monolith revisited | mingle

[mythbuster]

One fine morning, a boyish voice broadcasts to everyone around base:

There's a lot left to explore inside the Monolith, so I'll be visiting it today. If anyone else wants to come along, feel free.

Once all interested parties are assembled and traveling arrangements sorted out, they're off to the Monolith! Given the length of the journey, this will be a real time investment. A one-way trip takes nearly two hours by flight. Traveling in silence? Boring. How should they occupy their time? Travel games? Joy rides in the Seamoth? Maybe even some old-fashioned chit chat??

Once they arrive, there's plenty to explore. With some sniffing around, they'll find a map revealing that the Monolith contains a cafe and common area, crew quarters, lab, med bay, and "special alien containment" room. However, it'll take some ingenuity to actually reach each area. And by ingenuity I mean bombs.

Which is why the group will need a demolition crew! Get to blasting those walls in logical places. Or illogical places. No one ever said it had to be a good demolition crew. With enough willful destruction, surely all of the the Monolith's secrets will be laid bare in no time.

(( Here are the full details on what can be found in the Monolith! Create your own topics and go nuts. ))

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[mythbuster]

A: Bomb squad

[ After staring at the ship diagram and wandering the initial space available to them, Loki takes to frowning at walls. What's up with this layout? There should be much more to Monolith than what they're seeing. He gropes around for hidden panels and snoops around for remote access controls, but to no avail. Finally, he gives up.

Facing a wall that should be a door, he makes a firm declaration: ]

Let's blow it up.

B: Alien Containment Room

[ Of all the locations listed in the ship diagram, the "special alien containment" room sounded the most intriguing. It takes a bit of bombing, but they finally find it -- and Loki freezes in alarm at the red splattered all over the room. But there's no telltale stench of death or decay, and as he steps into the room proper the "blood" begins to take on an interesting sheen in the light. He bends to touch a spot, and then... sighs. ]

Someone on the crew had a sense of humor.

[ Afterward, Loki will be peering into the container of plants. The note says that the plants purr, but he can't hear anything from them. To open or not to open...? ]

a

[splinten]

Okay.

[Dirk takes out a handful of crashpowder bombs. He makes an estimate. And then he throws two at the wall.]

[mythbuster]

[ Loki didn't even have to ask to know that Dirk would have bombs on his person?? He closes his eyes against the explosion but doesn't bother turning away, serenely letting the shockwave wash over him. ]

Should I ask how many of those you have with you?

[splinten]

That depends. Are you worried about us running out?

[Look! The bomb revealed a pathway.]

B

[showybusiness]

[ Purring plants? Well, some plants are sociable monsters where he comes from! And he's metal, so nothing can truly hurt him. (Which he forgets, as so many folks on the base are flesh and blood, that others can feel the brunt of his rash actions.) ]

Oooo! Get in there, darling! Maybe they can sing!

[mythbuster]

Get in?!

[ Like. Hop in completely?? He has been given some pretty irresponsible advice over the years, but he can't say anyone has ever given him, as an assumed child, this bold or risky a directive. ]

They could be dangerous, don't you think?

[ Why else would they be contained like this? But maybe he is giving too much credit to the people who put it there, if the fake blood splatter and datapad notes are any indication... ]

[showybusiness]

It's a metaphor! Like, hop in! Get to it! All that!

[ He starts prying at the container, gloved metal fingers curiously prodding around. ]

A

[imsorey]

[Why is "blow it up" the first option for this scenario?

Well, he can't see another way to get it open, so maybe it's okay...?]

Sure, why not?

[He still looks dubious, but hey, he's on board.]

[mythbuster]

I'm glad you agree, Sorey.

[ Even dubiously... Loki poofs his staff into existence from nowhere, an almost cute thing with an adorning pink ribbon that could be more properly described as a wand. It's topped by a large crescent, inside which a squiggly symbol suddenly appears by magic. Loki points it authoritatively at the wall. ]

Ei!

[ KABOOM goes the wall. ]

the boom-booms

[mistimed]

[She hesitates at first, but only for a moment. This isn't the most harebrained plan she's heard, not by a long shot. There have been plenty of times Horō's followed along with a foolhardy, reckless mission and seen it lead to the best outcome.]

It seems there may be no other way.

[After scanning the ceiling architecture to make sure they're not accidentally about to blow an outside wall, Horō retrieves her rife - as long as she is tall and then some - from her back.]

Please stay back from the blast radius. [The dimensions of which she's not defining, so it's anyone's guess...but then, behind her is probably safe enough. She lobs a yellow cylinder at the vulnerable side of the door, then tracks its position through the scope of her rifle and fires.]

1/2

[mythbuster]

Ah? Oh?

[ Since she looks like she knows what she's doing, Loki obediently edges a few steps behind her. Out goes the yellow cylinder, and he watches it arc gently through the air... ]

2/2

[mythbuster]

[ But when the bang comes, he can't help shouting. ]

GYAAAH!

[splinten]

[BIRD FLIGHT - THREE PERSON THREAD W/HINATA]

[By this point in his life, Dirk has gotten very good at taxi-ing people through the air. In this case, he has one Hajime Hinata on his back. Truly, this is the perfect team. They even have matching bird hair.

Perhaps you are drawn to them interested in a chat? Or maybe you're wondering who the fuck is playing music at this far above the air?

Either way, it's a long fly. Come hang out.]

[SMALL BOMBS]

[If you want to wander off on your own to explore another area without the rest of the group, Dirk may stop you to hand you a crash grenade.] You should take this in case. [Everyone needs a safety bomb.]

[BAD NAPS]

[This room Dirk remembers. They had almost no time to look through it when they were here before. The new people were sick, and they all needed to get out before any other Reapers arrived. But pacing around, Dirk is able to get a better sense of it. He stops at a terminal and looks at it closely. Then he checks another, and another.

Fuck.]

We're going to have to reassess our understanding of the recent group's arrival.

[Dirk has read the data. It's making one thing very, very obvious. The people here were dying only because life support had run out. They had been here for two months.

A cold dread settles in his chest.]

dirk this is important

[potentite]

[It's important because Jake is trying to figure out how you make coffee.]

Can you eat coffee?

[splinten]

No one does on TV.

[So don't eat coffee, Jake? Jesus christ. He knows this is important to Jake but at least let Friends be your guide you tasteless schmuck]

bombs please

[octoroom]

...

[Fukami's just looking at it. He's not so sure. He has eight tentacles for weaponizing purposes, he's not too worried about safety.]

... How does it work?

[splinten]

It will explode on impact or on a short delay if you use the pin. It's based on crash bomb powder.

[So if you need to open up a wall. You can throw this?

We're Zeldaing this shit now.]

[bad naps]

[oneandmikleonly]

[oh. oh dear. Mikleo comes up beside Dirk to peer at the readings; he'd gotten a look at them last time, too, but he'd mostly been occupied dragging newbies out of the monolith and off to the base.]

That sounded pretty serious. Reassess it how?

Re: [bad naps]

[splinten]

[Dirk opens up the charts. He doesn't show the information from when they showed up, which is the rapid decline: he shows it going further back.

For a full two months.]

The charts indicate that everyone here entered these pods at about the same time that my group appeared on the Aurora.

bird flight

[mythbuster]

[ Phew, flying can get tiring. Eventually, Hinata will find a small falcon swooping in to gently settle on his head... but not without pushing that weird spike of hair forward and safely out of the way first. Actual normal guy unicorn, Hinata Hajime. ]

loki -> dirk -> hinata

[splinten]

[Dirk sees the bird incoming. He does not mind the extra weight at all. And really it's nice that Loki has decided to fuck with Hinata's hair instead of Dirk's.]

How does that hair score for nesting?

[hopefragment]

A. Save 'n Shop
What the hell is this supposed to be...?

[He had been gathering up the coffee into a bag he'd found, but look... "going through a car wash as a person"? That's absolutely bizarre, and he can't help but heft one of them in his hand, reading it carefully and looking for all the world like he genuinely wants to see what it does.]

Have you ever seen something like this?

[The canned human car wash, that is. Not the coffee or other assorted normal cleaning goods he's started gathering up.]

B. Pods
[If anyone thought the real reason Hajime Hinata had literally ridden on Dirk's shoulders was just to pick up some coffee and cleaning supplies, they were going to be dreadfully mistaken. Once the pods are available, Hajime makes his way there, looking more apprehensive than anything else as he glances over them.

He really can't help but stop at his own, watching the screen and pressing his lips tightly together. His hand clenches into a fist at his side, and a tightening of his arm muscles suggests that he kind of wants to punch the screen, but he holds back. It's not going to do anything.]

...This doesn't make sense, [he murmurs finally, looking at that pod, and all the others around.] None of this... there's no way I was in there for two months. It's impossible. Utterly crazy. Totally wrong.

A

[tyrian]

That's human coffee, right? [Are you sure that wasn't what you were talking about, Hinata?]

[hopefragment]

I... what? No, I know what coffee is.

[UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE IN THE THREAD ABOVE. He answers before looking to see who'd spoken, wondering why it was necessary to qualify that with "human" as an adjective. And then freezing because ah... one glance is enough to tell why.

Please just don't be like Karkat. He can't handle another Karkat. But wait, shit, he's staring. He doesn't want to be rude!]

Uh... I meant this stuff. I've never seen anything like it.

[Here, take a look! He'll hold it out to her(?) to take a look at.]

[octoroom]

a. mission: keep the base clean continues
[Well. Fukami's found the hygiene products.

If you're also exploring the café/common room, you may spot him walking around, his tentacles spread. He pauses mid-step as one tentacle picks up a container of cleaning product and, after scrutinizing it, he nods to himself and lets that tentacle curl around it proper so he can take it with them.

It can never hurt to have more cleaning products.

He might be scrunching his nose up slightly at things that look like coffee, however. He will address anyone in the near vicinity:] Do you drink coffee?

[because otherwise he won't bother]


b. make sure you look at the ratings on those books
[Gory sci-fi? On it. Maybe this can improve certain people's spooky stories... Or, it can be light reading for later. Who knows, maybe he can learn something. Like how easily it is to tear aliens apart or whatnot.

Fukami doesn't discriminate between genres, you know? That said, as a tentacle picks up a nearby magazine, the magazine flaps open, revealing a full-colour glossy spread... that only Fukami can see (unless you happen to be peeking over his shoulder, in which case congratulations and apologies). His eyes narrow, thinning, and then he very calmly crumples up the magazine and tosses it into the nearest thing that looks like a trash can.

There are children around.

He's not embarrassed. Like he cares about what humans look like naked!!]