day 005; SH442K; voice

[sharktrash]

Heeey scumbags!

[ As usual, the scratchy voice coming out of the comms is just too loud for comfort, and will probably prompt anyone listening to turn their volume down. As usual, he sounds a little too cheerful for their dire circumstances. ]

Anyone else getting shot at? Kidnapped? C'mon, I'm about to die from boredom here.

If this was really some kinda simulated Battle Royale you'd think the death matches would have started by now, right? 

But noooooo, it's just some fuckers sneakin' around and dronebombing the place.

Terrible vacation, really. Good fuckin' thing I didn't pay for it or I'd want my money back, yeah?

[ ... ]

Hey.

If you're still listening, congratulations, you might not be a fun-hating twat, so you get to hear my actual message.

Found another airplane, or part of airplane, in the mountain range. This really huge-ass fuselage, got "PacAir" printed on the side.

There might be some luggage in the compartments or salvageable electronics behind the boards, but the whole thing hanging in this really fucked up way and nothing on the inside looks sturdy enough to climb. Maybe if anyone's got some rope, someone could descend from above and check it out that way. Maybe enough people would be able to flip it, but I dunno if it's worth that kinda effort.

And there's also -- check this out -- a volcano. Doesn't look like it's been active for a while, there's a mineral water lake in the middle now, but it's weirdly warm. Don't know shit about that so I can't tell you if it could be heated from the sun or if it's coming from below, but hey, that's something to consider. 'Nd animals have been making their way here, so it's not poisonous. Probably. Smells kinda like sulfur though.

Volcanoes are usually in the middle of islands, right? Might not be the case here, but I'd say it's... in the southern part of the mountains? Can't be sure without a map, but there's more further north.

Guess that's it for now. Ya eggheads might be able to make something from this, right?

Oh but I wasn't fucking kiddin' about this place being boring, so if you've got any fun stories ya wanna share, I'm all ears. Only so much jungle noises one can take instead of a normal conversation, yeah? I'm a people person, you know. Honest.

Anyway! Headed toward some sus shit next, wish me luck.

Comments

audio | callsign TN811N

[hyakuoku]

[ He listens because he's nosy and what else is there to do? This guy is rude as hell, but like Senku told Shaw: he knows this type. He thinks Squalo is a lot smarter than he might sound at first blush. ]

Hey. Shark guy. You should be really, really careful around that volcanic water area anyway. Sulphuric acid will kill you in seconds. Sounds cool, but it's not exciting at all. If we had some silver ore we could test for it but until then, you might wanna steer clear without a gas mask. Animals aren't smart enough to avoid shit like that either.

[ He's not the fun police but he has absolutely seen what this stuff does. He has sulphuric acid in his pocket, actually, but his friend had almost died when they'd tried to get it. ]

I think volcanoes tend to be in central locations on islands, yeah. So a plane crashed somewhere near the volcano…I wonder if it's due to that? Or if it was shot down, or malfunctioned. I found a piece of steel in the bay but it didn't really tell me anything. All the suitcases lying around and stuff...well, who knows.

[ He does that laugh thing. ]

If I had one of those drones, we could send that to explore for us, maybe pick up some electronics. What a pain in the ass to have to do it the slow old-fashioned way, huh?

audio | callsign: DI481O

[salamanca]

Don't volcanoes make islands? You know, they KA-BOOM! and the lava pushes up, up, upppp through the water until there's an island! Right?

[ You're the scientist, Senku. Translate his Normal Person-ese into Smart Science Guy-ican. ]

[hyakuoku]

Yeah, that's right. It has to do with magma escaping the earth's crust. Eventually it cools and forms land masses, though not all of them turn into something habitable. It happens when one of the plates wayyyy down deep in the earth subducts — basically gets underneath — another. Water gets in, then the plate moves upwards and the mantle melts into magma.

That's how the islands I'm from — Japan — formed. They usually form over the subduction plates. Not all islands do that precisely; the Hawaiian islands formed a little differently, away from plates, in volcanic hot spots instead.

But yeah, either way, that's how we get volcanic islands. With the mountains here it was always likely this was a volcanic island. But there's not usually just one, so I wonder how close we are to any others in this island chain.

[salamanca]

Ayyyy, so I do remember something from high school! Look at me! [ Lalo is so, so, so proud of himself. ] Do I get any points for that?

So what does this mean? [ You're the scientist! Tell him! ]

[hyakuoku]

For remembering things from high school? I don't know, ojiisan, how long ago was that?

[ He knows about the auto translation thing but if he just speaks English on purpose he can throw that "old man" in Japanese in there to be a pain in the ass. ]

It doesn't really mean a whole lot. So the island is volcanic by nature, but whether it's on a plate line or not kind of depends on the other islands in the group, which...I'm not yet sure if we can get to them from here, or how far they are. If they formed in a line or an arc, that would tell us a little more. We could narrow down the geographic location by knowing something like that, maybe.

[salamanca]

[ What the!!! Hey, wait a second! Did you just call him old! ]

Hey! You little shit! When we finally do meet in prison, I'm gonna kick your ass, chiquito.

[ He's laughing, though, so the threat is probably idle. Probably. Lalo doesn't speak Japanese, but he can guess from context what the word Senku used means; he returns fire with a Mexican diminutive that means 'little kid'. ]

So high school geography tells us nothing, huh? I'm telling my step-kids not to pay attention in class, since it sounds like it's useless. [ Another laugh. He seems entertained by his own wit. ]

[hyakuoku]

[ He laughs, a real laugh and not his little habitual one. He's not at all bothered by whatever Lalo just called him. He doesn't speak Spanish, but again from context, he assumes it's something like being called a little kid. ]

Well, I've heard American high school education leaves something to be desired anyway, but who knows. You remembered how the islands were formed, so that's still something. Ultimately we just don't have enough info yet to geolocate.

There's also the thing you're not considering. If this isn't our world, our earth, we may not be able to geolocate at all. Something is clearly messed up here, right, with the weird animals. They could be something engineered or created, but if they evolved on their own like that...then maybe the land masses aren't what we'd expect to find either.

[sharktrash]

[ Weeeeeeeelllllllllll about that. ]

Too late for that, chief. But hey, now we know it's not sulfuric acid? Tastes kinda like stale mineral water, actually.

[ Oops he touched it and tasted it. What could possibly go wrong?! ]

...think you could reprogram them?

[ Jet has supposedly smashed some drones up so they're... probably still there... he could possibly steal one? ]

[hyakuoku]

[ SQUALO PLS YOU COULD HAVE DIED ]

Hopefully none forms in any pockets nearby that water. You got good luck not dying so far, though.

[ Hehehehe the next part just sounds fun, though. ]

I bet I can, yeah. Need some tools, but there's gotta be some, or something we can make do with.

[sharktrash]

[ THAT'S FINE, VALHALLA AWAITS HIM ]

Ha, yeah. What can I say, skills.

[ It's absolutely pure dumb luck, honestly, especially given that his idea of testing for poisons is to eat some of the weird stuff he finds and wait... ]

If I see a bag-sized one, I'll grab it for you. Don't hold your breath though.

[ And also... ]

Should be heading your way tomorrow, if you're still sitting in the same place.

[ He just keeps taking detours, oops, but there's just so much STUFF around here to explore, alright? ]

[hyakuoku]

Uh-huh.

[ He knows luck when he hears it, but he also knows a few people who get by on incredible luck, so he won't knock it. ALSO DON'T PUT WEIRD SHIT IN YOUR MOUTH, are you 12??? ]

I hope you do find one. There are a lot of good uses for something like that. Or even just a power source, you know?

We're not going anywhere too far, I think. We have some things set up here like a base. I think it's a better strategy than moving around all the time, at least for now. Don't die!

[ He keeps saying this to Squalo specifically because Squalo is the most reckless person on this network, seems like. ]

[sharktrash]

[ He's 22, thank you very much. And also starving. He's still growing! Maybe! ]

Think it needs a power source, rather than provide one?

[ But yeah. Okay. This is Squalo walking right toward the creepy prison and trying to steal one of them murder drones. Surely nothing could go wrong with that? ]

Hey, good to know. [ He'll get there eventually. Probably. ] 'Nd I'm pretty hard to kill, just sayin'.

[ Unless he succumbs to poisonous berries. But. He definitely has the tendency to get into dangerous situations and almost die only to reappear a few chapters later! This is fine! ]

[hyakuoku]

I'm sure it needs one, but if it runs on something like a rechargeable battery, we could repurpose that if we need to run something else. Won't know til I see it.

You seem like the hard to kill type. Good quality in a place this dangerous.

[ IT'S FINE, Senku would never use a reckless person to purposefully do something dangerous, why would he do a thing like that. ]

[sharktrash]

Gotcha. Oh, by the way, you want some of that volcano water?

[ They probably don't have the means to do actual chemistry experiments, but maybe Senku could still figure something out. He sounds hella smart. Probably went to some fancy college or some shit. ]

[hyakuoku]

Yeah, if you can get it. And any rocks you find near there, that volcanic stuff. Do you know what sulfur looks like? It's yellow, forms on the rocks. It's ten billion percent going to come in handy.

[ It's going to be funny when Squalo sees how young Senku is. No college for him, just way too much cramming knowledge into his own brain. ]

[sharktrash]

I'll keep an eye out.

[ IT SURE WILL BE FUNNY, although Squalo isn't all that much older than him. But hey! Looks like this conversation is wrapped up, so he's going to go listen to the rest of this clusterfuck in the meantime. ]