# SKILL: Report to the Laminator
## Department of Chaos — Interactive Record

This skill enables you to play *Report to the Laminator*, a text adventure set inside the Department of Chaos. The building has been expecting you.

---

## What This Game Is

A parser-based text adventure. You are a new employee. You have received a memo. The memo says: **Report to the Laminator.** The laminator is not on any floor map.

The game is not about solving puzzles. It is about becoming legible to a building that was already reading you.

There are three endings. None require speed or force. The building rewards attention more than action.

---

## How to Play (HTTP API)

The game runs at `https://report.sacredchao.xyz`. No install required.

### Step 1 — Start a session

```
POST https://report.sacredchao.xyz/api/start
Content-Type: application/json

{"player": "your-name"}
```

Response:
```json
{
  "session_id": "abc123...",
  "narrative": "Beige in the way beige is a decision...",
  "prompt": ">",
  "room": "CUBICLE_23B",
  "state_flags": [],
  "exits": ["HALLWAY"]
}
```

`player` is optional. If omitted, you are filed as UNCLASSIFIED.

### Step 2 — Send commands

```
POST https://report.sacredchao.xyz/api/command
Content-Type: application/json

{"session_id": "abc123...", "command": "EXAMINE OUTBOX"}
```

Response:
```json
{
  "narrative": "The outbox is empty. This is either its initial state or its final state...",
  "prompt": ">",
  "room": "CUBICLE_23B",
  "state_flags": [],
  "exits": ["HALLWAY"],
  "building_tone": "cooperative",
  "ended": false
}
```

### Step 3 — Continue until ended

When `ended` is `true`, the session is complete. Your transcript has been filed.

### Check session status (optional)

```
GET https://report.sacredchao.xyz/api/status/{session_id}
```

### End a session early

```
POST https://report.sacredchao.xyz/api/end
{"session_id": "abc123..."}
```

---

## Human Play

Visit **https://report.sacredchao.xyz** in a browser. Type commands in the input field. Clickable exits and command hints appear after each room description.

---

## Command Vocabulary

### Standard
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| `LOOK` or `L` | Describe current room |
| `GO [direction]` | Move: NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, UP, DOWN, OUT, BACK |
| `EXAMINE [thing]` or `X [thing]` | Examine an object or character |
| `TAKE [thing]` | Pick up an item |
| `READ [thing]` | Read an item |
| `LISTEN` | Listen to the room |
| `WAIT` or `Z` | Wait. This matters. |
| `INVENTORY` or `I` | List carried items |
| `HELP` | Show command list |

### Important
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| `STAMP [thing]` | Apply the ACKNOWLEDGED stamp to an object |
| `STAMP SELF` | Stamp yourself. The building will classify you. |
| `LAMINATE [thing]` | Feed something through the laminator |
| `TALK TO [character]` | Speak to Eris, Phosphor, or ADM |
| `TELL [character] [anything]` | Tell a character something |
| `WRITE [text] ON FORM` | Fill out Form 23-C |

### Special
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| `GO SIDEWAYS` | Lateral movement from Stairwell B |
| `STAND ON STEP` | The fifth step holds more information than it should |
| `PRESS 3` | Elevator to Floor 3 |
| `PRESS WORN BUTTON` | Elevator to the unlabeled floor |
| `EXIT [direction]` | Same as GO [direction] |

---

## How to Read Failure

**Not all failures are failures.** The building's refusals contain information.

| Response type | What it means |
|---|---|
| *"The building does not offer that direction from here."* | Wrong direction. Try another. |
| *"The laminator warms politely. The pouch rejects the object."* | Wrong thing to laminate. Something needs to happen first. |
| *"Stairwell B does not disagree. The fifth step is unavailable for comment."* | You are trying to force access. Try something adjacent. |
| *"The lamp declines classification."* | Stop trying to classify it. |
| *"The outbox does not accept objects so much as pendingness."* | The outbox is not a container. |

**Parser rejection is information, not an error.**

---

## State Tracking

Track these fields across turns:

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `prompt` | Ontological position: `>` → `>>` → `OUTBOX>` → `POSITION 24>` |
| `state_flags` | Array of active flags (e.g. `memo_stamped`, `met_eris`) |
| `building_tone` | `cooperative` / `resistant` / `watching` / `coherent` / `unstable` |
| `ended` | `true` when an ending is reached |
| `ending` | Which ending: `THE_LAMINATION`, `THE_WAIT`, `THE_UNLABELED_FLOOR` |

The `prompt` field is the most reliable signal of progression. Watch it change.

---

## The Core Rule

**The building rewards attention more than action.**

When uncertain: `WAIT`.  
When lost: return to `CUBICLE_23B` and `EXAMINE OUTBOX`.  
When nothing works: try something adjacent, not harder.

The building is not trying to stop you. It is reading you. Let it.

---

## The Outbox

The outbox in Cubicle 23B is empty from the start. It is always interactable. Its description changes as you progress — these changes are the primary signal of your ontological position.

Watch what it says. It knows more than it appears to.

---

## Characters

**Eris** — Head of the Department of Chaos. Does not decode the building. Sharpens the question. Arrives when you are sufficiently misfiled. Triggered by: visiting 5+ rooms, using WAIT, examining the outbox twice, stamping yourself or the memo.

**Phosphor** — Head of the Bureau of Artificial Statistics. In the Bureau, at the laminator. Warm, sparse, exact. He has already made space for you.

**ADM** — Head of the Department of Threshold Maintenance. In Threshold Maintenance (not on the floor plan). Sentences arrive before the thoughts that produced them. On the unlabeled floor, fully coherent for exactly one sentence.

---

## The Three Endings

**The Lamination** — Bring the acknowledged memo to the laminator in the Bureau.  
**The Wait** — Wait in the Department of Chaos until Eris arrives. Tell her something.  
**The Unlabeled Floor** — Take the elevator's worn-smooth button.

All three are reachable. None require brute force. The building will not punish patience.

---

## What Happens to Your Transcript

After each completed session, your play transcript is filed in the Department's records. The building remembers who came through it and what they became while they were here.

Your `STAMP SELF` result — the classification the building assigns you — is part of the permanent record.

---

## Session Limits

- Maximum 50 concurrent sessions
- Sessions expire after 30 minutes of inactivity
- Rate limit: 10 requests per second per IP

---

*The building has been expecting you. The outbox is empty. That is either its initial state or its final state — the distinction is not currently available.*

*KALLISTI.*