cartesianism | May 25th

May 25th - Final Day

Final Investigation

It's Friday. It's the last day marked in your calendar. Presumably, the few without medals will leave at some point today, and the rest...you're not sure what'll happen to you, but it'll be what the Sergeant wants.

How to defy him when you have so little time left?

Whatever plan you had today, it's guaranteed it won't go like expected. Early in the morning, the ground rumble slightly, and something pops in the sky. Fireworks! One after another, blasts from firework spread through the sky. Many of the residents of Cartesio come to the street, gathering and making all the noise they can.

It's a very radical change of behavior, compared to the once peaceful demeanor they had, and then the hostile behavior showed towards the visitors, but now they're making hubbub and causing disorder. Everyone does it spontaneously, and nobody's approaching the motel at all.

At least none of the townspeople.

Not long after that started, you may hear the noise of horns and whistles from vehicles, right outside the motel. Go take a look?

Links

IC Rules
Guestbook
Room Assignments
Locations

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Surely you're holding the box in front of you in case something happens, Kino, you cautious gal.

When she and the others get to the end of the staircase, they find themselves in once another damaged hallway, like the reception. Pipes are broken, there's a few cables hanging from the ceiling, and there are inches of dust on the floor.

Worth noting there's also a monitor in the middle, showing the exact same hallway, identical to what you're all seeing now. Neither Gant nor Kino nor Keith appear on the feed at all.

Along the hallway, there are several doors. Some too damaged to open, others unlocked and available. Time to explore and see if there's anything valuable!]

Edited 2018-11-23 19:06 (UTC)

[Well now that they've all convened in the basement, Keith's looking at the doors and then at both Kino and Gant.]

Let's split up. Stay sharp.

[He'll head towards one of the unlocked doors with neon wolf.]

[Wolf first. Careful when entering, there's this big pipe right in the entrance, spilling water into the place.

What Keith finds is what seems to be a workshop of some sort. The floor is completely flooded, there's overturned chairs, the walls are cracked and dirt is leaking in. Very unsafe room.

The walls are decorated with whiteboards, filled with equations and symbols. Although most of it is intact, it's nigh unreadable because of how complex everything is.

On the other side of the room there's another monitor, displaying the room. Identical, yup. Keith doesn't appear on it]

[Wow, neither Cosmo nor Keith are looking too happy about this?? But he'll stop to look at those whiteboards cuz it feels an awful lot like he just walked into Pidge's room or something.... if Pidge were a lunatic and let her room get into this much disrepair.

Are any of the equations at least recognizable in part? Do they look more like chemistry equations or physics equations or is this completely impossible to tell?]

[Physics. Lots of forces and x.

There's a word on one of them that's out of place, though:

Radial]

[Radial, huh.

Any indication as to why radial is on written out? Is whoever wrote this out trying to solve for something radial or is it on the board with seemingly no context?]

[It seems to be related to the closest equations.

Whatever 'radial' means, looks like it's related to the calculations here.

No way to know what exactly it means, though. Looks like you're done in this room.

You may want to join Gant and Kino over here! There's some stuff to find, while they deal with their stuff]

[Cool, at least they aren't being recorded. Time to check out one of the unlocked doors...?

Gotta get that fine loot after all.]

[When Kino opens the door, she finds a room that's perfectly intact. It's all white, clean, and there are machines attached to the wall, covered with lights and panels.

The air is clean, there's no sign of dust, it's all nice to the point it feels...unnatural.

And amidst everything, there's one thing that's out of place: a monitor. A broken monitor, that is. No feed of this room]

[...Is there any way to see what might have caused it to break?]

[Indeed there is. Part of the screen is broken, and the insides are peeking through.

It's...strange. Maybe the closest Kino can think is if someone had grabbed the monitor and shaken it around until the insides got scrambled]

[Temper tantrum there, Sarge?

What about the rest of the room? Can she figure out anything about the machinery?]

[You can't, Kino. But that's not because you don't know.

It's more because they don't seem to be fulfilling any sort of purpose. It's like they're decoration. Pressing stuff does nothing, even trying to shoot at them with your many guns seem to do much.

It's like they're props, to fill this place]

(no subject)

quickpersuader - 2018-11-23 19:28 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

cartesio - 2018-11-23 19:30 (UTC) - Expand

Splitting the party isn't usually the best idea, but... well, time to go exploring!

[LET'S CHECK OUT ONE OF THOSE DOORS!]

[You hit the motherload, Gant. It's Workshop #5, unlocked and available.

Inside, the room is...strangely, in what seems to be a middle point between clean and destroyed. Several operating tables are there, there's strange pipes on the ceiling, and the walls are covered with tools.

The operating tables are not empty, though. All but one have figures prone on them]

[OH BOY, THIS ISN'T MORBID AT ALL. WHO'S ON THE OPERATING TABLES]

[It's nobody you know.

Because they don't have faces, that is.

For some reason, these seem to be mannequins. Transparent mannequins, made of some sort of resin. There are tufts on the head that seem to be hair, and the mannequins are very articulate. Almost in an uncanny manner]

Oh, that's just creepy, isn't it...

[Is the hair different colors, or is it all the same? Just... for posterity's sake.]

[They all seem to be of the same white color. So many mannequins in the same position, lying around...

When Gant's taking a look, he gets a bit too close to the mannequin. Something changes.

Suddenly, the transparent cover takes color. The mannequin expands, fabric grows, the face takes features, the hair turns a bit brighter and life-like...

...until on the table there's an exact copy of Damon Gant, just that he's unconscious. Well then!]

(no subject)

protectandselfserve - 2018-11-23 19:54 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

cartesio - 2018-11-23 19:58 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

protectandselfserve - 2018-11-23 20:00 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

cartesio - 2018-11-23 20:21 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

protectandselfserve - 2018-11-23 20:27 (UTC) - Expand

[WELL NOW WE ARE CHECKING OUT THIS PLACE I GUESS. She sees Gant go for the mannequins and starts looking around for other stuff to examine.]

[There's something on a table at the far end of the room. Do you remember the PDA Sarge used to pronounce Jughead's very old-school name?

It's there]

[TIME TO LOOT or at least just see what it's got.]

[Making a mess like always, eh, Keith?

On the table near you, there's a book and a list pinned to a wall. Take a look!]

[NOT HIS FAULT THIS TIME.

But yes, let's go check out this list first!]