text: > Look around
  With a roaring fire and the sunlight streaming in through the large bay window, the sitting room might pass for inviting. You've asked Eustace if you could paper the walls with a brighter color and perhaps move the domineering portrait of the Cragne ancestor to the study, but he refuses a single change. That is, save for the mirror, which you were permitted to hang near the entrance to the dining room to the west. Having your reflection nearby always gives you comfort, as if without the frequent reminder, you would begin to forget yourself.
  
  Eustace is reading the paper in his chair by the window.
  
  > About yourself
  You are Lillian, lady of Cragne Manor. Some days, you wish you were someone else. But only some.
  
  > look at the portrait
  The great Horace Cragne is perched above the fireplace, maintaining a constant vigilance over the sitting room. You think he would serve better in the study. At the very least, he would avoid frightening the ladies from church when they visit for tea after Sunday service. His face is gaunt, features severe, and his eyes are rimmed a deep crimson. You prefer not to meet his gaze.
  
  Hanging next to the portrait is a bell pull.
  
  > examine Eustace
  He has aged considerably in recent years. His hair has retreated backwards as if terrified of his own face. Even his beard and mustache refuse to grow. His eyes are always burdened by heavy bags, no matter how much sleep he manages the night before.
  
  > look at the paper
  The Vermont Phoenix, dated yesterday, Friday, February 3, 1899. Most of the print is too small to read without your nose pressed against it, but you do notice the headline exclaiming how a fire burned down the S. A. Smith and Co plant. Someone captured an exposure of the event and thought to put it on the front page.
  
  To think you live in a world where one would rather photograph a fire than help put it out.
  
  > examine the fireplace
  The fire does its best to repel the deep February chill. Above the fireplace is a portrait, and beside that is the bell pull.
  
  > look at the bell pull
  The rope descends from the ceiling. If pulled, it will ring a bell in the servant's hall.
  
  > pull pull
  You ring the bell, and Moira arrives soon after, a flurry of freckles and red curls. She stumbles into a curtsey.
  
  "Ma'am. Sir." Her brogue is strong, lending her a tendency to be brief whenever possible.
  
  "Has the post arrived today?" Eustace asks, and she confirms that it has before disappearing into the next room and returning with two envelopes. She hands both of them to you.
  
  You dismiss her promptly.
  
  > examine the envelopes
  Which do you mean, the formal letter to Eustace or the handwritten letter to you?
  
  > Formal
  It's from Yale University and addressed to Eustace. It's sealed.
  
  > examine handwritten
  It's addressed to you from Christopher, off at boarding school. All that's left is to open it.
  
  > open it
  You use your fingers to open the envelope like a heathen, then unfold the letter within.
  
  My dear mother,
  
  I hope you are well and remain so through this dreadful winter. I
  am happy to report your Christmas fruit cake survived the journey unscathed and has been enjoyed with great enthusiasm by the other boys. I am passing along their compliments. Second term is just beginning, and much work is anticipated. I will try to keep regular correspondence as you requested.
  
  My nightmares have been growing worse as of late. Even though I
  never met grandfather, I know it is he who visits me. I pray every night, but God seems to ignore me. What am I to do? Might you send some funds for a doctor? Perhaps he could prescribe a tonic to aid me in my sleep.
  
  I love you, mother, in so many ways and more. Give father my love.
  I will write again soon.
  
  Your beloved son,
  Christopher
  
  > give formal to Eustace
  (to Eustace)
  Eustace tucks the newspaper under an arm and takes the envelope. "Thank you, darling. This appears to be what I was waiting for." He rises from his chair and opens the secretary, rifling through the various nooks and drawers. His search comes up empty.
  
  "Darling," he says, "have you misplaced my letter opener yet again? You know how protective I am of it."
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying a handwritten letter to you.
  
  > examine the mirror
  What's this? Who is this woman staring back at you? She is dressed... bizarrely, to put it mildly. And yet, there is something familiar about her. Something... oh. Oh God. What... what just happened?
  
  Your eyes adjust to the dimness of the dusty room. You check yourself over, and find you are yourself again. Were you dreaming? Or were you a woman from another time? It's hard to tell. You've been feeling like someone else everywhere you go in Backwater.
  
  > look at the furniture
  Merely looking at the dusty, sheet-covered furniture has you itching to take an antihistamine.
  
  > look at the floorboards
  Dusty.
  
  > Go upwards
  Top of Stairs (Q. Pheevr)
  You are at the top of a staircase, which leads down to Landing at the Bottom of Stairs (Mark Sample). An archway leads east.
  
  On the north wall is a round white wall clock.
  
  For some reason, there is a dilapidated kitchen sink standing against the west wall.
  
  > About yourself
  You're still Naomi. At least for now.
  
  > examine coffee
  The clouds in your cup form a blooming rose. 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.
  
  A faint smell of mildew emanates from it.
  
  > examine the archway
  The archway to the east looks...  hungry?
  
  > go east
  Upstairs Hall, north end (Jason Love)
  Despite all the irregularities of Cragne Manor, the inconsistencies, the unaccountable changes, to say nothing of the disparate
  and clashing architecture and décor, you have at least attained a certain expectation regarding its hallways: close walls and high ceilings, wreathed in shadow, with the occasional door looming obelisk-like through the gloom. Its architects must have had crooked rulers, as you can never quite make out the end of a hallway until you've nearly reached it--and just such a hallway winds away to the south.
  
  In this section of the hall, the eastern wall flares out into a wider space resembling a waiting-room; there's even a little bench against that wall to the south-east. A massive black armoire occupying the wall opposite strikes you as a less deliberate inclusion, if the boards sealing it shut are any indication; perhaps the movers abandoned it here after they couldn't fit it through the archway to the west. Beyond these minimal furnishings, the hall contains only a pair of imposing doors to the east and to the north; a third doorway between them has been closed off with bricks.
  
  > examine the coffee
  The swirls in your cup form a jackalope. Images of strange hybrids mean that some challenges in your current environment can be defeated with what you already possess, while others will require outside assistance.
  
  A faint smell of mildew emanates from it.
  
  The manor may have its voices: its creaking and squeaking floorboards, its groaning doors; but you have grown accustomed to the quiet ways it protests your presence. This relative silence is now shattered by the unmistakable sound of a clenched fist pounding at the front door downstairs.
  
  > go west
  Top of Stairs (Q. Pheevr)
  You are at the top of a staircase, which leads down to Landing at the Bottom of Stairs (Mark Sample). An archway leads east to Upstairs Hall, north end (Jason Love).
  
  On the north wall is a round white wall clock.
  
  For some reason, there is a dilapidated kitchen sink standing against the west wall.
  
  The pounding at the front door continues, louder now. Was the front door even closed when last you saw it?