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

[mouflon]

Don't pick it back up—!

[ The words come out in a squeak. Rin lunges forward, but there's enough space between her and where the skull had ended up that she doesn't even come close to being able to swat it out of Ema's hands. ]

[snackooed]

Huh? It's just a prop, isn't it?

[ She's a bit confused at the reaction; sure, it feels a bit realistic, but it's just an ordinary skull, right? Like, the kind you see on Halloween? Do they not have that in Rin's world, what with all of the magecraft and such..? ]

If it's too scary, we can always toss it in th--

[ Apparently, that seems to get a bit of a reaction out of the thing; at the word "toss," it lets out a somber yet audible wail... ]

...A-ah. I, er, I see what you mean now...

[ Okay, we really need to get rid of this thing. ]

[mouflon]

It's not too scary, it's just — what if it bites...?!

[ Rin, having no experience with the undead, can only imagine what else a talking(?) skull is capable of! She doesn't like it. ]

[snackooed]

Maybe we could remove the lower jaw?

[ But somehow, fiddling with it more than she has to doesn't seem like the best idea. ]

I dunno, this is kind of outside my area of expertise, too. But it doesn't look like it's attacking...

[mouflon]

I still don't trust it. What does a skull need to be alive for?

[snackooed]

Maybe it's got unfinished business, or something...

[ ... ]

Might be a bit hard for it to finish anything like this, though. Maybe the rest of the skeleton is still in there. Not that I'm all that curious...

[ ...Okay, maybe she's a little curious. ]

[mouflon]

[ w h a t ]

You think the rest of it is just... waiting to pop out? Like tomorrow someone is going to find that crawls around on its own, or something? And— Wait, what kind of business would it have to finish in a place like this?!

[snackooed]

[ ...Oh, someone, anyone, give Ema the strength not to tease this poor girl-- ]

Well, if there's a skull, it only stands to reason that the rest of the bones have to be somewhere. And it'd be a lot of work to get the whole thing in there intact, right?

[ Why does she look like she's enjoying this just a touch more than she should... ]

But if he's under the sea like this, he's probably trying to find sunken treasure, right? Or better yet, trying to protect it.

[mouflon]

Well, if that's what it wants to do, it's going to have to find us a way outside first. [ ... ] I don't know, though. I feel like there are plenty of things that shouldn't come out of that machine in one piece, but somehow they manage just fine.

[snackooed]

That's true enough. It's a little crazy, just how many things they're able to fit in this machine, to say nothing of the size of them...maybe a full skeleton isn't as far-fetched as I had thought.

Still, that means this guy must have been separated from the rest of himself for some other reason, then...

[mouflon]

[ With the conversation turned more or less away from the idea of spooky scary skeletons, Rin's mood settles some. She crosses her arms. ]

That's actually something I've thought about before. When I talked about it with Fugo, our thoughts both went in the same direction. If you ask me, this thing [ she turns around and slaps the vending machine with her outstretched palm ] runs on the same kind of technology that was used to bring us here in the first place. Nothing that comes out of it is actually kept inside, but is instead transported from somewhere else.

[snackooed]

So your theory is that the vending machine is connected to some kind of, like, pocket dimension full of all different stuff? And when you put in a coin, it gives you something random from that space?

[ It sounds a little far-fetched, but it does explain how it's able to fit things that shouldn't be able to. One of those "bigger on the inside" sort of situations... ]

I suppose we can't exactly disprove that...

[mouflon]

Pocket dimension, warehouse, or preprogrammed coordinates without anything being kept in a central location at all. Come on, it's not any weirder than the fact that we're all here in the first place, right?

Plus, like Fugo said, it'd explain why it just spits out ocean water sometimes.

[ Finally, Rin has also had the chance to enjoy this experience for herself. ]

[snackooed]

I can't argue with that, and it does make sense, but...

[ Maybe this is an irrational reaction, but Ema looks a little... ]

You don't think that's a little boring of an answer?

[mouflon]

[ ... ]

How is it boring? We're talking about technology more advanced than anything any of us have ever seen in our own worlds, that's capable of doing something that shouldn't even be possible for technology to accomplish according to the underlying rules of mine. And it's small enough to fit in a vending machine.

[snackooed]

I mean, yes, but that's exactly why it's kind of...well, boring!

[ She's sorry, but her stance seems firm on this one..! ]

Like you said, it's just like it's breaking rules, you know? At least until we have the chance to analyze it and see how it works for ourselves, of course. But something about the idea of this, like, super-incredible piece of technology that manages to completely warp our understanding of how things travel through space...

[ What she's trying to say is, it breaks Knox's 4th. ]

I don't know, it just feels like a big old cop-out!

[mouflon]

Unfortunately, I think the ship has already sailed there. Unless you have some other explanation for how we're all here in the first place...?

[snackooed]

Just because I can roll with all of that doesn't mean I have to like it, Rin...

[ She can't help but huff a little..! This isn't important at all, but she's dying on this hill!

...Okay, hopefully not dying, but--! ]

I mean, is it too much to ask for one explanation for something that makes sense with my understanding of science? I like sci-fi as much as the next girl, but I can't get intellectually stimulated when I have to stop thinking about things too hard because the answer is just Unexplained Technology Y...

[mouflon]

Well, this is a parallel world. I said it wouldn't be possible with the underlying rules of my world, but that doesn't mean the underlying rules of this one are the same, and I'd never notice the difference on my own because it's the stuff that makes travel between parallel worlds work without the use of magic and not, like, how gravity works.

[snackooed]

I know what you mean, but as a scientist by trade, it's a frustrating problem! I know in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter all too much, but...

[ She wants to know how things work, darn it! ]

[mouflon]

Would you understand how it works even if it did use conventional physics, though? Like, no offense, but you're a forensic investigator, not a quantum physicist.

[snackooed]

Actually, physics are an important consideration in my field! Of course, chemistry is where my passion lies, but physics play a pretty major role when it comes to, say, determining the trajectory of a bullet, or through blood splatter analysis...

It's not my field of choice, but I do have some degree of an understanding. And there isn't a shortage of reference material in the library that I could use to reacquaint myself. Of course, quantum mechanics can be a whole other can of worms...

[mouflon]

Isn't there, though? I remember the range of topics in there being really skewed...

[ Rin is... not much of a reader either way, so. She hasn't spent much time figuring out what the less extensively covered subjects consist of. ]