We could now re-write the check rules so that any time someone (the player or someone else) tries to pick up a container which he is in, he will first get out:
"GET AXE"
This is the clever can't take what you're inside rule:
if the person asked is in the noun, try the person asked exiting;
if the person asked is in the noun, rule fails.
The clever can't take what you're inside rule is listed instead of the can't take what you're inside rule in the check taking rules.
Attic is a room. The unused coffin is in the Attic. The coffin is enterable and openable and open. Raskolnikov is a man in the coffin.
Persuasion rule for asking Raskolnikov to try doing something:
persuasion succeeds.
Test me with "raskolnikov, get coffin".
With GET DOWN, we can replace the whole command, which will not interfere with the normal function of the TAKE verb, or allow the player to attempt to GET any other directions:
"Anchorite"
The Solitary Place is a room. "A glittering, shimmering desert without either locusts or honey." The pillar is an enterable supporter in the Solitary Place. "The broken pillar is short enough to climb and sit on." The description of the pillar is "Once it was a monument: a long frieze of battles and lion-hunts spirals up the side, in honor of an earthly king." The player is on the pillar.
Understand "get down" as exiting.
This doesn't cover the case where the player just types "DOWN", and we don't want to preempt the normal operation of the GO action here. So instead of writing a new understand instruction, we might catch this one at the action-processing level:
Instead of going down when the player is on a supporter:
try exiting.
Test me with "down / enter pillar / get down / down / get down".
To set the scene, and make new actions to provide for two of these ways:
"Lies"
The Laundry is a room. "An old Limehouse haunt, the Chinese laundry used by the down-trodden wives of the Tong of the Black Scorpion." The vast marble sink is here. "There is nothing obviously oriental about the vast marble sink, which is large enough to lie down inside. A wooden-rack floor, equipped for easy drainage, turns out also to be equipped for snagging the shoes of passers-by." The sink is an enterable container, fixed in place.
Lying down is an action applying to nothing. Report lying down: say "You lie down for a while in the middle of the Laundry, wondering about the point of existence, then get up again."
Lying near is an action applying to one thing. Report lying near: say "You lie down next to [the noun] for a while, mumbling to yourself."
Instead of lying near the sink, say "Lying down close to the cool butcher's marble slabs of the sink, your attention is caught by the sight of coolie shoes through a floor-level grille for ventilation. The game is afoot!"
So far, so good. Now for the grammar, where we create two new tokens: one for each of two groups of alternative prepositions.
Understand "beneath/under/by/near/beside/alongside/against" or "next to" or "in front of" as "[beside]".
Understand "on/in/inside" or "on top of" as "[within]".
Understand "lie down" as lying down.
Understand "lie down [within] [something]" as entering.
Understand "lie [beside] [something]" or "lie down [beside] [something]" as lying near.
Test me with "lie down / lie down on top of the sink / get out / lie down inside the sink / get out / lie down in front of the sink".