MEANWHILE...

[spinsandneedles]

WHO: Anybody who isn't in the middle of some calibrations
WHERE: all over the damn place
WHAT: Business as usual? Wondering where the hell everybody else went? Being all creeped out and stuff? I dunno man, whatever happens when the place you're stuck is suddenly a ghost town.
WHEN: During calibrations
WARNINGS: None. Will update as needed


[Temba isn't exactly the most exciting place Sonic has ever been, especially last month when it was all rainy and shitty and going out was a bad idea. This month was shaping up to be less soggy though, so Sonic was pretty pumped to get out there and start doing some real exploring. Maybe race that one guy, maybe see what the one turtle is up to? BUT, it doesn't take him long to realize that Temba is a lot quieter than usual.

Like, a lot quieter. Like 'literally where did everybody go' levels of quiet. Like 'aw dang it did I sleep through the entire end of the world' levels of quiet. Spooky, yeah?

Seeing as Sonic is able to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time, he decides that the best course of action is clearly to just run around checking every building, tree, Porta Potty (do we have those??), whatever that he comes across. The longer he's at this, the ruder he might be about just barging into a place looking for signs of life so uh. Hope you weren't taking a dump, but Blue over here is a little bit frazzled right now. He could do the smart thing and just check the network, but eh... Nah. He'd rather just run up the sides of buildings and yell 'HELLOOOOOOOOOOO' really loud from the tops of them. Basically wherever you feel like encountering a semi-panicked-but-still-totally-trying-to-play-it-cool hedgehog is on the table. Unless that location is underwater, in which case he will not be joining you because swimming is not in his skillset lmao.]



[[You can deal with Sonic's horseshit OR!!! Feel free to just straight up make a top level for anyone to tag!!! GET YOUR CREEPY ABANDONED GHOST TOWN MINGLE ON YOLO]]

Comments

[spinsandneedles]

Hold on. Wait.

[It's not every day that Sonic needs someone to slow down for him, but dude this is a lot of shit to think about??? BECAUSE YIKES????]

If that's that place over on the east side of town, I've been over there a couple times. I didn't think much of it since there wasn't anything there, at least that I could see? So what, is it a room? A lab? A teleporter that takes people to some kinda space ship? What is it for? This has 'crazy mad scientist experiments' written all over it and I'm not a fan.

[deal_me_in]

[Yeah...it is kind of a lot to dump on someone. Cayde's been through that rodeo twice already so he's defaulting on being annoyed. He does take a mental step back as Sonic is clearly trying to wrap his head around things.]

It's a bunch of room. Creepily designated as "Calibrations." There's a room for everyone, complete with a nameplate and everything like they're trying to be welcoming- it's not, it's terrible and even taking people's mattresses to line up along the hallway walls or writing graffiti with the food paste didn't get any outside reactions.

...but I digress.

Experiments might be a good way to look at it. It's all very clinical looking. There's a main room for people to hang out in, communal showers... The kicker really is that at a given point everyone goes to sleep. And I mean everyone. That's when things start getting weird. Well, weirder.

[spinsandneedles]

You can't hit me with something as ominous sounding as "Calibrations" and something that basically sounds like a mad scientist horror lab and then tell me it gets even weirder than that.

But go on, we've already come this far. Might as well hit me with everything you've got while we're at it.

[he already just looks so uncomfortable right now man like what is wrong with this place???]

[deal_me_in]

Hang on, I'm gettin' there!

You heard of sleepwalking, right? Well, when it's lights-out for everyone, instead, it's dreamwalking.

You find yourself in other people's dreams, some space that's familiar to them in some way, significant somehow. There's things in there, sometimes stuff that goes with the setting, sometimes they're just really weirdly out of place. You touch a thing, and it triggers a memory. Their space, their memory. Not always the most pleasant thing, and they're not always happy about sharing.

[spinsandneedles]

I-- what? Okay... Okay. I've seen some pretty crazy things in my time, but this has to be in the top three. How does any of this even work? What's the point of any of it? What is being calibrated!?

[This isn't a problem that he can run into really fast and break by bouncing off of it!!]

[deal_me_in]

Unfortunately I have no answer to that save that someone out there's sadistic and likes watching us squirm.

...and I hate to say it, but I think we're the ones being calibrated. Might be some kind of stress testing. Got a lotta people from all over, some with more secrets than others.

[spinsandneedles]

Great. Because being kidnapped and dumped on a weird alien planet with no room to run wasn't bad enough, now they gotta double kidnap us, hit us with knock out gas or something? And dig around in our brains. Why does it always come down to messing with brains...

[This is probably worse than that time one of his robot-clones decided to swap minds with him. At least he managed to avoid being grabbed for brain experiments this time? He doesn't know how to help anyone else though, so he doesn't actually feel much better about it. Ah well.]

Wait, you're a robot, right? Can you sleep? How does this all work on you?

[deal_me_in]

[Cayde opens his mouth and then closes it again as Sonic comes to that realization before he can bring it up.]

Excellent questions. Yes, yes- although I don't have to, but old habits, yeah? And you got me, I have no idea how they're pulling those strings.

[spinsandneedles]

[Okay, well asking more about the Agrii and their weird bullshit seems to have hit a brick wall, but that's okay. Cayde said another weird thing that Sonic can zero in on instead!]

Old habits?

[but bro you are clearly a fancy metal guy. Maybe he needs to recharge his batteries or... something? Sonic has no idea, he doesn't need to know how robots work to break them.]

[deal_me_in]

[The Exo somehow flashes him a crooked grin.]

Didn't always used to be a ruggedly handsome robot. Us Exos used to be human once upon a time.

[spinsandneedles]

[That's cool and all but Sonic has a weird history with robots??? and so he looks a smidge alarmed???]

Did someone suck your brain out and put it in a robot!? What happened to your-- your meat body!?

[How is it that there are so many people here from MORE BONKERS WORLDS THAN SONIC'S??]

[deal_me_in]

[Not that Cayde's going to disagree with Sonic's reaction there- Clovis Bray's whole Exo program was pretty messed up. The wording though...]

Whoa, okay, do you have to put it like that?!

I know it sounds awful- it probably was but... Well okay, I got nothing to make it sound any better.

Can't remember the details, probably for the best.

[spinsandneedles]

[He nods quickly, because he did have to put it like that, absolutely.]

Whoof, yeah, sounds like it would be pretty gruesome. A robot tried to suck my brain out once, but I don't think it would have been messy? I don't know how it works, I don't think I wanna know.

[deal_me_in]

For the record I don't think our actual brains are in these things, I'm not sure those can last for centuries no matter what you pickle 'em in.

-but for real? A robot tried to suck your brain out? What kind of robot are people making these days?!

[spinsandneedles]

[CENTURIES, BRO?? The more Cayde says, the more alarmed Sonic looks. Just throwing that out there.]

Well, he couldn't do it like, himself, he used a machine that was originally supposed to be for controlling robots with your mind. Or something. It's kind of a long story?

[deal_me_in]

[At least he left out just how many centuries?]

Okay yeah, that sounds concerning. Glad it didn't work at least?

[spinsandneedles]

[Sonic will ABSOLUTELY ask later, but right now his mind is still a little too blown from everything else going on.]

It mostly didn't work. We didn't swap bodies or whatever he was trying to do, but now our minds are linked together? We can hear each other's thoughts, it's really weird.

[deal_me_in]

Yeah, that is pretty weird. So like, even now? I think that'd be even weirder, actually.

[spinsandneedles]

I don't really get how it works, but it only seems to work within a close range. Like a... I don't know, radio signal? I think it's safe to say that I'm way out of range right now.

[Y'know, the whole being kidnapped by aliens thing.]

[deal_me_in]

That makes more sense. Otherwise that'd be some connection!

[spinsandneedles]

It would probably start to get real awkward after a while, even if we are buds now.

...Anyway, have I said 'my name's Sonic and it's nice to meet you' yet?

[deal_me_in]

Naw, I think we jumped right into 'falling off a building but we'll make the most out of it.'

Name's Cayde, nice to meet you too, in spite of current circumstances.

[spinsandneedles]

Oh yeah, 'just wing it' is basically the story of my life.

You're only the second person I've come across so far. So... should we just wait around for everyone else to come back, then? Feels weird no actually bein' able to help.

[deal_me_in]

Something tells me we're gonna get along great!

[The Exo taps a finger against his chin.]

Well that's not promising, but I can't say I'm surprised either. Wonder what the angle was this time. Usually they're pretty tricky about how they lure people in.

Weird being on this end of things, I agree. I'm not a fan of sitting around either. Unfortunately...I can't recommend poking around that tunnel for a way in because you just might find it and end up stuck yourself.

[spinsandneedles]

Great. Can't help from out here, can't help from in there. It sounds like everyone'll come back eventually though... What if we just block the whole area off after everyone comes back? Cave the area in? Probably wouldn't be that hard.