text: [Themes: Mystery, male protagonist, multiple protagonists]
  
  > look at your surroundings
  I'm in the Oldchester C.I.D., specifically the Office of Unfathomable Crimes. It's quite homely, really, with sunlight streaming in through a large WINDOW and moustachioed men smiling down from PICTURE frames on the walls.
  
  A DESK fills much of the room, piled high with PAPERS and FILES, and a pneumatic TUBE snakes along one wall.
  
  A stripy FLY is buzzing around lazily.
  
  I can hear a raised voice ranting on the other side of the door to the Chief Inspector's office.
  
  > Picture
  These must be the rozzers who've worked at the C.I.D. through the ages. There's a definite trend over time from men with huge beards and top hats towards men with small moustaches and bowler hats.
  
  Next thing you know the place'll be run by hatless women.
  
  > About yourself
  What, do you want my vital statistics or something? I'm Ivy Blissheart, a.k.a. Silhouette, former dissident, currently attached to the police force in some crazy fashion.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  I am carrying a NOTEBOOK, and I'm wearing a long JACKET, a short DRESS, and a CLOCHE hat.
  
  > Cloche
  A small bucket of a hat that goes nicely with my short hair and doesn't take up much space. Also it forces me to hold my head up high, or I can't see out from under the brim.
  
  > Notebook
  I'm all set to be a good detective. Got my little notebook and everything, 'though it's currently blank at the moment, save a little doodle of Walker.
  
  > look at BOX
  A neat little box of tarnished filigree, attached to the pneumatic tube. Loads of BUTTONS are set into the face of the thing, a LEVER on the side, and a BASKET underneath it. Oh, and there's a small HOLE in the top of it.
  
  > Dress
  A white, sleeveless dress with a hemline just below the knee. Yes, I decided I'd rather look like a floozie than trip over my own clothes while pursuing a criminal.
  
  > Basket
  There's a little basket just beneath the metal BOX. It looks like it's positioned to catch anything that might come flying out of the pneumatic tube. It contains a CANISTER.
  
  > Window
  I look out the window and across the smoke-blackened rooftops of Oldchester. The sun's low on the horizon, looking all pale and sleepy.
  
  > examine the buttons
  There are loads of chunky buttons set into the front of the box. Most of them are blank, but some have neat inscriptions. There are buttons marked CHIEF, Serious CRIMES, FRAUD, and NARCOTICS. Oh, and a bit of paper has been stuck to one button with the word UNFATHOMABLE scribbled on it.
  
  The button marked 'Narcotics' is currently depressed.
  
  > Press chief
  I push the button marked 'Chief'. It depresses with a firm 'click', and the button marked 'Narcotics' pops back up.
  
  > pull the lever
  I grab the lever on the side of the box and give it a firm yank. The hole in the box emits a tremendous sucking sound until I let the lever spring back into place.
  
  The stripy fly is sucked helplessly into the pneumatic tube. Pharaoh speed, little stripy fly.
  
  Things suddenly go quiet in the Chief Inspector's office. Let's WAIT and see what happens.
  
  > wait
  The door to the Chief Inspector's office opens quietly, and NATE slips into the room. I get a brief glimpse of a fat, bald man swatting at the air with a rolled up newspaper before the door closes again.
  
  Nate says, "I decided that now might not be the time to tell the Chief Inspector about the difference between a striped carrion fly and a wasp."
  
  > Chief
  The button marked 'Chief' is currently depressed. Physically, I mean. Emotionally, it seems to be holding up fine.
  
  "I see you've already met my colleague, FORTHRIGHT," Nate says.
  
  I turn around with a start and see a tall man with a long nose leaning against the wall.
  
  "I find her powers of observation lacking," he says.
  
  The nerve! I could try and put this bloke in his PLACE or just BITE my tongue.
  
  > Place
  "You must get a lot of practice," I say, "spying on young women."
  
  He just ignores me. I'll take that to mean he can't think of a good comeback.
  
  "Well," Nate says, "it was fun while it lasted, but it looks like I'm off Unfathomable Crimes and back at the Old Warren desk."
  
  "Because of her?" Forthright asks.
  
  Okay, I feel pretty rotten right now. Should I be SYMPATHETIC towards Walker, or HARSH towards Forthright?
  
  > Sympathetic
  "Are you in trouble because of me, Na- uh, Walker?" I demand, watching Forthright carefully. "Because I'm telling you, I'm really not worth it."
  
  "There's no way I was going to let them lobotomise you, Ivy," Nate says. "You didn't do anything to deserve that. And in any case, I... don't mind working the Old Warren. The cases may be less fancy, but they need good detectives as much as anyone else."
  
  Forthright shakes his head. "I think it's a crying shame. Look, take this." He hands Nate a piece of PAPER. "Someone telephoned in a murder and it looks right up your alley. One last unfathomable case, okay? You're probably the only one who can solve it anyway."
  
  Shooting me a final hateful look, Forthright stalks out of the office.
  
  > PAPER
  I peer over at the piece of paper that Forthright gave to Nate. The handwriting is almost illegible, but I can make out the words 'murder' and 'uptown'. This must be one of those classy killings Walker's always solving.
  
  Nate reads the paper and smiles. "Another mystery afoot! We should LEAVE as soon as you're ready, Ivy."
  
  > Walker
  Nate's the kind of delicate, impossibly beautiful young man you'd sooner expect to see reclining in a bay window writing poetry than examining a corpse in the Old Warren.
  
  But there's also a sort of nervous energy to him, and his hair's always falling over one eye or the other as he looks around with intense interest.
  
  Nate is carrying a BOWLER hat, a CANE, a police BADGE, and a PIECE of paper, and he's wearing a three-piece SUIT.
  
  > Memo
  It's very neatly typed, on a perfectly square piece of paper.
  
  Rumours are circulating that a woman has been commissioned as a police officer. These rumours are untrue. While a woman has been employed to assist the C.I.D., she is not doing so in the capacity of either constable or detective.
  
  Frankly, the gossiping this event has sparked leads me to believe that she will feel quite at home with the lot of you.
  
  > Piece
  I peer over at the piece of paper that Forthright gave to Nate. The handwriting is almost illegible, but I can make out the words 'murder' and 'uptown'. This must be one of those classy killings Walker's always solving.