though some of the graffiti is quite amusing.
  
  You can leave the booth to the northeast.
  
  Gone. Frobisher is gone! Damn the man and whatever game he's playing with you. First he encourages you to meld your ID card with the ring he gave you, and now he disappears on you.
  
  This is bad. This is very bad. You need to get to the bottom of what is going on here and, just as important, you need to get your ID card back before you're stopped by the guard. You, of all people, can ill-afford to have the council taking an interest in your background.
  
  You wonder if Frobisher left anything for you here in the booth...
  
  > look at the graffiti
  It mainly involves the city council and the people in charge. It features a goat, a nun's outfit and... well, you might be better off not reading the rest of it.
  
  Hmmm... what's that at the bottom? You peer closer and see this written down: "apologies for leaving suddenly. called away on business. left something for you in the shop on mawbury lane."
  It's signed 'F'.
  
  Interesting.
  
  > Go south
  That's back to your apartment and you can't leave without recovering your ID card. It might be weeks till you're stopped and asked for it but you can't risk that happening.
  
  > go southeast
  Little sunlight reaches this winding path due to the tall buildings on either side, buildings which seem to lean over, almost touching, above you. This is an old part of the city, with nothing here having been built in the last hundred years.
  
  Northwest you can see Tiamont Plaza, to the south is an abandoned house and southeast is Mawbury Lane.
  
  > examine the house
  One of the many ruins which populate the city. No sooner is one fixed (or knocked down) than another needs working on.
  
  > go southeast
  As you make your way towards Mawbury Lane, a hulking man emerges suddenly from the shadows and blocks the path. Down one side of his face is a jagged scar and his eyes are mad and staring.
  
  "Going somewhere, sweetheart?" he grunts. "Oh, I don't think so, 'cos this way-" He nods to the southeast. "I own it. Jacob's the name. So if you want to go that way, you gotta pay the toll."
  
  "I never knew there was a toll on this road."
  
  "There ain't. Not officially. But unofficially? Oh yeah. Now, don't go worrying about paying me in credits 'cos I know they can be traced easily enough, but jewellery? Yeah, jewellery is fine. Easy to fence, you know."
  
  "And if I don't pay you anything at all?"
  
  His eyes narrow. "Then you better just go back the way you came 'cos you sure ain't passing through here."