WEEK 5

[bathymetric]

That's three murders now - and this last trial got more than slightly out of hand. It looks like you might be in for another tough week... or at least, maybe that's just the refusal of this place to change too much. You lose Saturday again, but maybe six-day weeks are starting to feel normal by now. Who knows? The cycle of day and night continues apace, changing so little.

Speaking of change, though, there's a new area to look through, the biggest and most complex yet. And the end of one wing of the facility, from the looks of it - though you can probably guess where more areas might start to open up.

And speaking of opening up (segues!), this week if you're out particularly late, you might sometimes see Angel out and about! So hey, maybe change is on the horizon.

Just gotta hope it's a change for the better, don't you?



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 5! 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! Or, if you want Angel to come to you, that's now an option! Simply put a prompt after lights-out into your toplevel and indicate you want Angel in the subject line, same as investigations! ]

Comments

[bolderfell]

[He catches the book, neither surprised nor smug about it, and takes a seat at the corner.]

Huh. Any differences worth noting?

[Sliding the book away, he scoots in a little to add his own eyes to the search.]

[mouflon]

Nope. I was hoping I could find an odd one out, but that doesn't seem to be happening so far.

[ sigh ]

Have you looked at the maps in detail yourself?

[bolderfell]

[He shakes his head.]

I saw one of Orsterra, but the rest... well, there were a lot of Earth. I wouldn't know if anything was off, looking at those.

[mouflon]

Exactly. There's one map of Orsterra, or Skyrim, or wherever else, and several of Earth.

It's easy to write that off as being because the Professor is from Earth, but what if it's more... There's one map for each of us? And what if, in all those Earths, there's one that isn't quite right?

[ That's what she was hoping for, anyway. A particular Earth she could isolate from the others. ]

[bolderfell]

...I think there are too many maps in there just for us.

[He leans back in his chair, hand on his chin.]

And none of us is from "Pandora," right?

[mouflon]

That's the other thing on my mind. You know, if the there are maps from worlds besides ours... That would tell us something about the people who came before us.

But I think it's just Pandora. Either the Professor wasn't as adventurous about his choices last time, or Pandora is significant for a different reason.

[bolderfell]

It has to be. And there must be some connection between Earth and Pandora. Why else would you have a tale that uses the same name as a different world?

[mouflon]

Is it a story that uses the same name as a different world, or a different world named after a story? On my earth, at least, it's common to name other planets after figures from mythology — especially myths from the Mediterranean, which is where the legend of Pandora's Box comes from.

[ ...And, given the nature of that story, suddenly Pandora's name seems really... ominous? ]

[bolderfell]

Still connected either way, aren't they? Greek or Mediterranean or whatever, one of those worlds knows about the other in a way none of ours seem to. Doesn't feel like a coincidence.

[He frowns down at the atlases.]

...Did the map of Pandora have anything in common with the maps of Earth?

[mouflon]

[ She shakes her head. ]

The point I'm making is that what if it's named Pandora because humans named it? Jasper comes from some empire that has traveled all across the galaxy, right? Who's to say that if humans could do the same thing, we wouldn't keep naming planets the same way as the ones in our own solar system?

[bolderfell]

I don't think we disagree. Not that I understood all that, but...

[After a pause, he puts two of the maps of Earth side-by-side.]

We know Earth's important because we're on it, and because so many of you are from it. We know Pandora's important because it keeps coming up.

Let's assume you're right and humans from Earth named Pandora. Makes sense. But you've never heard of Pandora as a place. So they weren't from your Earth. [He slides one map away and taps the other.] Maybe the Earth you're looking for--the one that's not quite right--is the one that'll have that connection to this "Pandora." A city in common, or the name of a mountain... or something in the ocean. I don't know.

[mouflon]

[ Automatically, Rin leans in, eyes lowered toward the atlases as she thinks. ]

Right. So, even if it's another planet... It wouldn't be the first time that humans have taken names from important places in their homeland.

[ She snaps the atlas nearest to her shut, and slides it closer to the edge of the table. ]

I hadn't given that much thought, since the continents themselves looked so different, so I'll have to give the details a second pass. [ Maybe with the help of an atlas index, this time. ] Though, most of the names I noticed seemed, um. Strong.

[bolderfell]

I liked them. You know what you're getting, most of those names. "The Splinterlands" almost sounds like it could exist where I'm from.

[mouflon]

Hey, sometimes we have places called "badlands", you know. We're just not always so on the nose.

[bolderfell]

Well... if the world Pandora is named after the story.

[He shrugs.]

Maybe the places on it are all the terrible things supposedly covering up hope at the bottom.

[mouflon]

Yeah... Now that the idea is out there, I can't help but wonder why people would have chosen that name. There are a few ideas I can come up with, and none of them are very comforting.

[bolderfell]

Too discomforting to share? I don't come from the same context, remember. I don't know what the story means to anyone besides what's literally on the page.

[mouflon]

No, nothing like that, but...

Someone told you the story, right? Think about it. Pandora unlocked every disaster, pain, and cruelty in the world... At best, the implication of naming a world after her is that you know there's a chance it'll let something loose, and you won't be able to stuff it back in its box once it's free.

[bolderfell]

[He nods. Sly gave him a little more insight into it, at least.]

...Or the evils were already let loose, and they were desperate to find something there to redeem such bleak living.

[mouflon]

Then why even settle there in the first place? Unless... They knew there was something there, and they just had to deal with it to find it? Like a reserve of some important resource, or something like that...

[bolderfell]

Maybe they didn't have a choice. Empires fall in the blink of an eye.

[mouflon]

I guess so. I'll take your word for it, since it's not something I've had the pleasure to witness firsthand.

[ ONE DAY, LEO...!! ]