Blue Lacuna — 218 of 467

Aaron A. Reed

Release 4

Chapter - Hive Interior

The printed name of Hive Interior is "At the Hive, Peering Inside". Check sleeping when location is Hive Interior: say "Clinging to the side of the beehive? Not likely." instead.

The prose name of Hive Interior is "on the giant beehive". The description of Hive Interior is "[beeintdesc].".

To say beeintdesc:

say "Clutching the sides of the beehive, you peer curiously inside. The inside walls are thick with hexagonal honeycombs[if morning or midmorning or afternoon or evening], glowing with a creamy golden sheen where snatches of slanting sunlight falls through the windows to touch them[end if][dot]";

say "[if night]The bees huddle in clusters around the hive, quivering on occasion but clearly asleep[otherwise if hive bees are collecting]A sparse smattering of bees mill around the honeycombs[otherwise if hive bees are dormant]Bees, wings and heads tucked in, cover every surface, hardly moving except for an occasional faint twitch[otherwise if hive bees are watching]Bees mill around the walls, most watching one [o]dancer[x] bee who moves in strange but regular patterns[otherwise]Hundreds of bees mill around over the interior surface of the hive[end if]. The only way to go from here is back [down]".

Instead of going up in Hive Interior, say "You're less confident of the ceiling's ability to support your weight." Instead of entering the beehive when location is Hive Interior, say "The windows are big enough to see through, and big enough for the bees to enter, but not you.".

Some hive bees are an undescribed animal in Hive Room. Understand "stream/hundreds" as hive bees. The hive bees can be dormant, hesitating, watching, or collecting. The hive bees are hesitating. The hive bees have a number that varies called counter. The counter of the hive bees is 0. After going to Hive Interior: move hive bees to location; continue the action. After going to Hive Room: move hive bees to location; continue the action. The description of hive bees is "[if location is Hive Room]You can faintly see, through the elevated [o]windows[x] in the hive, bees milling about inside[else]Bees swarm around the honeycombs on the inside of the hive[end if].". [The hive bees represent the bees that are always present in the hive. They can only be seen/interacted with from the Hive Interior and Hive Room locations.]

The honey is a minor prop in Hive Interior with provoke message "You carefully break off an abandoned corner of honeycomb, dripping with thick, creamy honey, and pop it into your mouth. The taste is overwhelmingly sweet: not just sugary, but with hints of fruit and mint, too. Fortunately, the bees do not seem to mind.". The indefinite article is "some". Understand "honeycomb/honeycombs/hexagonal/cream/creamy/golden" or "honey comb" as honey.

Instead of going nowhere when location is Hive Interior: say "(first getting down from the beehive)"; move player to Hive Room, without printing a room description; try going noun.