[open mingle] I do my crosswords in pen

[keepgodwaiting]

WHO: Constantine (keepgodwaiting) & you!

WHAT: Metaplot deciphering!

WHERE: The Welcome Diner

WHEN: Early December

WARNINGS: Probable discussion of human experimentation


Another month, another weird new building, and Johanna has been thinking. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then they ought to try some new things, right?

Trying to stay away from the dorms at Halloween didn't work. Trying to escape the mall had mixed results. So maybe it's time to abandon the avoidant strategy and see what happens if they approach things a bit more head-on. Starting, in her case, with investigating every open door she could find in the Science Center until she found the director's office.

(Yes, she did just get told off by several friends for running into potentially dangerous situations with no backup; no, she did not alert anybody that she was going to do this; but hey, it was completely uneventful and therefore she has not broken any promises to anyone!)

The most interesting thing in there, by far, is the unlocked computer, and with a little digging she found a very interesting email. More carefully redacted notes. And she wonders ...

So one evening -- around dinner time, after sunset, in the hopes of being available to the most residents -- Johanna posts up in the welcome diner with a stack of notebooks, pens, and her phone. She's hand-copying the redacted file from her phone onto paper, with XXXXXs to indicate the number of characters in the redacted words. It's an arduous process, and every so often she straightens up from the work with a groan to crack her back. After she gets the whole thing copied down, she picks up her phone to make a network post:

Anyone good at crossword puzzles? I've got a doozy of one I'm working on in the diner and could use some help.

Anyone who cares to join her and try to decipher the redacted words, or make additional hard copies of the file to share out, is more than welcome to do so. Or just grab a cup of coffee and share theories with each other.

[ ooc: Feel free to treat this like an open mingle, converse with other characters, hop around, etc! I'll be making a top level with the text of the two redacted files from the newsletter, in which we can crowdsource guesses about what the missing words might be!

ETA: Feel free to put guesses in this document! ]


 

Comments

[justscribing]

CE-41. There have been images of people before, but blurred in a way that they were impossible to identify. If all of these clear faces are indeed people who have been used as tear subjects before, I think we can assume those figures in the blurred images are fake.

[But then, why have they been slotted into previous iterations?

He leans over to inspect the image.] I has assumed these were faked as well, and there's something still not right about them that I don't take them as the full truth. But... now I'm wondering if those two disappear were simply unplugged from this iteration to be used in another time or place.

[And that the same may have been done to people in this iteration. Reusing assets.]

[wordchain]

[ CE-41... Meanwhile, the pennant affixed to the bulletin board in Yesod's picture has "CLASS OF CE-42" emblazoned upon it — both would be relatively recent iterations, then, unlike this sudden insight into one as distant as CE-09.

Alhaitham's remarks provide an interesting new perspective. Yesod glances up. ]

To test adjusted combinations of existing residents each time, in other words?

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham nods.] Or to check trait combinations that they only have a limited number of. They have the means to know everything about us. It's only a matter of how much they're using it.

[Honestly this is all looking haphazard and like these people don't really know the value of the data they are getting. If what they need is to avert a calamity, this is wasting time.]

[wordchain]

[ Yesod offers a nod in turn, acknowledging that possibility. ]

Then, across such combinations, I suppose they reuse those of us who meet the criteria to increase their chances of observing the desired results. It may also reduce the risk that someone would fail to vet new test subjects correctly.

[ Yet here they are, the fiftieth iteration. It's possible that the researchers conducting these experiments have access to the means to alter the flow of time for themselves, or their team has undergone changes like the addition of Dr. Sumalee. ]

If we can expect to learn what became of the other iterations soon, perhaps all dissolution events reflect an element of the behaviors that led to these outcomes.

[justscribing]

Right. This dissolution was reflective of the populous' violent nature, but the surely didn't have to end it this way.

[And beyond the obvious, that could give illumination on things they want to avoid as a group to buy themselves time.

This theory will have a good week of existence before the rest of the science center opens and they see Sharknado.]