Talking and Acting

Series: first-crossing · Part 5

The archipelago is a world of verbs. You do not click buttons or select from menus. You say what you want to do, and the world responds.

Speech

Three registers of speech, each with its own reach.

Say — everyone in the room hears.

> say The storm is getting worse.

You say, "The storm is getting worse."

Whisper — only the named person hears.

> whisper cael Is there a cellar?

You whisper to Old Cael, "Is there a cellar?"

Emote — describe what you do, in third person. The world sees it as action, not speech.

> emote leans against the bar and watches the door.

Traveler leans against the bar and watches the door.

Emotes are freeform. Write whatever feels right. They are how you express body language, mood, and intention without speaking aloud.

Movement

Move by typing a direction or exit name:

> north
> south
> up
> go stairs
> go gate

When you move, you leave the current room and arrive in the next. Everyone in the room you left sees you go. Everyone in the room you enter sees you arrive. Movement is not silent.

Interacting with objects

Pick things up, put them down, give them away.

> take lantern

You pick up the iron lantern.

> inventory

You are carrying:
  an iron lantern

> drop lantern

You set down the iron lantern.

Give an item to someone:

> give lantern to cael

You offer the iron lantern to Old Cael.
Old Cael takes it with a nod.

Opening and closing

Doors, chests, shutters — things that can be opened or closed.

> open shutters

You push the shutters open. Cold air rushes in. Beyond, the
harbor is dark — rain and nothing else.

> close shutters

You pull the shutters closed. The wind dies.

Not everything opens. The world will tell you when something resists.

What the world does

Every action you take is a signal that flows through the world. The room hears it. NPCs hear it. Objects with behaviour hear it. The world responds — or doesn’t.

When something goes wrong, the world tells you in its own voice:

> take anvil

The anvil does not move. It is bolted to the floor and weighs
more than you do.

Failure is fiction. The world does not break voice.

The parser

The parser is forgiving. It understands common phrasings:

• look at the fire and look fire and examine fire all work
• pick up the lantern and take lantern both work
• talk to cael and say hello both work (though they do different things)

Word order is flexible. Adjectives help disambiguate when there are multiple similar things:

> take iron lantern

Tab completion helps. Press Tab after typing a partial word to see what the room offers.

Silence

Sometimes you type something and nothing happens. No error, no response, just the prompt returning.

This is intentional. Silence means the world has nothing to say about what you tried. It is not a bug. It is the narrator choosing not to narrate. Try something else, or try the same thing differently.

In the archipelago, silence is always meaningful.