text: [Themes: Science Fiction]
  
  > Go downwards
  The swelling space of the MuseRoom is flooded with light from above and ringed with hypermodern paintings. A stairway curls along the far wall, leading up to the library on the second floor.
  
  > Go southeast
  The clothing store Niche Threads is to the northeast, while a fire station is across from it on the southeast corner. To the southwest is the tall, cylindrical, and multicolored Medical Center Plaza. What dominates the intersection, though, is the swooping MuseRoom, to the northwest.
  
  > Shout
  You allow yourself a moment to get in touch with your inner screaming maniac.
  
  > go southeast
  The Gap gapes on the northeast corner. A place called "Ice Planet" is southeast. To the southwest is a convenience store, ShopLite. The cheerful block of the nTopia Hospital occupies the remaining corner, to the northwest.
  
  > Go southeast
  The greenery is effusive. The uneven terrain here was no doubt shaped by the landscapers, but the trees, hills, and open areas are pretty pleasing, however artificial they are.
  
  > Go south
  You head south on Abalone...
  
  Your apartment building is on the southwest corner. Opposite it is a windowless, blocky building. On the southeast corner Pharmicopia sprawls. Otto's Automat is to the northwest.
  
  > go to the south-west
  Clean, if not homey. The cube by the doorway is unattended.
  
  > examine Cube
  Ah, yes. The empty Plexiglas cube. There it is.
  
  > look in Cube
  The empty Plexiglas cube is empty.
  
  > Up
  The palate-cleansing corridor that leads to your apartment.
  
  > go inside
  The old-style lock opens to you with already-practiced ease, and you walk in. You switch the light on.
  
  It's your residential canister. Your lime-green couch is against the longest wall. And it looks like we also have a heap of clothes.
  
  > go east
  You head east on Fifth Street...
  
  To the northeast is Public Char. A Starbucks is on the southeast corner. A complex of tall apartment buildings, The Planar Forest, is southwest. To the northwest is a shoe store.
  
  A woman wearing some small display on her glasses pushes herself past on a Razor scooter, dictating Python into a headset.
  
  > go to the east
  You head east on Fifth Street...
  
  The building to the northeast houses "Scales," a restaurant. The government-looking neo-something architecture of City Hall offers an entryway to the southeast. On the southwest corner is "Wheel-Man," a personal transportation dealer. The final business here, to the northwest, is Mailboxes Ultra.
  
  > Go northwest
  While most of the retail spaces are minimal or postmodern, this package pickup and dropoff point has more of the sense of a Hoboken everything 99 cents store.
  
  > Go southeast
  The building to the northeast houses "Scales," a restaurant. The government-looking neo-something architecture of City Hall offers an entryway to the southeast. On the southwest corner is "Wheel-Man," a personal transportation dealer. The final business here, to the northwest, is Mailboxes Ultra.
  
  Here we go again. Your pager goes off in its usual buzzing, vibrating fit.
  
  > press the button
  A beep issues from the pager, then a voice:
  
  Gus needs his password reset now. Immediately. At the current time. Sorry it's so early. Also, be nice to him when you walk over and deliver his new password, since this weekend has been rough on everyone. He's in F2 and I'm now having your nPediment privileges set so you can walk right in there and find him. Thanks for rebooting the machines, by the way.
  
  It is, of course, Wilbur.
  
  A beep issues from the pager, then a voice:
  
  This is an automatic report about how you got owned, champ. That's right, one of your machines is puking out denial of service packets and needs to be offlined immediately. Better get it off your network before somebody other than a robot tells you about it. The victim is Nora.
  
  It sounds like the perky cousin of that stupid stapler.
  
  A beep issues from the pager, then a voice:
  
  Disk failure. Disk hesitant, corrupted, ready for immolation. Replace the disk. Must be replaced prior to demo. Almost there. Almost at demo. We will make it. Replace the disk. Follow the procedure and incinerate the old disk once it has been replaced. The disk of the main server in F9. Access to F9 is currently being provided you. Go.
  
  Obviously, the message is from Wilbur.
  
  A woman on an oversized skateboard zooms past, pulling a Jack Russell terrier on a normal-sized skateboard.
  
  > go north
  You head north on Main...
  
  The sudden clamor and rush of a crowd sends you helplessly to the ground. With a grinding pull, a battalion in green aprons hurls itself over you and into the structure on the southwest corner. Perhaps you glimpse a pair of stunned figures in black T-shirts inside, shivering behind a counter. Your vision seems to be obscured for a moment by a milky steam.
  
  You stand, finally, unsure about what you seem to have witnessed, unsure about whether or not to hope it was real.
  
  One corner of the nWare Media Campus is to the northeast, where a path affords entrance. There are Starbuckses on the other three corners.
  
  > Go north
  You head north on Main...
  
  Main runs along the western edge of the nWare Media Campus. Northwest of here, a bit of parkland holds the nWare store, a multi-story glass cube. The concrete structure to the southwest, labeled "Supreme Food Court," is less impressive.
  
  > go southeast
  Main runs along the western edge of the nWare Media Campus. Northwest of here, a bit of parkland holds the nWare store, a multi-story glass cube. The concrete structure to the southwest, labeled "Supreme Food Court," is less impressive.
  
  Something that looks like a parade float slides down the street. You notice some tonsured and robed man dancing on it. Then it turns away and continues on, out of sight.
  
  > examine the coin slot
  Ah, yes. The coin slot. There it is.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You are carrying the SimulacCam, an nStick, your nLap 500, your pager, and your key.
  
  > ask the teller for the coin
  The teller produces some sort of tethered handheld device and begins tapping on it.
  "We cannot dispense old-style funds to you at this point until you have an approved account," she replies.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying a dollar coin, the SimulacCam, an nStick, your nLap 500, your pager, and your key.
  
  > go to the northeast
  The marquee of the Bastion Theater is northeast and the blank stare of 0th Bank diagonally across to the southwest. Speaking of the Southwest, the bad Southwestern art of the Coyote and Crown howls from the northwest corner. A pleasant absence of city is southeast, where the fake hills of nTopia's park roll.
  
  > go north
  You head north on Eel...
  
  The Gap gapes on the northeast corner. A place called "Ice Planet" is southeast. To the southwest is a convenience store, ShopLite. The cheerful block of the nTopia Hospital occupies the remaining corner, to the northwest.
  
  A gang of perhaps twenty people on souped-up Segways powers past and disappears.
  
  > go to the south-west
  For a marble-coated civic bunker, it's a rather homey place. The one service window on a wall of mailboxes is shuttered with dull brass. An APM is installed opposite the window.
  
  > look at APM
  Nice kiosk.
  
  > use APM
  You touch the screen to get started, and a progression of several dozen windows pop up over each each other, as if you've just won a game of nSolitare. The one that freezes on top for a moment says "nSys for Kiosk Error Number n + 7. Rebooting."
  
  The machine blinks and returns to its original state.
  
  > look at Mailboxes
  Looking at the wall reminds you that you're supposed to get assigned a mailbox sometime soon. After that's done and mail forwarding begins, you can continue receiving those hand-written, ink-spattered poetry submissions that various prisoners in a facility in North Dakota have been sending you for no apparent reason.
  
  > go to the northwest
  A Starbucks is to the northeast. The post office on the southwest corner looks as distinguished as a mausoleum. The urban idiom fails on the northwest corner, where a restaurant sits like a ranch house on a little plot of desert. Opposite it, a path leads onto the nWare Media Campus.
  You head west on First Street...
  
  The Gap gapes on the northeast corner. A place called "Ice Planet" is southeast. To the southwest is a convenience store, ShopLite. The cheerful block of the nTopia Hospital occupies the remaining corner, to the northwest.
  You head south on Eel...
  
  The marquee of the Bastion Theater is northeast and the blank stare of 0th Bank diagonally across to the southwest. Speaking of the Southwest, the bad Southwestern art of the Coyote and Crown howls from the northwest corner. A pleasant absence of city is southeast, where the fake hills of nTopia's park roll.
  You head south on Eel...
  
  To the northeast are the miniature tree-spotted hills of nTopia's park. On the southeast corner is the police station. A Starbucks is on the southwest corner. Neon signs and flashing screens glint from the establishment to the northwest, Arcadia Ego.
  
  A cute little fire truck careers down the street, letting loose an occasional bottle rocket.
  
  There's a din of digitized sound. What's visible of the walls is covered with multicolored squares, presumably in an attempt to make the atmosphere even more festive.
  
  > put the coin in the machine
  The coin does seen like an obvious thing to put into the coin slot, but it's too thick to fit in there.
  
  > go to the east
  You head east on Third Street...
  
  The south part of the campus is deceptively pleasant, with nWare Media buildings scattered about. You particularly note F7, which you're cleared to enter, to the northwest. And to the southeast is the enigmatic F9.
  
  A man with the demeanor of a middle manager skips by in a long gray cape, peeling a banana at both ends.
  
  > go northwest
  A Starbucks is to the northeast. The post office on the southwest corner looks as distinguished as a mausoleum. The urban idiom fails on the northwest corner, where a restaurant sits like a ranch house on a little plot of desert. Opposite it, a path leads onto the nWare Media Campus.
  
  A bald man runs screaming past you, pants on fire, pursued by a man without pants whose hair is on fire. They disappear around a corner.
  
  > open the computer
  You open the nLap 500, which wakes the moment it begins to unfold.
  
  A window pops up in the lower right corner of your nLap. In it, the uncanny red stapler wiggles its hinged head to the accompaniment of a cheery robot voice:
  
  Hey, this looks like the post office! In the old days, people used to go here to send mail and stuff!
  
  The window winks away.
  
  > press the apm button
  One of the things you liked about this job is the relative absence of heavy lifting.
  
  > look
  For a marble-coated civic bunker, it's a rather homey place. The one service window on a wall of mailboxes is shuttered with dull brass. An APM is installed opposite the window.
  
  Your stomach speaks to you in twangs of pain. Although you don't know Morse code, the jist of the message is that it would be a good idea to get something to eat soon.
  
  > look at the window
  Such service windows have been used in the past to assist postal customers. This one is probably only opened for historical reenactments. You had best visit the APM if you'd like to interface with the postal system.
  
  > Wear helmet
  You once again don the strange helmet.
  
  > Exit
  A Starbucks is to the northeast. The post office on the southwest corner looks as distinguished as a mausoleum. The urban idiom fails on the northwest corner, where a restaurant sits like a ranch house on a little plot of desert. Opposite it, a path leads onto the nWare Media Campus.
  
  The scheme of the city, and your previous wanderings, suggest to you that the incinerator isn't likely to be plopped down here in the middle of town.
  
  > Go west
  You head west on First Street...
  
  The Gap gapes on the northeast corner. A place called "Ice Planet" is southeast. To the southwest is a convenience store, ShopLite. The cheerful block of the nTopia Hospital occupies the remaining corner, to the northwest.
  
  > go to the south
  You head south on Abalone...
  
  Proud Pie is on the northeast corner. The multi-level grocery store to the southeast spans the block down Abalone. To the southwest is the concrete RelOfCoTn building, a typical nWare structure. An apartment building, The Peachtree, is northwest.
  
  A miniature ambulance whisks by at a frightening speed, doing a donut before it peals out of sight.
  
  > Go northeast
  So, it's a pizza place. With a huge fake mouse in one corner. And it smells pretty nice.
  
  > take the mouse
  That's not detachable.
  
  That's not detachable.
  
  > hug the mouse
  You tenderly cuddle the mouse.
  
  > touch the mouse
  Tangible, and pretty ordinary-feeling.
  
  > Kiss mouse
  You plant a smackeroo on the mouse.
  
  > open the laptop
  That's already open.
  
  > buy the pizza
  Food does seem like a good idea. You order some and prepare to focus completely on the meal, like Martha Stewart on her salad...
  
  You conclude your culinary experience.
  
  > Go northwest
  You'd think the sun never set on Azatlan from the interior of this sort of English-style pub that serves lots of food made of blue cornmeal. Behind the bar, the place is festooned with Union Jack bandanas, and there are tequila bottles and British and Irish beer taps.
  
  > look at the bandanas
  Ah, yes. The bad decor. There it is.
  
  > buy the tequila
  You never drink on the job, which is too bad, because you could be paged at any time of day.
  
  > Go outside
  The marquee of the Bastion Theater is northeast and the blank stare of 0th Bank diagonally across to the southwest. Speaking of the Southwest, the bad Southwestern art of the Coyote and Crown howls from the northwest corner. A pleasant absence of city is southeast, where the fake hills of nTopia's park roll.
  
  Three people covered with flour and ink run down the street in tears, disappearing.
  
  > Go south
  You head south on Eel...
  
  The local elementary school sits beside a gated playground to the northeast. Plywood closes off the site on the southeast corner, hiding whatever is being built there. The Pine and Elm, an apartment building you checked out and found just about identical to the Wild Palms, is southwest. On the northwest corner is an upscale variety store, MarMart.
  
  A sizable crowd of people wearing tye-dyed bedsheets babbles loudly, running past and away from you.
  
  > Go southeast
  A dark gray interior has never been so reassuring. There's a long black desk in the center of the room, centered on a long metal sculpture that is behind it. And it looks like we also have a desk.
  
  > open it
  It doesn't open. It's art.
  
  > Go outside
  To the northeast are the miniature tree-spotted hills of nTopia's park. On the southeast corner is the police station. A Starbucks is on the southwest corner. Neon signs and flashing screens glint from the establishment to the northwest, Arcadia Ego.
  
  > Go south
  You head south on Eel...
  
  The local elementary school sits beside a gated playground to the northeast. Plywood closes off the site on the southeast corner, hiding whatever is being built there. The Pine and Elm, an apartment building you checked out and found just about identical to the Wild Palms, is southwest. On the northwest corner is an upscale variety store, MarMart.
  
  > Go northwest
  MarMart is not open right now. Looks like it opens at ten.
  
  A sizable crowd of people wearing tye-dyed bedsheets babbles loudly, running past and away from you.
  
  > Go southwest
  The door, not recognizing you as a resident or previously cleared guest, politely turns you away.
  
  Someone in sixteenth century Japanese armor goes by on a horse, red banner flapping.
  
  > go south
  You head south on Eel...
  
  To the northeast is Public Char. A Starbucks is on the southeast corner. A complex of tall apartment buildings, The Planar Forest, is southwest. To the northwest is a shoe store.
  
  You've barely noticed it, thanks to the way the streetlights have gradually filled in for the departing sun, but night has fallen.
  
  > Go northwest
  The shoe store is not open right now. Looks like it opens at ten.
  
  > go to the northeast
  The dining room strikes an admirable balance between elegance and comfort, making this a delicious and elegant escape from the hustle and bustle of nTopia.
  
  > go outside
  To the northeast is Public Char. A Starbucks is on the southeast corner. A complex of tall apartment buildings, The Planar Forest, is southwest. To the northwest is a shoe store.
  
  There's a loud and sudden microphone-tapping sound, followed by the shriek of feedback.
  
  ATTENTION, this is not an emergency. But there will be a demonstration of a project involving new technologies in just a few minutes. It may possibly result in some unusual irregularities. Don't be alarmed. Thank you.
  
  The civil alert system crackles back into silence.
  
  > go to the east
  You head east on Fifth Street...
  
  The building to the northeast houses "Scales," a restaurant. The government-looking neo-something architecture of City Hall offers an entryway to the southeast. On the southwest corner is "Wheel-Man," a personal transportation dealer. The final business here, to the northwest, is Mailboxes Ultra.
  
  > Go northeast
  It's all orange inside, too, with rounded booths of different sizes cut into the walls. The place is a sort of large-scale bento box, outfitted so that it will be safe during hunting season.
  
  A warning shriek sounds, almost inside your head -- it's the helmet. "OVERLOAD," a stupidly calm voice says. The SimulacCam splits right down the middle, along the line of your nose, and falls, shattering on the ground.
  
  A coming screams across the ceiling.
  
  All that you can see flickers into reverse video; even worse is the reverse audio, pure sound everywhere except for the globs of silence shrieked from innumerable mouths, your own one of these. The tongue cannot say what tastes and smells visit you. Your skin is crawling all over the ants. The round is world.
  
  Sixteen years later you arise from catatonia to play a single game of ping pong against a silentious Native American. It is a moment that Oliver Sacks would have written touchingly about. But the moment does not last.
  
  > look at the walls
  Actually the squares covering the walls aren't all squares. You now see that one of them is a rectangle.
  
  > examine the rectangle
  This panel really looks a lot like the rest of the wall, but close inspection allows you to make out a faint trace of the word "TOKENS," apparently painted on using some pigment that isn't quite in the visible spectrum.
  
  In the center of the token panel you notice a small, dark maw.
  
  > put the coin in the maw
  The coin vanishes into the maw. Below it, a tray pops open and a token flips out into the air. In a feat of tremendous physical prowess, you manage to catch it.
  
  > put the token in the slot
  You drop the token into the slot and hear the satisfying giggle of the machine registering a credit. Eagerly, you press the player one button and watch the introductory sequence.
  
  Just as the first fight is about to begin, some twelve-year-old kid with a bowl haircut slips into place beside you, deposits a token, and presses the player two button.
  
  "ENTERING SMACKDOWN MODE," the machine says.
  
  "My mouth says hello," says the boy.
  
  > play the game
  You're playing it, oh yeah.
  
  You select Llamo, your favorite avatar. The kid chooses the sissiest, lamest llama fighter there is, Floofta. The fight begins.
  
  The kid's hands slap against the controllers with remarkable dexterity, and Floofta begins wailing on Llamo.
  
  "Perhaps you are wondering what the purpose of all this is," the kid says calmly.
  
  > play the game
  You're playing it, oh yeah.
  
  You're just barely able to crouch and block as Floofta powers into a helicopter kick.
  
  "Governments are pesky," the kid says. "Sure, corporations are ascendant, but governments still have some power, and nWare would love to be able to command that power."
  
  > play the game
  You're playing it, oh yeah.
  
  Floofta executes a swift axe hoof, which you barely parry, using the Calf Worshipping Goddess technique.
  
  "As you may remember from history, overthrowing regimes is a messy business," the kid says.
  
  > play game
  You're playing it, oh yeah.
  
  You manage to land a feeble punch. Then, Floofta grapples you and throws you painfully to the ground.
  
  "But if you could simulate political leaders, simulate appreciative crowds," the kid muses, "have your doppelgangers move among the people, sowing confusion..."
  
  > look at the kid
  The kid stands impassively facing his side of the arcade cabinet, face lit by the psychedelic glow of the machine.
  
  Floofta hurls an enormous hairball which flattens and stupefies you.
  
  "You get the idea," the kid says. "That's what everyone is working on here. That's what you're working on, although you almost certainly don't know it."
  
  > play the game
  You're playing it, oh yeah.
  
  You rally. It's like Ali in round eight against Foreman. You're landing all sorts of kicks and punches on Floofta.
  
  "Rallies, meetings, the State of the Union address -- it will all be simulated," the kid, still oddly calm, tells you. "And nWare will run it all."
  
  > play the game
  You're playing it, oh yeah.
  
  Floofta spins around and answers with a series of punishing blows that prove decisive.
  
  "FINISH HIM!" the game proclaims, as poor Llamo wobbles there non-interactively.
  
  "I'm not telling you that you should do anything differently, that you should try to look around and stop what's going on," they kid says. "No, no. But just so you know what you've gotten yourself into."
  
  > play the game
  You're playing it, oh yeah.
  
  Rather than delivering the coup de grace, the kid slaps a token down on the machine and runs off, disappearing.
  
  "GAME OVER," the machine says. Even the winner doesn't get to continue after a game in smackdown mode. Just like in real life.
  
  > examine the token
  Actually, how could you have mistaken this for a token, even though that's the only thing that a normal person would slap down on a video game cabinet? It's not a token at all. It's some sort of high proprietary Allen wrench.
  
  You can't even describe the strange polygon through which this Allen wrench has been extruded, and which it is designed to fit into.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying an Allen wrench, the defective disk, the SimulacCam (being worn), an nStick, your nLap 500, your pager, and your key.
  
  > go south
  You head south on Eel...
  
  The local elementary school sits beside a gated playground to the northeast. Plywood closes off the site on the southeast corner, hiding whatever is being built there. The Pine and Elm is southwest. On the northwest corner is an upscale variety store, MarMart.
  
  > Go south
  You head south on Eel...
  
  To the northeast is Public Char. A Starbucks is on the southeast corner. A complex of tall apartment buildings, The Planar Forest, is southwest. To the northwest is a shoe store.
  
  A miniature ambulance whisks by at a frightening speed, doing a donut before it peals out of sight.
  
  > Go southeast
  While there is a great view over there, the sheer drop of a hundred feet or so makes it impossible to go in that direction, except fatally.
  
  > go to the north
  You head north on Eel...
  
  To the northeast is Public Char. A Starbucks is on the southeast corner. A complex of tall apartment buildings, The Planar Forest, is southwest. To the northwest is a shoe store.
  
  > go east
  You head east on Fifth Street...
  
  The building to the northeast houses "Scales," a restaurant. The government-looking neo-something architecture of City Hall offers an entryway to the southeast. On the southwest corner is "Wheel-Man," a personal transportation dealer. The final business here, to the northwest, is Mailboxes Ultra.
  
  A sizable crowd of people wearing tye-dyed bedsheets babbles loudly, running past and away from you.
  
  > Go southeast
  The interior walls are of parquet hardwood, which would be the most remarkable thing about most city halls, but here we have this full-size diorama in the middle of the lobby with animatrons of Benjamin Franklin, John von Neumann, and shellf.
  
  There's also a subtle door here to the southeast, which wouldn't be noticeable to an onlooker who wasn't in the know.
  
  > open the grill with the wrench
  You wield the highly proprietary Allen wrench for a while, alternating between hope and frustration, and finally manage to open the grill.
  
  > enter grill
  You break into the office above like a tech support commando. Time to fix those wiretaps so the boss can figure out what the Democrats have been up to! Or, time to steal back that list of Resistance members' names! Or, time to enter yet another uninteresting commercial, retail, or institutional space!
  
  This would be an impressive and luxurious office, if it had some furniture and stuff in it. It doesn't look like the place is occupied -- except, occasionally, by trespassers. There's an exit underneath you and a door through which a bit of light filters in. Disturbing the minimalist appearance of the room is a garish fake bookcase.