001 | video

[commandertoolbelt]

[ On comes the screen with a scrawny, teenaged Latino who looks... mildly disturbed. There's are a few scorch marks on his shirt, but nothing too bad. He's mostly kept control out there, and for now he's found his way into a room without the stupid blobs. Hopefully it stays that way. ]

Okay, first of all - what is up with the evil Jell-o? Is that a normal welcome wagon thing here, because that is totally not how we greet people at home. [ Okay, maybe some people do. Monsters do. It's par for the course if you're a demigod, really. But that's beside the point. ]

Secondly... [ Here Leo leans forward, a spark of interest in his eyes. This, friends, is the look of someone who is up to something. You should probably be concerned. ] What can you guys tell me about this machine of yours?

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[checkyourceiling]

{There is in fact someone else in the room hanging out in a corner of the ceiling. Once Leo's done video taping he finally speaks up.}

I've been poking around a little, but beyond peeling wallpaper and some seriously questionable things in jars I haven't found anything of interest.

{Peter makes sure to keep his voice amiable and stay alert for any surprise attacks if this teenager doesn't turn out to be as friendly as he seemed in his message. He's in a red and blue suit marked with a gigantic spider on his back, but it's dotted in bits and pieces with the same goop Leo's just escaped.}

[commandertoolbelt]

[ You... probably should've thought that through a little better, dude. Surprising a demigod right after he makes it out of a fight - blobs or no blobs? Especially one with fire at his fingertips? As soon as Peter speaks up, Leo yelps and whirls around, and before he knows it there's already a fireball in the air.

...Oops. He curses; sometimes battle reflexes aren't the best thing to have. ]

Dude. A little warning next time?

[checkyourceiling]

{That's alright because Peter's reflexes might be even better than a demigod's and he flattens himself against the ceiling to avoid the fireball like it's nothing before dropping down to the ground.}

Sorry, I don't make much noise generally.

{He doesn't really sound sorry at all.}

[commandertoolbelt]

[ ...Is that what Leo thinks it is. ]

Dude. You know Halloween isn't for, like, three months, right?

[seraphique]

[There's a new face on the little box she's got - a younger boy, this time, and he doesn't seem dangerous either. He's talking about a machine. Maybe he means this, but...

She still doesn't know exactly what sorts of things they should expect here, but Christine would hope they rid themselves of the blobs rather quickly. She's still hiding out in the room with her name on it, her back up against the door, having removed her mint cloak for now.]

Pardon me...what machine, exactly? Do you mean this device?

[commandertoolbelt]

[ Wow. This girl is clearly not tech-saavy. She looks like she's from another time period, for crying out loud. ]

Nnnnno, not these things. These are phones. Someone told me there's a machine that controls this place, maybe even what brought us here. That's about all I know.

[seraphique]

I see. This telephone doesn't look much at all like the one that was shown in the newspaper. I didn't know it could show me a face.

[If she hadn't met people who'd wanted to help her when she'd first arrived, she'd have been much more skeptical, afraid of the device. It reminds her so much of the mirror. The telephone, though, had only been invented a few years prior, and the Opera House didn't have one yet - Christine's not even sure if Europe's equipped to support the telephone yet. It's why they write and send so many letters, after all.]

Really?

[This is interesting for her, at least, and something to ponder while she's hiding out from the blobs. She keeps the phone close to her face as she talks.]

Fortescue told me she'd thought it might be scientists, actually.

[commandertoolbelt]

...Right. Well, it can do more than just that, but that's another story. And you don't have to hold it so close to your face, either, jeez.

[ But he breaks his own rule by leaning forward after that, interested what she has to say. ]

Scientists... That would make sense. Who's Fortescue? Think you could introduce me?

[seraphique]

Oh- my apologies.

[And with that, she does pull back the phone, holding it at a much more agreeable angle. She notices he leans in, but doesn't say anything. Perhaps he knows something about it she doesn't.]

Fortescue is a woman I've met here - I think she lives here, but she's no scientist from what I can tell. I can try to help you find her, I suppose...but I've no magic of my own to hold them back. She kept them away with hers and took me to this safe room.

[commandertoolbelt]

[ She doesn't have to be a scientist if she can tell him more about what's going on. ]

That'd be awesome. Um... If you tell me where you are, I can maybe come find you.

[seraphique]

I'm in a room with my name marked on it. My name is Christine.

[She holds the phone above her head so he can see the frame of the door.]

You'll need to knock rather loudly so I know it's you coming - I've got my back against the door to try and stop the monsters from coming in, you see.

[video]

[blackmagus]

[Fortescue has the tact to keep her bottle of whiskey out of phone view as she responds. She's lost any shame that might come with drinking before nighttime, but she still doesn't like to broadcast her drinking habits.]

Other than the white halls and the re-arranging of corridors, there's nothing normal here, love. The red globs are a new sensation. [She has an accent that most of the multiverse calls British and slightly posh. It's Imperian, back home.] You didn't eat any, I trust? They didn't look particularly fetching.

[She's just teasing. Probably.]

[commandertoolbelt]

"Rearranging of corridors"? [ Odd wording, but okay, she's apparently British and they talk funny, anyway.

He makes a face at her question. ] No, gross. Why would I eat them? They smell disgusting when they're burned.

[blackmagus]

Just making sure, love. [She smiles.] Strange thing happen. Case in point, what I mean is, the corridors like to change. The same route you go to the library won't be there in a week, or even less. Or sometimes it takes longer than the last, even though it doesn't look like anything changed. It's all very odd.

[commandertoolbelt]

...Huh. How does that even work? Is this, like, a revolving building or something?

[ One where they're kept in the center of it so they won't be lost? Funny, he hasn't sensed any sort of mechanisms serving that purpose. But that's the best explanation for it, especially if there's a machine in control of it all. Seems like, if you get control of the machine, you control everything.

This'll be a piece of cake, if he can only find it and figure it out. ]

[blackmagus]

No, I don't think so. That wouldn't explain doors rearranging the distances between them. The only explanation I can think of is magic, honestly. If this is technology, it's very impressive and quite unlike anything I've seen before.

[Fortescue winks.]

Between you and me, that's saying something.

[commandertoolbelt]

[ That isn't a good enough answer for him. Magic? Hmph. He sniffs in mild irritation. ]

If there's a machine powering this entire place, it's got to be some sort of tech. Advanced, yeah, but I've seen better. [ The Archimedes sphere, for one. If he had that, and figured out how to hook it up right, he could have this entire place in the palm of his hands. ]

[blackmagus]

[She cants her head to the side.]

Were this my world, I would say that it was nautex. Magic and technology. That still could be, but I don't know. The machine appears different to everyone who looks at it. With magic, that would be much more simple. An illusion effect. I'm not certain why pure technology would feel the need to cloak itself.

[greenisnteasy]

It's not really ours. Probably it would like it better if we thought of ourselves as belonging to it.

And the Jell-o is new. Try to contain it, if you get a chance.

[ Also, hello. ]

[commandertoolbelt]

Hey, I don't belong to anyone, man or woman or machine. [ He's a bit tetchy about this, sorry. ] If anything, we work together.

I've been burning it. Doesn't smell so appetizing, but it gets the job done. Where'd it come from, if it wasn't here before?

[greenisnteasy]

I didn't say you had to subscribe to the notion. I'm just saying, if you buck that idea too much, you could get yourself in trouble.

[ And Bruce might be getting himself in trouble a little here too by warning him about it, maybe. Hopefully not. ]

It was in some beaker in my lab -- my old lab -- and it broke. And now we have new, evil Jell-o friends.

[commandertoolbelt]

Right, because the machine is alive and its feelings will get hurt. [ He's not even being entirely sarcastic here - Leo knows automatons, for one thing, and he knows that even they can have feelings, to an extent. ]

So how do we get rid of it, then? Just keep doing what we're doing?

[greenisnteasy]

As far as we can tell. [ Bruce has received his punishment for being too scientific with the Machine, so he's cautious about it now. It's probably better to work with it rather than against it at least for now, right? ]

I think so. It seems pretty containable. Once we round it all up, it shouldn't cause us too many problems.

[commandertoolbelt]

So it probably wouldn't like me trying to figure out how it works. [ Too bad, so sad. Feelings or not, it's still a machine, and that means Leo can get into it. ]

The machine's not going to punish us for this, is it?

[greenisnteasy]

Oh no. That I definitely recommend staying away from at your own risk. You'll have a hell of a time trying to figure out what it even looks like because I'm betting it looks different to you than it does to me.

[ He frowns, thinking he means talking about the Machine. ] What, speculating or rounding up these little guys? If the latter, I think we're okay. They were locked up before.