diff --git a/assets/prelude.ld b/assets/prelude.ld
index 8139895..fe73448 100644
--- a/assets/prelude.ld
+++ b/assets/prelude.ld
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 & this file, uniquely, gets `base` loaded as context. See src/base.janet for exports
 
+let base = base
+
 & some forward declarations
 & TODO: fix this so that we don't need (as many of) them
 fn and
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 1273882..5c8b0da 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 // * [ ] write parsing errors
 // * [ ] wire up Ariadne parsing errors
 // * [ ] add stack traces and code locations to panics
-// * [ ] validation
+// * [x] validation
 // * [x] break this out into multiple files
 // * [x] write a tree-walk VM
 //   - [x] learn how to deal with lifetimes
@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@
 //     * [x] splat patterns in tuples, lists, dicts
 //     * [x] splats in list and dict literals
 //     * [x] `loop` and `recur`
-//     * [ ] string patterns
+//     * [x] string patterns
 //     * [x] string interpolation
 //     * [x] docstrings
-// * [~] write `base` in Rust
+// * [x] write `base` in Rust
 // * [ ] turn this into a library function
 // * [ ] compile this into WASM
 // * [ ] perf testing
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ use crate::process::*;
 struct Asset;
 
 pub fn prelude<'src>() -> Process<'src> {
-    let prelude = Asset::get("test_prelude.ld").unwrap().data.into_owned();
+    let prelude = Asset::get("prelude.ld").unwrap().data.into_owned();
     // we know for sure Prelude should live through the whole run of the program
     let leaked = Box::leak(Box::new(prelude));
     let prelude = std::str::from_utf8(leaked).unwrap();
@@ -176,16 +176,7 @@ pub fn run(src: &'static str) {
 
 pub fn main() {
     let src = "
-fn fib {
-    (1) -> 1
-    (2) -> 1
-    (n) -> add (
-        fib (dec (n))
-        fib (sub (n, 2))
-    )
-}
 
-fib (25)
     ";
     run(src);
     // struct_scalpel::print_dissection_info::<value::Value>()
diff --git a/src/validator.rs b/src/validator.rs
index f05cee7..cb433ae 100644
--- a/src/validator.rs
+++ b/src/validator.rs
@@ -609,14 +609,18 @@ impl<'a> Validator<'a> {
                 }
                 match splatted.as_ref() {
                     (PlaceholderPattern, _) => (),
-                    (Word(name), span) => match self.bound(name) {
+                    (WordPattern(name), span) => match self.bound(name) {
                         Some(_) => {
                             self.span = *span;
                             self.err(format!("name `{name}` is already bound"))
                         }
                         None => self.bind(name.to_string()),
                     },
-                    _ => unreachable!(),
+                    _ => {
+                        println!("internal Ludus error: unexpected splat pattern");
+                        dbg!(splatted);
+                        unreachable!()
+                    }
                 }
             }
             TuplePattern(terms) | ListPattern(terms) | DictPattern(terms) => {