giving and showing

give (giving) parses give X to Y, give Y X, and offer X to Y. The recipient must be a person (a person, the actor trait), so give the sword to the door refuses with not_actor ("You can only give things to people."). Giving does an implicit take if the item is not in hand. The default NPC accepts anything: the item moves into their inventory and the player sees given. Three data-driven wrinkles read from the recipient's actor data: an item-count capacity (inventory_full) and a weight capacity (too_heavy), both phrased as the NPC declining, and a preferences object whose refuses list blocks matching items with not_interested while likes/dislikes color acceptance as gratefully_accepts / reluctantly_accepts.

show (showing) parses show X to Y and show Y X. It is purely social: nothing moves, nothing changes hands. The viewer must be a person in the same room (viewer_too_far otherwise); the item is implicitly taken if needed. The default reaction is shown (or wearing_shown when the item is currently worn), and a viewer with a reactions object in its actor data reacts by item-name match (the modern replacement for reactions is an on showing it clause on the viewer, which can do anything).

The author writes:

create the Ferry Dock
  a room

  A weathered dock; the ferry rocks at its mooring.

create the ferryman
  a person
  in the Ferry Dock

  A stooped ferryman, palm out, endlessly patient.

  after giving it
    phrase fare-paid
      The ferryman bites the token, nods, and pockets it.
  end after

  on showing it
    phrase ferryman-appraises
      The ferryman leans in, squints, and names a price you pretend not to hear.
  end on

create the bone token
  aka token

  A ferry token carved from bone.

create the silver locket
  aka locket

  Your mother's locket. It does not leave your neck.

  on giving it
    refuse locket-keepsake
  end on

  phrase locket-keepsake:
    You close your fist around the locket; some things are not for trade.

create the player
  starts in the Ferry Dock
  carries the bone token
  carries the silver locket

The player sees:

> give the locket to the ferryman
You close your fist around the locket; some things are not for trade.

> show the locket to the ferryman
The ferryman leans in, squints, and names a price you pretend not to hear.

> give the token to the ferryman
You give the bone token to the ferryman.

The ferryman bites the token, nods, and pockets it.

Both sides of the transaction are consulted: the locket's item-side guard vetoes the trade, the ferryman's after giving it reacts once it commits, and his on showing it replaces the flat shown line entirely. For a transaction richer still (a guard who takes the bribe and opens the gate), the Sharpee Way is a capability behavior registered for giving on the recipient, which takes over the whole exchange.

Interceptors: on giving it / after giving it and on showing it / after showing it, on the item or on the recipient/viewer.