@Grandmaster | Audio

[paletteswap]

Greetings.

I'm sure we've all seen Clara's post. Without Doctor Solis no one can be revived, making death permanent and meaning we all must exercise additional caution around our lanterns. It's critical we get to the lab and retrieve the notes that the Doctor left, then perhaps we can bring back those who have fallen or understand more about the portal that was used to bring us here.

I have a vague idea of where the lab is, but it's several hours out and I don't want to have a group of us wander aimlessly looking for it. Does anyone here have a better idea of how to pinpoint it? There's an image of stars taken from the doorway of the lab if anyone knows how we could use such a thing to navigate.

Fjord, could the tunnels you found possibly connect to the lab? Do you know which way they were leading?

Comments

[flangirl]

[ Pudding's - not actually used to being asked gently to come down from one of her anger spikes. ]

[ She's also not used to being praised by a voice that isn't the very cartoon caricature of scheming and conniving. (And she notices the little slide into something with an accent, with natural inflection.) ]

[ So she blinks, and at the suggestion, pulls in a deep breath. Okay, yeah, she'd been encroaching on rant-headache from not stopping often enough to catch her breath. ]

...Thank you.

[ ...She actually feels kind of sheepish, glances away and rubs the back of her neck. People here, even the couple she's learning to know and trust, aren't used to this side of her. And Soldat of all people, especially, with the way he'd closed off when she'd gotten actually angry with him during all her panic on the stairs... ]

Sorry. I'm. [ She gestures vaguely. ] ...Programming.

[ She's glad he shared that phrase with her. It's something she can say without having to explain her entire life, and he'll get it. ]

[worthallthis]

[Hands drifting back down, daring to relax a little bit, Soldat hesitates a beat, then nods. Programming. They worked out that everyone has some kind, pretty early on, even if it's not as blatant as the kind Soldat was subjected to.]

Everyone has programming. I know. We're both working on ours.

[At least she's calmed down and isn't ranting anymore. They can handle embarrassment much better than the high emotion. Best option: practicality.]

So we have a potential code. And we can check the log that you saved for a couple other options just in case. Yeah? Maybe wait until Fitz is around to actually go in his room, though.

[flangirl]

[ Pudding nods. ]

I just don't want you all to get there and have that not be it, and be stuck. A number code is so interesting - and we don't know how long it is. That means there are maybe millions of possibilities! [ What is tech to a One Piece. This is brand new shit. ] Like you can't just dial any old numbers in on a denden and hope to get someone on the other end of the line...

[ The translator seems to have some trouble with denden. It'd probably do better if she used the whole phrase, but ah well. ]

It could be just the year, or the month and year, or the day month and year... [ She ticks up fingers as she goes. At least she's just kind of ambling now instead of ranting at breakneck speed. ] Maybe even a time, though that seems like an awfully long code to have to use every time she opened a door... And the format Clara used for talking about the Portal Experiment was funny, at home when we do dates all in numbers we put the year first, but the code for the experiment put the day first...

[ She shakes her head suddenly, focus coming back into her eyes. ]

Ah! Sorry. There I go again. Oof, you see why I was so frustrated! Without multiple people working on this, I have no idea how we'd go about finding our answers...

[worthallthis]

[Rambling, Soldat can handle. They're used to Sora, after all. They wait patiently through it until she catches herself, settling into a polite neutral expression, though they kind of want to smile at the chatter and the subsequent apology.]

It's fine. We'll check the log book upstairs, see if there's an actual date. I doubt the robot would have said to check it if the full intel we need wasn't there.

[There's a pause, a hesitation, then they add,]

And I'm not going to any labs. I'll pass the code along to Matt or Kuai or someone else going.

[flangirl]

[ Pudding blinks once, twice, and then seems to jump a foot out of her skin, within her own skin. ]

Oh! Oh, no, I'm sorry, Soldat, I didn't think about - I'm sorry, no, of course you aren't. That's fine. As long as someone who is going has it. I - sorry.

[ This time she's the one Really Very Much Not Making Eye Contact. ]

[worthallthis]

[This time they do smile a little.]

It's okay. I just wanted you to know, so you know who to pester if they don't get things done according to your standards.

[(Damn, she apologizes a lot. More than we do. I'll say.)]

[flangirl]

[ Pudding. Falters. Glances up at the other. And then stifles a laugh behind both hands. ]

Oh you.

[ Soldat's teasing would get her a lot more worked up if it wasn't so obvious and over the top for everything else about him. ]

Okay. Okay, I get it. I'll let you go. I'll send you the link to the digital logbook later and let you know if I find a month in that or the paper one. I didn't see anything more specific in there, but I'll look again.

[worthallthis]

[That's the fun thing about having a sense of humor when you're easily mistaken for a robot, half the time. You really get to surprise people with it when you do exercise it.]

And I'll make sure Matt and Kuai get it, if there's any change. The 1969 code fits the wear pattern, and 4 digits is standard on Earth for codes. So at least it's a good starting point.