WEEK 4

[bathymetric]

Another trial, another week, and still you're probably running lower on answers than you'd like. And on people - you lost three since last Sunday. By the end of this week, you'll have been here for nearly a full month, yet still the days crawl on.

You wake up Sunday, again with no memory of Saturday, but this time with a simple message on your devices: You may resume requesting items, if you like. Enjoy. Guess it really was just a stealth motive after all, but at least it's being communicated that it's over! That's something, at least.

And when you leave your rooms on Sunday, there's another new area to explore! This one is... certainly more ambitious in its construction than the last one, to say the least. But hey, you have a pretty neat place to host parties, if you feel so inclined! That's... fun...

Hey, you gotta find the fun in situations like this where you can! Silver linings, right?



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 4! Remember to turn in AC here, threads for regain coins here, and if you feel so inclined you can visit Angel's office hours over here! ]

Comments

investigation! (and also a v minor warning for drowning)

[hardnosed]

[ Another day lost to them, another two dead, another sector opened. Jasper "wakes" in her room, furious and purposeful, and immediately starts walking to where she assumes the new area will be. Shortly after, from the water park, there's a loud splash and then silence. If you're already there, you'll see Jasper walk to the edge of the pool, jump in, and then not come up.

Closer inspection will reveal her walking around on the bottom of the pool as if the water doesn't impede her movements at all. Even her hair doesn't look too much floatier than normal — you'd think that given how long it is, and how tall she is, some of it would be on the surface of the water, but it's right down with the rest of her form. She paces back and forth, looking for anything that might prove useful on the floor of the pool. Does anything look immediately out of place? Are there any cracks or discolorations on the floor? There's a lot to look for, but since she needs to breathe, let's just start there.

Since Jasper doesn't know she needs to breathe, she stays down a lot longer than a normal person might, but after about four minutes something starts to feel wrong. Wherever she's at in her inspection, a sudden tightness seizes her chest. It feels like organs she doesn't even have are rebelling against her. Everything in her is screaming that she needs to get to the surface, to air and freedom, and her own natural gravity is pinning her down. For a few seconds, it feels like the weight of the entire ocean holds her fast once again, and she forgets to not be afraid of it.

Abruptly, Jasper's head and chest break the surface of the water. She grabs the edge of the pool and gasps thunderously for breath, splashing the floor in the process. Happy Sunday, everybody!

Since she's never been one to not recklessly dive back into a source of trauma, she'll eventually go back down to continue investigating. When she's finally satisfied there's nothing to see, she pulls herself up from its depths and quickly rises to her feet. There's like five seconds where she stands still and quiet and slightly hunched over, all that off-white hair hanging bedraggled in her face and hiding her expression. Then she just kind of shakes off her entire body like she's a wet dog, in one violent motion. It's not even close to as effective as it's supposed to be, so when it's done she's still wet, but so are you, probably! ]

What are you looking at?

[ She investigates the bar and arcade while still drip-drying and none too happy about it. As ever, she's visibly confused by her surroundings, though the arcade seems to make more sense to her than the bar. It's just a bigger version of Snake, or that game controller she definitely shattered offscreen! A strong odor of chlorine lingers well after she's finally dried off. ]

More games. [ She pronounces it with the air of someone who's got gum stuck to her shoe. ] Is that all this sector is for?

[ Later at night, you can find her in one of the gym showers, again fully clothed. She's just standing in there with her arms crossed, glowering. It's fine. ]

Water park

[bolderfell]

[The bar isn't too far from the pool for Therion to hear Jasper jump in. After noting who it is, he returns to his looting investigating and doesn't think much of it.

Until a couple minutes pass and she still hasn't come up.

Frowning, Therion walks over to the pool to see if she's still there. He's not worried. Why should he be worried? Still, his expression might approach worry by the time he reaches the side of the pool to peer in--but then she shoots back up to the surface and he stumbles back. Then mostly he just looks startled.]

I thought you drowned.

[And now he's wet! :(]

[hardnosed]

[ She takes a few more deep breaths, glaring upwards — at the concept of having been seen more than Therion specifically — and then releases them with a scoff. ]

Please. [ Her eyes close for a second, those extremely fancy black lashes she has in about half her icons dampened into a series of spiky little triangles, and she shakes her head, all brash confidence again. ] It takes more water than this to keep me down.

[ Haha, yeah, sure! She decides to move on to another topic, considers the fact that Therion is wet now, and rejects it for being too closely related to the stunt she just pulled. Instead: ]

Why does it smell like that?

[ Ask the guy who doesn't know what a toilet is, this is definitely the move. ]

[bolderfell]

[Therion lifts one side of his Jasper-dampened cloak and wrinkles his nose.]

I don't know. Poison, maybe.

[So, off it comes. He folds it and tucks it under his arm and begins removing his scarf as well. He hopes whatever's in the water will wash off in... more water...]

Kind of smells like the cleaning supplies they use here. That... sharp scent.

[hardnosed]

Is there anything in this facility that won't kill you? [ Says the person who was just a minute or so away from drowning. But then... ] Maybe you're on to something. We could try dropping something organic in it.

[ PLEASE DON'T ]

[bolderfell]

Huh. Like what?

[THERION.]

I haven't gotten anything living out of the machine.

arcade

[emberserker]

Apparently. I don't suppose you're any good at them.

[hardnosed]

I wouldn't know. Gems have better things to do than develop pretend skills.

[ She's looking very skeptically at the title screen of whatever Street Fighter game is in here, because there's gotta be at least one but I have literally only played Street Fighter II and have not done so since 1998! ]

Besides — if it's anything like the other games in this place, the controls are garbage.

[emberserker]

[It's fine, half of them are Street Fighter II remakes anyway.]

Are you sure it isn't just that they weren't built for you?

[hardnosed]

Do you think I'm stupid?

[emberserker]

That wasn't what I was getting at. [which isn't a "no"] I think you're too big to have any level of dexterity.

investigation!

[bathymetric]

[ Well we're just diving in then okay uh-

There's something caught in part of some kind of pump device, it looks like, for starters. ]

[hardnosed]

[ HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM yeah, she's going to close in on that device and take a closer look. What have we got here? ]

[bathymetric]

[ Well the trick is it seems to be a piece of colored paper! Those are generally important! But it's stuck inside this pump - looks like you're going to have to figure out how to activate it if you want to get it out, Jasper. ]

[hardnosed]

[ So it's time to try and jam her giant sausage fingers into it to crack it open, is what you're saying, right? It's definitely the move to fail at doing that and then punch the pool wall?

But ugh, fine. Assuming that doesn't work and also doesn't flush the paper out of sight forever, dooming them all, are there any instructions or pictograms on or near the pump itself? Does it visibly connect to anything? ]

[bathymetric]

[ There are no instructions here other than an electricity warning on a very tightly-bolted panel, but the pump does connect to something! There's this weird... gate thing at one end of the pool, covered by wire mesh?

There is an actual label here - WAVE INTAKE/OUTTAKE, KEEP CLEAR ]

Water Park

[drladysounds]

I thought...for a moment I thought you had...

[Shelley looks pale. She already was thighs deep in the shallow end of the pool, about to try to make her way to Jasper and, very uselessly due to weight difference, try to get her out of the water. But then Jasper came out, all soaking wet. Annoyed, but not...dead. Thankfully]

I was about to go in to drag you out of there.

[hardnosed]

[ She looks at Shelley with annoyance, but also incomprehension, as she collects herself, blinking pool water and the expression of panic out of her eyes. ]

With your arms? [ The fact that her weight is literally whatever it needs to be at the time to work with the surrounding gravity aside, she's still like, at least 500 pounds. ] Tch — not likely. [ ... ] You're wet.

[drladysounds]

[Shelley should keep her day job and not go into a career of rescuing.

Still, now that Jasper mentions it...oh. She's right. Feeling a little better now that Jasper wasn't in danger, she just trudged towards the edge of the pool, sitting on it]

I didn't think about it at all. I just saw you there and felt I had to do something.

[And now she had wet clothing and shoes, but hey, what's done is done. All is well that ends well. Other varied sayings of that sort.]

[hardnosed]

You think I'm that weak, that I'd need to be rescued? By you?

[ It's a weird, weird mix of emotions that this statement brings up in her. The big bold obvious one is anger and indignation — that Shelley saw her and thought she was so pitiful, so pathetic and in need of help, that she acted on instinct. But Shelley is also demonstrably weaker than her on every level, which doesn't really quell Jasper's instinct to lash out but does make her wonder why her natural response would be to put herself in danger like that. She continues to tread water, watching Shelley drip her way over to the other end of the pool. ]

I'll never understand this planet.

[drladysounds]

It's not about being weak or not! It's...hard to explain.

[It's not that hard, really, but Shelley seems to be having a bit of a hard time thinking of the right words to use with Jasper]

Does that mean gems wouldn't save each another if they're about to die?

water park

[thieviusraccoonus]

[Sly was drawn to the water park like any young person who enjoyed fun would be. He was not expecting Jasper to feel the same, and was even more surprised when she leaps right in.

He rushes to the side of the pool, cane ready to scoop out... the very heavy rock woman. Or maybe not.

...Guess he'll sit here for the four minutes or so, waiting for something to happen. Which comes in the form of Jasper rapidly resurfacing, and him jumping back.]

....I don't know whether to be worried or impressed. Or both.

[hardnosed]

I don't— [ huff, huff ] —remember asking you to be anything. I'm fine. Worry about yourself.

[thieviusraccoonus]

Sure, you didn't ask anything, but that means it's my turn to ask if you'd like any help getting out of that pool?

[hardnosed]

[ She looks down, meaningfully, at her own physical form... which is now kind of distorted by the water it's in, but she's Big, is her point. ]

Okay, so it's my turn. Do you want to fall in?