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Questionably Soteriological: A Puzzle/Mystery Quest with Kids, Science, and Fun!
- Thread starter causticAccolade
- Start date
- Original
- Location
- Who Knows
AMazing. Hippocratic to Hypocritical. (Just gonna point out maybe he's agreeing about the hypocritical part)
Anyway I love Geneva so so much, but leaving that for later, I absolutely don't trust his password numbers to be accurate. We can't trust him for anything but treatment I'd say, (at least for now).
So! More questions. Hopefully we can pin down some more info.
[X] Use Interrogation for Imbeciles further on Dr. Geneva. You're not like, DOUBTING, the good doctor of course, but are being totally respectful of his ability to lie because well, he did say he was wary of potential elaborate alien killing machines coming up. (Idk if I can put all of these in here but I'm putting down some of the ideas I have.)
-[X] Are you sure that's the password, Dr. Geneva?
--[X] How capable did you think this PIPEDA-er, Bomb Thing, would be at stopping monster alien children from entering anyway?
-[X] If you know us, how WELL do you know us, my Good Doctor Sir Doctor? EVIDENCE is key, how can we believe your claims upfront *GasP*.
-[X] I thought your safe password was fun; what are your thoughts on ostriches?
-[X] AND how are YOU feeling, Dr. Geneva?
> Lucy: Trust Mari
causticAccolade
dead yet dreaming
- Location
- Silent Sound, Cipher Cove, Levoile.
CLASS MACHINATION ACTIVATED: [INTERROGATION FOR IMBECILES]
Try as you might... without being able to see Dr. Geneva, with just his voice coming through the STATICKY INTERCOM to go by, you're not quite sure you can detect any LIES he might be telling you. It's a scary feeling, being given little option but to trust someone entirely untrustworthy.
Unless, of course, you have the option of trusting someone else. Marinette is already hard at work, inputting the code with a rapidfire series of BEEPS to accompany her work. The cover of the thing pops off, revealing a MESS OF WIRES AND ELECTRONICS. It's clearly something put together on short notice, you can tell just by looking at it.
"Whoever made this had fast hands," Mari comments, "But had absolutely no idea what they were doing mechanically."
"Well, that's just rude. You're hurting my feelings," laments Dr. Geneva through the intercom.
As Mari continues to appraise, you turn your mind back to the conversation.
"I've never played roulette — and I think it's very inappropriate to tell me that it's fun, Dr. Geneva."
"Shame on you," adds Owen, seriously.
"Well... it's not supposed to be fun for you," he replies, accented voice still tauntingly sing-song.
"Are we supposed to be violent alien killing machines?" you ask, a little alarmed, before bringing it back with the cool and collected demeanour that's such a vital part of being a SLEUTH. "What do you know about all of this, anyway? And, uh, remember that anything you say can and will be used against you!" Over your years of experience, you've learned that informing people of that fact is a VITAL part of JUSTICE. Why, it feels like only yesterday that you tricked the JUICE BOX BANDIT into accidentally revealing his crimes in front of Mrs. Presley and getting detention for a week.
"Ahahaha... I will try and keep it in mind, young lady. You are... the most successful subjects. The final product, one might say. You are what we have been trying to create! It was much more difficult than we anticipated, of course, because... well. Let me explain it to you by analogy. Imagine that you find a... how is it called, a flash drive, and on it is an advanced antivirus software that you need to defend your computer from a virus that you know is going to be released. But it can only run on certain hardware, and if you run it wrong, you risk destroying your hardware, as well as incurring... collateral damage. In our case, what is supposed to be our antivirus software has unfortunately been released into a rather uncontrolled environment, and is running around the facility asking handsome doctors silly questions and solving puzzles. So it is a real predicament, ja?"
Andelevion said:
As you try to process what you've just heard, Owen chips in to fill the silence. "So, uh. My name's Owen."
"Ah, I don't care. As far as I am professionally concerned, you are Mercury."
"Oh," Owen says, seeming a little put off but valiantly trying his best anyway. "You're very smug for someone who's barricaded himself in with an explodey murder machine wotsit. Having a good day?"
"Not particularly, no."
"Will it be made any better if you explode us by not telling us which wire to cut?"
"I am not trying to explode anyone, Mercury. I only want to get out of this day alive, prevent the world from being ended, and go back home to see my husband. Cutting any wire will result in a 50% chance of the device exploding. But I wouldn't be too worried. I suspect, between the three of you, you have ways to deal with that, yes?"
The WATCH seems perfectly innocuous, if fancy. Mari leans over to whisper to you. "If you give me those gears, I think I'd be able to disarm this more safely. Although I'm not making any guarantees."
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causticAccolade
dead yet dreaming
- Location
- Silent Sound, Cipher Cove, Levoile.
Still not dead! I somehow messed up the formatting so it ate an entire paragraph of dialogue, which I was only able to rectify by deleting a quote. No clue what's going on there.
InterstellarHobo
Cosmic Vagrant
- Location
- No Fixed Planetary System
Huzzah! Updates!
Might want to threadmark it.
[X] Lucy- Get Mari geared up
[X] Mari- keep the bomb, obviously
Might want to threadmark it.
[X] Lucy- Get Mari geared up
[X] Mari- keep the bomb, obviously
elenchus
leftism is quantifiable
- Location
- Texas ;_;
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Nnnnnnot trusting a word of this.
...Wait, is this the same language Lucy was unable to read back in THE OLD WORDS? The one Mari's mother was instrumental in translating?
[X] Ask if Mari can read the note or recognizes the handwriting.
It looks like the Crab was a former test subject of the Ascension serums, given its crystals' similarity to Mars', which makes me wonder why it's an unsuccessful subject given that it's still alive. Maybe it isn't very good at the murdering bit, even if it has the antipathy towards all other forms of life down pat?
Also, I just blitzed through the past few chapters, and I can say with absolute certainty that everyone is Best Girl. Except Owen, who's Best Filler Character, and Dr. Geneva, who's Worst. Not worst anything, just Worst.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Nah, I think those make our head hurt and cause a reaction. I think it's a jab at doctors' handwriting. Though why would Geneva go through the trouble of leaving a note with a compliment... he doesn't strike me as a gentlemanly type.
Could be Ankara's?
He is in a tight competition with Mr. Stockholm for that title.
That's ignoring Uncle Jack, who is in a category of his own.
I am mildly confused and annoyed at assembling a perfectly normal watch that I can't think of a use for in the context of this room's puzzle. This never happened before!
I suppose it served its role in separating the watch parts from the gears that Mari intends to use to disarm the bomb.Anyway, I don't think there is much left to do here, assuming we have examined everything. Now it's just up to Mari and maybe Owen to disarm the bomb, with Luce and her Gambit as a safety net.
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pantherasapiens
you were always my best friend
- Location
- somewhere over your shoulder
...Geneva is just doing this to annoy people, isn't he now.
GENEVA HAS A HUSBAND. WHO. That poor soul! He needs rescuing!
ChildishChimera
A umbran summon
- Location
- New York
[X] Lucy- pass Mari the Leftover Gears
[X] Mari- use the gears on the bomb, smugly
[X] Owen- Ask why their named after planets instead original code names.
[X] Lucy- check up with up kala ask if she has anything to say to the bad doctor.
[X] Mari- use the gears on the bomb, smugly
[X] Owen- Ask why their named after planets instead original code names.
[X] Lucy- check up with up kala ask if she has anything to say to the bad doctor.
elenchus
leftism is quantifiable
- Location
- Texas ;_;
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think Kala's trying to hide from him, and this would expose where she is.
ChildishChimera
A umbran summon
- Location
- New York
[] Lucy- check up with up kala ask if she wants to confront the bad doctor.
How's this
> Mari: Disarm PIPEDAD
causticAccolade
dead yet dreaming
- Location
- Silent Sound, Cipher Cove, Levoile.
[GUMPTION CHECK: SUCCEEDED!]
Using the tweezers and scalpel, Marinette cuts several wires and quickly begins to modify the PIPEDAD, looking intensely at it with a focus so singleminded you feel like she could cut through the entire door like a laserbeam with it. After a few seconds of tense silence, she looks up with a smile. "It's safe," she says, evidently proud of herself.
"Oh, that's just Dr. Geneva's handwriting. Father always complained about how he made it illegible on purpose."
"I would never," Geneva complains over the intercom.
"Can you please call me Owen? Isn't Mercury, like, the stuff they put in speedometers?"
"Thermometers," mutters Mari, rolling her eyes.
"Shut-up-Mari-nobody-cares-o-meters."
"Children, please," Geneva says, tone one of easy amusement. "Each serum we administered had a different... active ingredient, let us say. Since they came from the stars, our old project director — your mother, may she rest in peace — thought it fit to name them after the planets."
While this conversation goes on, you finally finish thinking about something Geneva said. "I hope you don't mind me asking, Mr. Geneva,"
"Doctor."
"Doctor Mr. Geneva, why do you think the world is in danger?"
"Ah. Let me tell you a story."
You don't particularly want to hear a story, but you've learned over the years that when an adult wants to tell you a boring story instead of just getting to the point and answering a simple question, you couldn't even stop them by killing them.
"Two hunters are out in the woods, when they see a wolf, running as fast as it can, out of the undergrowth and past them. One of the hunters begins to run in the same direction, and the other one laughs. 'Hey, the wolf is gone, why are you running?' he asks. And the other huntsman calls back, 'I don't want to stick around to meet whatever a wolf is running away from!'"
- Location
- Rochester, NY
[X] If you and the other adults are the hunters, then what were the wolves? And just what were the wolves running from?
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
[X] Given how wolves tend to be the top predators in their environment, probably more hunters. Why do you assume that whatever scared off the scary thing you saw running away is itself hostile? I assume there's something, because you seem very sure that the world faces doom.
(Note: I am deliberately overstretching the metaphor in the hopes of getting better information.)
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- Location
- St. Petersburg
It's a throwback to Chapter 3.
The ENTITIES themselves, the elements/fragments (?) of which we are carrying/cultivating within us thanks to the serum, were fleeing 'persecution'. Whatever that is.
I wonder who the Eigth one is. I have theorised that it's Gaia... especially since she got her own paragraph in Chapter 4 impying she is the end goal of the Experiment...
...but what does she do?
It's a bit hard to track whether the kids know anything about it IC, for us to ask Geneva about it.
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- Location
- Rochester, NY
Yes, I remember that, I'm just not sure if Lucy and the other kids remember that stuff, since she's tended not to retain what she sees in those visions.
ChildishChimera
A umbran summon
- Location
- New York
[X] Lucy- congratulate Mari on not blowing us up and ask if any of this sounds familiar
[X] Owen- Ask how turning us to space children helps the problem we're not super heroes.
[X] Owen- Ask how turning us to space children helps the problem we're not super heroes.
Smack a X box infront of that
elenchus
leftism is quantifiable
- Location
- Texas ;_;
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A pretty apt metaphor given the events of the most recent chapter, to be sure.
Also, given the events of the Mars belligerence, it looks like when Ascension is high enough the children can hear the voices? Or see what happened to them?
- Location
- Who Knows
Wait, do we know there are other other children. If so, now's a time to ask more questions about Us. And also to get our kids in the know about things that we readers have picked up on.
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- Location
- St. Petersburg
We know only what Dr. Ankara told us. I thought we asked her about how many of us are there, but apparently not.
We only asked her about Moth and Kala, the ones we knew about. She also said not to approach the others as they are now. Marinette could know more, I suppose.
We should probably get their identities/designators and/or current status, at the minimum.
elenchus
leftism is quantifiable
- Location
- Texas ;_;
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If Lucy hasn't caught on to the pattern by now (Mercury///Luna/Mars/Jupiter/Saturn) she needs to turn in her detective stamp.
...Though I wonder if Dr. Geneva would mention Gaia if we asked him? Probably not, "don't trust him with anything except medical care" and whatnot.
...Though I wonder if Dr. Geneva would mention Gaia if we asked him? Probably not, "don't trust him with anything except medical care" and whatnot.
InterstellarHobo
Cosmic Vagrant
- Location
- No Fixed Planetary System
Hmm, we can get through the door now, yes? Why not have these conversations in person?
[X] LUCY: Bust down the door for a dramatic entrance!
[X] Owen: Shut the door
[X] Owen: Bust down the door for a dramatic entrance!
[X] LUCY: Bust down the door for a dramatic entrance!
[X] Owen: Shut the door
[X] Owen: Bust down the door for a dramatic entrance!
- Location
- St. Petersburg
It is not obvious. Sol and Luna aren't planets. Why take a designation from a satellite, Luna, over the name of a planet like Neptune or Uranus? If satellites are allowed, why wouldn't there be Deimos or Phobos, not to mention over a hundred of those orbiting Jupiter and Saturn?
I think the only real IC clue we have to the number of children is the puzzle way back in the 1st chapter where there were only 8 tiles in the entire planetarium:
...huh. The Earth is in the center.
I suppose we can ask him about Gaia, then.
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While Sol and Luna aren't modern planets, they are classical planets. Hence why they are used instead of Uranus and Neptune - in antiquity, the latter two weren't even known to exist.