behind Stay Frosty · the bottom of the caverns · mind the cords
Arlesglad Caverns, behind Stay Frosty
Stay Breezy
A hall full of fans, for anybody who loves moving air and the noise it makes. Pick one off the floor and switch it on, switch on as many as you like, or take a room of your own with its own ceiling fan and a table to perch one on.
“Even in a 68°F room, I need a fan blowing on me. I love fans. I love the spill of air over me. I love the steady hum.”
Ryan Boren, who asked for this room
Switching more fans on makes the hall fuller, never louder than the slider says. A fan keeps going while you look at another tab, like a fan does, and stops when you switch it off or leave.
The floor
Every fan here says what it feels like and what it sounds like before you switch it on. Nothing makes a sound until you do. Each one has three speeds, and the middle one is where it starts.
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The big ceiling fan
Feels like: A slow, wide push of air coming down on the whole hall at once, the kind you only notice when it stops.
Sounds like: A low, soft whoosh with a slow beat in it from the blades going round, and almost no motor at all.
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Box fan
Feels like: A flat, square wall of air, straight at you, all of it at once.
Sounds like: A broad, even rush like steady rain on a roof, with the motor humming underneath it.
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Oscillating pedestal fan
Feels like: Air that arrives, leaves and comes back, sweeping across you and away on a long slow turn.
Sounds like: A bright whir that swings from one side of the room to the other and back again.
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Tower fan
Feels like: A tall, soft sheet of air with no blades to look at, from the floor up to about your shoulders.
Sounds like: A smooth, dark hiss with no beat in it at all, as steady as a held breath.
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Twin window fan
Feels like: Two streams of air side by side, drawing in from one side of the room and pushing out the other.
Sounds like: A deep, doubled drone with a slow beat in it, the two fans never quite in step.
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Drum fan
Feels like: A strong, wide gale off a big round fan on wheels, the kind that keeps a workshop moving.
Sounds like: A heavy, rushing roar with a low motor growl in it, the biggest noise on the floor and still under the hall's ceiling.
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Desk fan in a wire cage
Feels like: A small, close breeze aimed at your face, cool on whichever side it is pointed at.
Sounds like: A quick, light whir with a thin hum in it, the sound of a fan a foot away.
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Clip-on fan
Feels like: A narrow stream of air from wherever you clipped it: on your hands, your neck, the back of your head.
Sounds like: A high, tidy buzz, one of the smallest voices in the hall.
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Little fan on a stand
Feels like: A breeze about the size of a hand, from a fan about the size of a mug.
Sounds like: A faint, fast whir, very close and very quiet.
A room of your own
A room off the hall with a partition round it, its own ceiling fan, and a table to perch a fan on. It has a door, so switching anything on in here switches the hall’s fans off, and switching a fan on out on the floor opens your door again.
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Your room's ceiling fan
Feels like: A ceiling fan of your own, smaller than the big one in the hall, turning over your own table.
Sounds like: A soft whoosh close over your head, with a quicker beat than the big fan in the hall.
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Desk fan in a wire cage
Feels like: A small, close breeze aimed at your face, cool on whichever side it is pointed at.
Sounds like: A quick, light whir with a thin hum in it, the sound of a fan a foot away.
House rules
- Nothing makes a sound until you switch it on, and every fan says what it sounds like first, in words.
- Every ceiling fan’s lamp hangs below its blades, so the blades never pass between you and the light. Nothing in here flickers or flashes, at any setting.
- The dial keeps its promise and the fans keep theirs. At Gentle the blades stay still and the fan keeps running, because the sound is the thing you asked for. At Regular they turn once you switch a fan on. At MAX GLITTER the ribbons on the fans flutter too.
- No fan here is named for who made it. They are named for what they are.
- Your usual is kept in your own browser, and nowhere else. The speed you last set on each fan, which fan is on your table, and which fans you last had on. It never switches anything on by itself: your speeds come back when you arrive, and the fans only start when you press Switch on my usual. Forget my usual clears it. Nothing is counted, and the sound is made here and sent nowhere.
- You do not need a reason to love a fan. None of these is a sleep aid or a way to get more done. They are fans.
Ryan’s words are his own. The fans are ours, drawn and made in the browser; none of them is a recording. Credits are in the liner notes.
Job marker — a ribbon off a fan's cage, lying on the floor
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: Behind the quiet room
Before the code: Every ceiling fan in Stay Breezy has its lamp hung in one particular place, so that nothing in the room flickers. Where is the lamp?
Hint 1
It is in the house rules, the second one.
Hint 2
Think about which side of the blades the light has to be on for them never to cut across it.
Last hint
Not above.
Give me the answer
The answer is Below the blades. Below the blades. A lamp above turning blades throws a flickering shadow onto everything under it, which on this street is a strobe arriving through a light fitting. So every ceiling fan's lamp hangs under its hub, and the room's own tool checks the drawings to make sure.
Taking the answer is a real way through this, not a lesser one. Nothing is watching and nothing is written down.
Quest code: WHIRR
That is the one.
Below the blades. A lamp above turning blades throws a flickering shadow onto everything under it, which on this street is a strobe arriving through a light fitting. So every ceiling fan's lamp hangs under its hub, and the room's own tool checks the drawings to make sure.
Quest code: WHIRR