text: [Themes: Science Fiction, Humor, superhero]
  
  > Describe the surroundings
  The great assembly floor of 'Rockets, Sprockets, and Pants,' which stretches in every direction as far as the eye can see. Particularly to the north, where some of your buddies with the propulsion labs work.
  
  South lies the Way Out.
  
  Before you sits your desk.
  
  > go to the south
  The Out Escalator -- one way transportation for people on the go. It's pretty jammed at this time of evening, all your coworkers in their green and yellow uniforms jostling each other to get out...
  
  You scoot along the automated OUT escalator until you arrive at...
  
  One look at the parking lot tells you what you might already have guessed: the traffic is going to be backed up from here to the Schuykill Expressway, and if you have any plans to meet EnigmaGirl in a timely fashion, you'd better find another way than in you trusty automobile.
  
  What it comes down to is this. How much do you trust your own mad stitching skillz?
  
  > wear the pants
  You're already wearing those!
  
  > turn on the pants
  There's an exhilarating vibration all around your-- er-- hmm.
  
  Well anyway, you blast off, is the main point. To the accompaniment of loud cheers and honking horns. And soon find yourself...
  
  You're currently in midair some hundreds of feet over the Schuykill River. Off down and kind of to the southwest, you can see your front yard.
  
  > Go southwest
  You descend with more abruptness than majesty, right through the sticky limbs of your tree...
  
  Characterized by a large tree. Otherwise, it's pretty much just a patch of dirt that you haven't gotten around to seeding. The rocket pants have been your life, night and day: you haven't got time for mundane gardening.
  
  Just to the west is the front door of your lovely abode.
  
  > look at tree
  You've never been much for botany. It could be just about anything.
  
  > climb the tree
  Whatever kind of thing it is, it is not a climbable kind of thing. Oh well.
  
  > Go inside
  You can go only west.
  
  > go west
  Prepared for the evening in advance. You may be an engineer, but you do have a spark of romance in you: the candles are already laid out on the table, the bottle of wine is chilling, your CD player is ready-prepared with romantically Enigmatic music. In honor of the occasion you've cut a large question mark out of sparkly cardboard and hung it from the ceiling. It's these little touches a girl will appreciate.
  
  You could sure use a shower, though.
  
  > get the pants
  You already have those.
  
  > get all
  table: That's hardly portable.
  
  > look at the table
  Okay, so it's a folding table. You usually eat standing over the sink. What of it, anyway?
  
  > Wait
  Just as you are about to wait, the doorbell rings!
  
  You fling it open and in she walks. "Hello, Mister-- uh--"
  
  "Grisham," you say hastily, "just Grisham, though if you don't like that my middle name is Peter, but--"
  
  "Hi." She shoots you a sparkly smile. "I guess I don't need to introduce myself, right?"
  
  You swallow. Introduce herself? Half the energy you put into this date was in the form of scraping her publicity pics off every available surface... The place does look a little bare, come to that.
  
  > go outside
  But you aren't in anything at the moment.
  
  "So, like," EnigmaGirl says, looking around nervously. "You said you had something you wanted to, like, show me?"
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a pair of rocket pants (being worn)
  
  EnigmaGirl shifts from one foot to the other, looking a little impatient and uncertain.
  
  > Show table to EnigmaGirl
  (first taking the table)
  That's hardly portable.
  
  EnigmaGirl shifts from one foot to the other, looking a little impatient and uncertain.
  
  > turn on the pants
  Turn those things on inside? That'd be suicide!
  
  "Okay, like, fine." Evidently tired of your futzing around, she takes off... leaving you ALONE and overendowed with useless pantsage. Story of your life.
  
  > ask EnigmaGirl about the pants
  "Sounds fabulous! May I see?"
  
  "So, like," EnigmaGirl says, looking around nervously. "You said you had something you wanted to, like, show me?"
  
  > ask EnigmaGirl about herself
  There is no reply.
  
  EnigmaGirl shifts from one foot to the other, looking a little impatient and uncertain.
  
  > Kiss enigmagirl
  No no, you've got a careful strategy all worked out here. The way it works is, you win her undying admiration, THEN sweep her into your manly arms.
  
  "Okay, like, fine." Evidently tired of your futzing around, she takes off... leaving you ALONE and overendowed with useless pantsage. Story of your life.
  
  > take all
  EnigmaGirl: I don't suppose the EnigmaGirl would care for that.
  table: That's hardly portable.
  
  "So, like," EnigmaGirl says, looking around nervously. "You said you had something you wanted to, like, show me?"
  
  > show yourself to EnigmaGirl
  (first taking yourself)
  You are always self-possessed.
  
  EnigmaGirl shifts from one foot to the other, looking a little impatient and uncertain.
  
  > Punch enigmagirl
  Are you out of your mind?
  
  "Okay, like, fine." Evidently tired of your futzing around, she takes off... leaving you ALONE and overendowed with useless pantsage. Story of your life.
  
  > Y.
  Great. Just great.
  
  You had big plans for this evening. Romantic plans, involving candlelight, strawberries, and your favorite superhero, EnigmaGirl, whom you have finally gotten to agree to a date... And you were going to show her your new design, too.
  
  But getting out of here with your pride and your prototype rocket pants isn't going to be easy with MonkeyMan Shatner breathing down your neck.
  
  Copyright 2001, Emily Short
  
  The great assembly floor of 'Rockets, Sprockets, and Pants,' which stretches in every direction as far as the eye can see. Particularly to the north, where some of your buddies with the propulsion labs work.
  
  South lies the Way Out.
  
  Before you sits your desk.
  
  On the desk are a pair of rocket pants (which are closed).
  
  MonkeyMan Shatner is here, breathing just left of down your neck.
  
  > go north
  So-called even though the only thing they really do around here is throw stuff at people. Also, they work better hours than you. In other words, everyone's gone home for the day.
  
  A largeish contraption points south.
  
  A banana rests on the floor nearby. Someone's lunch, no doubt.
  
  > go east
  You can go only south.
  
  > go north
  So-called even though the only thing they really do around here is throw stuff at people. Also, they work better hours than you. In other words, everyone's gone home for the day.
  
  A largeish contraption points south.
  
  > go to the south
  What, leave without the pants? They were the whole point! You're going to show them to EnigmaGirl and she's going to understand that you're the one, you're the guy with the brains and the heart to be HER man. And then you'll be turning up in a tuxedo at all her superhero events and somehow look considerably more like Antonio Banderas and...
  
  Anyway the point is you'd better snag the pants before you leave, or the rest of the evening is shot.
  
  > get all
  sky: You can't reach from here.
  
  > examine the sky
  A cloudless bowl, pale blue.
  
  > get the tree
  That's hardly portable.
  
  > get all
  sky: You can't reach from here.
  large tree: That's hardly portable.