on the street · under the floorboards of the shop · daylight through the cracks, and nothing else

Look along the cracks

Rescue Small Animals

Rabbits, rats, mice, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, chinchillas, ferrets, hedgehogs

Down there now

Looking under the floor needs scripts.

Under the floorboards of the shop it is dark, and the only light is the day coming down through the cracks between the boards, lying on the dust in long pale strips. Every so often somebody small turns up down there who needs bringing in: a rabbit, a rat, a mouse, a hamster, a gerbil, a guinea pig, a chinchilla, a ferret or a hedgehog, under the stairs, in a boot by the back door, in the sock drawer. You will see them where they stand in a strip of light. Signed on to the CB, the first to press rescues them and can give them a name, and anybody can adopt one from the hutches, who then lives in Profile on their CB radio. There is a cat shelter and a dog shelter too.

In the hutches

Everybody waiting for a home, newest first, with the name their rescuer gave them. Signed on, press Adopt and they are yours.

Looking in at the hutches needs scripts.

Adopted, for good

Every small animal ever adopted from these hutches, a month at a time, kept for good. It never says who adopted them: that is between each of them and their person, in their person’s Profile.

Reading the book needs scripts.

The ones you rescued

Your own list needs scripts.

How rescuing and adopting work

Small animals turn up at random, one at a time, and each waits however long it takes somebody to come for them. Not even the hutches know who is next.
The first person signed on to the CB to press brings them in. Anybody a moment later is told they are already safe. Looking takes nothing.
They stay in the hutches until somebody adopts them. When the hutches are full, the next one waits outside until somebody adopts.
Adopting is first to press too, and each is adopted once. They go into Profile on your CB radio, which follows you to any device you sign on with, and onto the list of everybody adopted, for good. That list never says who adopted anybody.
Once they are yours, you can rename them, from Profile, as often as you like. The list of everybody adopted shows the new name and the one they came in under, so whoever rescued them keeps their part of it.
You can show them off. Sticker on the radio sends a drawing of one of your pets to the channel. With a claimed username, Show my pets on the CB in Profile lets anybody on the CB press your handle and see them. It is off until you switch it on.
Your pets are kept under your handle, scrambled so the store does not list handles. Until you claim your username from Profile on your radio, a handle is not an account, and anybody who signs on with the same handle sees the same pets; once it is claimed, only your password reaches them. Forget Me in Profile deletes them; they stay on the list of everybody adopted, with nothing connecting them to you. What the shelters keep.
No animal is rarer than another. Every species is as likely as every other, each comes in three coats it really comes in, and every marking and every place is as likely as any other, so nobody is a prize and nobody a disappointment. Some have three legs or one eye, and they are rabbits, rats and hedgehogs all the same.
Nothing says who rescued whom, anywhere on the street, and nobody is counted: no totals, no board of rescuers, no streaks. The ones you rescued are kept in your own browser only.
The base station can take a name off an animal, wherever they are, if the name should not be on show.
Nothing moves, at any setting. Everybody is drawn standing still in their strip of light.

The game

This is Rescue A Cat’s game, which is our community’s own from the Collaborative Nonsense channels in our Discord, with small animals in it; adopting is Ryan’s, for every shelter. The floor, the cracks and every animal are drawn for this room. It is set in Carter One, by Vernon Adams, and Balsamiq Sans, by Michael Angeles, and credited in the liner notes.

Job marker — a wisp of hay caught in a strip of daylight on the dust, under a crack in the boards

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 goes on the channel, drawn?

Before the code: Beside Picture on the CB radio, which button sends a drawing of one of your pets?

Hint 1

It is in the rules, where it says you can show them off.

Hint 2

It is on the radio, in the row with Picture and Transmit.

Last hint

It is what you might put on a lunchbox.

Give me the answer

The answer is Sticker. Sticker sends a drawing of one of your own pets, with their name, to the channel. The server finds the pet among your own, so nobody can send a sticker of somebody else's.

Taking the answer is a real way through this, not a lesser one. Nothing is watching and nothing is written down.

Quest code: FLOORBOARD

Hand it in at the Adventurer’s Guild →

HOW LOUD DO YOU WANT IT?

Starts wherever your device says. Nothing moves, flashes, or plays until you say so.