Questionably Soteriological: A Puzzle/Mystery Quest with Kids, Science, and Fun!

[Nevill]

[X] Introduce yourself [The success of this will depend upon a MOXIE CHECK.]
-[X] SHAKENLY

--[X] "H-hello. I am Lucy Calloway, Junior Sleuth Extraordinaire, and t-this is my friend, Marinette Brighton. We are looking for a way out. (beat) And her father."
--[X] "A-are you alone?"

[X] Aside from simple introductions, try to pull ourselves together a bit before delving into interview-mode or puzzle-solving mode

Also, I quite liked that line Mari had to say about her father. It may not have been the most positive of things to share, but at least she was willing to open up to us about it.

Click to shrink...

I was very surprised. It was a very strange thing to share in the middle of a labyrinth. Like an apology for what would follow.

How much does she know about the facility, hm?

I suppose it should be obvious, but... Is Lucy scared of the dark?

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And of the things trying to kill her, in general. Though we've run through the dark corridor with an EYE following us without much trouble, losing only a few points. But with a flickering lights corridor before we've lost a ton. It's probably a combination of dark and unknown danger that is getting to her.

Edit: Wow! I just saw we're down to only 10 Élan. That could be very bad for us...

Click to shrink...

This whole building is not good for us. But we can't break down when there is someone who might need our help, which is one of the reasons for why we chose this path in the first place.

 

[Broken25]

Edit: Wow! I just saw we're down to only 10 Élan. That could be very bad for us...

Click to shrink...

Well. Aren't you glad we spinned that chair? And all the other fun silly things.

[X] Introduce yourself [The success of this will depend upon a MOXIE CHECK.]
-[X] SHAKENLY

This whole building is not good for us. But we can't break down when there is someone who might need our help, which is one of the reasons for why we chose this path in the first place.

Click to shrink...

I think we will be able to recover a bit in this room. We have a new companion and this place feels more or less safe.

 

[Nevill]

Well. Aren't you glad we spinned that chair? And all the other fun silly things.

Click to shrink...

Lucy's sleuthing methods are very unorthodox indeed. You are in a security room with an artefact stone tablet and a dossier on the staff. What do you do?

In order of priority:
- Spin in the chair
- Snuggle up to the luxurious carpet
- Don the sunglasses and pose around
- Examine the documents

I think Mari will be learning the Eyebrow Sign Language very expeditiously with us.

I think we will be able to recover a bit in this room.

Click to shrink...

Maybe. But first, we must find the wounded one.

OOC we know that Mars is missing.

 

[TurtleDucks]

[X] Introduce yourself [The success of this will depend upon a MOXIE CHECK.]
-[X] SHAKENLY

--[X] "H-hello. I am Lucy Calloway, Junior Sleuth Extraordinaire, and t-this is my friend, Marinette Brighton. We are looking for a way out. (beat) And her father. Have you seen him, per chance?"
--[X] "You do not look hurt. Whose blood is it, then? Do they need help?"

 

[veekie]

[X] Burst into tears [+90 ÉLAN. This will make a VERY POOR FIRST IMPRESSION.]

I think we need the Elan more.

 

[Random Word]

[X] Burst into tears [+90 ÉLAN. This will make a VERY POOR FIRST IMPRESSION.]

Mental breakdowns in dangerous situations are far worse than embarrassing situations.

 

[The Laurent]

[X] Introduce yourself [The success of this will depend upon a MOXIE CHECK.]
-[X] SHAKENLY

--[X] "H-hello. I am Lucy Calloway, Junior Sleuth Extraordinaire, and t-this is my friend, Marinette Brighton. We are looking for a way out. (beat) And her father. Have you seen him, per chance?"
--[X] "You do not look hurt. Whose blood is it, then? Do they need help?"

By the way: if we lose all of our Elan, does that mean we go insane and start writing on the walls?

 

[Broken25]

We don't know.

 

[PayKey]

Mari, for her part, seems totally unaffected, regarding the puddle with dull disinterest, only seeming to bother avoiding it because her shoes are fancy. Too fancy, you reckon, to get blood on.

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Lucy, all shoes are to fancy to get blood on, darling.

Lucy's sleuthing methods are very unorthodox indeed. You are in a security room with an artefact stone tablet and a dossier on the staff. What do you do?

In order of priority:
- Spin in the chair
- Snuggle up to the luxurious carpet
- Don the sunglasses and pose around
- Examine the documents

Click to shrink...

I'm imagining this in the most cartoonish way possible. Just Lucy witching between each at super speed, with the speed lines and everything, before turning on serious mode like a switch. If we were older I'm pretty sure we'd count as insane guys.

Anyway:
[X] Burst into tears [+90 ÉLAN. This will make a VERY POOR FIRST IMPRESSION.]
We need ÉLAN bad.

 

[EvilPorygon]

[X] Burst into tears [+90 ÉLAN. This will make a VERY POOR FIRST IMPRESSION.]

I won't risk it with just 10 ÈLAN. Asking "whose blood is it?" might just result in "Another kid, Mars. He's...dead."

Those measly ten points would then fly out the nonexistent window, and we'd stop all forms of communication- except writing on the wall with a green marker.

 

[Chimerasame]

Spoiler

I don't remember seeing this in the 19 pages thus far, but I may have missed it. Do we know what actually happens if we run out of Elan? Running out of vitality seems reasonably clear (i'd guess either unconsciousness or death), but running out of Elan has a bit less of an intuitive result... is that an endgame? (I guess death might not be an endgame depending on what we are...) -- Or do we just uncontrollably burst into tears anyway if it happens? (If so, does that restore 90?) Or do we just crumble to the ground unable to take actions, functionally equivalent to unconsciousness, but still may recover Elan slowly by resting or something?

Without knowing that (maybe even with), -- really torn on this one. On the one hand, OOC I'm concerned about lack of Elan, IC i think it's very reasonable for someone represented by the mechanics of having only 10 Elan would burst into tears, we should let ourselves express our felt emotions and not bottle them up to our own detriment, and even if it makes a very bad impression, our Moxie is sufficiently high that I think we ought to be able to win Owen over afterwards.

On the other hand, this seems like a reasonably safe room. There's a video game console here, that strikes me as something which could restore Elan (perhaps not 90, but should do more than 5, if spinning in a chair does 5.) ... Well, maybe depending on just what games are available.

And I really don't want to have to eat that hat. It's a good hat.

[X] Introduce yourself [The success of this will depend upon a MOXIE CHECK.]
-[X] SHAKENLY
--[X] "H-hello. I am Lucy Calloway, Junior Sleuth Extraordinaire, and t-this is my friend, Marinette Brighton."

[X] Aside from simple introductions, try to pull ourselves together a bit before delving into interview-mode or puzzle-solving mode

 

[Nevill]

I won't risk it with just 10 ÈLAN. Asking "whose blood is it?" might just result in "Another kid, Mars. He's...dead."

Click to shrink...

A valid concern.

The way I see it, there are two ways to fight fear. One is 'I should not be afraid, these people will protect me'. The other is 'I can't afford to be afraid, these people depend on me'. I do not know if Lucy is cut out for the latter, but I am trying to nudge her in this direction a bit. She already used to think of the well-being of those around her, but now the stakes went up by a lot.

I was really glad we found Mari, because it gave Lucy something to care about except her own safety and possible demise. Even now she clings to it:

You still feel terrible, and honestly just want to curl up into a ball and stay there for a while. But you're a JUNIOR SLEUTH, and you HAVE A CASE, GODDAMMIT.

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Maybe it's asking for too much of a little girl, but it might provide her with a reason to push through. So, trying to help first, crying later.

Those measly ten points would then fly out the nonexistent window, and we'd stop all forms of communication- except writing on the wall with a green marker.

Click to shrink...

On the other hand, that might be what the 'first stage' is. For all we know, they are trying to break the kids' minds and let something else take over.

Not that it's a good thing...

 

[EvilPorygon]

On the other hand, that might be what the 'first stage' is. For all we know, they are trying to break the kids' minds and let something else take over.

Not that it's a good thing...

Click to shrink...

I had initially assumed the first stage to be, well, an actual level of the maze/puzzles.

It could be the mental progression thing too, as you say. We already heard a VOICE in our heads, and that's certainly not a good thing. . .

 

[TurtleDucks]

I had initially assumed the first stage to be, well, an actual level of the maze/puzzles.

It could be the mental progression thing too, as you say. We already heard a VOICE in our heads, and that's certainly not a good thing. . .

Click to shrink...

I think the voice had more to do with the tablet we encountered than our sanity, we had about 130/200 at the time we encountered that.

 

[Nevill]

I had initially assumed the first stage to be, well, an actual level of the maze/puzzles.

Click to shrink...

It's a mental state, I think. Or at least a state of a person. Luna was said to be pre-first stage after 3 months on a serum. That does not sound like a place.

We already heard a VOICE in our heads, and that's certainly not a good thing. . .

Click to shrink...

We have noticed something wrong with our eyes when we examined ourselves:

The CLASS MACHINATION [DEDUCTION FOR DUMMIES] has been activated!
You are LUCY CALLOWAY. You are ELEVEN YEARS OLD, you DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, and you're SCARED.
For a second, the first thing that you notice is that there's something weird about your eyes - but then it's gone. It must have been a trick of the light. They're brown and inquisitive, just like normal.

Click to shrink...

We've been on drugs for 3 months at least, it's a given that some changes have already occured.

 

[EvilPorygon]

I think the voice had more to do with the tablet we encountered than our sanity, we had about 130/200 at the time we encountered that.

Click to shrink...

130/250 to be exact, but you might be right regardless. It did happen when upon focusing on the tablet.

On the other hand,

We have noticed something wrong with our eyes when we examined ourselves:

We've been on drugs for 3 months at least, it's a given that some changes have already occured.

Click to shrink...

This. I had no memory of cyan script appearing before, good catch there.

Perhaps it's a combination of both. The changes in our mind and our eyes might be related with the indecipherable ancient runes on some level.

 

[Nevill]

The changes in our mind and our eyes might be related with the indecipherable ancient runes on some level.

Click to shrink...

Heh, what's up with 'might'?

Melody Brighton was a researcher translating ancient scripts trying to 'save the world'. Her husband has an interest in Astrogeology and has been confirmed experimenting on children who are color-coded and codenamed as celetial bodies - in what some attempt to justify as... you guessed it, 'trying to save the world'. The kids - or something they are trying to synthesize within them - react to the runes (well, at least we do). It's all different parts of the same project.

The problem I have with directly connecting the tablet to us is that there are only 7 sentences, and 8 kids (Sol, 6 planets from Mercury to Saturn, and Luna). But does Mari really count? If it's June now (which we don't know yet - Mari thinks so, but she might be mistaken), then she was not changed yet.

I don't know. We need to find either more of Helsinki's journals or one of the staff to learn more about what is going on here.

 

[EvilPorygon]

Heh, what's up with 'might'?

Click to shrink...

might

must

 

[Gingganz]

Neat Quest. The puzzles are fascinating, and I love Lucy's narration.

[X] Burst into tears [+90 ÉLAN. This will make a VERY POOR FIRST IMPRESSION.]

10 ÉLAN is almost nothing, and I really don't want to know what will happen once we reach 0. Staying sane is more important than leaving a good impression.

 

[Andelevion]

I'm very concerned about Lucy right now but darn. Is it possible to try to introduce ourself first (shakenly) and THEN burst into tears???

OTHERWISE

[X] Burst into tears [+90 ÉLAN. This will make a VERY POOR FIRST IMPRESSION.]

Can we roll a moxie check on that

Also don't ask whose blood it is seriously, we don't know if this kid knows anything either lmao and we don't know if it came from a person

ALSO WE NEED TO CHEER UP SO PUNS PUNS EVERYWHERE

[X] SAY SOMETHING TO TRY TO "BLOOD"STER OUR WAY OUT SINCE YOU "RED"THER START ON "BED"TER FOOTING

 

[Nevill]

There's a video game console here, that strikes me as something which could restore Elan [...] Well, maybe depending on just what games are available.

Click to shrink...

Why do I have the feeling that the only games around here come from the Used shelf of a certain store...

Spoiler: Bunker Blaster The Game

Also don't ask whose blood it is seriously, we don't know if this kid knows anything either lmao and we don't know if it came from a person

Click to shrink...

We followed the trail of fresh blood thinking someone might have got hurt. It's what led us here.

That said... I changed my question to 'are you alone?' Argh, I just don't know!

 

[Andelevion]

We followed the trail of fresh blood thinking someone might have got hurt. It's what led us here.

Click to shrink...

Ahh! But I think then it might be better to ask whether the kid knows where the blood comes from? And not whose it is.

But that might just be me

 

[The Laurent]

Honestly, I wonder at the bursting into tears. It helps, sure, but...hrm. We're going to lose all of our cred not only with him, but some with our partner in crime. I mean...

 

[Nevill]

Ahh! But I think then it might be better to ask whether the kid knows where the blood comes from?

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that's what I meant to ask. He isn't wounded, as far as we can see, so what happened?

Eh, if there is no pressing situation where we have to make Mari apply HIW to a human body that is bleeding out (who said it isn't a complex mechanism?) as we frantically search for something to serve as First Aid Kit, I'd probably have Lucy collapse on an EXCEEDINGLY SOFT AND COMFORTABLE BED right then and there. Maybe a good night's sleep will help us regain composure and a modicum of sanity.

Hm, does the Institute have Companion Cubes? We might have a use for one or two...

 

[veekie]

Can we roll a moxie check on that

Click to shrink...

Successful moxie check on bursting into tears WOULD look adorable

Honestly, I wonder at the bursting into tears. It helps, sure, but...hrm. We're going to lose all of our cred not only with him, but some with our partner in crime. I mean...

Click to shrink...

Maybe. But if we lose our shit a moment later in a crisis due to hitting Elan -20, we'd lose our cred anyway AND be a liability.