COMMENCE EXPERIMENT

[bathymetric]

Fun fact: Did you know that the Pacific Ocean has a surface area of 62.46 million miles? That's not even accounting for depth.

You awaken to a sharp jolt, like you've just hit the drop on a roller coaster. Then it passes, and you're in a bed, suddenly very clearly awake. Is that right? Were you asleep? Your memory is a little fuzzy as you come down off the adrenaline, but it puts itself into place soon enough. This is not, as one might say, your beautiful house. If you have a beautiful wife, she sure isn't here.

The positioning of the bed inside your new room gives you a very clear indication of where you are - or at least, where the building is. Above you is a decent-sized window looking out on... well, the ocean. But not in a fun beachside resort way, to say the least. Fish swim by pretty frequently, here to keep you company - but they cannot hear your screams, and do not seem particularly bothered if you tap on the glass unless they're right by it. It's thick, man.

On the bedside table, you'll find two things: a key card with a number between 1 and 25 on it (no points for guessing which one is on whose, unfortunately), and a small handheld device, a little like a smartphone but mostly like a blackberry? Remember those? Anyway, accessing it will reveal only a scarce few functions: a list of profiles, a map of the building, and a very ominous set of rules. You might try to ignore that last one! Unfortunately, you'll find them in a frame by your door. And in a frame somewhere in every room of the place, if you go out exploring at all. The tablet also has a message for you when you open it:

Greetings. Please take an hour to become accustomed to the facilities, then proceed to the meeting room north of your dormitories. Attendance is mandatory. - The Professor

But hey, it... it also lets you play Snake! Who doesn't love Snake, huh?

Anyway, head out into the halls! Make some new friends - or maybe enemies, wouldn't that be exciting? Look around a little! Just make sure to be back for whatever this meeting is - after all, you want a chance to face off with your captor, right?

Comments

[bolderfell]

[The door to Room #24 doesn't open for some time after that kick of an awakening. When it does finally slide open, it's to reveal a slight young man in a purple cloak immediately jumping back, alarmed.]

...

[Pssshpt. And then it slides right back closed.

...Anyway.

Eventually, Therion figures out the doors, though he by no means appears used to them. He's evidently unused to a lot of things here. Even the green accent lights in the halls get a weird, untrusting look from him. He brings his fingers close, but stops shy of touching it.]

How...

[He barely mumbles that to himself before shaking his head and moving on, discomfited.

By the latter half of the allotted hour, Therion's tucked himself in a back corner of the library, pinching the inner corners of his eyes like he has a headache. He has his key card and tablet in front of him, but, I mean. The tablet's face-down. He clearly doesn't know what the heckity to do with either of these things.]

hall

[emberserker]

Ugh, there's nothing.

[Sorry, shady man, here comes a teenage girl on the warpath. She glares at him as if he's offended her personally and punches a wall.]

This isn't an illusion, it's... it's... I don't know what! I suppose you do?

[bolderfell]

[Oooookay, angry girl.]

No. What do you mean by "there's nothing"?

[On the contrary, Therion might venture to say that there is, perhaps, Too Much.]

[emberserker]

Before I answer that, who are all of you people? I know it's on that ridiculous old phone, but how did you get here? This wasn't what -- what it looked like before I showed up in a room.

[bolderfell]

Before I answer that, who are you?

[emberserker]

[She fumes. Takes out her own device and flips to her own profile, then holds it out at him.]

Anna Fugo. Don't mind the title, they gave us all these ridiculous ones for some reason.

[bolderfell]

[He looks surprised when she turns the screen to him, but then he narrows his eyes as he reads her information--apparently for the first time.]

You're a mage. Is that why you were talking about illusions? You said this isn't one.

Library

[ladygeryon]

[Well, that gets a slightly concerned look from Nira. She walks a little closer, so that he can hear her but also so that she's not blocking him in.]

Are you alright? Do you need any help?

[bolderfell]

[He straightens and drops his hand as soon as she approaches, blinks up at her, and then grunts a soft, frustrated, point-of-exasperation-when-it's-almost-funny noise.]

Probably. Can't say I even know where to start.

[He flicks a wave to indicate the whole library--no, the whole facility.]

Do you know what any of this is?

[ladygeryon]

[Well, something like that giving you a headache is definitely understandable.] I know the general purpose of the rooms in this place, but I confess I have little idea why this entire facility was built. The one message from our likely captor explains little, unfortunately.

[bolderfell]

Message?

[People who don't know how to use tablets: 90-year-old great-aunts, Therion.]

[ladygeryon]

Ah, it was on here. I expect it'd be the same for yours as well. [She holds out her own tablet, demonstrating how to turn it on and access the messages. She figures that right now she shouldn't grab his without permission.]

[bolderfell]

[He watches, clearly wholly unfamiliar, and then does his best to copy her actions. It's galling to be clumsy about anything--to be seen to be clumsy--but it's better than not knowing how to work this thing at all, or missing important information.]

...Scholars.

[Therion grumbles the word under his breath.]

This guy has the same pompous tone I read in those "rules." You see those?

Halls

[drladysounds]

You look confused.

[Hi there! Shelley saw you almost touch the light fixtures]

Have you never been underwater before?

[bolderfell]

[He snatches his hand back quick as anything and stares at her.]

...I've swum.

[drladysounds]

That doesn't matter. You won't do well out there without an air tank

[It sucks, really]

Anyway, you may want to keep your hands off anything on the walls. You never know when you'll stumble upon something that'll let all the water in.

[It's not impossible that can happen]

[bolderfell]

Wouldn't it also let us out?

[Says a man with no understanding of physics.]

[drladysounds]

It would, and then we would die horribly and painfully. It'd be several tons of water smacking you at once. You'd die unless you're made of steel.

[bolderfell]

...All right. I guess that makes sense. So we need to find a way above water before we find a way outside.

hall

[gangrene]

[ certainly it's the lights in the halls that are making this guy's skin a very unnatural green color and not because it's his skin color to begin with?? maybe you should ignore the open (?) wounds on his skin though ]

How what?

[bolderfell]

[uHHH;;;

Is this what Marionette Bones look like before they're bones all the way? Holy shit, his see-through next door neighbor one thing, but this guy is something else.]

...

[But also, so is everything here, so...?]

...How... are the lights not fire-hot. Is what I was wondering.

[Fear not the talking dead, right?]

[gangrene]

[ he seems to think about this. and shrugs ]

Could be LEDs.

[ because that clearly answers therion's question ]

[bolderfell]

[Ellydise?]

What?

[He is beyond capacity.]

[gangrene]

The fancy lights.

[bolderfell]

...Right, of course.

[Therion understands absolutely nothing. Moving on, though, he waves a hand at the rest of their surroundings.]

Besides that, have you ever seen anything like this?