[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

[featheradrift]

There's a good chance there's nothing past the borders. [ Kind of like dreams. He wasn't stuck in the Sabzeruz samsara, but he's asked Nahida a few things out of curiosity. This whole simulation thing reminds him of the dream samsara, actually. But it's not one, so any knowledge he has of dreams won't be useful here. ] It'd be a smaller load on their system if they didn't have to simulate the entire city.

[ As for resets... this is where his puppet constitution could come to use. ] I could monitor a store when it's supposed to reset.

[justscribing]

Oh, you're capable of not blinking? [Alhaitham just isn't sure what degree certain instinctual functions are... programed? Into him.]

[featheradrift]

I don't need to do most things you humans need to.

[ He's just a puppet after all. A doll that can never be a real human. He imitates them, if only to better blend in with humanity. ]

[justscribing]

[Okay well now he has to ask:] It is a conscious effort that you do so, or still something that happens instinctually and you have to purposefully hold your eyes open?

[featheradrift]

[ It's only because it's Alhaitham that he's comfortable divulging this information. ]

Instinctual. ...I learned to imitate humans long ago.

[ It wasn't something he was taught. He just copied the people around him as best he could, because he did not want the people of Tatarasuna to fear him. ]

[justscribing]

Interesting. ["Learned to" huh.] Then maybe we can learn something. I considered setting up a kamera, but I believe seeing it directly is more reliable.

Ingredients in the restaurants are currently restocking every three days. The kitchen for one could be cleared out and then watched until midnight on the third day.

[featheradrift]

[ Right, he's seen that phenomenon multiple times now, having taken over a restaurant for his own purposes. But he wouldn't want to screw up the stock he has access to in easy reach, so he could set up vigil at another restaurant nearby. ]

Consider it done.