The Gorreven Papers — 21 of 23

Section 20 - Bad Fences, Bad Neighbors

A fence is a kind of thing. A fence is always fixed in place. A fence has an object called the other side. The other side of a fence is usually nowhere.

Instead of examining a fence (called the obstacle):

say "It's about twelve feet high, made of a chain-link construction that is somewhat thicker than what you're used to seeing. The bottom of [the obstacle] goes straight to the ground and appears to be securely buried underneath; not easy to tear up. It also sports a sign reading 'HIGH VOLTAGE[unicode em dash]KEEP OFF.'";

if the power switches are switched off:

say "You hope that turning off the main power grid took care of that. Only one way to find out."