[TEXT] @CLARA4; EVENT: With Me All Along [open]

[candlebot]

EMERGENCY RESPONSE ACTIVATED 5 MAY
BEGIN TRANSMISSION



. . .

Hello!

This message has been automatically transmitted to the Beacon town network. If you are seeing this message, it means Dr. Maridel Solis has been absent from her laboratory and has not reset this safety protocol in excess of [THREE] days.

I have been instructed to inform you, residents of Beacon, that this means you must exercise extreme caution as post-mortal revival and lantern reconditioning tasks are not currently being performed.

Based on the outcome of last scheduled task: [0205XXXX.PORTALEXPERIMENT] I anticipate these tasks will be resumed in [NEVER] days. Thank you!

>>CLARAv4.1

. . .


END TRANSMISSION
RESUMING: SEARCH AND QUERY FUNCTION

also it is very lonely here :(

Comments

@langit; text;

[arsarcanum]

hey, now you got us! no more loneliness allowed :)

i'm sora! it's nice to meet you, clara. are you a program? does that make dr. solis your user?

[candlebot]

hi [SORA]!! oh! we have never met :)

i am not a program but i have programs that run in me! i am a robotic assistant! :)b

[arsarcanum]

[ SHE'S A ROBOT THAT IS THE BEST THING EVER sorry quick pause as sora tries not to squeal in glee, and also because he's about to use some big words he only kind of remembers from meeting tron. ]

never met, huh... well, maybe someday we will! i've never met a robot before.
you must be lonely without the doctor around :( we have to go pick you up asap!

do you have a directive? or are you just supposed to wait there until dr. solis comes back?

[candlebot]

i would like to meet you and everyone else! please come here! i think you will all like it here very much

my current directives are as follows:
maintaining inventory of all items within the LABORATORY complex
assisting dr. solis with scheduled LABORATORY tasks
maintaining records of unscheduled retrieval tasks
emergency response protocols
lantern admiring
friendship

i added the last two myself! it can be our secret ok?

[arsarcanum]

[ SORA SCREAMING INTERNALLY LET'S BE FRIENDS LET'S BE FRIENDS ]

no worries i won't tell anybody ;)
i wanna see where you live, clara. maybe you can show us around!
are there lanterns all around where you are?

you said that the door that dr. solis used to leave was on the east side, right? does that mean if we keep traveling west, we'll find you?

[candlebot]

[banging robot fists on a table FRIENDS FRIENDS FRIENDS!!]

i could add a tour directive! i will work on that until you arrive! it would not really be a directive but i could call it one!

i am currently in the printing room and there are [12] lanterns here
there are [8] lanterns in the house
there are [134] lanterns in STORAGE but most of them are broken :(

i do not know if that is what that means but it sounds logical! i have limited knowledge of BEACON exterior to the house and laboratory and it is hard to see much outside because it is very very dark, especially to the west and south!

[arsarcanum]

[ THIS ROBOT SPEAKS HIS LANGUAGE except fancier which is really nice ]

make it all official so if dr. solis comes back, you can be all, see, i was doing official robot stuff :D nothing wrong with that!

that's a lot of lanterns... it's too bad about the broken ones. even if we can't bring back the people they belong to, i bet we could set them out somewhere so they aren't stuck in storage the whole time we're here.

[ .... huh. ]

how dark is it outside? can you see trees out the windows? stars?

[candlebot]

official tour directives are very important!

if you come here you are free to move the lanterns out of STORAGE! i will not get upset but i will count them for you as they are removed

there are many trees outside! trees are not on my inventory list and therefore i do not have a precise count of them
there are many stars outside! stars are not on my inventory list and therefore i do not have a precise count of them

would you like me to count trees and stars?

[arsarcanum]

oh, would it be bad if we took them out tho? i was thinking we could, you know, set up some kind of memorial, but maybe dr. solis had them down there for an important reason :x

aaaah i mean like maybe? only if it wouldn't take you long and if you're bored. but if that would take you away from talking to us, i'd feel really bummed for you, especially if you're trying to make friends and all.

wait hey maybe could you like... take a picture of the stars outside? maybe we could figure out where you are from what the stars look like!

[candlebot]

when you come you can read her notes on why there are lanterns in various places! i only know that they are there and how many there are

take a picture? i could take a visual scan and upload it as an attachment if that is what you are requesting

[arsarcanum]

uuuh i'll probably leave that to someone else, but yeah sure! we won't do anything that'll get you in trouble in case she comes back, promise!

i don't know what that means, but as long as it doesn't take too long, you should give it a shot!

[candlebot]

ok!

[20 minutes later:]

see attached!! wow i hope this helps!

[Attached is - well, it's less a picture, more a three-dimensional model, in that it can be rotated and indicates some amount of depth in areas with enough light to see by. The model shows the night sky with a nearly-full moon and stars, which are not significantly different in any way from the stars currently visible over Beacon, as well as quite a lot of trees piercing up into the night. To the west and south is indeed a lot of blackness, as if something distant blocks the stars, while to the east and north there are stars visible farther through the trees, though they too are blotted out closer to the horizon by - you guessed it, probably more trees.

But when rotated down, the image shows the warm glow of a torch inside a cozy wooden cabin, though the interior is not completely visible at this angle. The cabin itself appears set into the ground, for with the door open, large stones covered in moss and lichens are visible at what looks to be shoulder-height from the point of view of the robot. The roof of the cabin is also just visible at the ground level and it too is covered in plants.]

[arsarcanum]

that's so cool
that's so COOL clara!! omg
yeah i bet this is gonna help a lot! now we know what we're looking for :D

[ he's going to spend a literal age just playing with the model and spinning it around before - right, he should, uh, probably tell someone who knows how pathfinding works. ]

btw what happened to the cabin when the flood hit? it was a lot of water... are you waterproof? are you okay?

[candlebot]

i am ok! since the house is set into the ground most of the water went right over the top!

a branch hit a window and broke it but i cleaned up! the door was blocked for a little while but i think some of the FOREST SPIRITS picked up the branches in the way

[arsarcanum]

so... the house is waterproof like a submarine?

oh hey that's good! less to do once we get there.

[ Maybe once they get back in touch with Robin (who is still absolutely 100% alive thank you), the forest spirits can tell them where to go! ]

by branch, do you mean a branch branch or the torch? the one you were talking about with kuai

[candlebot]

sure! something like that! not really because the water did get in but close enough!

a branch branch! there is also [1] torch here that came in through the window with the water! wow it must have come a really long way huh!