the other door in the ante-chamber · the rig does not reach in here
Next to the ante-chamber at the Rebellion Rave Room
The Cooldown Room
Somewhere small and soft to come down in.
A room the size of a living room, through the wall from one the size of a hangar. Couches, armchairs, floor cushions and low tables everywhere, the doors shut on the noise, cold water on tap, and a vending machine along one wall where everything is free and made by people from round here.
The light in here
Most of the light comes out of the front of the vending machine: one tall, steady, pale panel at the side of the room, at about the height of your head. Every couch has a pale edge on the side that faces it and soft shade on the side that does not, and there is a pool of it on the floor in front of the glass.
It is the same light all night, and nothing in here is switched. Next door the light is yours to set going. In here there is nothing to set.
The machine
Press a slot and it drops into the tray. Everything in it is free, and you can take as many as you like: it does not run out and it does not ask. Every slot says what is in it and how it feels before you press, because crunch, cold and sour matter more than usual in a room like this one.
Water
A cooler by the machine, with cold water and water at room temperature, paper cups and a tap low enough to fill a bottle at. A bowl of ice beside it. Free, like everything else in here, and as much as you like.
House rules
- Stay as long as you like. Nobody asks why you are in here and nobody asks when you are going back. You do not have to go back.
- The rig does not reach in here. Nothing next door can flash, sweep or sound in this room. The walls are thick and the doors shut.
- Nothing in here moves and nothing makes a sound, at any dial setting. The machine drops a snack and says so in words.
- Nothing is counted and nothing is kept. Nobody writes down what you took or how often you came in. The tray empties when you leave.
- Lie down if you want to. The floor cushions are for exactly that, and so are the couches.
Whose this all is
The snacks and the people who make them belong to this road: the orchard off the verge, the crisp fryer behind the old control tower, the overnight bakers by the fuel pumps, the sweet shed, the pretzel oven, the lolly van and the Tuesday jam club. The room, the machine and the drawing are ours. Every slot, with what is in it, is in the liner notes.
Job marker — a bottle cap, rolled under a couch
You have found a job marker. The Adventurer’s Guild is a shopfront on the street, and it posts jobs that send you round these rooms. Take the code below to its board and that job is done. Nothing here is scored, nothing expires, and one is a perfectly good number of jobs to do.
The job: What the machine takes
Before the code: What do you have to put into the Cooldown Room's vending machine to get a snack out of it?
Hint 1
Read the sign across the top of the machine.
Hint 2
It is in the first line under The machine.
Last hint
The same thing Nothing For Sale charges, a few turnings back.
Give me the answer
The answer is Nothing. Nothing. Everything in it is free, you can take as many as you like, and it does not run out and does not ask. The room's own tool will not let a slot carry a price, which is Nothing For Sale's rule arriving on a machine that was built to take money.
Taking the answer is a real way through this, not a lesser one. Nothing is watching and nothing is written down.
Quest code: ICECUBE
That is the one.
Nothing. Everything in it is free, you can take as many as you like, and it does not run out and does not ask. The room's own tool will not let a slot carry a price, which is Nothing For Sale's rule arriving on a machine that was built to take money.
Quest code: ICECUBE