video | un: plushiesidequest (everyone lets talk scylla)

[reincarnesiac]

( Alex looks refreshed. Which does not seem like that should be anyone's present normal, but she had a little help for feeling clear headed and then some, so she's doing better than she would have coming out of the last two weeks. She also waves to the camera, and then holds up a piece of paper with writing on one side. Slowly, she turns it over to show the back side is covered in mathematical equations. )

Hey everyone, it's Alex again. Scylla talked with me briefly right before the fog started clearing up. Mostly I wanted to bring up the journal page he left with me. I can read it out loud for people, just ask, but he said there's a total of nine more of these in Etraya right now. Anyone else get one? What he and Aurora can't talk about directly because of a specific curse on what they're allowed to say can probably be guessed at through these entries.

( Holding that mathematical side closer to the 'camera' such as it is, she adds: )

So who here are our math wizards? He said the mathematics explains what's going on, and his challenge was us looking for a solution to the whole problem. I don't think he actually thinks we will, which kind of makes me want to all the more.

( Another pause. )

If you have questions about what else we talked about, you can ask that too.

Comments

un: Accelerator; text

[levelshift]

I'm good with math. [Understatement of the year.] But being called a 'math wizard' is an insult.

[reincarnesiac]

What do you prefer to be called?

Anyway, I don't know that one page will give you much, but we can make copies and see what other pages people have or find. Or ask Aurora if she's willing to give you the rest, Scylla seemed sure she had it all. The math, that is. Not the journal pages.

[levelshift]

Just someone who's good at math. I'm not a fucking wizard, those kinds of people are irritating.

Figuring out the entire thing based on only your page wouldn't be ideal, but I've been in situations that weren't ideal before. [Mathematical ones, even.] I can ask Aurora, but she might be limited. It'd be best to find all the other pages.

[reincarnesiac]

Do you have literal wizards where you're from? They're not really a thing for me.

I'd say aim for both. See if Aurora can help, while also looking for the other pages. Maybe she has advice on how to find them?

un: GustaveEiffel | video

[demainvient]

Hi, Alex.

[ Unlike Alex, Gustave looks a good deal worse for wear, visibly tired though he offers her a slightly wry smile. ]

I found this tucked away in a house that had been breached by some kind of aggressive creature.

[ That's neither here nor there. ]

I'm an engineer, not a mathematician, so this isn't my forte, but I'd be interested to see the rest of the pages.

[reincarnesiac]

( She claps her hands! )

Oh, good! Now we're at two of ten! We can either make copies so people can work on them at the same time, or... no, okay, let's make copies. One to keep the side with all the journal entries together, and one for the side with all the mathematics. Accelerator wants to look at them, so now that's two we can copy, and then... yeah!

( She pauses to think about what might work best after that last yeah. There's at least one place with a copier that she knows of... so. )

Do you want to go ahead and hold onto the one you found and meet me over at the 7-Eleven so we can make copies? Then I can get you what I have at the same time, and have a copy of yours, and however many more people want.

[demainvient]

[ He's still tired, worn ragged from everything the fog had shown him, but his smile warms, brightens, and he lifts a hand to gesture as he picks up her train of thought and keeps going with it. ]

Once the others are found, we ought to make sure they're posted someplace public where everyone can see them even if they don't want a copy of their own. Or maybe make enough they can be handed out when new people arrive... put them into a booklet, maybe, for anyone who might be interested.

The more eyes we have on them, the better. No telling who might have the necessary expertise to puzzle them out.

[reincarnesiac]

Any of those are great options, and if we keep a master copy of each side separately, we can keep making those copies as we need to. Even if things happen to the ones we were given, or found.

Because you're exactly right. The more people who look, the more ideas we can have, and maybe working together we'll find our way to an answer the others hadn't found. At minimum, at least the math should work out to help convince people this is all real, right?

UN: LaFleurDeParis - Video

[repaintress]

[ While Alex looks rested and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (of course she does - people like her always are), the voice that comes through on Clea's end is full of exhaustion, nausea, and a slight edge of pain. She's not visible on video outside of a hand and forearm, showing a bandage covering part of an ugly blue-green bruise.

The only reason she's on video at all is to showcase the paper on the table in front of her, which Clea flips around to reveal similar mathematical scribbles. ]

I do.

[ Off-camera, Clea rubs her forehead: her head is pounding and her sense of proprioception is completely off. Ugh. What are the important things to say? ]

He was unclear about the information that is used as the basis for the mathematical assumptions. It would be wise to attempt to verify it before assuming the math is truthful.

[ That seems like something the mathematicians might like to know. What of everyone else? ]

He seemed to have limited information about what happens in Etraya. He's also rather disrespectful of our persons.

What did he say to you? You seem to be his favorite, he likely told you more than the rest of us.

[ Which they should use. Ugh. Clea would really prefer not to be upright right now. The arm in the edge of the frame moves in a way where it's clear she's leaning on it. ]

[reincarnesiac]

Clea, do you want a food run? Or anything to drink?

( She sees the paper, and the similar mathematical bits, so this is: )

That makes a third piece found, seven more to go. Or given in this case! Which kind of makes it easier.

I'm happy to go over what he said, do you want to take a seat in the meantime? And then maybe we can run by where you are to see about making copies and bringing the original back to you, or something like that.

( She waits for an answer either way before she'll launch into describing what she talked about with Scylla. )

[repaintress]

There is no need.

[ She moves the camera to show a bottle of wine before returning it to the shared paper, the motion stiff. She has not fallen so far as to require assistance from strangers. She will manage. ]

I've made a copy already - I thought it wise to have more than one. You may have this one.

It would also be prudent for all of us to share as many details of our encounters as possible in order to determine if what we were told matches.

[reincarnesiac]

Ah, wine, a great plan! Let me know if you end up wanting any cheese or breads to go along with it.

( Because those are things people often pair with wine in media where it's not at home, where it's different sorts of foods that tend to go along with. Regardless. )

Thank you, you were right on it! And you're right, we do all need to share.

So, to kick things off, everyone involved with this? Is named, probably self-named at this point because really it's too coincidental otherwise, after Greek Mythology. Scylla, Echo, Aurora, Borealis, the list keeps going. He kept the vent from closing to see if messing with the nebula's effects would get Echo to respond. Echo didn't. I told him about Solmara and we can ask Aurora if he talked to her about it, I didn't see everything in her post, maybe she brought it up already?

( She pauses, then sighs. )

He was saying he shouldn't have been able to do what he did, and have it not be impeded, so he's worried where Echo is. "If this is a game, where's the director?" He also said the nebula resonated with people based on specific... factors, and the things we saw that became real, if you saw those? Are based on real fears of ours, taken in weird ways. He gave me that page I showed earlier after saying if I guessed what the cost of saving a world might be. He said it wasn't his writing, and it was a really long time ago that it was written at all. And the one he's looking for, that he has to find, is caught up in all this. Echo's side of all this, I think. The bubble cities, the trying to solve how to keep worlds alive and not destroyed. He said he left more of these pages around, for a total of ten. I clarified that part. Uh... there's not much else that was relevant? He said Aurora might have given us just the math, but he thought the journal part was important for us too.

Not Here

[betenoir]

telepathic phone

[sophielicious]

/Girl, who the fuck? Sorry, I had a time./

[reincarnesiac]

/Sophie! Was it super shitty for you too? Because I'm only bright and bushytailed sounding because Scylla sort of cleared up the effects from me before he teleported away.

Scylla's the guy from outside Echo's universe who first contacted me a week or so before the vent opened. He'd been here since then trying to get Echo to react, and nothing happened. Seemed to freak him out pretty bad, but neither he nor Aurora are saying much about it. Not sure they can. They've got some kind of geas on them preventing them from talking about certain things, and I think Echo's part of that?/

[sophielicious]

/Worse than you and I trained for, but you know, we keep moving forward, blablabla, all that bullshit.

Hey, so, this guy. Is he still here? And if so, do you think he has, you know, a brain? Obviously, for no reason at all./

[reincarnesiac]

/Right, trying not to let ourselves remember too much of the stuff that happened before it finds a way back into our nightmares, I feel this.

I wish! Because he'd be a great person for you to brain-tap. Thing is he was planning to leave when he was saying goodbye, and was stopping by Aurora on the way out. The fact our vent closed is because he left.

Which yeah. Scylla kept it open, side effects only half expected./

text; un: kidomega

[querulus]

fine whatever i'll bite

super genius here, 1 billion brilliant thoughts per second, op af psychic, other accolades i can't be assed to list here

soooo what's going on here, we just playing slender the ten pages and solving some math puzzles?

[reincarnesiac]

Hey kidomega! Love the super genius, thank you for the bite, and so on.

You've got it. We have three of the ten accounted for now, between me, GustaveEiffel, and Clea. Either the other seven are across Etraya and it's a look and see what we find game, or Accelerator's going to ask Aurora if she has any insight she can give us, which can help us find the rest.

But we've got three to work from right now. Want copies?

[querulus]

god you're one of those

[By which he means "cheerful people who don't get annoyed when he's being intentionally annoying". It's a whole thing.]

send em over, why not. i'll take a gander. how'd you three even find the ones you've got?

un: antigoneiguess | audio

[rudelanguage]

[I can't fucking read that shit. But I can't just fucking ASK to have it read to me, either? Make it blurrier so I have an excuse, goddammit!]

What's his deal? The ghost can't explain it.

[reincarnesiac]

( Antigone living her hardest life. )

He's part of the group of Greek-themed named people who figured out the universes were really ending, and decided to try and become something or someone who could stop it. Some of that is me reading into stuff? What he's said directly is that he knows Echo, isn't fond of Echo, is fond of Aurora, and has someone he cares about involved in Echo's bubble-cities. He also can move in and out of Echo's universe, which is some kind of pocket universe that Echo keeps stable. He can also teleport, project himself into people's minds like I said a few weeks ago, and sort of... give people mental clarity after a touch? I guess?

( Alex clucks her tongue, shaking her head. Since she switched to audio to match Antigone, she doesn't show that, but still. Over here shaking her head at what they still don't know, and also what more they do. )

He wanted Echo's attention. He didn't get it. Now he's worried. And he's left us with math and journal entries to try and understand some of what maybe led Echo or someone else into becoming what they are today. I don't know if these are Echo's journal entries, but it seems possible. Theirs or someone else close to the start... maybe reading all of them means we'll learn.

[rudelanguage]

...

[What the fuck is a Greek.]

...

[There's other cities like this?!]

...

[Ew, he does fuckin' wizard shit. Great. Lovely. If that motherfucker jumps into my mind--]

...

[...

wait a second.]

...Why didn't he just. Explain it himself? Instead of puzzles?

[nottheboss]

You still up for an adventure?

video; un: blake

[plangona]

He's the one you mentioned on here before, right? [and also the one aurora just mentioned but she does recall the network post from earlier]

I can't help with the math or know anything about these journal pages— what's the deal with that anyway?