“You are in a room…” A Tweet-based Adventure, Episode 2

Read Episode 1.

Player 1: Once the tea is finished, let’s try the door on the right at the far end of eastern corridor

@YouAreInnaRoom: You finish the tea and head to the far end of the Eastern corridor. You open the right hand door and step into a large room. To your right, along the North Wall is a bank of computers. In the North West corner is a circular pod of some kind. The Southern half of the room is dominated by a curved inset floor, with stairs leading down on either side. Three large, comfortable chairs sit along the back of this section, facing South. The Southern wall is divided between a large view screen on the right half, and a window that looks out on a stuttering screaming void. There are also three hot desk terminals in the upper portion of the room behind the three comfy chairs.

@YouAreInnaRoom:

An updated map:

Updated map of First Floor (Space Station)

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 2: are any of the displays displaying anything?

@YouAreInnaRoom: You examine the various display screens. The are mostly dark, but the main display screen to the South has some sort of oval logo bouncing slowly from one side to another. It periodically changes from one garish colour to another. What will you do?

Player 2: are there any obvious controls on the computer terminals? Keyboards? Mice? Touchpads?

Player 2: If so, nudge a control. See if displays change.

@YouAreInnaRoom: The wall interfaces you have interacted with were touch screens, so it may be that the computer bank to the West is, too. You can also see what may be a touch pad on the arm rest of the central chair. You walk over to the closest computer and run your hand over the horizontal surface. It jumps into life. A message is displayed. It reads:

Hello, Unit One.

If you are reading this, we have failed. The collision of the universes could not be prevented. We have ceased to exist. It is up to you now.

You must find a way to separate the universes and save all the worlds, or wander forever alone. We know so little of what will remain when we are gone. We only wish we knew better how to prepare you. But know that we believe in you, and you are loved.

If the Observatory databanks survive, a wealth of information will be at your disposal to search. But we do not know what you are looking for, what you should find that we could not. Good luck, and thank you.

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 3: Look for some clue as to the location of the observatory?

@YouAreInnaRoom: You look around you. At first, you see nothing informative, but looking back to the screen where the message is displayed, you see that below the message is a button that says ‘Back to Main Screen’. Possibly more clues reside within this computer?

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 2: click it. It seems some information from before has survived, so why not more?

@YouAreInnaRoom: You touch the button. The message fades and it replaced by a new screen. At the top it says: ‘Welcome to the Observatory. What would you like to search?’ Below this is a search field. Below that is a button that says ‘Message to Unit 1’ with red writing underneath that says ‘ALL STAFF: ENSURE MESSAGE TO UNIT ONE IS DISPLAYED WHEN YOU LEAVE YOUR WORKSTATION’. Below that is a button that says simply ‘Laboratory’.

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 2: Search “unit 1”. (We may yet regret this.)

@YouAreInnaRoom: Your hands are full of teacup and light saber. You can try to type like this but it might be easier to put one or both down first. Would you like to do so or try to type anyway?

Player 2: put down the teacup.

@YouAreInnaRoom: You put down the teacup. The cat sniffs it. You return your attention to the computer and tap the search field. A touch-type keyboard displays. You type ‘unit 1’ and press ‘Go’. A new screen displays ‘Top Result for “unit 1”, 187,345 other entries’ (‘other entries’is hyperlinked). Below this is a page headed ‘Unit One’, which says:

Unit One is a humanoid composit designed in con’#3;’b.f;223 d8k4,3;; 93l4 . It is our hope that by constructing an intelligent being with all the knowledge and sensibilities of our peoples, but none of the memories, Unit One will 3.4;3’4;’l,.’#– 4=5// with none of the neural interference generated by remembering a world or worlds in conflict with the composit reality, which we anticipate will prevent any currently existing self-reflective beings from being compatible with the collapsed composite reality post the End Date. Unit One is our salvation. Unit One is the only one who can go on to ;’erf8f43k 49 kf(* when we &’ffik 00ajkdrm. We hope that Unit One will find ???//3djk 9))#’~ and

@YouAreInnaRoom: [the entry descends into gibberish after this. The file appears corrupted.]

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 2: return to search “observatory”. If we know what it’s for, we learn our task.

@YouAreInnaRoom: You hit the ‘back’ button and enter ‘observatory’ into the search field. It displays ‘Top Result for “observatory”, 800,762 other entries’. Below, the page is headed ‘The Observatory’ Which says:

The Observatory is a Sheska Federation space station dedicated to scientific research in the unique environment of space, ‘.’]]##D9ENJ situated for observation of the local pulsar, Aju.

The focus of research at the Observatory shifted dramatically following what we now believe to be seventeenth great shift; the first that came to the attention of Sheska. Following &Jkemedi ))0 a link was found to have been forged between the station and an isolated house in Earth Prime.

At first DUE&djkf78em ‘##’;’frfjh but following later shifts the staircase was found to go up as well as {{[fvko8. Through further experiments and in conjunction with the Shova and Yendrin &*jej we believe we have been able to impose a limited stability in the central core around which the worlds appear to be collecting. This core, ironically, enables greater cooperation, even though as it extends our doom approaches ever closer.

We do not /;.i;/ where ‘/876/jkgd Unit One will awake, given the increasingly unstable reference of the word ‘where’, but we hope that data gathered in *Ke=-tory’s databanks will serve as a valuable aid in &&Dk’s quest. Yd9vj r38j…

@YouAreInnaRoom?: [The entry descends into gibberish after this.]

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 2: I ought to sleep, but we’ve just found the plot on @YouAreInnaRoom . (We found the bathrooms first.)

Player 1: Turn to the cat. “I don’t suppose you can talk, can you?”

@YouAreInnaRoom: The cat looks at you and says ‘Aaaaoooooowwwww!’ then rubs against you leg.

@YouAreInnaRoom: [Editor’s note: all typos can be considered file corruption from now on. Yes.]

Player 2: search on the computer “Aju”. (How special is this location?)

@YouAreInnaRoom: You search on ‘Aju’. The Top entry reads:

Aju is a pulsar or “pulsating radio star”located near the edge of Sheska Federation space. It is a magnatar emitting an intense beam of high-energy dkkldr#’#( radiaton at interval of _+nh8 vjdf834~~.

In 3726.99.1, the space station Observatory was constructed for the study of Aju and what its :>m,298} emmissions can tell us about the interstellar medium. The star was named for the Barothee trickster goddess; her flashing light was deemed the twinkling of myrth in the ??930//[ goddess’s eye by the ancient civilisation.

At ‘dfg;’5v lf’5 it has been suggested that +}4,gj and __4;’4# fj482 fj; however, no connection has |-34 at this time…

@YouAreInnaRoom: [The entry deteriorates into gibberish after this.]

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 1: Do searches for ‘Shova’ and ‘Yendrin’.

@YouAreInnaRoom: You search for ‘Shova’ first. The entry reads:

 

Shova is one of our nearest neighbours along the Central Core, two floors up from the Observatory, via the Cross World Staircase.

Although the sdf9)?d[ accessed via the @:<03 World Staircase consists of many nations, not all of whom are %YUB fjvf8( harmony, they have joined together in strength against the what we *EDJlk39 End Date Shovan assistance has been &*JED834m tdikj our mission. Applying their existing (M*Deij38 cross world dynamics we have DO0i9je9 our knowledge of other worlds and {O(DU3k the Central fe83o4t…

@YouAreInnaRoom:[The entry deteriorates into gibberish after this.]

@YouAreInnaRoom: You searchon ‘Yendrin’. The top entry reads:

The Yendrin are a nomadic people three floors down along the *(JNp9uj Core. Their war with the wkje4n8 in the floor above, who believe the End Date to be NMOei3 by their gods, has motivated the Yendrin to work so234lmrf’across worlds.

They seem to have been amongst the earliest to *jo34m’l8f the coming End, and their ability to 34ipncf between worlds outside of the Core has 849nrf;bn significant advantage. We still struggle m[9i234knmf scientific basis of much that they do, but 89omw3n 3lk2fj significant ally. In particular, 3/.4,trm8udfiun345j

[The entry deteriorates into gibberish.]

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 2: search “Yendrin travel”. I want to know how they do it (and whether they tidy up afterwards).

@YouAreInnaRoom: You input ‘Yendrin travel’ into the search engine and the screen displays the following message:

Error 247: bad search return. File corrupted. Please alert the administrator.

@YouAreInnaRoom: What will you do?

Player 2: ooh eck. I think it’s time to return to the stairs and go exploring.