Landwelded

[magnetoHydroDynamics]

> Start

Wait a minute...



What the hell, this isn't the game I-



Oh...

A young woman in her early twenties stands on the balcony of her modest apartment. Though it was two decades ago she was given life, yada yada yada. No. She has a name, guys. Given to her when she was a drooling little chump, but for retroactive circumstantiality purposes, well...

Her last name is Thistle, but we need a first name to get going.

> Enter Name

[poplopo]

>Holly

[Nighzmarquls]

Abigail

[Absol]

>Ythgilf

[Chozowake]

> Carlina. Totally Carlina.

[magnetoHydroDynamics]

> Holly

You briefly imagine if your loving foster-parents had named you Holly. That would be weird, being named after both a tree and a shrub. "Hello, my name is Rosemary Oak."

> Abigail

Your name is Abigail Thistle. You are currently enjoying the chilly breeze and bright sun of midsummer Algeria. What do you do?

> _

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Dammit, getting ninja'd on my own adventure.

[Chozowake]

> Examine what is most likely an awesome AC/DC shirt.

[magnetoHydroDynamics]

> Examine what is most likely an awesome AC/DC shirt.

Currently you are wearing your awesome Led Zeppeline shirt. But the AC/DC one ought to be somewhere in the wardrobiefier cycle.

> _

[Kíeros]

> Look around in your apartment.

[Lieutenant Fish]

>Install the new XBLURB Beta

[Morphimus]

> Examine surroundings.

[magnetoHydroDynamics]

> Examine Surroundings.

You take a gander at the scenery.
You live in the capital (and largest city) of Algeria, Algeirs. Many of the surrounding buildings are from the first immigration wave.

Temperate pine forests adorn the hills and mountains outside the city borders.

> Look around your apartment.

Not much to see. Sparsely furnished like many others. Just the things too big to fit in your sylladex.

> [A] Install the new XBLURB Beta.

Sometimes your internal monologue produces strange things. You are very used to sifting good ideas from bad, creative problem solving is a forté of yours.

Man, you are lucky to live in a time where such convenient technology is available. Storage space is measured as cubic metres in cheap plastic cards, wardrobifiers can re-outfit you in a millisecond and cookalizer/refrigerator pairs provide everyone with healthy meals made from fresh ingredients.

Someone is pestering you.

> _

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[A] means animated .PNG files. Make sure your browser supports them, it is the easiest for me to produce animations with.

[Kíeros]

> Answer whoever it is.

[Armok]

>work on your Project.

[Morphimus]

> Pick up pillow and toss it out the window.

[magnetoHydroDynamics]

> Answer whoever it is.

Log:

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-- derrideanTroper [DT] began pestering keynesianWiten [KW] --

DT: day Abby
KW: Day DT
DT: how's things in Algeirs?
KW: Not bad, not bad
DT: my model of you is laxing out
KW: Accurate
KW: Too cold on my end for summer activities
DT: yeah, forecasts say shitty summer all over Mediterranean
KW: Always well informed
DT: always
DT: anyway
KW: You have motives?
DT: yeah, good reason I've contacted you
DT: I got a tip from myself that I can't remember sending
KW: What do you mean?
DT: know what a time travel password is?
KW: Vaguely
DT: basically a seal of trustworthyness, phrase I never tell anyone
KW: Oh, yeah those
KW: That is actually scary
DT: yeah wait till you hear what it says
KW: Skip the drama please
DT: it is... a letter of apology I guess
DT: says that FG is hiding something that we must ask him about
DT: and names you and the others, by name, saying we all have even deeper secrets
DT: some sort of infuriatingly vague implication that whoever somehow wrote this has caused us a lot of trouble
DT: finishes with "the end is nigh, good luck"
KW: I don't really know what to make of that
DT: it is even my own handwriting
DT: there's a blood stain on it too... I kinda don't want to affirm my suspicions on that one
KW: You got a tester?
DT: yeah
KW: Do it, we need all the evidence we can get
DT: ok, i'll try to get a sample
KW: Before you go
KW: Why talk to me?
DT: reassurance, you have good people skills
KW: NQ is a professional psychologist
DT: NQ is a drunk with sleep disorders
DT: you're the most normal-sane of all of my friends
KW: Heh
KW: Get going buddy, I'll sink some brain hours into this issue
DT: thanks

-- derrideanTroper [DT] ceased pestering keynesianWiten [KW] --

> [A] Work on your project.

Yeah, let's see. Alternative explanations for that letter DT got...

Log:

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-- ABIGAIL's thoughts --

1:
He could have fucked up and let his PW slip so some cunning prankster
- The cunning prankster would need to know of me and the other four
- Could have stolen one of DT's contact-list files?
- Does DT even store our names anywhere?

2:
The prankster could be DT himself
- Solves 1's problems
- DT is a know joker
- But this serious?

3:
He could have a psychotic break
- NQ said he was stable, and to be fair she is not that unreliable
- He could be in the danger zone?
- Drugs?
- DT isn't that stupid

4:
Time travel could be real and future!DT is a time traveller
- ...

5:
*I* could have a psychotic break...
- Ugh
- NQ said I was slightly unstable, but that was emotionally.

Unresolved:
Supposing 4 and that future!DT is honest, interesting things abound.
- FG has secrets?
- future!DT is anti-villain!Xanatos
- A cataclysmic event will happen soon?
- Global? Extinction? Preventable? Local?
- I have even deeper secrets?
- Have my mental integrity been compromised?
- Never found my memory-loss message
- Better make a time travel password

To do:
- Interrogate FG
- Talk to NQ
- Make time-travel pw
- Investigate existential risks that could threaten in the "nigh" time scale

I need a snort of caffeine

That's good. Mental enhancer time.

> [A] Pick up pillow and toss it out the window.

Guru!
Your caffeine shooter is empty!

You discard it in the most violent manner possible.
Then you attempt to gain additional catharsis by defenestrating your pillow.

You attempt with underwhelming failure. The window is closed.

> _

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Animations everywhere.

Also, note that the slang is supposed to be non-contempoary. If you haven't yet realised it the genre here is Sci-Fi.

Also, I might take some suggestions out of the context they were posted in.

[Kíeros]

> Well, let's start with the first thing on your list. Interrogate FG.

[Lieutenant Fish]

None of the gif work?

[Morphimus]

None of the gif work?

They're animated PNGs. Your browser might not be able to display them properly.

[Lieutenant Fish]

what the h*ell??

[Absol]

Well fuck.

>Do the one involving time travel.

[SClark]

> Convert all .pngs to .gifs for multibrowser harmony

> Or just take stock of your inventory

[magnetoHydroDynamics]

I did some research. Animated PNGs are supported via the following browsers:
Firefox (version 3 or higher, this includes firefox for android), Opera (version 9.5 or higher, this includes Opera Mobile), Google Chrome/Chromium has a plugin (presumably this link will lead you to it).

I will probably not begin using gifs at all ever, because it is a sucky format. I will however try to make more interesting stills to be displayed when there isn't any support.

Also, no more suggestions! Expect Update.

[Absol]

I did some research. Animated PNGs are supported via the following browsers:
Firefox (version 3 or higher, this includes firefox for android), Opera (version 9.5 or higher, this includes Opera Mobile), Google Chrome/Chromium has a plugin (presumably this link will lead you to it).

Thank you so much. *o*

[magnetoHydroDynamics]

> Well, let's start with the first thing on your list. Interrogate FG.

Log:

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-- keynesianWiten [KW] started pestering feynmannGrasper [FG] --

KW: Day mr. Steele
FG: Day ms. Thistle.
FG: What do you want?
KW: Well, I wanna tell you of some disturbing news I heard from DT
FG: DT is a prankster.
KW: I know he is, but he was really disturbed
FG: Could be acting?
KW: He is a terrible actor
FG: True.
KW: He tells me he got a note from himself, time-travel password, own handwriting
KW: Even a drop of blood he is just now testing to see if it is his own
KW: And he is stone cold sure he didn't send it.
FG: Hmm.
KW: Now, I don't want you to freak out
KW: But the note mentions several things, among others, the end of the world being "nigh"
FG: Hmmmm.
KW: It also at least implies I have some sort of baggage I am not aware of
FG: Go on.
KW: And it mentions that you might have some key discovery that will help sort all of this out

-- feynmannGrasper [FG] blocked keynesianWiten [KW] --

-- keynesianWiten [KW] started pestering straussianZygonista [SZ] --

KW: Day SZ
SZ: day kw
KW: Great importance, I need you to give me an unblockable connection to FG
SZ: how great
KW: Serious extinction risk prevention
SZ: gimme a sec

-- straussianZygonista [SZ] ceased pestering keynesianWiten [KW] --

-- keynesianWiten [KW] started pestering feynmannGrasper [FG] --

-- feynmannGrasper [FG] blocked keynesianWiten [KW] --

KW: Steele, please stop that, this is really important
FG: Preach elsewhere scripture-head, I got nothing to do with anything!
KW: You are our only hope!
FG: ...
KW: Take a deep breath, calm down
KW: I am not the dangerous one here
FG: Okay, okay. Brb, need a fag.
FG: The cigarette situation is now resolved.
FG: The world is going to end, and some time-traveller is involved.
KW: That is a hypothesis of mine, yes.
FG: What is your credence?
KW: Moderately unsettled.
FG: Okay.
FG: I am working on something.
FG: I live in the middle of nowhere, as you know.
FG: Specifically on the slope of a volcano.
KW: Yeah, old seismic research station, right?
FG: Exactly.
KW: On the art of Jaynes and Drescher, I can keep a secret
FG: The most important aspect of a secret is that a secret exists.
KW: And you are worried because some time-traveler knows about yours
FG: Exactly.
KW: Both I and DT know of it too
KW: But I think DT is more concerned with other things for the moment
FG: Hmm.
KW: Anyway, what is this secret?
FG: Ruins. Sitting with clear view of the glacial walls.
-- feynmannGrasper [FG] shared file "temple_photos.tar.gz" --

Log:

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KW: Whoa, just looking at the first of these
KW: You have been industrious
FG: Necessarily so, take a look at the sections with the writing.
KW: Yeah?
FG: It is obsidian inlaid in granite.
FG: Made to last. To be found.
FG: There are hundreds of these sections.
FG: Moreover, this chamber has been opened before. Recently.
FG: Someone has access to this data.
KW: Data?
FG: The entire thing is over a billion symbols. Most of it is in a formal language.
KW: Like the mathematical thing?
FG: A Turing-complete one.
FG: It is a programming language.
FG: Along with instructions for building compilers for almost any architecture.
KW: Wait, how old is this?
FG: So far I can discern, older than human civilization.

You have never been so unsettled in your entire life.

> Take stock of your inventory.

Okay, this can work out. You just need to keep calm and kick ass.
You have your brain, your rationalist training, a degree in Economics, an apartment and a sylladex.

Log:

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-- ABIGAIL's Sylladex Contents --

One (1) boxtop computer
One (1) hand held wardrobifier
One (1) well-stocked refrigerator
One (1) empty thermo hull
One (1) well-used cookalizer
One (1) hand held computer
One (1) plastic fabricator
Several (~) inexpensive data-storage sticks
One (1) 'Uranium' generator

Several (~) tees with musical motifs
Three (3) sets of comfortable shoes
Five (5) jackets of varying warmth
Six (6) pair of denim jeans
Ten (10) sets of womens activity underwear
One (1) raincover

Several (~) personal hygiene articles
Several (~) lady hygiene articles
Several (~) dental hygiene articles
Several (~) make-up articles
Two (2) hand weights
Three (3) rolls of toilet paper

One (1) hand ax
One (1) fire ax
One (1) Gibson Les Paul guitar
One (1) Fender bass guitar
One (1) Yamaha amp that goes up to 6

Several (~) university level economics textbooks
Several (~) university level political science textbooks
Several (~) other books

One (1) flash light
One (1) shovel
One (1) camping stool
One (1) electric scooter
One (1) motorcycle helmet
Three (3) sets of cutlery
Two (2) metal mugs

One (1) office chair
Two Hundred (200) sheets of hemp paper
Three (3) inkless carbide pens
Ten (10) fabricator cartridges

Four (4) medium sized concrete chunks
One (1) figurine
One (1) canvas satchel
Two (2) bottles of glacial runoff
Twenty-seven (27) pine cones
Several (~) peices of driftwood
One (1) oak sapling
One (1) gigantic boulder
Two (2) busted car tires
One (1) replica vinyl single of Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles

16 blank cards remain

> _