Form 8841-C
An Interactive Fiction (fake transcript) by Rudy Fleminger
To be created in Inform 7
The stamp hits the paper, and like a chill splash of water to the face, you snap awake from the world that you've been in as long as you can remember.
There is a paper in your hand. This isn't uncommon. Paper has passed through your hands for the last 20 years-- you have the noble duty of an Authorizations Pending clerk. Your life consists of a never-ending stack of white pages, each one an identical, although serially numbered, copy of Form 28192-EDFE-64iii/198: Request for Clarification Regarding Deadlines Pertaining to Filing Form 28190.28173-GNS-2918iv. You press your stamp on the familiar line labeled Authorization, scratch a check mark in the familiar square labeled Pending Supervisory Approval, then place the sheet squarely on the stack of similar forms. After a few hours the stack of completed paperwork is taken away, and a new one is left. Always enough, never too much.
However, the paper you hold in your hand is terrifyingly wrong. It
is not a clean white page marked Form 28192-EDFE-64iii/198, it
is a pale yellow form entitled
Form 8841-C: Request for Employee Vacation Time. Absent of mind,
you must have taken it from the stack, placed a check in the square
labeled Full Time Employee,
Salaried, and your stamp fell firmly on the line labeled Requesting
Employee.
Cold panic washes over you. Where did this come from? What is it,
and what is the filing procedure? You can't just put it on your stack
of completed Forms 28192-EDFE-64iii/198, but it has nowhere
else to go. You've never felt so hopelessly alone in your career, your
life. You're the only person here, and there's no one to ask or...
Here?
Office (Your Office)
You've been sitting in this room for 20 years, but you've never really noticed it. The dense gloom of the place has never really struck you like it does now.
The buzzing of the yellowed fluorescents lights a sad scene.
In the center of the room sits your wooden hulk of a desk, with drawers containing everything you will ever need. On the desk is a pile of safe, ordinary forms and a clunky black telephone without a dial. It hasn't rang in years.
To the right of the desk, on the floor sits a dusty and darkened
Inter/COMP mainframe
terminal-- nothing your job requires. Against one wall are two filing
cabinets, which may never have been opened in your tenure, and an
Inter/FAX machine, a screeching monstrosity that has long since ceased
to spit up frivolous inter-office memoranda.
Directly ahead of you, on the north wall of the room, is a simple wooden door. You think it's the one you sometimes use to go to the restroom across the hall.
You sit in your chair, which is now noticeably uncomfortable.
> read form
(Form 8821-C)
(You force yourself to look at the strangely-colored paper. Slowly, your eyes focus and your skills from Forms Appraisal classes as a child trickle back to you. This isn't so bad.)
FORM 8821-C: Request for Employee Vacation
All requests for employee vacation must be approved by the Human Resources Division. Requests may be sent by Inter/FAX transmission to (251)2924-2012, by personal delivery to the Employee Incentives Division Reception Area, Room 251001, or by interoffice mail to: Human Resources, Attn: Employee Incentives Division, Box 18, Room 251013, 251st Floor. Pursuant to Policy Bulletin 29120-JJ-2019-xvi Amended (2), Form 8821-C may not be transmitted by Inter/COMP electronic bulletin, as a signature is required.
Please allow at least two (2) business weeks for the scheduling process. All vacation should be planned at least one (1) month in advance, so that proper scheduling arrangements may be made.
[K.M. BARRIT]
Employee Name
____________________
Date
Employee Status
[X] Full-time, Salaried
[ ] Full-time, Hourly
[ ] Part Time, Fixed
[ ] Part Time, Consultancy
Please list all dates or ranges of dates you wish to request.
Note that requests are granted only after available time verification,
scheduling feasibility verification, and departmental approval.
_______ to ________
_______ to ________
_______ to ________
_______ to ________
> fill out form
You don't know the date.
> pick up phone
You hear a mechanical buzz then silence. Another buzz, interrupted
by click. A mechanical voice begins:
The line disconnects.
> pick up phone
You hear a mechanical buzz then silence. Another buzz, interrupted
by click. A mechanical voice begins:
The line disconnects. The phone seems completely useless.
> turn on intercomp
You hear a high-pitched whistle and chunky green letters float out of the dusty darkness of the screen.
Inter/COMP Terminal v10.55.6ee+
SYSTAT UPTIME 9:01
Registered User:
01 (231) 231051 02 : BARRIT KONIKA M
UNAUTHORIZED USE PUNISHABLE BY PENALTIES M-1902-18230 THROUGH
M-1902-24829r3
*** Welcome to the Inter/COMP Network
Inter/COMP access is regulated by Compulsory Agreement
9201-FE-02991ii-xiv,
Department of Approvals Pending law, and interdepartmental treaties.
Registration failed. Your account has been removed due to inactivity. To
restore access, please see your supervisor, or an Inter/COMP registered
technician for assistance.
Supervisor for 01 (231) 231051 02 BARRIT KONIKA M:
LOOMIS JOHN E
DIRECTOR OF APPROVALS PENDING
ROOM 231102, OFFICE 2
231ST FLOOR WEST
[END OF SESSION]
The computer turns off with a mechanical thud, and the letters fade
back into nothingness.
> get up
You are now standing.
> look in file cabinet
The cabinet opens with a rusty squeal. Inside is a small manila folder, which is closed.
> open folder
(Taken)
The folder contains a certificate and a small photograph.
> read certificate
Let it be known that KONICA M. BARRIT has completed all prerequisites and all filing procedures, and is this day awarded the title of GRADUATE from the Greater 192nd Floor Municipal Preparatory School, among the prestigeous College of Approvals Pending, with all rights and responsibilities therein.
> look at photo
It is a photo of you, wearing the traditional graduation mortarboard cap. One of your old classmates, whose name sadly escapes you, hangs over your shoulder.
> n
corridor (231051-231052)
Directly to the north is a door, with a sign labeled "REST ROOM." To the south is your office, room number 231051. To the east and west are far-off places you've never been.
> n
REST ROOM
There is a toilet here, and a sink to wash up. You feel nervous spending a long in here, though. Sometimes you hear noises, timid knockings on the door. There are other people out there sometimes, but you can't let them in.
There are paper towels here.
> s
Corridor (231055-231056)
You walk a bit further. There are doors to the north and south, and the hallway continues to the east and west.
> e
Corridor (231059-231060)
You continue onward. There are doors to the north and south, and the
hallway continues to the east and west.
> e
Corridor (Information Window)
The corridor ends at an a large window with a small ledge set into the east wall. The sign above the window reads "Information". (Information. Similar to Clarification.) Angry spatters of dried blue ink cover the inside of the thick glass.
On the ground is a bell.
> take bell
Taken.
> ring bell
You hear the most beautiful clarion "ting" that even the dead hallway cannot dampen. From behind the glass, you hear a rushing series of thuds, and a crazed scream. Through the crusted blue ink, you see the form of a young woman, throw herself at the window. Her head collides with a shocking bang, shuddering the glass. She collapses below the window, and pulls herself up to the window, hysterically babbling.
"There's nobody here you've got to help me, I've been here for months and there's nobody here, and I can't get out and I don't know what to do. The phone doesn't work, I can't call information because I AM information and I don't have any information I don't know I just don't know and can you get me out of here oh pleas..."
She stops in mid-sentence and jolts to a perk. "Uh... Information, 231st floor west, Approvals Pending Division. What can I do for you?"