posted at the start of night 003

[hyakuoku]

[ Senku posts this at nightfall. ]

It's pretty clear from the talk of drones and communication ability that we're not living in primitive times or the dark ages on this island. Or if we are, we're forced into it.

Randvi and I made a pretty exciting find, though. The village she was talking about looks to be some kind of resort area. There's a hotel, or maybe apartments. Hard to tell since it's all burned out. I'm thinking hotel, though, since there's a restaurant and pool area. It's all messed up and shitty now, but I bet it was nice when it was up and running. How long ago that was…I'm not sure yet.

There's an airstrip and some hangars northwest of here. Found a sign in English that said "Warning: Restricted Area." It had another language, southeast Asian. Tagalog? Indonesian? I'm not entirely sure, but it's not a language I speak. I assume it said the same thing, considering the sign. For some reason, the writing wasn't translated automatically the way the words we say to each other or write on the devices seem to be. Interesting, right?

Here's another weird thing. I could see that there were some plugs in the floor. Simplified, but still...I ten billion percent guarantee that some kind of tech plugged in there before. But I couldn't find even one scrap of wiring anywhere. We could probably get the floor up and investigate if we had tools, but I don't currently have anything like that, and I don't have the brute strength or reverse engineering ability to do it.

One of the little house things here has solar panels. I think there's power to it, but we couldn't actually get in. I'll work on it. Those little houses had the plugs I was talking about, too.

So this kind of luxury resort space…what the hell happened here? I didn't find any corpses or blood or what have you. Some old tinned food and an empty beer bottle.

[ It sounds like he's done, but after a moment, he adds: ]

Oh. One more thing. Any of you guys aware of an animal that could chew a shark into pieces? Yesterday on the beach I found a shark fin with tooth marks in it. Whatever ate a shark, I don't wanna meet.

Comments

audio

[salamanca]

Bigger shark?

[ Sounds like an attempt at a joke, but the person on the other end is too despondent for it to land. ]

[hyakuoku]

[ Senku heard the thing earlier, he just is reserving judgment on how he wants to respond probably, but... ]

Ben. Not doing any better, huh?

Could be, but I'm not sure. Orcas also attack sharks. I didn't measure the size, since I was trying to get back to shore at the time. I was surprised to just find a gnawed up fin, though.

[salamanca]

I'm fine. Please. Don't worry about me.

I'm glad you got back to shore safely. I wish I could be more help.

[hyakuoku]

You're a cop. I'm not in the habit of worrying about people who can take care of themselves.

[ SICK BURN, Senku. But he doesn't mean it like that; he's very matter-of-fact! ]

I didn't swim far out. I just needed to cross part of the bay. I didn't trust the river current.

[salamanca]

[ Fuck man, all of you people are SO MEAN. If this was all the truth and not a lie, he might be on the verge of suicide right now. ]

Right... I deserved that, too.

[ Lalo clears his throat. There's thoughtful noise and a little sound, likes he's rubbing his moustache as he thinks. ]

You know I've been thinking about the power situation. There's gotta be a generator or you know, something like that for the...drones?...to run off of. I mean, I ain't seen any power lines, have you?

If it's a solar generator somewhere, that could explain how they have power.

[hyakuoku]

[ Senku isn't mean on purpose, rip. ]

I didn't mean anything by it. If I was gonna put money on who would survive on their own for awhile, I'd bet on a cop, that's all.

But the power…I think so too. I guess the drones could run on batteries. I really wanna get my hands on one, but I don't have a way to catch one that doesn't involve a lot of trouble I can't plan adequately for just yet. I'd need more than just me and Randvi to do that, and we're on the other side of the island from those things either way.

No power lines. Just whatever is under the ground here that I can't get at.

There's solar on the one roof here so it could be whatever other power there is is run by solar and we haven't found the other panels. There's a point to the drones and the capture, I'd think. What are they keeping us away from?

audio; SH442K

[sharktrash]

I've got some tools. [ And also some brute strength. He may not be the most ripped guy on the island but he's athletic and he's got a physical day job. He also knows a bunch of languages in varying degrees, not that he expects whatever text it is to be helpful; probably the same thing as in English and they're just in the south Pacific somewhere. ] Where are you, exactly? You found my sign earlier, right?

[ He's... still planning to get to Martin, but he's getting rescued? Maybe? And this new area does sound like something worth investigating. ]

I saw somethin' like a cross between a crocodile and a dinosaur in the river two days ago. Pretty big. Think it could've been that?

audio;

[hyakuoku]

What kind of tools?

[ He's interested in ANY tools, really, because there's all kinds of things they could do with some tools. Including maybe stealing a drone and tearing it apart, right? RIGHT? ]

It took me about four hours to get here from your SOS. I'm west of there across the bay.

[ A pause. ]

How big was this crocodile thing you saw?

[ He's having a hard time imagining it, but he doesn't immediately discount it or disbelieve it. This whole situation is wild as hell, so why not strange crocodinos too! ]

[sharktrash]

Hatchet, knives, and wire. [ And also these guns. But hey, knives are basically emergency screwdrivers too. ] Oh, and a pointy stick.

[ Saving best for last and all that... ]

[ Okay, that gives him an approximate idea where they are. He guesses he'll be heading there later, but he'll wait to hear whether Martin was safely rescued first before turning away from his path. ]

I'd say at least three meters, but could've been more. Couldn't see all of it in the water. Had some really weird gangly legs, though. Might be pretty tall if it stands up.

[hyakuoku]

Those are way more useful than what I have so far. I'd like some screwdrivers but with knives we could probably make something…

[ Wait, a THREE METER WHAT ]

Three meters? In the river?

[ He laughs, because he's Senku and that's how he is. ]

Good thing I didn't try to swim in a river earlier. I might have been dinosaur food.

[sharktrash]

I'll try to head there next. Can't make any promises though. Fuckin' jungle.

[ YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT SENKU ]

Yup. Uh-huh. 'Nd yeah, that's when I decided not to cross the damn river.

BT612L; text

[ichoosefight]

Yesterday I killed a tiny deer with glowing spots. Wherever we are, we're not dealing with normal Earth fauna.

text;

[hyakuoku]

Glowing in the dark or during the daytime? You don't happen to have any of its hide or anything left do you?

[ It's probably better he responded in text so he doesn't come off like a weirdo who finds this EXCITING. But he absolutely does, whoops. ]

But if it's not regular Earth fauna, that could be concerning. Something like a bigger shark or an orca, we could plan for. If it's an unknown, we might want to stay out of the water as much as possible.

text;

[ichoosefight]

It was daytime. The bits of hide might still be where I left them but I really mangled the job... Meat is on the green side. I'll let you know if it kills me :D

text;

[hyakuoku]

Hard to do that if you're dead but good luck. If you do find another one, I'd be interested to have a look at any part of it. Maybe I can figure out what's making it glow, if it's something inherent or something done to it.

I'd need more tools first. Microscope at the very least. But in theory I could come up with something.

But between this and the crocodile dinosaur thing that other guy mentioned, we really might be looking at animal life we're not used to seeing.

text;

[ichoosefight]

I'll radio with my dying breath

'called it'

Noticed any unusual plant life? I don't know enough about plants to judge whether anything is just slightly off.

TO994M; text; morning 004

[cactusy]

Do all lives matter except for yours or what?

[You dumb child!!!!]

BT612L; text

[ichoosefight]

You're right, what was I thinking?

Berries can definitely sustain me long-term

Protein is way overrated anyway

JK002N; voice

[metalicarus]

Dinosaurs? Mechanical or made, obviously, but I've seen it before. Scientists with too much time and money on their hands.

Once I've got some strength back myself, I might be able to try a hand at the brute strength and reverse engineering, depending on what's going on with it.

But if you find tools of any kind, I'd owe you big to borrow them.

audio;

[hyakuoku]

That's an unexpected answer, but at this point, why write it off?

[ Hold on. ]

Wait, you've seen dinosaurs? Where you're from or here?

[ He's fascinated with the idea that scientists could make dinosaurs, though the mechanical ones are less interesting, probably. ]

The plugs are all in the floorboards, but sealed in. I don't have any kind of brute strength, but there's also nothing to grip. Maybe prying it up would work if you were really strong. No tools really yet but I'm hoping to get lucky looking around here the next couple days.

[metalicarus]

Back home. They were fake and on some island, not like...running about.

And I'm strong but not that strong, even at my best I'd need a crowbar or something. Kind fits with a theory I'm mulling over, though, so thanks for that.

audio

[salamanca]

What's your theory?

[metalicarus]

You want it in person or in text? Call me paranoid.

[hyakuoku]

Sounds like something out of a movie.

[ He's seen Jurassic Park, ok! ]

We'll find something we can leverage, I'm sure. In the meantime, what's your theory?

->text, private

[metalicarus]

[He hesitates while he considers if this is something worth being overheard or not. The NSA part of him says 'better safe than sorry.]

Hold on a sec. Gonna message you one-on-one. Just in case.

Got some intel recently that got me thinking underground generator. Maybe more than that. I think it's rain water based, If I'm right.