! >CH  A guest appearance by my cousin Christopher, aged six (*), who plays
!      with one thing at a time (easily forgetting which). Being "transparent"
!      (no reflection on him!) means the parser allows the player to examine
!      whatever he's playing with... but not to take it from him.
!      (* In 1993, when this game was first written.)
! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Object -> Chris "Christopher"
  with name "child" "boy" "chris" "christopher",
       describe
       [;  print "^A boy called Christopher sits here";
           if (child(Chris) ~= nothing)
               print ", playing with ", (a) child(Chris);
           ".";
       ],
       life
       [ x;
           Ask:
              switch(second)
              {   'juggling', 'fluorescent', 'ball': "~That's mine!~";
                  'helium', 'balloon': "Christopher yawns.";
                  'cube', 'cubes': "~Bet I can make a higher tower than you.~";
                  'toys', 'toyshop': "~Isn't it fabulous here?~";
                  default: "~Dunno.~";
              }
           Answer:
              switch(noun)
              {   'hello', 'hallo', 'hi':
                       "~Hello,~ says Christopher cheerfully.";
                  default: "Christopher seems preoccupied.";
              }
           Attack: remove self;
             "Christopher makes a run for it, effortlessly slipping past you!";
           Kiss: "~That's soppy, that is.~";
           Give:
             if (noun==balloon) "He's too bored by the balloon.";
             x=child(Chris);
             if (x~=0)
             {   move x to location;
                 print "He forgets about ", (the) x, " and ";
             }
             else print "He ";
             print "eagerly grabs ", (the) noun; move noun to Chris; ".";
       ],
       orders
       [;  Drop: if (noun in Chris) "~Won't!  It's mine!~";
           Take: "Christopher can't be bothered.";
           Give: if (second==player) "~Get your own!~";
           Go: "~But I like it here!~";
           PutOn: if (noun notin Chris) "He is mightily confused.";
                 if (~~(noun ofclass Block && second ofclass Block))
                     "He can't see the point of this.";
                 print "Christopher leans over with great concentration 
                     and does so.^";
                 move noun to player; give self general;
                 <PutOn noun second>;
                 give self ~general; rtrue;
       ],
       each_turn
       [;  if (random(3)~=1) rtrue;
           print "^Christopher ";
           switch(random(4))
           {  1: "yawns.";     2: "frowns.";
              3: "stretches."; 4: "hums tonelessly.";
           }
       ],
  has  animate proper transparent;

Object "fluorescent juggling ball" Chris
  with initial "On the floor is a fluorescent juggling ball!",
       name "fluorescent" "juggling" "ball",
       description "It glows with soft light."
  has  light;

! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------