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***knux400*** · (This post was last modified: 04-30-2022, 09:42 PM by knux400.)

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"That's... fair, I guess." You respond. "Just let me know if you start feeling off and I'll see about rigging something up."
"Yup! Will do."
"On that note, what's everyone's power consumption like?" Exclusit asks. "Well, I know Matri doesn't have proper system diagnostics, but everyone else?"

Everyone reads out a different number in shreds per hour, which you and Delve take note of. You make a mental tally of everyone's current power level and consumption rate, and make sure to keep track of it. Delve does the same.

Ortho should be able to hold a charge indefinitely unless their batteries are physically damaged in some way. (You check briefly- they look intact.) You hook yourself up to the battery for just long enough to get a readout of the charge left in it- 47%. You do recharge yourself a bit in the process, but you don't take anywhere near enough to be significant. Looks like Ortho's battery was in the same mildly worn condition as the rest of their body was. After disconnecting, you quickly take a mental note of everything you've learned and relay it to Delve. Neither Exclusit nor Matri has the capability of running arbitrary scripts on top of normal processing, but they'll both try and remember as best they can.

For simplicity's sake, you decide to round everything up to the nearest percent per hour. Average usage won't always be the same, you remind yourself- if someone were to physically or mentally exert themselves, such as by sprinting down a tunnel or solving a complex problem, they would consume more power than normal. Disabling any nonessential functions would, in turn, help someone conserve power better.

PILLBUG- 88%
AVG USAGE- 3% PER HOUR
NONESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS- FLASHLIGHT, POWER CALCULATIONS

ORTHO- 46%
AVG USAGE- NONE
NONESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS- NONE

MATRI- 25% OR LOWER
AVG USAGE- UNKNOWN
NONESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS- UNKNOWN

EXCLUSIT- 63%
AVG USAGE- 2% PER HOUR
NONESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS- NONE

DELVE- 71%
AVG USAGE- 3% PER HOUR
NONESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS- FLASHLIGHT, POWER CALCULATIONS

With that settled, you suppose it's time to move forward again. You can choose to reflect on your own life or start a conversation with someone else.

King-Clod · 04-24-2022, 12:48 AM

Let's reflect on our own life for a bit, maybe think on one of our favorite memories?
After that, I'd like to learn more about Delve! Maybe what their favorite thing they've found while diving is?

Ignispark · 04-24-2022, 02:11 AM

I agree with talking to delve. Delve seems pretty rad.

***knux400*** · (This post was last modified: 07-09-2022, 08:04 PM by knux400.)

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You decide talking to Delve as you walk would be good. He seems friendly enough, and you don't know much about him yet.

"So... How are you holding up, Delve?"
"I-thoought-I-saiid-already. 71%."
"Oh, no, I just meant... emotionally. I was asking if you wanted to talk or anything."
"They're obsessed with making conversation. You get used to it." Exclusit chimes in.
"Oh! Well-I'm-perfeectly-fine-with-conversation, not-tooo-sure-what-your-problemm-with-itt-is."
Exclusit just mutters something inaudibly. Delve makes a noise that you're pretty sure is a slight chuckle, although it sounds odd since he's not fully adjusted to his voicebox yet.
"Anyway. I'm-aalright, I-guess. It's-a-bit-freeaky-knowing-we're-in-a-giant-horror-gut, but-talking-helps-keep-my-miind-off-it. If-I-staart-freaking-out, you'll-be-the-fiirst-to-know."
"That's good!"
"Well, I-wouldn't-say-it's-goood, but-it's-the-best-I-can-do-in-a-plaace-like-this."
"Yeah..."

The two of you fall silent for a moment before you realize you actually had a question for him.

"Oh! What's the best thing you've found while diving?"
"Oh-I've-uhh, never-actually-been-to-the-ocean."
"Wait, really? Then why, uh..."
"It's-alright, I-get-this-a-lot. My-creator-used-to-live-in Shuffle. They-were-a-Sheala-frame-too, and-they-ran-a-salvage-business. They-would-recover-shipwrecked-boats, and-occasionally-do-a-rescue-here-and-there."
"Oh, that sounds neat!"
"It-was! Problem-is, they-ran-into-some-financial-trouble-and-couldn't-afford-to-keep-the-property. They-were-eventually-evicted-and-had-to-move-heere. I-was-mostly-finished-being-built-at-the-time, and-it-was-easier-and-cheeaper-to-finish-me-the-way-I-was-instead-of-starting-over-froom-scratch. I-was-supposed-to-go-with-theem-when-I-got-older, help-them-ouut-on-jobs."
"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't realize..."
"It's-okaay. Wash, my-creatoor, was-preetty-broken-up-about-it-for-a-while, but-eventually-he-came-to-terms-with-it. We've-got-a-reasonable-house-out-here-in-Draw, and-wee're-making-things-work-alright."
"I guess that's good. It still sucks to be so far away from what you were built for."
"Well..." Delve trails off.
"What-we're-built-for-doesn't-really-matter-so-much-once-we're-built. You-can-find-a-life-anywhere, I-thiink, even-if-it's-noot-the-one-you'd-originally-intended. I-want-to-see-the-ocean-at-some-poiint, buut-that-doesn't-mean-I'm-not-happy-here. Well, I'm-not-happy-here, inside-a-giant-horror, but-yoou-know-what-I-mean." He makes that noise again. You're sure it's a chuckle now.
"Life-can-pull-you-in-all-sorts-of-directions, and-I-think-finding-happiness-wherever-you-end-up-is-a-valuable-skill-to-have."
"Yeah, that's... Yeah. I suppose you're right."

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Ignispark · 07-01-2022, 04:19 PM

keep walking and waiting to find something as before.
as far as conversation, might as well trail off of 'wherever you end up'...local topics. local topics...does anyone like geology?

King-Clod · 07-12-2022, 11:13 PM

anything different about the environment around us? or is it all the same?

Oh, now that I think about it, could we share some of our favorite pictures with Delve like we did with Matri?

***knux400*** · (This post was last modified: 08-18-2022, 05:53 AM by knux400.)

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With another lull in the conversation, you idly glance at your surroundings. As far as you can tell, it's identical to the caves you've been walking through. Heck, for all you know it might be the caves you've been walking through.

"This job... wasn't what I intended either."
"Oh?"
"I like photography as a hobby, so I thought it would be good to do it for a living. I found a listing and I applied, but it wasn't what I expected. You needed a lot of prior experience in the field."
"That's-unfoortunate. Whaat-job-weere-you-applying-to?"
"It was a research job, documenting and observing local wildlife."
"Ah, thaat-makes-ssense. They-tend-to-want-scientists-for-that-tyype-of-thing, not-soo-much-photographers."
"Yeah, they told me as much."
"Haave-you-thought-about-journalism? You-could-get-pictures-for-the-loocal-paper."
"Oh, I've heard the people there can be pretty harsh sometimes."
"Yeah, but-yoou've-got-a-pretty-big-advantage-compared-to-a-loot-of-people. Your-camera-is-buuilt-straight-into-your-eyepiece. It-takes-a-few-seeconds-to-get-a-camera-out-and-aim-it-and-get-it-in-focus-and-all-that, but-if-you're-already-looking-at-it-you-can-just-take-the-picture-instantly. Those-extra-few-seconds-might-be-what-lets-you-capture-that-perfect-moment-of-action. As-long-as-you're-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time, you've-got-a-huge-step-up-on-everyone-else."
"...I've never thought about it that way, actually. Maybe."
"Roll-E's pretty good at finding those moments already, I'd say! They've got this one shot of a mudchucker that looks like it could be in a nature magazine." Matri pops in.
"Oh, really? Can-I-see?"
"Sure, hang on a sec-"

You and Delve pause awkwardly as both of you produce UCI2 cables at the same time.

"Oh, did you want to-?"
"No, it's-fine-if-we-use-yours-"
"Oh, I don't mind-"
"It's-alright, really-"

Exclusit turns to the two of you with an exasperated look on their face. Both of you look back at them, clutching your UCI2 cables innocently.

"Just use Pillbug's. Both of you are wasting power being polite."
"Speaking isn't actually a significant power drain compared to-"
"Also you're being annoying and I'm deciding arbitrarily so you'll stop."

You shrug and hook one end of your cable up to an open port in your head, passing the other end to Delve as you do. Before long, you can feel yourself floating a short distance away from him. You recall your mudchucker photo and pass it through the void towards him, and as you do, he speaks. His voice is much clearer now, since he's speaking to you in pure data rather than with a voicebox.

"Wow, what a buzzkill. I mean, I know they're probably stressed, but still." Delve says.
"Yeah, I had to calm them down earlier. They're not taking this so well."
"I mean... Fair, I guess. Some people cope differently than others."
"Yeah..."
"Still, though. It's not a problem for me, but if they keep offloading their stress on others like that, it might end up upsetting them more."
"Well... I know when I'm angry, telling me I need to calm down is just about the least helpful thing you can do. It just gets me more riled up."
"Yeah, I know. I don't know how I'd go about it, I just know it might need to happen at some point."

The two of you stay silent for a moment, although just a fraction of a second passes in real time.

"Thank you for sharing." Delve says. "I don't really have any pictures like that, though, sorry."
"Yeah, it's alright!"

The two of you disconnect and you return your cable to your bag.

What now? Should you talk to Delve, Matri, Exclusit, or take some time to yourself?

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King-Clod · 08-22-2022, 11:00 PM

I think...it may not help them, but we should try to help Exclusit a little. Don't bring up whatevers stressing them out, but tell them privately that we're here if they wanna talk about it, and if not, we can talk about something they like to keep their mind off of it.

***knux400*** · (This post was last modified: 01-20-2024, 06:12 AM by knux400.)

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Software update successfully installed. Users may notice a slight improvement in conversational management.

...A software update? Weird. You check the date on the file and... Oh.

You must have picked it up from Ortho when you checked their power levels. A gift from them, the sentimental part of you tells yourself, although in reality it was sheer luck that whatever software was in there survived long enough to be transferred. Either way, you'll take it. You just need someone to speak so that you can see what it means by-

"Well... if you do decide to go the journalism route, you can probably get a good head start with all the pictures you've been taking here! I can probably help you find a good magazine to publish your work in. Ooh! You could write a personal account to go with it! Man, I'd love to have something like that right now..." Matri chimes in, their chirpy, optimistic voice somehow clicking as a sort of seafoam green.

"You're literally living it right now and you'd rather read about it in a magazine?" Exclusit turns their head to glance back at Matri with some combination of disgust and disbelief. Their deadpan, angry-sarcastic tone registers to you as a deep violet.

"To-be-faair, I-think-moost-peeople-would-rather-read-about-thiis-than-be-in-thee-middle-of-itt." It was easy to distinguish Delve's voice already, as he was still adjusting to the voicebox Ortho had given him, but now his sly- if slightly stilted- bantering voice had become a deep yellowish orange to you.

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Exclusit sniped at the pod-shaped Sheala frame trailing a few paces behind them. As usual, Exclusit was leading the pack, with everyone else a short distance behind them- enough to give Exclusit the tiniest bit of personal space without putting them in danger of being separated by a sharp turn in the corridor.

"Look-dude, I-get-thaa-"
"Delve." Your own voice is colorless, oddly enough. You suppose it doesn't really need a color of its own, since the software seems designed to keep track of other people's voices rather than your own, but you feel you could pick one out for yourself if you wanted to. An issue for later, though.

Your stern outburst silences Delve, a quick reminder of the conversation you two had in softspace just a few moments ago.

"S-sorry." You can't tell if Delve actually stuttered there or if that was the new voicebox acting up.

You take a moment. If you had lungs, this would be where a deep breath would go.

"Exclusit, can I talk to you for a second?"
"You're talking to me now."
"I mean... privately."
Exclusit stops and turns to you, their single, circular eye staring at you with an expression of exasperation.

"...Sure." They reach their hand out, and you quickly drop one end of a UCI2 cable into it.
"You got a UCI cord? I'm too old to have a UCI2 port."
"Oh, uhh, yeah." You quickly stuff the length of wire back into your shell and produce a different one- unlike the UCI2 cord, which had an obtuse triangle at the end, this one had a plug shaped like a right triangle. Exclusit takes the end and shoves it into the back of their neck.

Just like Delve and Matri, Exclusit appears before you on the other side of the void. What strikes you at first is that they seem different in appearance here than they do in hardspace. Their limbs are a different shape, their legs thinning out towards the bottom and ending in thin, delicate feet rather than the industrial stompers they wore in hardspace. Their fingers ended in the tube shapes more typical for a volarie rather than the claws you had grown used to. Their torso was smoother and more elegant here than the one you'd seen before.

The next thing that strikes you is just how distant Exclusit is. Delve and Matri weren't exactly standing next to you in the void, but you really need to focus in order to see Exclusit. Your headpiece and lens bend cartoonishly into a squished shape as you squint into the distance, your softspace form not bound to the laws of physics of hardspace.

Exclusit speaks, their voice a bit sharper, less ragged than you'd heard it from their voicebox.
"What?" They ask, as deadpan as ever.
"...Listen. I'm... not sure what's stressing you out, and we don't need to talk about it now-"
"The fuck do you mean you don't know? We're in the middle of a giant horror stomach!" They spread their arms to either side in an exaggerated gesture.
"We've been eaten, Pillbug, and we don't even have the luxury of being properly digested. We're stuck just walking around here until we run out of power, or a fucking rock drops on our heads or something. We have no tools, no resources, and no clue how to leave this place! The best we can do is just... wander around and hope we trip over something helpful! What exactly about this do you think would not cause me to be stressed?! And you're sitting here, chatting like it's some kind of fucking... social gathering or whatever!"

...Well, at least they didn't waste any time getting to the point- although you feel like there's something else, too, not just the current circumstances. How do you respond?

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Lilium Mortem · 01-20-2024, 06:53 PM

Thats how people cope! We all know we're probably going to die down here, but lashing out at each other isn't gonna make that go away, it's just gonna make things worse for everyone.

But that isn't everything is it? You've got more weighing on you than just our impending doom. You don't have to talk about it but don't take it out on other people.

***skinstealer*** · 01-26-2024, 06:00 AM

if we're going to survive this, we need to work together- i just want to help in any way i can.

Ignispark · 01-26-2024, 05:35 PM

I mean, being positive about the situation doesn't exactly make it worse, to be fair.
You've got to see on the bright side about being in a death cave. It's probably a once in a lifetime experience.

***knux400*** · 01-27-2024, 04:49 AM

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"I mean... Everyone handles stress differently, I think. It doesn't mean we're not taking this seriously. Being positive about a situation isn't a bad thing!"
Exclusit just sighs.
"And lashing out at people isn't going to make the situation go away. We need to work together here. I think there's something bothering you aside from all this, though, and we don't have to talk ab-"

In the blink of an eye, Exclusit zips across the gap, their face inches away from yours. You startle a bit- no one's ever been this close to you in softspace. This sort of closeness is usually reserved for intimacy- or violence. Softspace fighting is something you've only heard about on occasion, but from what you understand, it can get pretty ugly pretty quickly. At this distance, it would be easy for either of you to reach out and... You shiver a bit.
"Good. Then we won't." Exclusit's voice is low and cold.

Just as quickly as before, they dash back to their original spot, arms crossed and staring directly at you. You take a moment to compose yourself.
"R-right, well... Whatever it is, it's not going to help if you keep taking it out on everyone else, okay?"
...
"I just want to help in any way I can. You and everyone else here."
"You came in here just to tell me not to be a dick to people?"
"Well, I wouldn't put it that harshly, but... yeah, basically."
"Right, well-" They sound as if they're poised to start raising their voice, but they just sigh instead.
"Maybe next time just tell me that instead of making it a whole thing?"
"...Sorry. But you'll-"
"Yeah, I'll try and be better about it. Don't expect me to suddenly be all friendly, though."

Exclusit fades from view as the cable is disconnected, and you follow suit. Without a word, Exclusit tosses their end of the cable back to you, and resumes walking forward.

After some time, the four of you come to a large open section. The ceiling here is high enough that you can't see it, and it looks like there's more debris around here. Taking a few moments to check for any danger, the four of you enter the cave and begin searching.

Near the front of the room is a dead Lifter frame. A set of heavy-duty straps is hanging limply from the slots on its back, the ends shredded. The backplate itself is also visibly torn up and... melted?

A bit further in is what looks like a large piece of mining equipment. It's got dents all over it, and it looks like there's some panels falling off of it. You don't know enough about it to know what it is, or if it works or not. You assume the big metal pointy thing at the front is a drill of some sort. It's far too large for any of you to carry.

Dotted around the room are more piles of rubble with the occasional Nymph frame sticking out of them. Nymphs are a notoriously small and fragile frame, meant for maneuverability rather than durability, so it's no surprise to find them all crushed and battered.

You glance at everything you can see, taking pictures of them one by one as Delve gently pulls all the Barebones he can find from the rubble, examining each one. He stops at one pile, waving Matri over. The two of them kneel down next to the pile and start talking in hushed tones. Exclusit is poking at the large piece of mining equipment, and it looks like there's still more cave ahead of you.

What now?

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Lilium Mortem · 01-27-2024, 05:01 AM

Is the drill on wheels? do you think you could move it if it was running? We shouldn't go ahead incase the path changes again before figuring out if we can use this. If anyone knows how to work and/or repair the drill set them on that, other folks can rummage through rubble for anything else useful while maintaining line of sight.

***skinstealer*** · 02-02-2024, 11:55 PM

definitely check out the drill, but also- maybe they found someone alive, or resources in the barebones pile. definitely go investigate, but brace yourself for the worst.

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