Part 12

All right, we got our money - we're ready to head to the airport!

Wait, better check that we've got everything first. It'd suck to forget anything at the last minute. Got my cash, got my passport, got my plane tickets - waitaminute. Aw shit, we forgot the plane tickets! All we have is this letter:

quote:

The $75 money order is in the mail to your new home. To obtain your airline ticket, simply take this letter to your travel agency. Then you're on your way to Paris! Be sure to be on time for your flight. We've found that new employees who miss the training seminar usually aren't very happy at Happitec.

Oh, god, I hope the travel agent's open. Oh, god, I hope there isn't some last minute snafu with the ticket. Oh, god, I'm doomed...

quote:

>e
Front Room

>e
111 35th

>n
110 35th

>n
109 35th

The snivelling, ratty and ineffectual nerd stumbles into view again. "There you are!" he whines. "I've got something I know you'll want. A universal accessory! Only 76 bucks!"

>w
You step into the travel agency.

"Hey! Wait!" cries the nerd. "Would you like to go out with me?"

Travel Agency

You're in a travel agency which is trying to look like a bank. The exit is to the east.

A travel agent is sitting behind the desk, waiting for customers to explain exactly where they want to go and how they want to get there so that she can get a large commission for misunderstanding everything and sending them to Djakarta.

A large sign is hanging on the wall behind the desk.

>show letter to agent
The travel agent glances at the letter. "Like, you'll have to give me that to get your ticket, okay?"

>give letter to agent
The travel agent takes the letter, glances at it, shrugs and tosses a ticket on the desk. "There you go, right?" she yawns. "Like, uh, it's been real."

[Your score just went up.]

>get ticket
You take the airline ticket off the desk.

>look at it
It's a round-trip ticket to Paris on Omnia Gallia flight 105, departing
Buttcrackistan Airport at four o'clock this afternoon.

That... that was it? Where's the catch?

quote:

>look at watch
Your digital wristwatch says it's Saturday, 3:57 pm.

Well, fuck.

There will be a brief pause while I start over from zero, because I didn't realize the game had a FUCKING TIME LIMIT.

(Just out of morbid curiosity, I played on to see what would happen when I get to the airport after the plane was supposed to leave. Here's a brief sample:

quote:

>z
Time passes.

>z
Time passes.

>z
Time passes.

It occurs to you that maybe that cab you called isn't coming after all. Perhaps you should call the company again.

>w
Front Room

>w
Back Room

>dial 706-9251
After a few rings a man answers. "Getlost Airport Cab. Last name of passenger please."

>>huxley
"Gee, lady, your cab should be on its way. You better go outside and wait for it." He hangs up.

[Your blood pressure just went up.]

Truly an amazing simulation - if you cut it too fine, you get the, "I'm already late, where the hell is my fucking cab?" scenario. (No, it never comes.)

The reason it's so late, BTW, is I dicked around a lot and then only pasted the actual progress into this thread - running through that transcript directly should still leave us with plenty of time. Hooray for text games being so easy to replay!

quote:

This amazing accessory is complete with an incredibly intricate Japanese
multifunction plug and fully-shielded coaxial cable regulated by miracle
microchip technology, designed to plug into the back of anything and look
complicated. It is to computers what the paperweight is to aerodynamics.