❧ Life's An Adventure

[luministimods]

[surprisingly, a private text message is sent not to the device Nathan left behind but to all of the residents' CATs. it reads:]

Get to the nearest door and wait. When the alarm sounds, immediately go through the door and await the next signal.

[surely such a text is confusing, but the sender hopes those words are heeded. ten minutes after it's sent, all vidscreens in the town begin to flash red, and a wailing siren breaks the din. the only word that flashes on screen is:]

EVACUATE

[similarly, back in the spacestation, red flashing lights drop down from the ceiling and a constant, beeping alarm begins to ring. over this, a pleasant and feminine automated voice says:]

Please find the nearest exit and evacuate the station via escape pod. A distress signal has been sent to the closest galactic space authority. Those with small children are asked to--[but this message is interrupted with another]

Life support systems in sectors A through L are at 80%--65%--50%. Life support failure in sectors A through L is imminent. Warning, please evacuate sectors A through L immediately. Warning...

[the automated voice continues with warnings about those sectors--but oddly enough, nothing is wrong in the spacestation itself. no one is evacuating, and in fact, no one can be seen fleeing from the town. the only people who should be in the station are the residents, if they all heeded the text message's warning and went through their respective doors at the right time. all doors brought everyone back to the observation deck, near the first hallway that used to lead to the Mayor's house.

suddenly, Nathan's device begins to chime and an audio message from him begins to play. (oddly enough, the automated voice's warning messages soften, like the volume's been turned down.]

Oh good, you made it out safe! I didn't think that person would...[he trails off] Anyway! I've had a bit of help and I think I can finally get you out of there. I'm sorry though, but I can't get you back into town. I had to shut off life support there to distract those in charge, but I also managed to open up access to the lower level. I can't find the staircases, but the elevator should be working now, so you'll have to use that. This is your chance, everyone! Find the one responsible for this mess and find Lab #3. Contact me if you need me.

[the audio transmission ends. a moment later, there's a soft "ding" as the elevator set behind the Maintenance door in the nearby hallway opens, ready for occupants to board it.

shame it won't be a simple elevator ride.]


❧ Plot Details: Life's An Adventure **Quick-time Event**

Thank goodness everyone (hopefully) got out in time! Staying in town during that life support shutdown would have been...unfortunate (and if anyone DID want to stay behind during that? Let me know.) But who sent that helpful text if it wasn't Nathan? Was it Audrey? Was it someone else? Was Nathan just pulling a fast one? In any case, now everyone can move on to, well, the final level if we take it in RPG terms.

Funny that though...

For this quick-time event, we are going to keep things to this entry. You'll be given a choice of going up or down in the elevator. Actually...just about every action in this plot is based around choice, and fittingly too. Depending on how much you discover during this plot--there are four objectives that can possibly be fulfilled (and they don't all have to be by every person)--the outcome will shape the end of this plot, the game, and next season as well. I'll have a list at the bottom of this entry so people can easily see how many objectives have been completed. You'll only have a week! Keep in mind that only one objective--the main one--has to be accomplished by week's end and things will not progress until it's accomplished. (If we accomplish the main one before the week is done, I will still wait the full week before going ahead with the second half of this plot.)

So what are we doing in this mad week-long event? Like I said before, you'll be given a choice of taking the elevator up or down. From there, you'll be given the another choice via vidscreen about which direction you want to go in. Sometimes it'll be two choices, other times it'll be three. But nonetheless, you'll have to make a choice--and you'll have to make the choice in the style of a text adventure. This is a bit of a hybrid rather than a straight text adventure, though. You can talk to people normally and interact with them as you would do in a normal action thread, but when you go to make your choice or wish to interact with the environment (you don't have to do it for every single step or anything), you'll basically be inputting your command to help the adventure to progress. If you don't ever interact with the environment or make a choice, well, you're stuck in that room. Kind of a boring adventure, being stuck in a room.

If this explanation isn't quite making sense, I did a mock-scenario of this to illustrate the hybrid/pseudo-text adventure I'm talking about. Head here! Hopefully that helps explain things? If it didn't, please, please don't be afraid to ask me. The first two comments to this entry will be for the IC interaction, and any additional ones can be for OOC comments/questions.

I do advise that while you can go in groups, please keep them small so we can go through things at a steady pace. Heck, if you want? You can even solo this and interact just with, well, me as the text adventure prompts, and then contact people if you find something. I just ask that if you want to solo it, that you indicate your intentions in the subject line to whichever direction you wish to go in the elevator.

Threadhopping via the CATs can still happen, especially if you or someone else learns something that might be important for the others to know. (Of course, if you want to join in physically, you can do it like this.) Also, I do recommend tracking your threads, especially when I pop in with prompts and disrupt the notification process. (And let's hope varnish errors are few to none!)

So...that's it! If you have any questions/comments/etc, leave them here or get a hold of me through the normal channels! And before I leave, here's our handy objectives list!



Objectives! Objective #1 = Completed! Objective #2 = Completed! Objective #3 = Completed! (Also here and here.) Objective #4 = Completed!

Comments

[vengefulagent]

[Wash just shakes his head and goes on through after him]

[luministimods]

> For a brief second, you can't see. Damn the BLACKNESS! However! The blackness immediately goes away to show that you have entered the...Sheriff's Office? How odd and entirely random. Still, you see that the ROOM looks exactly how it would if you were to go into it for real--and WASHINGTON can attest to this--and it looks like a KEY's been set out on top of the paper-laden DESK. The DESK itself has TWO DRAWERS, as does the FILING CABINET next to it. The THREE CHAIRS--TWO in front and ONE behind the DESK--look safe enough to sit in if you feel inclined.

> The two things you do not notice, however, are a VIDSCREEN and another DOOR. The only way back is through that DOOR you came in, which is now glowing a bright white.

> What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix blinks. That was unexpected... The place does look just like it was when he investigated with Sophie before. And the key sitting on the desk? Very convenient. But first... ]

> You examine the PAPERS already out on the DESK.

[vengefulagent]

This place, huh? [while he's getting a tired of this game, he figures the worse some office supplies could do is chase after him or shoot paperclips at him.]

> You start going through the FILING CABINET DRAWERS.

[luministimods]

> Most of the papers are the same as before, but a couple stick out, like print-out CHARTS, and pages and pages filled with COMMENTS--both negative and positive--about the TOWN and its RESIDENTS. You even see your NAMES mentioned every now and then. Seems you all have FANS.

----------------------

> When you look in the FILING CABINET DRAWERS, you find DOSSIERS of the different employees in town. Few of them will be of interest--many files are filled with blank paper to make them look thicker, but a few are actually interesting. You find FILES for ARDES (two meant for AUDREY and ANDRE), PROCTOR, CALIGIN (two for CONSTANTINE and VERITA), OSCULIA, IUSSUS, and RESARCI.

> Wait, you find TWO FILES for RESARCI.

----------------------

>What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix sets aside the charts - those look important. As for the comments...]

I knew we were being watched. [Completely matter-of-fact.]

> You can't fight the curiosity, and rifle through the COMMENTS in search of what these apparent FANS have to say about you and WASHINGTON.

[vengefulagent]

Hmm? [he's in the middle of searching his CAT for the Town Directory] The ridiculous amount of cameras wasn't a clue?

> Something seems off to you about the two FILES for RESARCI, so you look up that last name in the TOWN DIRECTORY

[luministimods]

> Amongst the numerous pages of people begging to know what the Doctor's name really is, and how they're so sure that he and Sophie boffed--their word, not the narration's--and had opportunities before coming back to town (and all this knowledge is thanks to sources in the interwebs), you occasionally find mention of you, WASHINGTON, and the others. Some choice comments are like so.

--------------------------------------

> Despite a thorough search, you only find information on the CAT about one RESARCI, ERNESTO RESARCI to be precise. If you look in the FILES, however, you'll see that one is for ERNESTO RESARCI and the other is for FILIPPO RESARCI.

[grandbellknight]

Yes of course, but now we have it on paper-...

[And he abruptly cuts himself off. He just. Stares at the paper. He shakes his head, reads it again... yeah. Nope. That's... that's definitely brainbreaking. He glances over at Washington, back down at the paper...]

... [Ahem.] I wonder if Lady Cloche deals with something similar.

[Yep. Outer Croix: trying to focus. Inner Croix: something a little closer to this picture right here.]

> You decide to take your mind off of that and try the two DESK DRAWERS.

[vengefulagent]

[he can't help but notice how Croix has cut himself off, and thinks it must be pretty surprising information.]

What? What's wrong?

[he turns to look at him, and sets the two Resarci files on the desk.]

[luministimods]

> The DESK DRAWERS don't open. It appears they are locked.

[grandbellknight]

[Croix just... shakes his head. He holds out the paper for Washington to take and read over if he so chooses. Misery Brainbreak loves company?]

> You pick up the KEY and use it to, hopefully, unlock the drawers. Assuming the key fits.

[vengefulagent]

[he takes it, curious, but once he reaches the part about him and Croix, he stops] What the hell is this?! [he's not really concerned about people's opinions about his patrolling, or the fact that someone might have seen him without his helmet on, but just the fact that such things exist...]

[luministimods]

> Call a locksmith! The KEY works! Congratulations, you have now opened TWO DRAWERS. Within one, you will find nothing of interest--pretty much the same stuff as before. The other, however, might give you flashbacks to your excursion to the TOWN HALL and the photos you found there. Or least it should, anyway.

> You see photos of a younger version of RESARCI with a younger version of CALIGIN. There's a young girl, no older than two, with CALIGIN, and an older boy, at least ten, standing with RESARCI. His hair is dark like his father's, and indeed, looks like a younger version of the young man in the video that MU recorded. There are other pictures of RESARCI and the young boy, doing fun things like fishing, camping, and reading together in a library (both are reading books about finances).

[grandbellknight]

[He can't help but make a slight face.] Viewer comments, I assume. Like a fan club, or something. ... And yeah, my thoughts exactly. [Especially that last part. About the two of them. djafkljsa]

[The other drawer does indeed remind him of his Town Hall findings. He pulls out the photos, studying them carefully. He also fully intends to take them when they eventually get out of here.]

... Rescari has a son. And he looks familiar. [Here Wash, have more things being handed your way. This time, a photo!]

[vengefulagent]

[Wash just...shakes his head and puts the paper on top of the others Croix has set aside]

Wait, that's his son? I just found a file about another Resarci.

> You grab the one about FILIPPO RESARCI and flip it open for both you and CROIX to see, and aso take the picture from CROIX to look at and compare.

[luministimods]

> You see that the FILE is actually pretty thin and has the basics about FILIPPO RESARCI, like general description, occupation, health status, and quick bio. It's actually fairly boring as far as background information goes. Nothing stands out, aside from the fact that he was a bookworm as a kid with a knack for accounting and marketing.

> Oh, and that he's the acting CEO and chairman of [INFORMATION REDACTED].

[grandbellknight]

I assume so. ... You did? [He moves to read over Washington's shoulder.]

Redacted... Just what company are they trying to hide?

> You finish reading, and then take another look around the room for anything else that might stand out.

[vengefulagent]

Their own, probably. And it's not just companies. The existence of certain things can be so top secret that even employees within might not know everything that's going on. [he may or may not be talking from experience here]

> You look for something that you can use to transport these files for those who want to see what they found instead of having to try to find it again later.

[luministimods]

> Looking around more, you find various kinds of HANDCUFFS hanging on the wall, and very old-fashioned (from WASH's perspective) MANILLA ENVELOPES tucked behind the FILES in the lower FILING CABINET.

[grandbellknight]

Sounds familiar. [Croix manages to bite back a sign.

Handcuffs? Yeah, no thank you. He shakes his head and begins gathering together the photos, the comments, the charts, young Resarci's file... anything that looks important enough to take.]

[vengefulagent]

[looks at Croix for a second before he pulls the envelopes out] You too, huh?

[shakes his head and starts putting both Resarci files away, handing an envelope to Croix]

[grandbellknight]

[Croix nods as he takes the envelope. Any rising anger that came from thinking about the Grand Bell's former plans is pushed aside. His phrasing...] Yes. So you, too?

[He begins stuffing the papers and photos into the envelope.]

[vengefulagent]

Yeah. [closes the filing cabinet] Small world. [and considering what he just said earlier, he's not going to go into specifics unless asked.]

We probably should keep moving. Never know if those handcuffs over there will decide they want to keep us here permanently.

[grandbellknight]

[Of course Croix wants to ask, but now is not the time, by any means. Maybe later, when they get out of this mess.

But he does glance back at the handcuffs, and shakes his head.] Yeah, that's not a chance I want to take. Let's go.

> With the FOLDER of IMPORTANT STUFF in hand, you head back through the DOOR