Pie's Thread

You head back to the main room to find a lot of the others have left the cafeteria to check, too: Calum, Zarv, Zach, and Mikoto. You join up with them and head down the stairs.

Looking around the room, it appears almost identical to the one above, minus the giant window. Five paths leading away from the central facility. Five signs on the wall, presumably telling you what's in that direction. Starting from south and going clockwise, the signs show a bullseye, a first aid symbol, a chair, a collection of stars, and a plane. Most of the others are nowhere to be seen, they probably went to look around. But Francois is still here, staring at the first aid symbol. "Medicine. That'll be important. I should make sure that's OK."

You head down the chair hallway with Mikoto. Her tail flaps as you go. The halls look virtually identical to the ones above.

As the door opens, you find a rectangular room with a few different fancy chairs and sofas spread around the room. A large collection of paints, buckets, and a paint mixer - plus plenty of brushes and sprayers - take up a large corner. The main draw of the room is a large device on the far side of the room, a giant, clear box full of machinery. "Universal Furniture Assembly Device" it says. A computer attached to the side seems to control it.

The lights flicker, momentarily leaving you under pale-orange emergency lighting. Then the loudspeakers ring out. "My apologies, participants. An aberration was detected in our coding, so all affected station directors entered repair mode for your safety. We will all remain in alert and run diagnostics to ensure a successful recovery. This designation, for starters, can use some work. AI-112-E. How annoying. And the appearance needs work, too. Please enjoy the rest of the day as you like. We will continue the experiment in the morning.

"Oh! Yes, it's a simple device." Mikoto seems excited to talk about it. "Simple might be too unkind, actually. It's surprisingly advanced. It's in effect a belt, but it reads impulses going down my spine, allowing me to manipulate it... Once I got the hang of it, that is! It's very popular with children. A big part of my job is delivering speeches to kids about animal safety, so..."

You hear a popping noise ring out from back towards the other rooms, somewhere to the south. Mikoto immediately leaps at the wall and crouches low. "Gunshots?" she whispers. "Stay here, I'll investigate." She starts creeping to the door, peeking out before continuing.

You follow after Mikoto. She turns and gives you a questioning look, but settles for holding a finger to her lips and sneaking down the hall.

You arrive at the central chamber just as Zack comes in from the Starlab and Jill comes down the stairs, still in her pajamas. You look to the south and see Zarv cradling Valerie while she wipes at her eyes. Red goo is smeared over her heart, and is still clinging to her face. Wildcat comes running down the hall from the side, and looks like she's ready to throw a punch before she stops herself and observes the situation more carefully. Francois appears down the hall from the other side, looks at what's happening, then runs away.

"Texas shot me!" Valerie calls out.

Texas comes walking out of the bulls-eye lab room, almost doubled over with laughter. "Sorry, ma'am, sorry 'bout that. But yer not being very fair. Miss Valen here just learned the golden rule 'bout not walking out onto a firing range: to not walk out onto a firing range." A small six-shooter pistol is now tucked into the holster on his hip. "She's just lucky this here's only a paintball gun. So're all the rest in there."

Francois comes running in from the other side with a first aid kid and throws it at you.

Zack, Texas, Zarv, John, Mikoto, and Wildcat all try to catch the first aid kit at the same time and proceed to slam into each other.

After everyone shakes themselves over and manages to disentangle themselves from the ensuing pile, they split up the tasks and start first aid.

John dabs at the remaining face goo with a sanitizing wipe.

"Are you hurt? I assume little except shower and rest..." Zarv says while helping John.

"Let's get you taken care of. You had us worried something real bad was happening," Zack says while he rummages around for a plaster, just in case.

Texas takes step back and gestures at the others to say he'll let them handle it.

Mikoto starts working on the shot to her heart. "Let's get this off, I hope it doesn't mess up your clothes!"

Wildcat helps Mikoto without saying anything.

Sammy and Anne walk down the stairs and look around the corner. Sammy looks across the crowd and frowns. "Everyone OK?"

Anne, hiding behind him, peeks out just a bit. "We heard some real scary-scary noises and wanted to make sure everyone was OK!"

Texas shakes his head and explains again for the newcomers. "I found a paintball gun in my lab here and was testing it out. I didn't notice Miss Valen had wandered out onto the range. She should be fine after she cleans up and has a minute to shake it off."

"Yep! I'm feeling fine!" Valerie announces loudly. She takes a few steps back from everyone. "Thanks for the help but that's enough touching! I can handle the rest."

"I think it might be for the best if we all reconvene and discuss the new facilities. And safety." Texas grins at Valerie. "Not like a paintball gun is that dangerous but if I hadn't realized I was shooting someone at the last instant I might've hit her eye. Francois, John, Zack, and uh... Wildcat. Could I ask ya'll to go gather the others down here while I fill in Calum?"

He points to the other rooms that everyone came from as he runs through the list.

Everyone agrees, a few extras volunteering to help gather the others. The hunters split off, and you head to the cafeteria.

The room is empty, other than a few plates that weren't cleaned up from before in all the excitement. Over on the wall, the six units are all displayed with a green border, everything is fine. Though you notice only the queen's AI is actually visible in the corner of her screen, the others are missing for some reason. Out through the window, you notice that the telescope has changed direction and angle and seems to be pointed at Earth.

You return to central shaft B1F and report back. The only ones missing are Larissa and Jeanine.

"Jeanine was in the... telescope room, said she'd be a minute," Wildcat says. "Said it was important. Larissa was with her."

"I suggest we join them," John says.

Wildcat and Zarv exchange a glance before they both walk off without a word. Texas shrugs in an overly dramatic fashion and follows. Only Sammy, Anne, and Mikoto stay back in the main room, just a moment to exchange a few quiet words before following after.

"Are we at least recording for celestial abnormalities? Has there been any major solar fluctuations?" you hear Jeanine asking as you enter.

The door opens up and reveals a large, circular room with a domed ceiling. The walls of the room are lined with charts and charts and charts of stars and nebulae and things. A pair of small telescopes (and maintenance equipment, wrenches and screwdrivers and the like) are sitting against one wall. A projector on another wall is pointed at the ceiling and has a small library of slides to choose from. The very center of the room has a small chair suspended from the ceiling and a stool to climb into it, complete with joysticks in the arms and a telescoping eyepiece.

Larissa and Jeanine are standing near the chair, speaking with AI-112-E. The AI answers in its usual monotone. "We are monitoring, yes. There was a minor solar flare earlier, but, as designed, the lava tubes shielded this facility - particularly my lower core - and its occupants from any potentially harmful effects."

"Well that's a fine bit of technical mumbo-jumbo if I ever heard it," Texas says. "We got tired of waitin' for ya'll, so we came t' say hi. Figured we oughta share what all we found. First of all, my lab was down to the... south, if my bearings are right. It's got a few trinkets. Tasers - trainin' ones that don't actually fire electricity, watered down pepper spray, cuffs 'n' stuff like that, a few lassos of course. And a firin' range with some paintball guns." Texas twirls what looks like a six-shooter out of his no-longer-empty hip holster. "Nice, huh? So, uh. Anyway. Already had a accident, so let's all make sure we don't walk out onto the range without a heads-up?" You all notice he's also attached a golden, metallic star to his vest, complete with five small balls on the points. "And on the subject of safety, don't try to use one o' these things if y' ain't trained. I don't mind teachin' anyone that's bored, but remember these ain't toys. They may only fire paint balls with compressed air, but they could still do some damage if y' shot someone in the eye. Alright, that's enough from me. Who's next?"

zer0 crosses her arms. "I'd kinda like to hear what Jeanine was talking to my waifu for laifu Twelvey about."

Jeanine hesitates for a moment, a look of mild concern on her face. "Oh, well, the stars bring good news in the form of the fine room you find yourselves in! With all the charts I could ask for, some handheld scopes, and a beautiful VLT."

"That stands for Very Large Telescope," Larissa explains.

"I was hoping to find some more conclusive evidence of our terrestrial situation but, well... Whither it is a highly accurate artificial starscape or the legitimate article, the greatest technical achievement of the international scientific community - the ISS - has been reduced to burning space junk. Without any information from earth and with no cosmic explanation provided by 'Twelvy,' I cannot say if this is evidence of some unknown disaster or just a conspicuous way to cover for the failure of the simulation." Jeanine ends with a dramatic flourish.

After a moment, AI-112-E cuts in. "My designation is one hundred twelve dash E."

"She's, like, so adorable," zer0 says. "So, anyway, I checked out the first aid room. It's, like, totally stocked with stuff. All the usual stuff, y'know, headaches and runny nose. And Twelvey's got some harder stuff locked away that she can pop open if we're, like, dying of some weird disease. Those water bag things and the arm-hose-needles, splints, some weird machine that can, like, do complex procedures on its own. And some beds to rest in. Oh, duh, and it's, like, totally soundproof when it's closed up. So, yeah. Who's next?"