So, Mari is an insufferable genius type, eh? Her character sheet makes her extremely huggable. That 'I Must Not Fear' was a nice touch.
[X] +5 ACUMEN
[X] INTERROGATION FOR IMBECILES: Your sharp eye and deep empathy mean that you're a wizard when it comes to reading people. Although you can't rely on it to be 100% ACCURATE, this CLASS MACHINATION makes it easier to tell when someone is LYING or HIDING THEIR TRUE FEELINGS.
Well, we don't need a class skill to see that Mari is telling half-truths and is putting up a brave front ('I am too important to...'). I wonder how long she'll hold.
I like Mari's VIG-induced theme, so I'll choose:
[X] HOLD MY JUICE BOX: You're an unusually reckless child, prone to doing incredibly dangerous things, either ignorant or, more worryingly, with complete and utter awareness of the peril involved. This CLASS MACHINATION halves the ÉLAN DAMAGE taken from being in DANGEROUS SITUATIONS.
Also, whip out the spaghetti. And leave a half for RED MARKER, just in case. Maybe the smell would lure her out of the shadows.
[X] ROCK IT FOR ME: Your winning smile and way with words let you instill courage and faith into the hearts of even the most hopeless of pessimists, even if putting on a brave face for other people can be taxing for you. This CLASS MACHINATION allows you to sacrifice 10 ÉLAN to give a member of your PARTY a BONUS TO A ROLL equal to HALF YOUR MOXIE STAT, or to restore 20 ÉLAN to every member of your PARTY.
[X] HOLD MY JUICE BOX: You're an unusually reckless child, prone to doing incredibly dangerous things, either ignorant or, more worryingly, with complete and utter awareness of the peril involved. This CLASS MACHINATION halves the ÉLAN DAMAGE taken from being inDANGEROUS SITUATIONS.
[X] +5 ACUMEN
[X] INTERROGATION FOR IMBECILES: Your sharp eye and deep empathy mean that you're a wizard when it comes to reading people. Although you can't rely on it to be 100% ACCURATE, this CLASS MACHINATION makes it easier to tell when someone is LYING or HIDING THEIR TRUE FEELINGS.
[X] PACK RAT: You're the sort of person who is always working on a project of some sort and invariably carrying almost a dozen random screws, sprockets and other ridiculous nonsense, to the point where people around you wonder where you keep it all. This CLASS MACHINATION expands your INVENTORY SIZE from FIVE SPACES to TEN SPACES.
[X] +5 ACUMEN
[X] ROCK IT FOR ME: Your winning smile and way with words let you instill courage and faith into the hearts of even the most hopeless of pessimists, even if putting on a brave face for other people can be taxing for you. This CLASS MACHINATION allows you to sacrifice 10 ÉLAN to give a member of your PARTY a BONUS TO A ROLL equal to HALF YOUR MOXIE STAT, or to restore 20 ÉLAN to every member of your PARTY other than YOURSELF.
[X] HOLD MY JUICE BOX: You're an unusually reckless child, prone to doing incredibly dangerous things, either ignorant or, more worryingly, with complete and utter awareness of the peril involved. This CLASS MACHINATION halves the ÉLAN DAMAGE taken from being in DANGEROUS SITUATIONS.
[X] +5 ACUMEN
[X] INTERROGATION FOR IMBECILES: Your sharp eye and deep empathy mean that you're a wizard when it comes to reading people. Although you can't rely on it to be 100% ACCURATE, this CLASS MACHINATION makes it easier to tell when someone is LYING or HIDING THEIR TRUE FEELINGS.
[X] HOLD MY JUICE BOX: You're an unusually reckless child, prone to doing incredibly dangerous things, either ignorant or, more worryingly, with complete and utter awareness of the peril involved. This CLASS MACHINATION halves the ÉLAN DAMAGE taken from being in DANGEROUS SITUATIONS.
x5 [X] INTERROGATION FOR IMBECILES
x2 [X] ROCK IT FOR ME
x4 [X] HOLD MY JUICE BOX
x3 [X] PACK RAT
You are a JUNIOR SLEUTH, and the fact that you are not only NOW ON A CASE AGAIN but also NO LONGER ALONE is filling you with ENERGY and DETERMINATION. [+50 ÉLAN]
You've always been able to think more clearly when you were on a case. A mystery to solve gives you something on which to SHARPEN the RAZOR OF YOUR MIND. Your current case: a MISSING PERSON. You know that he is a DOCTOR who writes OBNOXIOUS BOOKS ABOUT ASTRONOMY and also LOOKS LIKE A LAME JERKFACE. He was last seen in his OFFICE, wherever that is, arguing with DR. PARIS and MR. STOCKHOLM, whoever they are. You clear your mind. It's time to think.
After a long silence, you decide that you need to HAVE A LOOK AROUND before you set off in search of Mari's father. The room you're in seems to be some sort of LOUNGE, with COUCHES, CHAIRS, and TABLES. Mari grudgingly moves aside to let you into the room behind her, which, while being a bit cramped, manages to fit inside it ONE BED, a COUNTER with a SINK, MICROWAVE and CAN OPENER atop it, and SEVERAL SHELVES stacked with CANNED FOOD. Logically, you presume, given that there's only ONE OTHER DOOR, it must be the way out - you turn to Mari to confirm this for you, and she nods uncomfortably.
"Yes. There's a corridor down that way, but... there are traps. I don't think I'm fast enough to get through them safely. Also, I... didn't want to go anywhere on my own." She allows a half-second of vulnerability to show before sneering at you. "Not that going somewhere with someone like you will be much better." Once more, you diplomatically ignore the insult, instead walking over to the LEFT DOOR and opening it. You wouldn't have noticed it if Mari hadn't mentioned traps, but there are slits in the walls that certainly seem very suspect.
"There should be some way to turn those off, but I think it's on the other end. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any point to..." She looks away, tapping her foot impatiently. "Anyway. If you're a detective, you ought to be able to do something about it, right? Then we can go look for my father. Hurry up, though. I don't have all day, now do I?"
You nod, your display of politeness absolutely astonishing. But then again, being a JUNIOR SLEUTH is all about the MOXIE. A true SLEUTH doesn't let people see anything they don't want them to see - in fact, a true SLEUTH does the opposite - once you know someone a little, it's quite easy to watch out for their TELLS, those tell-tale signs that not everything they're saying is true. Mari, you think, is being very reticent, and you're not entirely sure what she has to hide but you know it has to be something - that's not your concern right now, however. As you open a TIN OF PEACHES (after a great deal of frankly undignified struggle with the CAN OPENER) and eat what feels like the first meal you've had in a long, long time, you think to yourself. You have a plan, at least right now. You have no choice, you think, but to go down the CORRIDOR and DEACTIVATE THE TRAPS so that MARI CAN FOLLOW YOU. Before you set off, however, you want to do a few things.
You feel like after this, there might not be any turning back.
[] Before you set off down the corridor, you think you should probably... (Write-in)
[X] Take stock of the items that you left strewn about the previous two rooms.
[X] Give Mari the CAN OPENER to hold in her INVENTORY
[X] Examine the food cans. What's the use by date on them compared to the previous date you remember before waking up?
I am not sure, are we supposed to inspect the room, or do we need to get our affairs in order before moving on? I can probably write a few actions to the effect of 'examine everything', but I would not want to waste GM's time if the black cat in not in the room.
[X] Examine ONE BED. Intuition tells you that all sorts of TERRIBLE SECRETS could be hidden under a PILLOW. That's where you'd hide yours if you weren't a JUNIOR SLEUTH who has nothing to hide!
-[X] Check the SHELVES while you are at it and stock up on CANNED FOOD. Who knows where your path will take you?
You CAREFULLY PILE the JOURNAL, CLOCK ROOM DRAWER KEY, SCREWDRIVER, and LONG-HANDLED NET in a corner of the room. You can always come and get them if you need them again, after all.
[X] Backtrack a bit and take the SCREWDRIVER with you. Mari might need it, being the DAREDEVIL DAEDALUS that she is.
-[X] Consider taking the LONG-HANDLED NET as well if you and Mari have free SLOTS. Um, I mean, HANDS!
[X] Activate Mari's HOW IT WORKS, look at the TRAPS. What do they actually do?
-[X] Activate your ANALYSIS FOR AMATEURS, throw something across the corridor. Do the TRAPS react? How?
Also, if Mari will be taking CAN OPENER, we will need to leave the RED MARKER some food once we set out.
Hm. Mari didn't see RED MARKER, and her words appear genuine. Does it mean RM never found this room? Where do half-eaten spaghetti come from, then? Was it Mari?
I wonder if we could catch the third party member, or if she is afraid of Mari due to her being connected to Dr. Brighton and the Institute. But we at least could do some things to ease the contact attempt.
I am not sure, are we supposed to inspect the room, or do we need to get our affairs in order before moving on? I can proibably write a few actions to the effect of 'examine everything', but I would not want to waste GM's time if the black cat in not in the room.
There isn't anything of interest outside the bedroom, and not much to find even in there. This is definitely more of a chance to get your affairs in order, pack up anything useful, and prepare for whatever's ahead, so to speak. I'll be closing the vote in 24 hours, give or take. Then all submitted commands will be carried out and Lucy and Mari will continue their adventure.
Do we have an idea of how stats work in the game? I've seen Moxie Checks being mentioned, and I've seen us noticing some things due to high Acumen, but are we supposed to know how exactly they influence the game? Like, what were the chances to fail to make an impression on Mari? What is the cap, if there is one? Are there DCs and situational modifiers or something? Are we constantly making Vigor checks to avoid losing Elan? I've noticed Lucy failing two (upon entry in the dark corridor and during caged/failed incident)... were those the only ones, or did we pass some even with our low score?
If most of this stuff is meant to stay behind-the-curtains, it's fine too.
Stats in QS are meant to be obscure and opaque, but not completely impenetrable, so I'll give you a basic outline while keeping the details in the dark.
- There are two kinds of stat checks in QS, passive and active ones.
- Passive ones are a very simple pass/fail - they require a certain score in a stat, if you have that many, you pass, if you don't, you fail. Passive stat checks are usually for 'bonuses', so to speak, getting small bits of information or other 'secrets' that aren't vital to progressing. Whenever you notice something due to ACUMEN, you've passed a passive ACU check, and there have been two passive MOX checks so far, although I won't tell you when.
- I will inform you about passive checks only after they've been made, if at all.
- Active checks are a die roll, where rolling under your stat means a success. Whenever I tell you that an action requires a check, it means an active check. They come in six difficulty classes, SIMPLE, STRAIGHTFORWARD, COMMONPLACE, TAXING, EXTRAORDINARY, and SINGULAR. (or, if you prefer plain language instead of the typical QS nonsense, very easy, easy, normal, hard, very hard, and near-impossible), with each difficulty class being a roll of a higher die.
- Passive VIGOR checks are not made to avoid ÉLAN damage.
You think back to all the ITEMS you've been using to solve CONVOLUTED PUZZLES. In the CLOCK ROOM, you left a STRONGBOX, and that's kind of IT. You definitely don't want to retrace your steps through the DARK CORRIDOR to get back there, anyway.
In the CATHEDRAL, you left the JOURNAL, KEY TO THE CLOCK ROOM DRAWER, SCREWDRIVER, LONG-HANDLED NET, ASTRONOMY BOOK, and PAIR OF PHOTOGRAPHS. You could go to retrieve one of these items if you really wanted to.
This canned food seems to be THE SORT MEANT TO LAST FOR YEARS. You're not sure you could glean much of meaning from any such comparison, but you pat yourself on the back for even having such a smart idea.
[X] Examine ONE BED. Intuition tells you that all sorts of TERRIBLE SECRETS could be hidden under a PILLOW. That's where you'd hide yours if you weren't a JUNIOR SLEUTH who has nothing to hide!
You wait until Mari ISN'T LOOKING and then CHECK UNDER THE PILLOW. Underneath it is a BROKEN LOCKET of some sort. You want to take a closer look, but you think Mari would notice if she came back for it, and decide it's WISEST TO LEAVE IT BE.
You decide that it's probably a good idea to BRING SOME FOOD with you. You and Mari pick up AS MUCH AS YOU CAN CARRY. Never know when you might need a snack! Mari takes this an opportunity to COMPLAIN about having to eat DISGUSTING TINNED GARBAGE like some kind of POOR PERSON. You pointedly ignore her.
[X] Backtrack a bit and take the SCREWDRIVER with you. Mari might need it, being the DAREDEVIL DAEDALUS that she is.
-[X] Consider taking the LONG-HANDLED NET as well if you and Mari have free SLOTS. Um, I mean, HANDS!
Mari looks appreciatively at the SCREWDRIVER, seeming almost like she might thank you for giving it to her before she just scowls.
"Of course, you wouldn't know how to properly use something like this." You maintain your SPOTLESS TRACK RECORD FOR POLITENESS and remain silent as you pass her the LONG-HANDLED NET.
Mari takes a CLOSE LOOK at the CORRIDOR. The CLASS MACHINATION [HOW IT WORKS] has been activated!
It seems, she explains to you in what might just be the most patronizing tone you've ever heard in your entire life, that the SLITS IN THE WALL will EXTRUDE DEADLY BLADES if the PRESSURE PADS in the FLOOR are triggered. It would probably be possible to DODGE the BLADES, but one would have to be FAST.
Being a JUNIOR SLEUTH means thinking about the well-being of everyone around you! Much to MARI'S IRRITATION, you pull out HALF A DOZEN TINS OF FOOD, prepare them in the MICROWAVE, and set them out on the TABLES. Hopefully, the MYSTERIOUS PERSON with the RED MARKER will accept your humble gift.
And with all that done, you stand in front of the corridor, taking deep breaths. Alright, you tell yourself. Here goes nothing.
Expect another update in a few hours : The beginning of Chapter/Act/Whatever 2, and a pretty long post featuring an interlude! So, that'll be fun.
"Everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems, in case they are ever trapped in an elevator." - Lemony Snicket
INTERLUDE: DR. PARIS
A thin, blonde woman is sitting on a chair, surrounded by screens of all shapes and sizes. Some of these screens are flashing error messages. Most are not. The wailing of alarms fills the air, but the woman has gotten so used to them over the last few days that she barely hears them. It is easy, she muses, to become accustomed to things one cannot control. Mostly, the screens show footage from security cameras, but the screen she is watching at the moment does not. On it, data is flashing past her eyes at breakneck speeds, a constant stream of information that she doubts any other living person in the world could hope to understand. Her glasses reflect the light, creating a slightly eerie effect in the dark room. She frowns, lipstick-red lips twisting into a scowl of irritation.
"Ugh."
"Is everything all right, Dr. Paris?" The voice is male, and is swiftly followed into the room by its owner. He is tall, built like a model, with a grin so perfect and polished that it's uncomfortable to look at, like it doesn't quite fit on his face.
"Bloody hell, of course everything isn't alright, Roger. What's the status on the assets?" Her tone is frosty and commanding, almost regal in its haughtiness.
"Saturn's been making her way through the-"
"Call them 'it', Roger."
"-Its way through the initial chambers. Approaching the main facility, now with Jupiter in tow. Mercury and Mars are in the maze, they've been sticking together since they found each other. None of them have so much as entered the first stage yet, but it can only be a matter of time. I can't get Luna on the cameras anymore, they keep breaking, but I can follow the disturbances. I don't know how it's getting around the facility, but I think it's gotten into the maintenance tunnels. Venus is still under, thank God, but it took all of Dr. Helsinki's team to get it that way and he says he can't afford to take that many casualties again."
"Sol?" Her tone is resigned. She knows what the answer will be.
"Still loose, somewhere in the west wing. I haven't heard back from Marshal Kyoto's team in three hours. I think we can assume they're done for."
"Goddammit. Any sign of Brighton, the bastard?"
"None. I've been able to find Ankara, though. She's in the maze, for whatever reason."
"Soft-hearted idiot. This is all her fault." The hatred in her voice is like tar, choking, thick and boiling.
The man shrugs. "Any orders, Doc?"
"Don't call me 'doc', that's an order for you. Make sure Gaia's secure."
"Yes, ma'am." The man walks off, running a hand through his perfectly gelled hair as he does so. The woman's glare bores into his back, following him until he's gone and she can turn back to her screen, watching numbers and information fly past like a train passing a station without stopping. It will all be worth it, she tells herself. It will all be worth it. It will be perfect. It will be perfect. It will be perfect.
*******
LUCY AND MARI
"Here goes nothing."
The CLASS MACHINATION [ANALYSIS FOR AMATEURS] has been activated!
You look left. Right. Memorize the positions of the slits. Breathe in. Breathe out. Close your eyes. Keep the positions of the traps in your mind. Breathe in. Breathe out. You're getting out of here. You're going to solve this mystery, and it's going to be far from the last thing you do. Breathe in. Breathe out. You open your eyes, and take your first step into the corridor.
One, two, three seconds, and you feel the rush of air on your leg before you hear the click of the mechanism moving, and you step out of the way, a gleaming blade missing you by centimeters. Your foot comes down again - two clicks, this time, and in the one, two, three before the trap fires you twist your body, and one of the blades slides against your torso, a blade that would have gone right into your back and come out the other side if you'd gotten the angle wrong by just one degree. The blades retract, and you take another step forward, click click click, one two three, and all you can think is speed and angles and trajectories and mechanisms, and you lurch forward, lifting your foot off the ground a fraction of a second before a blade that would have handily severed your Achilles tendon slices through thin air instead.
In some compartmentalized part of your mind, you register Mari looking on with a mixture of awe and... what is that expression, on her face? No, you can't afford to let yourself be distracted, because in the time that you took to notice Mari there were four clicks, and one and two have already passed and in a blind panic you refocus, leaping forward as the space where you were just standing is impaled four times over. You're doing this on automatic, now, halfway down the corridor. Click, one, two, three, click, one, two, three, click, one, two three. Now, that the movements and the twists and the leaps are on automatic, it becomes almost easy, as you slip out of the way of each and every trap. You are calm. You are a detective, and you are not going to die here, damn it to heck. You are Lucy goshdarn Calloway, Junior Sleuth extraordinaire, and you are unstoppable in the pursuit of justice and knowledge and maybe a milkshake, now that you think of it, you could really do with a milkshake.
Click, click, click, click, click, click, and it's six this time, and you don't let yourself wonder if you can make it because you know you can make it. You breathe in, breath out, and with a one, two, three, you leap past the flurry of blades, past the end of the corridor, landing on your hands and knees in a room that you're far too tired to look around in. You lie there for the next few minutes as you catch your breath and come down from the adrenaline high.
You nearly died. But... you didn't.
[ACUMEN CHECK: SUCCEEDED]
[-25 ÉLAN]
Mari is still awestruck, looking at you with wide eyes and a slightly slack jaw for a few seconds from across the corridor before she crosses her arms and tosses her hair, looking away from you. "Hurry up and turn it off, Calloway. Within the next century, if you can manage it."
You cast your eyes across the room for something that might deactivate the trap, and set your eyes on a LARGE LEVER, which you set about pulling. It takes ALL YOUR STRENGTH, but you're able to shift it, and after a few more cans of beans go mercifully unmutilated, she walks calmly through the corridor, head held high and hands folded primly behind her back as her shoes click against the floor. By the time she joins you, you've recovered enough to stand upright, and the two of you look around at the room you find yourself in.
It seems... very similar to the one you just left. TABLES, COUCHES, and TWO DOORS. One of the DOORS leads to a BEDROOM, which is EMPTY save ONE BED and A SINK and feels more like a prison cell than anything else. The other one, however, leads to something very unusual - it's a CORRIDOR, once more, but it's less like a hallway in a building and more like an attraction at a fancy aquarium. The WALLS and CEILING are both made of GLASS, through which a MURKY BLACKNESS is visible. You can see only a FEW FEET into the WATER, with how dirty it is. The LIGHTING seems to be of the EMERGENCY VARIETY, shining an unsettling red glow down the CORRIDOR, until they seem to GO OUT COMPLETELY about TWENTY METERS AHEAD. A SILVER THREAD is tied to the DOORHANDLE and extends far down the CORRIDOR, into the DARKNESS. A heavy-looking TWO-HANDED FLASHLIGHT sits just beyond the doorway.
This, you think to yourself, looks like a puzzle for a JUNIOR SLEUTH.
Also, Mari. Mari is here too.
[] (Write-in as usual)
Wow, I probably wrote way too much for this update - sorry if my prose is substandard, by the way, I welcome and honestly encourage any constructive criticism you might have. But hey, at least you got some plot, and now it's right back to your regularly scheduled collaborative puzzle solving!
There is never too much Lucy Calloway, and it's nice to see the larger plot unfold. Especially nice to finally have the confirmation that there are more people/celestial bodies around.
Did anyone pick up on the fact that Dr. Brighton and MERCURY are not the same person? This facility may yet have some surprises.
Since there was something wrong with our eyes, my first assumption is that we might not be the original. RED MARKER mentioned many 'moons' before her. We'll see.
[X] Examine and search the ONE BED
-[X] Is there any indication who the room belonged to?
[X] Examine THE SINK and turn the water on
-[X] Is the water from the 'aquarium'?
[X] Turn the FLASHLIGHT on and carefully walk along THE SILVER THREAD, illuminating THE DARKNESS. See where it leads.
-[X] That's assuming the FLASHLIGHT is working.
A lot of info in that interlude. Pretty much confirms the idea that this whole setup is designed to bring out some sort of transhuman potential in the kids. Interesting to see that there seems to be some division in the scientists running the operation, including Dr. Brighton. Also, the process seems to be very detrimental to the mental health of the kids, more so than I previously thought considering that Venus caused a large number of casualties in the process of subduing him/her, and Sol presumably killing the team sent to get him/her. This does not bode well for our inevitable encounter with either of them. Finally, I will guess that Gaia is the first stable success they have gotten in the program, given the emphasis put on securing him/her.
Given that we aren't sent to retrieve them... perhaps it bodes better than we think. After all, Lucy's and Mary's potential for self-defence is pretty much non-existent. Perhaps we would be able to get out - or at least, speed up our progress - by teaming up with more powerful test subjects.
Hm. Transhuman potential... pretty sure what we did there with traps wasn't 'normal'. Each chamber is designed to make us level up in some way. Maybe at lvl 99 we will become able to deduce a chain of events without so much as looking at the evidence.
That reminds me. These parts of character sheet need to be updated:
Something that concerns me about Luna is that s/he is causing the security cameras to glitch out. While there are other explanations for this, what comes to my mind is that Luna has become a Humanoid Abomination that cannot be seen without going mad.
Something that concerns me about Luna is that s/he is causing the security cameras to glitch out. While there are other explanations for this, what comes to my mind is that Luna has become a Humanoid Abomination that cannot be seen without going mad.
Moon-tan quite obviously has the Ninja build, or whatever Nimbleness-based classes are called. Paranoid, sticks to the shadows (or vents), avoids cameras (and destroys them whenever she can)... She was able to identify camera locations way before we could (her notes mention portraits' eyes staring at her), and she passed us by twice without us seeing a thing, we just sensed there was someone around.
I wonder if 'a person behind us' during the caged/fade update that scared us to death was actually her. We know she was in the same test chamber.
Her special abilities likely involve concealment and lightning speed.
Hmmm... Mari is a Vigor/Gumption build. Her abilities so far center around fearlessness and inventions. I wonder why the 'Inspire' class power was the one Lucy had, it'd be more fitting on Mari. Of course, it's probably because the ability is Moxie-based, and Mari is somewhat lacking in that regard. Having a brain way above your age group and a scientist without a clue about ethics for a father does that to people sometimes.
Well, on the upside we have potential to become her best friend... by virtue of being the only one. Keep up the good work, Lucy, you'll wear her down eventually!
The SILVER THREAD is tied rather LOOSELY to the DOOR HANDLE and extends down the corridor AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE, off into the DARKNESS. It looks like it's intended as a NAVIGATION TOOL, although some paranoid part of you can't help but stop thinking about those CREEPY DEEP SEA FISH that use their tongues as lures to bait smaller fish into their mouths.
There is a distressing LACK OF STUFF. There's a certain SOULLESS QUALITY to the furniture, all PLASTIC and MASS-PRODUCED. Whatever this room is, it's certainly not somebody's home.
The BED is about the right size for SOMEONE OF YOUR AGE. It is FAR FROM PRISTINE and has OBVIOUSLY BEEN SLEPT in QUITE RECENTLY, at some point during the last few days AT LEAST. Other than that, the room is BLAND AND FEATURELESS.
The SINK is unremarkable. A TAP and a BASIN, both made from STAINLESS STEEL. Although it shares a LITTLE OF THE MURKINESS with the water beyond the glass walls of the CORRIDOR, the water from the taps is MUCH CLEANER-LOOKING, seeming MOSTLY DRINKABLE to you.
"What the bloody hell are you even looking at? Do you just examine everything in every room you go into?" Mari gripes at you, standing near the entrance with her arms folded sulkily.
"Yes. That's how you solve a mystery. You have to be observant and pay attention to the details."
"That sound boring and lame." Mari does not seem interested in a lecture on proper junior sleuthing technique, so you decide to go back to meeting her rudeness with polite indifference.
You PUT DOWN the KEYS. You don't think you're going to be NEEDING THEM AGAIN any time soon. The FLASHLIGHT is INORDINATELY HEAVY, but you can just about lift it. It seems to be WORKING FINE, and you turn it off and on again a few times just to check. The light it shines is VERY BRIGHT, looking like a SEARCHLIGHT BEAM more than anything.
[X] Turn the FLASHLIGHT on and carefully walk along THE SILVER THREAD, illuminating THE DARKNESS. See where it leads.
-[X] That's assuming the FLASHLIGHT is working.
You SHINE the FLASHLIGHT through the GLASS into the MURKY BLACKNESS. You can still BARELY SEE ANYTHING through the DARK AND FILTHY WATER. With a shrug, you move the FLASHLIGHT BEAM until it points BACK DOWN THE CORRIDOR, and continue walking. The CORRIDOR, like the last one you went down, feels like it stretches on FOREVER, but you just keep walking, looking behind you every now and then to make sure Mari is still following. After a minute or so, you hear Mari's footsteps stop.
"Calloway." She whispers, a little urgency in her tone.
"What?"
"Look to your left."
You have no idea what she could be alerting you to, but you turn your head, looking out into a MURKY BLACKNESS that looks BLACKER THAN USUAL. Some kind of SHADOW is being cast on the GLASS, like SOMETHING HUGE moving in the water just beyond your range of sight. Curious, you cast your FLASHLIGHT BEAM out into the water. Nothing happens for one second. Five seconds. Ten seconds. And then, just as you're about to shine the FLASHLIGHT back down the CORRIDOR, something presses itself up against the glass. It's so large and alien that it takes you a few seconds to work out what it is, but when you do you nearly drop the flashlight.
An eye. A fish eye, by the looks of it, although from what you know about marine life you doubt that there are any fish in the world with eyes as big as your head. It seems to be looking directly at you. You're about to say something to Mari about how creepy that is before you hear a loud THUMP and the CORRIDOR SHAKES AROUND YOU with the impact of SOMETHING HEAVY impacting the glass.
This... is probably bad.
[] (Write-in voting as usual, yep. Lucy will probably flat-out refuse to do anything that isn't survival-oriented right now, she's a bit scared.)
