text: [Themes: female protagonist]
  
  > look at your surroundings
  Drinking Fountain (Lucian Smith)
  A public drinking fountain is placed in a nook here, nearly overgrown with ivy. You can return to the town square to the northeast.
  
  Behind the main fountain, mounted in the same pillar of brick, is a second, somewhat smaller fountain.
  
  > Examine button
  Which do you mean, the rusty button or the round button?
  
  > Rusty
  The smaller fountain is nearly obscured by the disturbed ivy. Its bowl is filled with decaying leaves and crawling insects, and rust covers all its exposed metal. A crumbling sign is mounted in the brick above the spout.
  
  > get the sign
  That seems to be a part of the secondary fountain.
  
  > About you
  You're feeling tired, and your hair is a mess.
  
  > look at the schedule
  It's unlike any public transit schedule you've ever seen, in that there are no times listed. A cheerfully phrased block of introduction text instructs riders to hang their passes around their necks, proceed to a trolley stop, and WAIT FOR whatever color LINE corresponds with their choice of destination.
  
  Destinations:
  Brown Line -- Train Station
  Gold Line -- Church
  Blue Line -- Library Square
  Green Line -- The Woods
  
  > look at the coffee
  The swirls in your cup form a child's wagon. Modes of transportation mean that your current environment presents challenges that can only be overcome by seeking fresh perspectives elsewhere until you're ready to return.
  
  > Go east
  Your feet finally touch down on some blackened shore and into some large subterrane. The slick black stone of the cavern arcs high above your head with strange formations that grow downwards and then out in oddly perpendicular angles. The damp rock moves in and out of focus as some pulsing green light illuminates the space.
  
  Taking a step, you feel the sand pulling at your shoes as though it were thick mud or quicksand. Your feet sink with every step, settling on some solid stone platform just beneath this layer of cloying sand that prevents you from being entirely swallowed.
  
  You pass between two monolithic pillars: oily green-black stone of a height that makes you dizzy to comprehend. Between them, a skeletal bridge stretches out across the chasm.
  
  The crossing spans a ravine of tumultuous water that roars like some uncaged beast and echoes around the cavern. Its Stygian call chills you and draws you in by equal measures as you take the first step onto the slats that form the bridge.
  
  Bridge (Daniel Stelzer and Jemma Briggeman)
  You are standing on a bridge spanning east to west in the middle of an echoing cavern. In the center of the bridge is a large blasphemous sculpture constructed of pipes that climb up to a cauldron filled with an eerily glowing green moss, the only light source in the room. Beneath your feet you can hear the crashing of the river below. Ahead of you, to your horror, there are slats missing on the bridge - you'll never make it across without replacing them.
  
  What appears to be a rope is tied around one of the beams of the bridge. A ragged knot ties the other end to some misshapen piece of polished, almost pristine, metal while the rest of the rope is coiled neatly on the planks.
  
  > look at the slats
  The calcareous slats that form the walkway feel strangely light underfoot; as though hollowed out and filled with air. In the gaps between, you can see the churning water below, stare too long and you are sure to become nauseous. Each platform stretches your legs as you move from one to the next; the gait of the bridge's architects must have been strange indeed.
  
  The taut cords that give the structure its shape appear to be woven in some complex fungoid plait that elongates and contracts with a slither as you step across.
  
  > About you
  You're having a hell of a day, but you're determined to keep moving forward. Despite the burning in your limbs and the fact that you could really do with a drink right now, you're still (miraculously) in one piece.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a moldy, waterlogged journal
  a small, rectangular battery
  an antique locket (being worn and closed)
  The Dollmaker's Journal
  a repaired page
  a trolley schedule
  a trolley pass (being worn)
  Twin Hearts Between the Planes
  a pamphlet of home listings
  a Jansport backpack (being worn and open)
  a hidden pocket (open but empty)
  a key pocket (open but empty)
  a book pocket (open)
  a postcard of Big Ben
  the diary of Phyllis Cragne
  The Modern Girl's Divination Handbook -- Volume Three
  a side pocket (open but empty)
  a trash pocket (open but empty)
  a backpack features guide
  a book list
  a library card
  Peter's jacket
  a faint chill (haunting you)
  a cast iron spire
  a waterproof flashlight
  a giant milkweed leaf (being worn as a mask)
  a pull-string doll
  a glass jar containing an insect
  a half-full styrofoam coffee cup
  a familiar gold wristwatch
  a brass winding key
  
  > look at the plait
  As you look closer, the puce strands that make up the plait seem to move. Whether some optical illusion caused by their intricate braiding or something altogether more organic, you couldn't say. You look away quickly.
  
  > examine the pillars
  Two monolithic pillars form the entrance to the bridge. Their oily green-black stone appears to be carved with hieroglyphics unknown to you, consisting for the most part of conventionalized aquatic symbols such as fishes, eels, octopi, crustaceans, molluscs, whales, and the like. Several characters obviously represented marine things which are unknown to the modern world. You shudder and tear your eyes away.
  
  > look at Bridge
  The body of the bridge is formed of some offensive metamorphic stone; as if marble had been tainted by the presence of an abominable fungus that, aeons ago, had been subsumed into its surface. You are currently balancing on a walkway of calcareous slats.
  
  > look at the rope
  A thick rope, stained dark with water and made inflexible by remnants of mud. One loop is fastened to the bridge with an impenetrable knot, while the other end is attached to a misshapen piece of polished metal.
  
  > examine doll
  The doll has a ferocious scowl on its face and a pull-string in the middle of its back.
  
  It has the sort of head with two faces, one of which is hidden by its hair. Rotate the head and the other face will be forward.
  
  > examine the metal
  (the library card)
  A battered beige rectangle with rounded corners, printed with the library insignia, and bearing the words:
  
  is entitled to borrow books from
  BACKWATER PUBLIC LIBRARY
  Backwater, Vermont
  and is responsible for all books taken on this card
  Expires APRIL 1998
  No 19078
  
  A little metal dealy clips through the cardboard, with a mirror-reversed version of the ID number stamped into it.
  
  > pull the string
  The doll intones: "Flee the strange rock formations.!"
  
  > examine the polished metal
  A piece of metal bent into a strange configuration. Sharp prongs curl in and around themselves like a gaping maw. You wouldn't want to cut yourself on those teeth. Curiously, the teeth are hinged, and could potentially be pried open.
  
  > look at the rock
  From the roof of the cavern hang strange formation in the jet black rock that grow downwards and then out in oddly perpendicular angles. As if stalactites had been urged to grow sideways by some bizarre quirk of gravity.
  
  > Open teeth
  You pry the teeth open.
  
  > look at the polished metal
  A piece of metal bent into a strange configuration. Sharp prongs curl in and around themselves like a gaping maw. You wouldn't want to cut yourself on those teeth. The teeth are currently pried open.
  
  > look at the coffee
  The swirls in your cup form a sturdy oak. Botanical images mean that while there is much left to accomplish in the present situation, your immediate environment sustains you, and you have everything that you need.
  
  > get the metal
  (the library card)
  You already have that.
  
  > get the polished metal
  You get your hand under the coils of rope and manage to lift them up. The added weight of the water drags down your tired limbs.