text: [Themes: Science Fiction, city]
  
  > look at your surroundings
  So, it's a pizza place. With a huge fake mouse in one corner. And it smells pretty nice.
  
  > use the computer
  Great, great. Downloaded. You fiddle with the makefile a bit and then kick off the build.
  
  Your nTerm fills with the kind of stuff that viewers of The Matrix thought was sexy, for some reason. Hopefully this will go without a hitch and be done in ... whenever.
  
  > buy the food
  Food does seem like a good idea. You order some and prepare to focus completely on the meal, like Martha Stewart on her salad...
  
  A guy you met during new employee reorientation -- Knut, you think his name is -- furtively joins you as you're dining. He looks even more feverish and high-strung than he did a few days ago.
  
  "Hi. Hi again. Gotta tell. Tell you something."
  
  "Reality. Illusion. Theme is reality versus illusion. Must discern reality. And illusion."
  
  "Behind a small plate I have placed it. In F2, the downstairs lab. Hopefully you can get into F2. I have placed the device. The device you will need. The magic helmet."
  
  Knut tilts forward as if he was going to relate to you some ultimate secret, then, surprisingly, bolts away and out the door. He's long gone before you even manage to conceive of pursuing him, so you turn back to your meal.
  
  You conclude your culinary experience.
  
  > use nLap
  Your nTerm is still flickering along, so the update must be compiling properly. You read a bit more of that fascinating thread about the ethics of patenting an overclocking technique.
  
  > go southwest
  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.
  
  > Go east
  You head east on Second Street...
  
  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 east
  You head east on Second Street...
  
  Main runs along the west edge of the nWare Media Campus. To the northwest is a Starbucks. The glass cube of the nWare Store sits on a park-like plot to the southwest.
  
  > Go east
  You head east on Second Street...
  
  You didn't get a great look around here during your on-site interview, since the wiry guy walking with you was enthusiastically posing an elaborate problem in queueing theory. Luckily you were able to convince him that your mind can flex in the nWare way.
  
  The north part of the campus is deceptively pleasant, with nWare Media buildings scattered about.
  
  > go east
  You head east on Second Street...
  
  The path to the west looks as nice as all the other campus walkways, but this is clearly an alley at the edge of town.
  
  > Go south
  You head south on Urchin...
  
  The eastern edge of the city looks like a long, empty parking lot. The path onto campus to the west is typically impressive, though. There's a subtle brown door to the east here, set right in the dirt of the East Berm.
  
  > Go west
  You head west 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.
  
  > Go south
  You head south on Octopus...
  
  The nWare Media Campus is north; Octopus turns into the campus's main path on the north side of Fourth Street. To the southwest are the city's gardens, complementing the green of the campus with other herbifarous colors. A store called "Beverage Rack" is to the southeast.
  
  A man and woman ride by on a tandem bicycle, with a toddler riding in a sidecar.
  
  > go north
  You head north on Octopus...
  
  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.
  
  > 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.
  
  Sleep attempts to settle down upon you like a blanket that you keep kicking off. If the time leading up to the demo wasn't so hectic, you'd be hitting the sack about now.
  
  > Go northeast
  You're not cleared to enter the building over there. Although you work for nWare, the subdivisions of the Media division are pretty much walled off from each other.
  
  > examine the buildings
  Upon closer inspection, the city's buildings still seem to be buildings. To look at a particular one, specify one.
  
  > go to the south
  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.
  
  > go to the northwest
  The raised floor is charcoal in color -- it's the sort seen in all nWare buildings that house really official business. The racks all around are also especially businesslike. And it looks like we also have Cindy.
  
  > Open floor
  The raised floor is made to open up, but you would have to have the appropriate tool for the job.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying an nStick, your nLap 500, your pager, and your key.
  
  > use nLap
  Your nTerm is still flickering along, so the update must be compiling properly. You download and watch another hilarious reality-based video snippet of mobile robots guarding a warehouse.
  
  > Go northwest
  The nWare Store is not open right now. Looks like it opens at ten.
  
  > go south
  You head south on Main...
  
  One corner of the nWare Media Campus is to the northeast, where a path affords entrance. A Starbucks is on the southeast corner. There is a coffeehouse called "Independent Grounds" to the southwest. Another Starbucks is on the northwest corner.
  
  > Go south
  You head south on Main...
  
  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
  The Mailboxes Ultra is not open right now. Looks like it opens at seven thirty.
  
  > examine the pager
  There's nothing really wacky about it. Press the gray button: messages play. Hold it: they are erased.
  
  > ask nLap for the time
  That can only be done to a higher organism.
  
  > hold the button
  The pager emits a low beep after you hold the button down for about a second and a half.
  
  > Go west
  You head west on Fifth Street...
  
  A wisp of grilled beast lingers around Public Char, to the northeast. 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 west
  You head west on Fifth Street...
  
  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 southeast
  The white, high-ceilinged place is run through with cliffs of boxed-up blister packs. Around the edges are toys, books, even a selection of electronic gadgets and gizmos and such, along with small appliances. Ringed within these are household and personal supplies, while nearest the core -- by the enclosure where the pharmacists and their attendants no doubt circulate -- are the brand-name over-the-counter philters of vibrant color, along with the alternatives: vitamins, herbs, and homeopathic dilutions.
  
  As you walk in, some punky-looking teenagers file out past you.
  
  "That is totally what my mom has been doing," one of them says, "Crazy weird apocalypse stuff. It's entirely a Watchmen situation, what else could it be? Best thing would be to clear out before whoever the Ozymandias dude is lays down the smack. Maybe go to Tokyo."
  
  > buy the painkiller
  You are gripped by paralysis, unable to decide where to begin or end your shopping spree. After you breathe for a moment, the panic subsides. Perhaps you'll be able to go and shop after the stress of the demo has passed.