audio | callsign TN811N | DAY 21

[hyakuoku]

I was outside early this morning. The rain stopped so I went to go see if there was severe damage.

There was some weird ass light out there for a minute or two. Looked like a laser. Had a little bit of sputtering going on so maybe whatever made it is kinda messed up. Still, what the hell is a laser doing here? Are there satellites to worry about?

[ Ah, right, hold on. Senku-sensei might have to give some context. ]

If you don't know what a laser is, it's a word from an acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Basically it's a really bright ass, concentrated beam of light. This one was huge, came from the sky, I think.

Satellites are machines that orbit the earth. If you need a rundown on what that means, I can do that, but I wouldn't say it's entirely relevant. But I'd give a lot for a real telescope right now.

[ He guesses he'll have to MAKE ONE then, but anyways! ]

Anyone else see something like this, or is it just near the airfield?

Comments

AP251C | audio

[desperate_times_right]

We saw it too, in the north. Solar storm?

[hyakuoku]

Don't think so. Wrong colour for that. It was too blue to be solar...plus the one I saw kind of sputtered. Think like a flashlight when the batteries are fritzing, only ten billion percent bigger.

[desperate_times_right]

You haven't seen anything like that here before, right? So it's probably not what’s been throwing shit at us?

[hyakuoku]

No. Not that I was out in the storm to see it. I'm gonna try to go scout out where it was, but I didn't see anything land either. Whether it's the same thing that causes stuff to drop outta the sky, I don't know. My theory is that it isn't, because why wouldn't the light accompany those things that are falling outta nowhere? Hard theory to prove either way, though, unless we can trace the source of the light. Tracing the source of shit falling on you isn't anywhere near as easy.

[desperate_times_right]

I thought maybe whatever’s flinging that stuff is whatever was dropping us on the beach. But then you'd see it whenever one of us showed up.

[hyakuoku]

I wonder if whatever is dropping shit out of the sky is the same thing that's zapping all of us here, or at least the same mechanism. But then the falling out of the sky thing is wild as hell. I don't think the light is directly connected, but I need more information to know that for sure. I've never seen lights like this before, so they don't trigger when one of us arrives either way.

[desperate_times_right]

I dunno, if we really can't die, maybe we all got dropped into craters and our overlords gave us a do-over. Or that's why they dropped us all in the ocean, I guess.

[Probably not but the idea’s kind of funny]

Weird that so much stuff seems to be falling near where people are gathered, though.

[hyakuoku]

Maybe someone is actually trying to help us and they're just screwing it up playing with the multiverse dial.

[ He's flippant when he says it, but he's not entirely sure that's wrong. ]

Maybe we're supposed to find this stuff either way. Or maybe it's malicious. Maybe they're trying to hurt us. But...I don’t really think so. I think if they wanted to hurt us on purpose they would have.

[desperate_times_right]

Most of the stuff dropped near us wasn't very useful.

But yeah, easier ways to hurt us for sure. [She would know]

[hyakuoku]

I don't know if anything got dropped here. If it fell outta the sky in the storm, it didn't land on the hangars. Sounds like we're lucky, though. An elephant could have taken a whole bunch of us out at once.

The randomness of it is why I think that no matter what the goal is, it's not as easy as picking something on purpose. Who the hell would pick an elephant or a statue?

[desperate_times_right]

I was hoping that it being an Indian elephant specifically would tell us something about where the stuff was coming from, but the statue didn't look Indian.

since he technically knows about the cell phone by now!

[hyakuoku]

[ He thinks about this for a minute. ]

I think all this stuff is from where we're from. Or if this stuff isn't, some stuff on the island sure is. Someone here found something that ten billion percent couldn't have come from anywhere but my world. I figure the rest of this stuff is likely to be the same.

[desperate_times_right]

Huh. When we get to your base, I want to show you something.

[hyakuoku]

Now I'm excited to see what it is.

[ He sounds it, too. #madsciencevoice ]

[desperate_times_right]

I won't spoil the surprise, then. See you in a bit.

HE412T | text

[timaeus]

What direction was it?
I was stuck inside entertaining kids.

text

[hyakuoku]

You were doing what? With the PacAirs???

It was out on the water, not inland.

[timaeus]

Yes, they let me stay with them during the storm.
And kids get antsy after being stuck inside for days.
Regardless, which direction out on the water?

[hyakuoku]

They seem like good allies. Some of the rest of us should talk to them.

Southwest. I'm really really good at figuring out distances but even I'm not sure exactly how far. Maybe something about it is screwing up my perception.

[timaeus]

Feel free.
Regardless, doesn't sound like the giant fuck-off laser was centered on the Glencolans' island.
Implying there's additional shit of significance out there in the ocean.

[After all, why would random giant lasers just be striking down in random unimportant places?]

This bears investigation, in my opinion.

[hyakuoku]

Yeah, I agree. I don't think the lights were random.

We're going to go out on our raft sometime soon when shark guy gets back here. I was thinking of heading southeast to see about getting to the Glencolans' island. We'll probably get ourselves killed or something, but how else are we gonna know where the boundaries are here?

If the raft survives, we can try investigating that light too.

audio | DI481O

[salamanca]

Lasers, huh? [ A snort. ] Shit, man.

Yeah... I'd like a telescope, too. [ Just maybe not for himself. ]

What would it take for you to show me how to make one?

[ "Show me", not "make one for me"... even without the right equipment, having the knowledge of what to do seems more valuable than relying on only one person to know how to do things like that. ]

[hyakuoku]

That's just kinda what they look like. I don’t know if they were technically lasers or not, not without going up into the sky or space to see what shot that light down. And that's ten billion percent impossible right now.

[ But maybe someday, right? ]

A telescope is basically two refracting lenses in a tube. You can make a good makeshift one once you have the lenses. The lens is just a curved piece of glass when you get down to it, so even the bottom of a glass bottle could work to make a weak telescope. But you still need two of them.

HE412T | text

[timaeus]

Who here has a pair of glasses they're willing to give up?

[He's been considering this for a while now, but the areas he's been stuck in so far aren't the best places to scavenge for glasses.]

[hyakuoku]

No one yet, but either we find some or we get/build something hot enough to make our own glass.

[timaeus]

I imagine it'd be easier to find some glasses on a previously-populated island than it would be to build a forge.
But I wouldn't say no to one if it came to that.
Might as well get my blacksmith on.

[hyakuoku]

Yeah I think finding them is more practical but I've built a forge before. I had help from someone who was a much better craftsman than me, though. I could build a really basic one eventually. I'll put it on my list.

Can you really do blacksmithing though?

[timaeus]

In theory.
I dabble in robotics and I'm accustomed to having to make my own components.
This would be a bit more medieval than I'm used to but I know how to do it.

[In theory. It's the sort of knowledge a nerd with endless time and internet access has. He's read WikiHow articles.]

[hyakuoku]

I know how blacksmithing works but I lack the upper body strength for it.
Robotics, though. I know some about that, though it's theoretical. I never got to build an actual robot, just rockets.

You should come help me with this damn drone. Though it's not that I don't understand it so much as I don't have a working power source. Even if I make a battery, which I can and probably will do, doesn't matter if it has no charge.

[timaeus]

You have a drone?

[Most of the drone shit happened before he got here. But reluctant as he is to walk himself into yet another group of strangers, the possibility of a project does tempt him.

He tends to get carried away with his projects.]

[hyakuoku]

Technically I have two drones.

[timaeus]

[ ... ]

So where is your base, exactly?

[hyakuoku]

[ HEHEHEHE SUCCESS ]

Southwest part of the island. There's a burned up old hotel close by. Base is at the airfield.

[timaeus]

I'm on my way to check the southeast shore right now.
I'll start making my way west afterward.
Sounds like my bro's friend getting escorted down to you guys anyway, so it's only polite to go re-introduce myself for the first time.

[Fucking time shenanigans.]

[hyakuoku]

Don't die.

[ He just says this to people he feels any sort of attachment to or interest in, it's fine. ]

What do you mean by all that last part, though? Are you from different timelines?

[timaeus]

Different parts of the same timeline, I think.
But I'm not the Time guy so I can't say anything for sure.

audio | KD201D

[obeir]

We also saw one — don't know if it was the same one, but it sounds identical. I managed to get a video of it with my phone before it disappeared. Figured something that unusual would be worth documenting so we can study it more carefully later.

audio;

[hyakuoku]

You guys are pretty far off from here too...was it on land or in the water?

[obeir]

It was to the east of us and judging by the distance, most likely had to be in the water. I think there may have been another one farther southeast of us, but it was hard to make out.

[hyakuoku]

I wonder how many there were. If they were all in the water, that makes it harder to discern the purpose.

We really have to risk going out on the water. Wish we had something sturdier than the raft, but it's fine. There must be something out there.