voidtreckerexpress | Happy Birthday, Senku!

Entry tags:

Happy Birthday, Senku!

Who: OTA
Where: Dining Carriage
When: Jelly 4
What: Prompts are under the cut. Create your own top levels! Tag around! ~~Get more points!~~
Warnings: more cake than the recommended serving size

Birthday Prep! (OTA except Senku)

Setting up food!

Plenty of people have offered to bring a number of treats - cookies, savory dishes, snacks ... Gen was placing a half-sheet cake, decorated with planets and with 'Happy Birthday Senku' written in frosting on the table. He looked quite pleased with himself, and would help lend a hand with other food.

Setting up decorations!

There were roughly a hundred origami stars to fold, which Gen would spend most of his time doing, especially if he didn't have any help. But after, he'd be stringing them up all around the dining car, creating an effect like a starry sky from the ceiling.

Setting up party favors!

Then, of course, there were paper flower crowns to fold. Gen had no idea how many people would end up coming, so he wanted a fair number - any extras could sit in the Arms Band or up his sleeves as part of a surprise to spring on people later. You never knew when you needed a paper flower crown!

Setting up the escape room!

This is really what Gen hoped he'd get the most help with. He only had so many math tricks up his sleeve, and he was very certain that Senku knew them all already. At least Nita would be lending a hand! Otherwise, Gen was sure any room he'd make, Senku would solve in minutes.

BIRTHDAY PARTY

Greetings!

Gen would greet the newcomer with a bright smile and an origami flower crown - placed right on their head! He'd direct them to the food, and let them know of the escape room upstairs. Have a lovely time!

Food!

Cake! Cookies! Popcorn! There's some spicy, savory food that's been made by other passengers, too. But hey, at least take a slice of cake. That's what this party's all about!

Escape Room!

Featuring math, puns, and clever little questions fellow Voidtrain passengers could come up with. Of course, anyone can enter and leave as they'd like, but perhaps if they look particularly stuck on a problem, another person could help them out?

Birthday Boy!

Somewhere in this mess, Senku would be available to chat with. Probably. He's not really expecting a party, or gifts, or even a kind thank you - but all would be appreciated.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"A palindrome, huh? You mean... I think there was one in the book, right?"

A little more eager now that he has the hint, Rich flips open the book and hunts through it until he finds the tiny note at the bottom of one of the pages.

"This has gotta be it!" And he's rushing back to the keypad to type it in.

Nita leans back, grinning.

The keypad's indicator light goes green - then blue, if Rich happens to catch that.

"Okay! You look like you're back on track, there. You think you'll be fine going forward, or-"

She makes a show of considering.

"Would you mind an audience? Though I can't promise all the hints."

"Oh, uh, if you want to watch me struggle through this, I don't mind you watching!"

Though it will mean he needs to at least try to be impressive. He turns the keypad like she instructed, squinting at the painting across from him.

((It wouldn't be an EXACT copy, but it'd create an interesting alt universe!))

The next part of the 'room' isn't a long walk; just an assortment of tools on a table.

But they make a puzzle box, if assembled in the right order...

"That was your first tripping point in this, then? I know I could have made the whole deal longer, but when some worlds don't even know about aliens it makes some of the associations less 'obscure' and more 'nonsense.'

And that just wasn't fun.

"Yeah, I think so. But seriously, don't worry about it! I'm having fun, and I'm guessing most people are too. I'm just not the brightest bulb in the socket."

Either way, it's time to fiddle with the tools. Hmm... he can bet they make something, but how would he know the right order to put them in?

"I wouldn't say that."

Nita winks - though she lets up, subsiding again into silence as she watches.

Some of the pieces look like parts of a scorpion - the legs, the tail, parts of the carapace - but only if held at certain angles.

Whenever he figures out the right order, the parts will also light up green.

Rich does fiddle a bit before he manages to tilt one piece enough that he recognizes a scorpion's pincer. "Oh, shit!"

It gives him the idea to try to slot the pieces from the bottom to the top, building up the scorpion, which does cause it to light up.

"Nice! Okay, so do I... open this?"

"If this were an escape room that was, well, its own room," Nita begins,

"Then I'd have made a whole place in the wall for it to slot into. But here, ah - how are you with navigating invisible mazes?"

Because that was the next stage - moving the scorpion into its 'proper' place in the middle of the maze, again paying close attention to angle.

And the way the light was itself directed, as it could also make the walls stop being invisible...

"Invisible mazes, huh? Isn't there usually some sort of code or something, so I sort of know where the walls might be...?"

Rich is wiggling the little scorpion around, trying to think it through.

Nita gestures with an open hand at - well, what he's got in his hand.

"You've got it already; the area of effect's limited, though. Had to balance the advantages somehow."

"Oh, shit-!" Rich is still tilting it around as she's explaining, and does manage to tilt it enough for the light to hit a wall just when she's talking. "That's so cool..."

Well, then, it's time for him to slowly wiggle this scorpion buddy through the maze! Carefully.

"The maze is the last part," she says.

"But it only fits one person at a time; I'll be out here!"

Not that it makes too much difference, what with the normally-invisible walls and all.

"Uh... okay... I'll see how this goes, then!"

Rich is nervous about what might happen if he hits one of these invisible walls, but he'll take a few steps forward, slowly advancing through while making sure to check all around him every few moments.

There's no error noise or deduction of points if Rich hits the wall; it's simply like touching anything else solid, with no visual to go with it.

If he touches part of the wall while 'illuminating' it with the scorpion, that might help.

If Rich makes eye contact with Nita during this part, she'll wave and generally be encouraging.

"You're doing great! Just a bit further..."

Her encouragement does the job of convincing him to push on, until eventually, he seems to pass through a corridor... and despite shining the scorpion's light around, he can't see any walls.

"...Am I done? Did I do it?"

"You'll know when you find the right angle, promise."

He will, because there will be confetti. Non-stick, and non-glitter, but confetti nonetheless.

"Alright, then... I'll keep going..."

He shuffles forward at Nita's instruction, then looks around slowly until...

"Ah!" There's the confetti! "Fuckin' A! That's a win for Team Goranski!"

Rich will find the way out a lot simpler than the way in; if he bothers to check with the light again, the walls outright rearrange themselves to provide a straightforward walkway out.

Nita, meanwhile, fistpumps the air in his honor.

"You did it! ... So, how would you rank this, anyway? I'm, ah, not an expert at this sort of thing."

There's a sheepish grin on her face as she says it.

"Heh, you're asking me? I've never even played one of these things."

Still, if she's asking for an honest answer, he should try to come up with some feedback.

"I was impressed how much you were able to do with what little we have on the train! The puzzles were a lot of fun, but not too challenging for someone at my level. Uh, if I had to pick one thing I didn't like... I guess maybe the beginning Simon Says part wasn't much of a puzzle. Like, memory games like that aren't really based on smarts, I guess? But it was a really small part, so it's not a big deal!"

Nita listens intently, nodding intermittently, and gives a wry grin when Rich finishes.

"Yeah, that is valid, though; I'll remember it for next time - now that we know we can have a next time and everything. ... Better watch out, though; I might make it a vocabulary exercise!"

She winks. She is not above teasing possibilities, even as she's taking the criticism seriously.

"Ugh, nooo! That would be way too much like homework! It wouldn't be fun at all."

Come on, Nita, don't you know better than to incoporate something as cursed as studying?

Nita can't help but snicker, as she makes space for Rich coming out of the maze.

"Now come on; I'll need a couple minutes to reset the spells for this part... You wanna watch?"

"Yeah, sure! I'm curious how you set all this up with so little tech on this train." She must have some sort of ability... but Rich hasn't seemed to catch on yet.

As if in reply, Nita started by putting a hand to the wall and speaking the 'reset' word for the whole function. If Rich aims the green light at them again, he can see the walls fade in and out of solidity, moving back and forth and around. The confetti likewise dissipates.

The Speech still echoed with power, even here - but she's not using much of it for this; she'd designed everything for the escape room to be efficient.

"Gonna need that scorpion back in a bit - unless you want to do that part yourself? I won't mind."

Edited 2021-01-23 15:06 (UTC)

"W-Woah..." Rich takes a step back, watching as everything seems to revert back to how it was before the escape room even started. It kind of reminds him of something he'd read in a fantasy novel. Just one word, and everything reverberates with power.

He holds out the scorpion to her the moment she asks with a little laugh. "No, that's okay! I'm... I kinda want to see more of whatever you did."

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For a moment I thought he had Wizards at War with him. XD

LOL no he doesn't have his personal collection with him.

The results would be hilarious if he tried to order it, ngl.

RUDE train give him his damn books!

The most ironic part is, timeline-patching is basically the VTE's job, wrt 'Catastrophe' missions.

Rich should be labelled a catastrophe.

/snort/ Rich can call voidtrains whenever he wants, they have to do what he says.

Voidtrain is already nicknamed Train Siri, in his opinion.

Heh.

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:]

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