Robin & Orchid — 86 of 88

Volume - The Player

Part - Robin

Robin Monaghan is a woman. The player is Robin. [This is hardly necessary, it just feels tidy.]

Understand "yourself" and "you" as Robin.

The description of Robin is "You are Robin Monaghan, high school junior, associate reporter for the West High [italic type]Warbler[roman type]. You are not overly fond of churches, and you have never claimed to believe in ghosts, but here you are."

The note of Robin is "'Let's see. Robin is, I would say, the second-best writer on the newspaper staff. She is pretty fun a lot of the time but some of the time she is a stick in the mud. Mostly she's good though. She came to the church youth group one or two times but now she doesn't want to go back for a bunch of reasons. The reason I am writing about you in the third person is: it's a joke. It's supposed to be funny.'"

your hands are part of Robin. They are plural-named.

Understand "hand" and "finger" and "fingers" as your hands.

The description is "[if the player carries ectoplasm]Your hand is covered in some kind of sticky goo[otherwise]Your hands appear to be clean[end if]."

Instead of opening something with when the second noun is Robin or the second noun is the hands:

try opening the noun.

Instead of taking something with when the second noun is Robin or the second noun is the hands:

try taking the noun.

Instead of touching your hands when the player carries ectoplasm (called goop) [directly, not in something else]:

try touching the goop instead.

Instead of washing the hands when the player cannot see a sink:

say "There's nowhere to wash your hands here";

if the player carries ectoplasm:

say "[first time]. You're briefly tempted to wipe the goo off on your jeans, but catch yourself in time[only]";

say "."

Instead of washing the hands:

if the player carries ectoplasm (called goop):

remove the goop from play;

say "You scrub your hands until every trace of ectoplasm is gone.";

otherwise:

say "You can't see any dirt on your hands, but you wash them just in case."

Before tasting or eating the hands when Robin carries ectoplasm (called goop):

now the noun is the goop.

Instead of searching the hands:

try examining the hands.

Every turn when the player carries ectoplasm and Ghostly Apparition is not happening: [gonna assume that the ghost appearance is exciting enough to make Robin forget about the ectoplasm annoyance]

if the west basement switch is switched off and (the location is in Basementhall or the location is Storage West or the location is Storage East):

continue the action;

[don't want these messages to show up when Robin is in the dark hallway and hasn't had a chance to look at her hands yet]

if a random chance of 1 in 8 succeeds: [might need to adjust the likelihood here]

say "[one of]A little ectoplasm drips off your fingers[or]Your fingers itch where the ectoplasm is clinging to them[or]You're about to adjust the camera strap around your neck, but catch yourself just before you smear the ectoplasm on it[or]You hold your gooey hand out, away from your body, so as not to get any ectoplasm on your clothes[at random]." [TODO: add a few more lines about Robin being annoyed by the ectoplasm on her hands; probably rewrite some of the existing ones]

[it would be nice if Robin refuses to take certain actions on the grounds that she'll make a mess?

OR that might be really annoying, DON'T DO THAT]

The photo description of Robin is "It turns out it's not that easy taking a photo of yourself with a Polaroid camera. The picture came out slightly blurry; you're not sure if it's because you weren't holding the camera still, or because it was too close to your face."

[Responses to talking to yourself.]

Instead of chatty behavior in the presence of a non-player person when the noun is the player:

say "[The list of visible non-player people] would think you were crazy."

After chatty behavior when the noun is the player:

say "Your voice echoes in the empty room."

The telling yourself rule is not listed in any rulebook.

[This stops Conversation Framework from jumping in with its own response to talking to yourself.]

Instead of saying hello to or saying goodbye to the player:

try talking to the player instead.