text: > look around
  To the north is the monumental windowless bulk of the train station. A metal trash can squats beneath its carved facade. The town itself is downhill, on the other side of a ravine. Somewhere down there, you can get a bath and a meal.
  
  A woman stands in the center of the bridge, preventing traffic in both directions.
  
  > examine the coffee
  The swirls in your cup form a kayak. Modes of transportation mean that your current environment presents challenges that can only be overcome by seeking fresh perspectives elsewhere until you're ready to return.
  
  > go north
  Railway Platform (Naomi Hinchen)
  The platform is open to the outdoors, but has an overhanging roof with a rusted sign hanging from it. At the back of the platform, to the south, is the entrance to the lobby. Train tracks stretch off into the distance to the east and west; on the other side of the track is a graffitied brick wall.
  
  The clock overhead gives the time as 8:02 pm; beneath the clock is a schedule board listing train arrival times. On the platform itself are a wooden bench, a storage locker, and a vending machine.
  
  > examine the windows
  The dirty, cobweb-covered windows permit scant illumination within the station lobby. They appear not to have been cleaned in a long time.
  
  > look at the coffee
  The clouds in your cup form a skateboard. Modes of transportation mean that your current environment presents challenges that can only be overcome by seeking fresh perspectives elsewhere until you're ready to return.
  
  > unlock the green door
  What do you want to unlock the green door with?
  
  > go north
  Railway Platform (Naomi Hinchen)
  The platform is open to the outdoors, but has an overhanging roof with a rusted sign hanging from it. At the back of the platform, to the south, is the entrance to the lobby. Train tracks stretch off into the distance to the east and west; on the other side of the track is a graffitied brick wall.
  
  The clock overhead gives the time as 8:08 pm; beneath the clock is a schedule board listing train arrival times. On the platform itself are a wooden bench, a storage locker, and a vending machine.
  
  > throw the jar at the woman
  You lack the nerve when it comes to the crucial moment.
  
  The sky hates you.
  
  > ask the woman about the xyzzy
  The woman's answer is impenetrable.
  
  > ask the woman about the anchorhead
  "The town is doomed."
  
  > ask woman about the Backwater
  The woman's answer is unaccountable.
  
  > ask the woman about the doll
  She shouts, "It has been sent to warn us, uneducated idiot."
  
  > ask the woman about the insect
  She bellows, "You'll do best in this town if you ask least."
  
  > ask the woman about cragne
  She hollers, "You'll do best in this town if you ask least."
  
  > ask the woman about the verlac
  The woman's answer is ambiguous.
  
  > Go north
  The surroundings are as dim and dingy as ever. The platform is to the north. The dirty, cobweb-covered windows and the station exit are to the south. The large mirror and the green door are to the east. The restroom door is to the west. You are unsure what you should do.
  
  > Go north
  Railway Platform (Naomi Hinchen)
  The platform is open to the outdoors, but has an overhanging roof with a rusted sign hanging from it. At the back of the platform, to the south, is the entrance to the lobby. Train tracks stretch off into the distance to the east and west; on the other side of the track is a graffitied brick wall.
  
  The clock overhead gives the time as 8:20 pm; beneath the clock is a schedule board listing train arrival times. On the platform itself are a wooden bench, a storage locker, and a vending machine.
  
  > examine the coffee
  The clouds in your cup form the engine of a train. Modes of transportation mean that your current environment presents challenges that can only be overcome by seeking fresh perspectives elsewhere until you're ready to return.
  
  > examine the vending
  Similar to a gumball machine, but it's the kind that dispenses toys in little plastic bubbles. At the bottom is a chute where the contents come out. There is a coin slot, but instead of a price next to it, there is a strange squiggled glyph.
  
  In the vending machine is a plastic bubble.
  
  A leak in the ceiling drips water into a puddle.
  
  > examine the glyph
  It seems to shift as you look at it, but looks almost like an R fused with a V. Or maybe a J fused with a P? No, it's definitely an R fused with a V.
  
  > Go south
  To the north is the gargantuan windowless bulk of the train station. A metal trash can squats beneath its carved facade. The town itself is downhill, on the other side of a ravine. Somewhere down there, you can get a bath and a meal.
  
  A woman stands in the center of the bridge, preventing traffic in both directions.
  
  The sky hates you.
  
  > examine the Station
  It is at least three stories tall, with no exterior windows. Carved on the outside are a series of figures, as though it were the outside of Notre Dame.
  
  Positioned in front is a trash can.
  
  > examine the ravine
  The rain comes between you and the ravine like a curtain of silver. No details are visible.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  The Modern Girl's Divination Handbook -- Volume Three
  a pull-string doll
  a glass jar containing an insect
  a half-full styrofoam coffee cup
  a familiar gold wristwatch
  a brass winding key
  
  > show the handbook to the woman
  The woman requests you cease your yammering.
  
  > show the insect to the woman
  The woman recommends you cease your yammering.
  
  > ask the woman about the book
  The woman's answer is sphinxlike.
  
  The sky hates you.
  
  > show the cup to the woman
  The woman requires you cease your gibbering.
  
  > show the watch to the woman
  The woman demands you cease your jabbering.
  
  > show the key to the woman
  The woman demands you cease your quavering.
  
  > tell the woman about yourself
  "You idiot," says the woman.
  
  The sky hates you.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  The Modern Girl's Divination Handbook -- Volume Three
  a pull-string doll
  a glass jar containing an insect
  a half-full styrofoam coffee cup
  a familiar gold wristwatch
  a brass winding key
  
  > look at book
  A dog-eared, stained paperback called The Modern Girl's Divination Handbook -- Volume Three. The cover features three teenage girls of varying ethnicities laughing over the body of a dead cow, each one holding a section of entrails. Reading the blurb on the back makes you suspect that the authors used up all of the more normal divination methods in volumes one and two, and are now scraping the barrel for the really weird stuff.
  
  > look at the doll
  The doll has an inane smile on its face and a pull-string in the middle of its back.
  
  It has the sort of head with two faces, one of which is hidden by its hair. Rotate the head and the other face will be forward.
  
  > Rotate head
  You rotate the doll's head. Its alternate face appears, scowling fiercely.
  
  > pull the string
  A voice comes from within the doll's body, dim and gravelly: "Flee the trouble of the ravine! Here is a division between one type of world and another entirely!"
  
  "What risk is this?" With a concerned look, the woman leans towards the doll as if to pay closer attention.
  
  > pull the string
  The doll intones: "Guard against the glass jar containing an insect! It is ugly!"
  
  The woman looks alarmed.
  
  > show the jar to the woman
  The woman goes white. From behind you on the tracks comes a curious noise, mechanical and screeching, as though something were coming along the tracks. When you turn back, the woman has gone.
  
  > Go south
  You pass over the bridge. The ravine has become a white river, teeming with creatures: you see a fin, a gill, a plaintive upturned face, before each is swept away.
  
  It is possible to feel claustrophobia out of doors. Sunlight fills the sky but somehow doesn't reach you here. Steep banks of bramble rise to the east and west, trapping you within a gloomy trough a dozen yards wide. A poorly-surfaced road leads north and south along the trough's nadir. Just west of it, camouflaged with rust, is the train track.
  
  A tremendous patch of milkweed, the stems abnormally thick and tall, grows on the east side of the road beneath the thorn bank.
  
  A giant milkweed leaf dangles just within reach from the mass of stems.
  
  Almost hidden within the milkweed is a dilapidated shack built more of splinters than of planks.
  
  > examine the milkweed
  (the giant milkweed leaf)
  A giant milkweed leaf, curled in such a way that it could cling to your face like a mask. It even has two milk-ringed holes for your eyes.
  
  > wear the mask
  You put on the giant milkweed leaf.
  
  > examine the shack
  A hateful structure less than five feet high. The wood frame of the shack has tilted, twisting subtly out of true. The angles itch at your eyes, somehow uncomfortable to look at. No windows. The low doorway, lacking a door, hisses at you open-mouthed. Or would that just be the standard summer susurrus of Vermont?
  
  "Hateful" might an odd way to describe a building, but you can't escape the impression that the shack is capable of such an emotion. It's got to be a death-trap, anyway: take a step inside, or even give the shack a push, and surely it will just collapse.
  
  > pull the string
  The doll intones: "Beware the road!"