A dead man's hug
by "Leaner Gilts" (2017)

You are being chased by an angry cassowary. But all you are trying to do is peel this potato. The symbolism should be obvious.

action: %
response: You are being chased by an angry cassowary.
But all you are trying to do is peel this potato.
The symbolism should be obvious.

An analogy about obscurantism by Leaner Gilts

The walls are videoscreen behind bullet-proof glass.

A 17th century oak table stands here.

On the table are a box of donuts (closed) and a potato.
action: You examine the potato
response: Maybe it's just a potato.
action: You open the box
response: The smell of the donuts trigger an old, half-forgotten memory. It eludes you, like trying to grab black smoke.

You open the box of donuts, revealing a donut.
action: Examine donut
response: You feel like it will solve all your problems.
action: You take donut
response: A ghostly apparition manifest iself above the table. The expressionless face of a horse.
"Choose wisely, traveller. You can only take one of these things. One will get you eternal bliss. The other one is the right choice."
The horse  dissipates.
action: About yourself
response: If only it were this easy. Maybe the potato will help.
action: You examine table
response: A nicely carved 17th century table in dark oak, standing on spidery legs.

On the table are a box of donuts (in which is a donut) and a potato.
action: You take the donut
response: You blink.

3000 years later an expedition finds you, drifting in the rings of Saturn. They cure everything that ails you, and you live a a long, productive and happy life.
action: You take the potato
response: As you grab the potato, it slips through your hands...

...onto the street...

You think you see a shadowy horse gallop across the street.

It's hard to comprehend. More the idea of a street.

You can see a potato and a potato peeler here.
action: You examine the peeler
response: It's just a potato peeler.
action: You take the peeler
response: Taken.
action: You examine the potato
response: (the potato)
Maybe it's just a potato.
action: You take it
response: As you grab the potato, it slips through your hands... and through a sewer grate.
action: You examine the grate
response: It leads down, towards the truth. Or maybe just darkness.
action: You open the grate
response: Ugh. You can't get your fingers in the crack. If only you had something to pry it with.
action: You pry the grate with the peeler
response: It's a few minutes of fidgety work, with a few pinched fingers, but you finally manage to lift the sewer grate using the peeler. You stare for a moment, unblinking, into the dark. Then you hear the cassowary behind you and jump, instinctively.

Filthy sewers.

The potato seems to be stuck to the wall.
action: You take the potato
response: (the potato)
It colmes away with a quiet, hollow sound. You hold it, this precious thing, for a moment. Then you realize, to your horror, that it had been sucked into the end of a pipe. There is a faint, distant rushing of water for a second before it thunders out of the pipe, blowing you and the potato away, further down, down into the depths of the Earth.

After what fells like eons of tumbling through flooded tunnels, first brick then rock, being slammed into the craggy edges and falling down waterfalls forever hidden in darkness, you're finally flushed into ...

You're swimming in eternal darkness. There is the faintest of light to the east.
action: Go east
response: You swim to the east and soon realize that the light comes from a small skiff. As you reach it, a friendly hand helps you aboard.

Underground Lake (in the mysterious boat)
A friendly looking man with butterfly wings stands here.
action: You look at the man
response: He's an average looking dude, smiling at you. Behind his back is a pair of fanatastically beautiful butterfly wings.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
a potato peeler
action: You look at boat
response: In the mysterious boat is a fairyman.
action: You go east
response: You would have to get out of the mysterious boat first.
action: You examine the potato
response: It's just a potato peeler.
action: Kiss potato
response: You can only do that to something animate.
action: You ask the man about the potato
response: "It's only a mystery because you want it to be."
action: You ask the man about the peeler
response: "A useful tool. Better keep it close."
action: You ask Fairyman about Fairyman
response: "I'm the Fairyman of the Riversticks, yes. I hope I can answer  some of your questions."
action: You ask Fairyman about yourself
response: He shrugs. "You are what you are. The only questions is if that helps you at all.."
action: You ask him about the donut
response: "A tasty trap. Or is it?"
action: You ask the man about the cassowary
response: His eyes go wide. "This is an evil you can't possibly understand. It has hunted me for 150 years, and I only barely escaped ... I ..." And then he stops. Blood forms on his chest, and with a terrible croak the cassowary's bloody beak pokes through it.
You take a clumsy step towards the back of the boat.
The terrible bird steps over the Fairyman's body with casual indifference, and begins to stalk towards you.
Without a second thought, you jump into the depths.

You sink, slowly, to the bottom, and there you find what you expected all along...

It looks exactly like your - the player's - childhood bathroom and has all the usual fixtures.
action: You look at the toilet
response: In the bowl swims a half-eaten donut.
action: You look at the sink
response: In the sink are some potato peels.
action: You examine the tub
response: The fairyman's skeleton grins at you from the tub.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
a potato peeler
action: You look at your surroundings
response: It looks exactly like your - the player's - childhood bathroom and has all the usual fixtures.
action: You look at the mirror
response: You look in the mirror and start to scream.
action: Xyzzy
response: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cassowaries (/ˈkæsəwɛəri/) are ratites (flightless birds without
a
keel on their sternum bone) in the genus Casuarius and are native to the tropical forests of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and Indonesia), nearby islands, and northeastern Australia. 3 There are three extant species. The most common of these, the southern cassowary, is the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird, smaller only than the ostrich and emu. Cassowaries feed mainly on fruit, although all species are truly omnivorous and will take a range of other plant food, including shoots and grass seeds, in addition to fungi, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. Cassowaries are very shy, but when provoked they are capable of inflicting injuries, occasionally fatal, to dogs and people.