text: [Themes: IF Whispers, sidekick NPC, surreal]
  
  > Look around
  A nothingness full of whiteness surrounds you. The only way out is not to leave. Disconcertingly, one of your possessions is making a faint buzzing sound.
  
  > touch Box
  (the Nox box)
  You feel nothing unexpected.
  
  > Examine box
  (the Nox box)
  The box is square, solid black, and inlaid with strands of silver that makes an unusual and almost hypnotic pattern on all six sides. It's just about the size of the old Christmas presents you used to shake as a kid to guess their contents.
  
  The Nox Box makes a noticable buzzing sound.
  
  > open Box
  (the Nox box)
  You open the Nox box, revealing a gear slot.
  
  > look in the slot
  In the gear slot is a red gear.
  
  > Close Box
  (the Nox box)
  You close the Nox box.
  
  > examine the guitar
  Your faithful rosewood six-string.
  
  > Wear helmet
  It suddenly becomes difficult to think.
  
  > think about the guitar
  Unbearably hellish music overwhelms your thoughts. You struggle mightily to think about something else.
  
  > play guitar
  You play a few notes of "Chobits ending theme 2". Contrary to IF convention, you actually play quite well.
  
  > search the guitar
  The guitar is empty.
  
  > Touch pattern
  A snap of static jumps from the pattern to your fingers, and the world collapses around you!
  
  This would be pitch-black if it weren't for your glow-jar and a bit of light coming in via the window. A rickety staircase leads upwards.
  
  You can see a cupboard (closed) here.
  
  The Nox Box seems to have vanished from your possessions.
  
  > open the cupboard
  You open the cupboard, revealing a yellow gear and a blue gear.
  
  > take the gears
  yellow gear: Taken.
  blue gear: Taken.
  
  > go upward
  With a blink and a flash, you're suddenly somewhere a bit more familiar...
  
  You're here in front of a slot machine situated right on top of the X in the Luxor's logo. All around you, blinking, screaming electronics want to take your money, but your steely resolve remains undeterred. A dark passage in front of the slot machine leads down.
  
  Your possessions shift slightly. The Nox Box seems to have returned.
  
  > get Box
  (the Nox box)
  You already have that.
  
  > open Nox
  You open the Nox box, revealing a gear slot.
  
  > put the yellow gear in Nox
  You put the yellow gear into the gear slot.
  
  > put the blue gear in Nox
  You put the blue gear into the gear slot.
  
  > Close nox
  You close the Nox box.
  
  > Shake nox
  As the box shakes, you get a vague impression of a field.
  
  > Touch pattern
  A snap of static jumps from the pattern to your fingers, and the world collapses around you!
  
  A wide open field with a blue sky above. Far off in the distance, towards the setting sun, you can see a large, lone tree. Closer by, like nearly on top of you, is an enormous trebuchet.
  
  You can see an orange gear here.
  
  The Nox Box has vanished again.
  
  > take the orange gear
  Taken.
  
  > examine the Tree
  Far off in the distance, you can just make out a tree poking up over the tall grass.
  
  > look at trebuchet
  The enormity of this enormous trebuchet is enor... is staggering. The wheels themselves are easily forty feet in diameter, if not more. The top reaches too high to even estimate. The rope is thicker than a tree trunk. A really thick tree trunk. The sling is currently empty, and an amusingly small lever built into the side looks like it'll set it off.
  
  Far overhead, you hear the buzzing of a plane.
  
  > examine the plane
  You can definitely hear it, but you can't quite see it.
  
  The buzzing becomes louder.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  The plane is almost directly overhead.
  
  > wait awhile
  Time passes.
  
  The plane continues on its way across the sky.
  
  > examine the rope
  The enormity of this enormous trebuchet is enor... is staggering. The wheels themselves are easily forty feet in diameter, if not more. The top reaches too high to even estimate. The rope is thicker than a tree trunk. A really thick tree trunk. The sling is currently empty, and an amusingly small lever built into the side looks like it'll set it off.
  
  The buzzing becomes very faint as the plane flies out of view.
  
  > Go north
  With a blink and a flash, you're suddenly somewhere a bit more familiar...
  
  A wide porch of wood slats, with the obligatory animal skulls nailed up against the wall. South leads back to the road; north takes you inside.
  
  Just outside the shadowed doorway, a parched corpse slumps in a rocking-chair.
  
  Your possessions shift slightly. The Nox Box seems to have returned.
  
  > open Nox
  You open the Nox box, revealing a gear slot.
  
  > put the orange gear in the slot
  You put the orange gear into the gear slot.
  
  > Close Box
  (the Nox box)
  You close the Nox box.
  
  > Shake nox
  As the box shakes, you get a vague impression of a tree.
  
  > Touch pattern
  A snap of static jumps from the pattern to your fingers, and the world collapses around you!
  
  A tree stands majestically in the middle of a great open field. The sun, just rising over the horizon, makes the tree's shadow stretch off over the grass into the distance. The field continues in all directions.
  
  The Nox Box has vanished again.
  
  > look at the Tree
  You're not exactly sure what kind of tree this is as you're not a botanist. However, it is tall and sturdy and makes a nice amount of shade, and high up in the branches you can just make out a gear of some hue or other.
  
  > climb the Tree
  With a blink and a flash, you're suddenly somewhere a bit more familiar...
  
  You've climbed half-way up the stairs. To go any further would be foolishly risking your life.
  
  Your possessions shift slightly. The Nox Box seems to have returned.
  
  > examine Nox
  The box is square, solid black, and inlaid with strands of silver that makes an unusual and almost hypnotic pattern on all six sides. It's just about the size of the old Christmas presents you used to shake as a kid to guess their contents.
  
  The Nox Box makes a noticable buzzing sound.
  
  > examine the pattern
  The pattern, although still confusingly complex, gives you the vague impression of a tree.
  
  > Shake nox
  As the box shakes, you get a vague impression of an enclosed space.
  
  > Touch pattern
  A snap of static jumps from the pattern to your fingers, and the world collapses around you!
  
  Hunched over in a cramped, lurching, noisy cabin makes your back hurt and endangers your hearing. Wires and cables are strung neatly nearly everywhere, and pipes prove useful when you need to grab onto something. A hatch in the ceiling leads to the deck above you, and a door is set into the hull of the plane.
  
  You can see a hull door, a hatch, and a giant silver sphere here.
  
  The Nox Box has vanished again.
  
  > examine the sphere
  Although the sphere appears to be silver, you can't be certain exactly what metal it's made of. The surface of it dances and swirls before your eyes, and when you lean close to it, your reflection distorts amusingly. At least, you assume your nose isn't that big.
  
  > Author
  Scene 10, "Endgame", was written by Mark J Musante.
  
  > open hatch
  You open the hatch.
  
  > Go upward
  With a blink and a flash, you're suddenly somewhere a bit more familiar...
  
  This is clearly some kind of command center. An important-looking door leads off to the north, while more unassuming ones lead in all other cardinal directions. Surely some hint to the treasure must be in this secret complex.
  
  You can see a ladder here.
  
  Your possessions shift slightly. The Nox Box seems to have returned.
  
  > open the hull door
  You open the hull door.
  
  > enter the hull door
  You leap to your death. And your death takes a while to hit you, mostly because it comes in the form of the ground, which was far far below the plane.
  
  > open hatch
  That's already open.
  
  > go upwards
  With a blink and a flash, you're suddenly somewhere a bit more familiar...
  
  The building is in the state you've expected from a ghost town. Its upper floor is completely gone, but the front is still standing, and you can barely make out the words Kissing Bandit Saloon in sun-bleached red paint. One half of a swinging door leads north, inside.
  
  Your possessions shift slightly. The Nox Box seems to have returned.
  
  > Touch pattern
  A snap of static jumps from the pattern to your fingers, and the world collapses around you!
  
  A wide open field with a blue sky above. Far off in the distance, towards the setting sun, you can see a large, lone tree. Closer by, like nearly on top of you, is an enormous trebuchet.
  
  The Nox Box has vanished again.
  
  > examine the trebuchet
  The enormity of this enormous trebuchet is enor... is staggering. The wheels themselves are easily forty feet in diameter, if not more. The top reaches too high to even estimate. The rope is thicker than a tree trunk. A really thick tree trunk. The sling is currently empty, and an amusingly small lever built into the side looks like it'll set it off.
  
  > wait awhile
  Time passes.
  
  > wait awhile
  Time passes.
  
  Far overhead, you hear the buzzing of a plane.
  
  > wait for a while
  Time passes.
  
  The buzzing becomes louder.
  
  > wait a while
  Time passes.
  
  The plane is almost directly overhead.
  A glint of light shines briefly below the plane. You squint but can't make it out.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  The plane continues on its way across the sky.
  The glint of light becomes brighter, and a rushing, crackly, whooshing sound is coming from it.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  The buzzing becomes very faint as the plane flies out of view.
  The glint of light rushes towards the ground at a fantastic rate. It thuds into the earth, throwing up rocks and dirt in an amazing display. Still more amazingly, it bounces up into the air and with a neat "plop", lands gently onto the trebuchet.
  
  > pull the lever
  Slowly at first, and then with increasing speed, the trebuchet pulls the loaded sling underneath and then the sling swings free. It flies far out into the distance and curves upwards in an arc that seems slow only because of the distance involved. At the top of the swing, almost up into the clouds, you see a flash of light as the sphere is thrown clear of the sling. It flies high into the air and you wait and wait as it comes down almost at the horizon. And right into the large lone tree in the distance. The tree shudders once and is still.
  
  > Go north
  With a blink and a flash, you're suddenly somewhere a bit more familiar...
  
  This room is much smaller than what the movies tell you. A stairway leads up to a gallery, though most of the roof and the upper floor is missing. A few chairs and tables gather dust, accompanied by a lone piano in a corner.
  A counter is near the back wall.
  An impressive chandelier dangles from the remains of the ceiling.
  
  Curb has dug a hole into the ground here.
  
  Behind the counter is a shelf lined with a row of casks.
  
  Your possessions shift slightly. The Nox Box seems to have returned.
  
  > Shake nox
  As the box shakes, you get a vague impression of a tree.
  
  > Touch pattern
  A snap of static jumps from the pattern to your fingers, and the world collapses around you!
  
  A tree stands majestically in the middle of a great open field. The sun, just rising over the horizon, makes the tree's shadow stretch off over the grass into the distance. The field continues in all directions.
  
  You can see a giant silver sphere and an indigo gear here.
  
  The Nox Box has vanished again.
  
  > take the indigo
  Taken.
  
  > examine the sphere
  Although the sphere appears to be silver, you can't be certain exactly what metal it's made of. The surface of it dances and swirls before your eyes, and when you lean close to it, your reflection distorts amusingly. At least, you assume your nose isn't that big. Despite the fact that it took quite a journey since you saw it last, it appears completely unharmed, with not a scratch to be seen.
  
  > examine the Tree
  You're not exactly sure what kind of tree this is as you're not a botanist. However, it is tall and sturdy and makes a nice amount of shade, although many of the branches are splintered and broken.
  
  > go north
  With a blink and a flash, you're suddenly somewhere a bit more familiar...
  
  This end of the Giving Lounge is bathed in gentle light. A set of (literally) pearly gates stands to the west.
  
  You pause to reflect on this for a moment. The fact that the pearly gates are underground adds that extra touch of Vegas oddness to the scene.
  
  You can see a set of pearly gates and a guardian angel here.
  
  Your possessions shift slightly. The Nox Box seems to have returned.
  
  > put the indigo in Nox
  You put the indigo gear into the gear slot.
  
  > Close nox
  You close the Nox box.
  
  > Continue
  As the box shakes, you get a vague impression of a beach.
  
  > Touch pattern
  A snap of static jumps from the pattern to your fingers, and the world collapses around you!
  
  A picturesque beach at sunset. Clich?, but extremely pleasant. The sun glints over the waters as the waves crash gently on the shore. The beach is secluded, with cliffs all around you. At last, you can relax. It seems like forever ago when you started in By Your Car and your odd and surreal journey began. But now it's over, and you've found a place to rest. All it needs is a bit of music to be complete.
  
  The Nox Box has vanished again.
  
  > play the guitar
  You sit down in a comfortable spot, expertly tune your guitar, and play music to match the peaceful beauty of your surroundings. Your fingers fly over the guitar strings with the effortless ease of one who has mastered the instrument, and you close your eyes, breathing a sigh of completion.
  
  > 3
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