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

[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?

[salamanca]

Oh. Is that all you meant by it? [ A genuinely amused, if slightly chagrined, laugh. ] Well, then! I take it back. I'm flattered.

[ Aw, Senku. Always so good-hearted, if blunt. At least that's the impression Lalo gets from the walkies, anyway, although it's hard to know too much about someone just from interacting with them in text. Anyone can pretend to be anything over text, after all, and unless they directly contradict themselves there's very little way to catch them in a lie. It's frustrating, but Lalo knows he'll have to meet these people in person before he can make any real assessments as to their honesty. Senku, in particular, has made some big claims that Lalo is still deciding what to make of.

Still, he can't deny it's a little bit nice to have a break from Detective Cohle's hostility. That Lalo is sure is 100% genuine, even going off of nothing more than voice and text.

Anyway, Senku's theory is solid. The facilities seem to have fallen into disrepair from lack of use, based on the descriptions he's heard over the network and Senku's description of the hotel as "burned out", but at some point somebody was willing to put some effort into keeping people off of the island, or at least away from certain parts of it. So why'd it stop being used? And when?? Sol mentioned a "last time"... when was "last time?" ]
.
Hmmmm. The announcements that play every so often... what do they say? "Unauthorized transport?" Could it be that certain areas of the island are restricted? Or were, when it was occupied. [ He thinks a bit longer. ] Or maybe the resort shut down first, then the entire island became restricted from the public afterwards. If only certain approved personnel were supposed to be here, and only in certain areas with someone else's approval [ whose? ]... then maybe that could be it?

[hyakuoku]

Yeah. I just say what I mean. It's easier.

[ Obviously other people can take his words however they want. He knows not everyone is honest, but he is unless he needs to twist something just enough to get someone to go along with him. But even when he's being a little devious — and he can be, but only in the name of science — he prefers honesty. Science doesn't lie, so why should he? ]

The unauthorised transport, yeah…is it STILL unauthorised? I'm not entirely sure we're supposed to be here at all. Maybe we're some sort of multiverse accident. That's a disappointing answer to the big question of why we're here, but it's not completely ruled out.

Whoever set up the drones and stuff, that might have all predated us. The cells seemed to be automated, right? So if it's all set up to still work, then…what happened to the people who set it up? Are they still there watching us? Are they dead? Did they get zapped elsewhere in the multiverse?

I'd kinda like to see all that for myself. But on the other hand, that's a long damn way to travel just to look at some jail cells.

partially private

[salamanca]

A "multiversal accident?" How would that, uh, happen? Because you gotta forgive me, Dr. Frankenstein, I'm still new to this stuff — very new — so go slow! What would happen to cause an accident, and how would we fix it to go home?

[ Pretend this next part is sent to Senku's personal inbox bc I'm lazy: ]

Sol says he can see all of our communications, so at least one person is watching us. Said he has a friend trying to help, too — so probably more than just him, unless he's lying. But aaah, I'm not sure! [ If they were in person, he'd get a sheepish smile and shrug. ]

The cells... sounds like they were probably here before us, yeah. But no way to know for sure without being there. Tell you what. I'm bringing food and water to the others. When I get to the cell, I'll report back and tell you what I see.

same

[hyakuoku]

[ He outright laughs at that question. ]

Who knows! Some cosmic event we haven't dreamed up yet might have brought us here! It's insane but it's not any more insane than just being here.

The problem with things like quantum physics is…at least where I'm from, we didn't know a hell of a lot about them before petrification. I have a good memory for everything I've read, but I don't know what I don't know. So…unless someone else shows up to fill in the wide gaps in my knowledge, I'm just guessing based on very little. I wouldn't put too much stock in the multiverse accident theory just yet.

[ He's just having a BALL with this, though. Why wouldn't he be? ]

[ Private response: ]

I mean were the cells built for someone who wasn't us. They must have been, or why wouldn't we all just have ended up on that side of the island, easy to imprison? Who were they made for? Not that I expect easy answers.

Please do tell me what you see there. Don't get caught yourself, officer! That kind of irony might be funny but it's ten billion percent not useful to us right now.

[salamanca]

[ Always nice to see somebody so happy! ]

So what theory do you put stock in? Tell me. If you had to make a bet...

[ Private to Senku's inbox from here on out: ]

[ There's a laugh, although it's a slightly sad one. ] I'll do my best.

If you want my opinion, the most important question to figure out is whether we brought here or just ended up here, and if we were brought here, if it was on purpose or on accident. Sol knows more than he's letting on. I asked him if he knew how wet got here. Several times.

He wouldn't tell me.

When I first arrived, I was wet. Almost like I fell out of a boat or a plane and just washed up. The kid, Kokichi? Him too.

Can I trust it was the same for you? Makes me think that if someone did bring us here, and if it was on purpose [ two very big ifs; Lalo doesn't think it's early enough to say if either of these things are true ] then I think they might've wanted us to think it was an accident. Like a wreck.

[hyakuoku]

I think someone brought us here on purpose. I don't have a clue yet if we were specifically targeted or if it's randomly combing the multiverse and pulling people in, but I don't think everything is an accident. The universe is random, sure, but not that random.

[ private: ]

I woke up on the shore soaked. I actually didn't think much of it at first, since I was on a boat anyway right before I came here. I thought our ship had crashed somehow, but that was ten billion percent unlikely with our captain in charge. And with not even one other person from home around, it didn't make sense.

Then I realised I was the only one who had been actually sailing, and none of you had.

So…I think you're right. I think we're supposed to think it's some kind of an accident or a wreck, but it's not. Just how much of this is staged, I dunno. But clearly some of it is.