POST-HURRICANE LOG | OPEN MINGLE

[oneandmikleonly]

[Past the 9th of the month, the hurricane's finally blown itself out, leaving a great deal of mess behind (but at least, a lot less mess than there would have been without the crew's various antics, right?)

After the calm there's the storm, but after the storm, there's...uh, actually, it's not all that calm again yet. Look at all these notable goings on that you can play with:

SICK PEOPLE are still a thing. Are you still suffering from the ravages of alien cave flu? Finally finding the energy to crawl out of bed? Starting to come down with it yourself? Getting dosed with cure attempts? Doing the dosing? Or maybe you're not sick at all but went hurricane surfing and are now prone in the medbay. It's been a rough couple of weeks.

The HURRICANE'S AFTEREFFECTS still linger. Fish in the base aquariums and biomes are just starting to resume their regular activities. Maybe some of your special fish friends are still spooked and need some coaxing out? Maybe you want to swim out to a more distant biome to check on creatures like the Reefbacks or the Birdogs? Or maybe you want to stick closer to home and do things like finish repairing the busted corridors, and cleaning out the kitchens and showers so the food and bathing situation doesn't descend back into complete travesty.

For those who've started wandering out, there's also FAMILIAR ITEMS washing up -- things from your home, or at least...someone's home. Is an embarrassing photo of you now plastered against an observatory window for the world to see? Your fancy car from home buried in the sand of the Safe Shallows?

Lastly, on the night of the 13th (and subsequent nights...), a distant DISCO LIGHTSHOW becomes totally visible on the horizon, in the Monolith's direction. What the heck? Maybe that's worth checking out.

And of course, there's always PLANNING, MISSIONS AND SHENANIGANS to do. Go nuts!]

Comments

[splinten]

Who knows. Eyes open, Croft.

[It's good they left LARA on the shore, honestly. He doesn't want any chance of this getting transmitted back to Naoko, even if he did disable the monitors.]

[potentite]

[Jake runs his hand over the wall.]

Whoa, it's really dry down here. And cold. Is that because of URSULA? Did they pick this as her cooling tank?

[splinten]

[He lets Jake take the lead here; Jake knows tombs the way Dirk doesn't.]

That would be a smart choice. If they're taking up entire rooms with servers, a natural cooling environment would be to their advantage.

[potentite]

[He doesn't even pause at intersections and his eyes dart around naturally, without any problems. He just knows where to go and how.]

Hey, Dirk? What are you going to do with her? Are you going to keep her? You don't trust her with anyone from this world, right?

[splinten]

[He's a few steps behind Jake every movement along the way, both to let Jake lead and also to watch their backs in case something lives down here.]

Of course I'm gonna keep her. The people from this world don't have a good sense of AIs.

I'm going to compress her code into something more manageable and bring her home where we can protect her. At the least we should have her on Floater Island.

[potentite]

[He glances back with a curious expression.] Are you going to keep her after that, too, if you can?

[splinten]

[He looks back with the slightest tilt of his head.]

Not sure what you're talking about, dude.

[potentite]

Eventually, we'll get out of here. Either off this planet or this universe. She's alone here, isn't she?

[splinten]

She's programmed to support the mission here. Unless she's reprogrammed, she won't be able to handle leaving.

[There are key words. He knows Jake can catch them. Jake can be very bright.]

[potentite]

[Jake nods and smiles at him.]

I was just curious. [Which means Dirk is working on it. So he waves a little hoping Dirk knows it means if he needs help, Jake will help.

He stops and rolls his eyes.] What an obvious door.

[He says this when there is no real obvious door but whatever, he rams his shoulder into the wall and the stone door swings open.]

...Do they have light-switches in the future or do you just clap?

[splinten]

Look around. Carefully.

[He's very close by Jake this time, in the sense of wanting to yank him back if it's obvious.]

Later you're gonna have to tell me what was obvious about that door.

[potentite]

[He can't help a little grin as he reaches into the darkness, hand flailing around for a switch. He does find a smooth, steel something on the wall that lights up the room. It's large, containing dozens of servers. Jake leans in and glances around.]

It looks okay. Your cue, mate.

[splinten]

[Dirk starts going through the rooms. The servers are in a bad condition, victims of weathering over the years. As he looks through them, checking its running and also taking a couple looks at what's here, a frown starts developing.]

This isn't all of it. Half, maybe. The size doesn't match up with URSULA's description, and checking it myself it can't be enough.

[potentite]

[He frowns, leaning against the wall and folding his arms.]

I can keep looking out there.

[splinten]

Let's look in here first. [He glances over at Jake. A little tilt of his head, and he drops out of his sylladex some slightly more sophisticated computer equipment.] Why don't you look around for clues while I hook in and see what I can learn?

[potentite]

[Jake nods, giving a hum of agreement as he starts looking over the walls, touching places here and there.]

Can you use what's here?

[splinten]

I'm worried about what will happen if I do. If I transfer her now, without getting the rest of it, we might come into problems with her. It could in a sense even 'hurt' her.

[It's making him worry, and suspect he should err towards trusting Naoko won't find and kill or change URSULA rather than wrecking their AI. It might be worth rigging up something else though...]

[potentite]

Well, I trust you to do whatever is best for her.

[He says it casually, but of course he means it. Whatever Dirk decides to do will be what's best. That's just how it is. If anyone knows what's best for her, too, it would be him. Not so much because of his AI experiences, though partly, but because he's grown so much that he understands how he channel his care now.

Meanwhile, he's squinting at the wall. He did find something but he's not sure what it means. As it dawns on him, he starts to bounce on the heels of his feet.]

Hippity hoppity diggity dog, Dirk! I found a puzzle!

[splinten]

[Sweet Jesus. Why is he attracted to that boy. Dirk takes a moment of pressing his forehead against these old servers.

His voice is very tired.]

What do you mean.

[God protect him from his own taste.]

[potentite]

[Too bad because Jake bounds up to Dirk and tugs on him. If he had a tail it would wagging at the speed of light.]

Come look! It's really spiffy! Like some real Lara Croft shit!

[splinten]

[He can feel it. He can feel the puppy tail wag. It is sweet, and pure, and too much.

Leaving his computer equipment, he lets Jake tug him along.]

What is it?

[potentite]

[Jake is still hanging onto Dirk's arm as he stops in front of the wall. He points at a string of letters.]

It's a classical Caeser substitution cipher but anyhoo, it says, "Where Atlas Stood."

[splinten]

[Huh. He doesn't pull away from Jake, obviously. He just thinks it through.]

They seriously left a riddle behind.

[This is more important than explaining the riddle.]

[potentite]

An easy one. [He corrects this because clearly everyone knows ciphers.] But yep! Isn't that nifty?! My kind of people.

[splinten]

[Not everyone obsesses over that, Jake. Dirk knows a thing or two about ciphers from the history of computing but really. But Jake is excited, and even Dirk is interested in this.]

Atlas stood at the ends of the Earth, westwardly.