[code]The Lounge is a room.
Some Stairs are in the Lounge.
now the noun is the Stairs.
Rules tracing now switched on. Type “rules off” to switch it off again, or “rules all” to include even rules which do not apply.
[Rule “declare everything initially unmentioned rule” applies.
e.g. the hat is chosen, which is silly, and seems to be chosen before any rules run, so doesn’t let me overrule the silliness.
How does the missing noun get supplied?
Looking in the rules index, there are only missing noun rules for smelling, listening, entering, and going, so presumably this is a completely different mechanism?
…and yes, the thing that selects the hat is a different mechanism, which is buried deep within the parser and hard to change. The “clarifying the parser’s choice of something” activity is what prints “(the hat)” once that has happened, but you can’t really use that to fix it, I don’t think.
Does the player mean climbing the stairs: it is likely.