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]

[ Hmm. House of the Dead can go forgotten for now. ]

I guess that makes sense. This kind of machine isn't something I have much experience with, myself. [ ... ] Reprogrammed to do what, though?

[reallyhatesharks]

Unlock doors. Send signals. Connect to wi-fi. [She leans against the side of the cabinet she was inspecting.] Sort of depends on what I can find.

[mouflon]

[ Well, now she really has Rin's attention. ]

Huh. I wouldn't expect arcade machines to have that kind of hardware. Any luck getting one open?

[reallyhatesharks]

Not a great screwdriver. [She holds up the palette knife, the tip of which is super fucked up now.] I'm also not sure how much I'd be able to do without a computer or at least a keyboard, so I was more interested in it for the future anyway.

[mouflon]

Hey, props for trying anyway.

[ Rin sighs, though, and lets her shoulders drop. ]

Same here, though. Normally, I could manage without the physical hardware, but with all magic sealed off at the same time... Well, it's gotta be one or the other, not neither at the same time.

[reallyhatesharks]

As in magic interfacing with hardware? [Huh. Doesn't work like that where she's from.] I've never heard of magic being capable of that. Admittedly I don't have a lot of experience with it.

[mouflon]

That doesn't surprise me. It's a fairly new application of the craft, and it pretty much arose by necessity in my world, anyway. That's about the gist of it, though — I should be able to connect my mind to any circuitry or digital network I can find, but no dice here.

[reallyhatesharks]

I guess that would make sense - what's the point of magic if it's not evolving to keep up with the rest of the world? [Magic is . . . deeply useless in Sharknado.] I wonder if everyone being unable to use their powers has to do with the problems we encountered with cloning.

[mouflon]

[ . . . ]

Wait, what does cloning have to do with anything?

[ ??? ]

[reallyhatesharks]

Well, when you clone someone it's not like. Muscle memory is physical and neurological, right? But if you've got fresh cells, the physical part never happened so you remember how to do something but you can't necessarily do it.

[And that's why April created a bunch of robot clones instead in Sharknado.]

So if you put someone in a body that's not physically capable of something, they wouldn't be able to do it.

[mouflon]

Hold on, you think we're all in some sort of clone body? Like, the Professor didn't actually transport our bodies here, just our minds?

[reallyhatesharks]

It's a lot easier to transport someone's mind if you don't have to bring their whole body. He's admitted to it taking a while to "prepare" us or whatever it was, so I don't think it's that big a leap.

[mouflon]

[ hm! don't like that!

But what she says does make sense, and Rin is clearly mulling it over. ]

Right, and that would explain... whatever about Alice's body had been altered, I guess. That opens up a few other questions, though, like how that works with someone like Jasper. And, to add onto that... For me, the ability to use magecraft depends on the presence of magic circuits. Those are attached spiritually, rather than to the physical body. I actually have had my mind transferred into a substitute body before, and they still worked just fine then.

[reallyhatesharks]

It's not a perfect fit for everyone, but I think it explains at least a few things. Is there a way to block magic in your world? Like a Faraday cage, I guess.

[She's just not even going to think about what the fuck is up with Jasper and Rose. That's a different set of questions for a different person.]

[mouflon]

Not exactly, but the idea of some technology capable of suppressing it doesn't seem like a big leap to me. Especially given the rest of this place...

If it were just a case of my magic circuits being rusty, though, I would still be able to feel them. That's what makes me think things are being blocked altogether. To use your comparison, even without muscle memory, you can still feel that your arm is there.

[reallyhatesharks]

So something about this place is just keeping everyone from being able to use magic. [Weird. About what she expected, but weird.] Or maybe it doesn't exist here? Would that affect if you could use it or not?

[mouflon]

Even if there isn't any mana in this world, all magi from mine produce a little bit inside their own bodies. The kind of magecraft I specialize in is specifically adapted to work in low-mana environments, anyway.

My working theory is that there's something being circulated through this facility, or maybe in the plateau underneath us, that's dampening all our abilities.

[reallyhatesharks]

That makes sense. There's reasons to build a facility at the bottom of the ocean for privacy reasons, but if there was some energy here that was useful I'd understand it more.

[mouflon]

Or it might just be that it's more convenient to hollow out the rock here than most places above sea level. It could even be a combination of all of the above. Somewhere that provides secrecy, an energy source, and a convenient place to house a generator is pretty ideal, don't you think?

[reallyhatesharks]

Yeah, if it were on land. I used to work in top-secret locations like this and we didn't build them underwater because it's stupid difficult and not worth the effort. Abandoned warehouse? Same deal and you don't have to make sure the whole thing won't crush under a slightly pressure change.

[Magic obviously makes that easier, but probably not so easy it would be a first choice. In her opinion, at least.]

[mouflon]

Fair enough. Okay, how about we add in a fourth factor, then. I can't imagine any sort of land facility would achieve the same degree of isolation that we have here.

[reallyhatesharks]

Not unless you're underground or in a cave, which. Same issues with having building issues so. Yeah, I'd go for underwater.

[mouflon]

Right. Plus, there's stuff built into the rock underneath us... Even underwater, it might be easier to build into the wall of a rock plateau than to dig past a certain depth underground.