((yay for exam crunch time °¿°))
Retroactively have been programming up a simple room-portal mapping mode for our mapping program. Only thing that seems like it'll work here.
- Use sensors and some manual input to designate a convex polyhedral area as a 'room', and when you leave a 'room' a portal is designated where you passed through the room boundary -- use dead-reckoning mainly, with that small program that tests for non-euclideanness of nearby space to help keep the dead-reckoner calibrated even in places where space is actually warped.
- Allow the designation tools to let you set the size and shape of each portal for easier mapping
- Assume all portals are bidirectional unless set otherwise by user
- Assume, if a room with a beacon is entered through a portal that was not previously connected to the beacon's room, that there is indeed a cycle and not some mind-tricks with a cloned beacon. Make the map indicate that these connections are assumed, and allow the connections to be toggled off
- Also add a thing, just like the above really, where the user can decide that a room is the same as the one previously visited, and have the map reflect their foolish belief
((I'm sorry piecewise, I'm a programmer. This is honestly just formalizing the basics of not getting lost in mindfuckistan, though, so maybe it's easier to have exploration rules decided upon up-front))
"If this doesn't work I am out of ideas.."
Send the program to Vanessa
"Vanessa, if you would be so kind could you keep a copy of this thing so if I die at least I'll have left something useful behind?"
Test mapping tool by putting together a map of a few rooms -- excluding the giant room and infinite hallway, which I will peek at after.
Explore giant room a little, don't get too lost. Return to safety and go open a door in the infinite hallway using my pimp cane so I can pretend I am at a safe distance.
You can try this, no guarantees it will work.
Try the third cystal, then! And if nothing interesting happens after that, check up on how the haebi bone spike on the end of my weapon is doing, then, with no further results, stick it in the fuzzy space in the elevator.
As in connect the third crystal to the fused other two?
You're gonna stick the haebi bone spike into the elevator distortion?
Really?
Yes.
Yes, if nothing interesting happens with the crystals.
Yes, why not? It's the ideal guinea pig: not me, conscious.
the third crystal connects just like the other ones did. Assuming you grabbed the right one. There are two more pieces until the thing is fully reassembled.
You stick the haebi spike in. It gets sucked in and vanishes. Huh. Why does the air in your helmet smell like metal?
Make a mental note of this rooms location for disposal of troublemakers, then close the door forsafeties sake.
check indestructible chair for screws and se if I can unbolt the backrest.
check more rooms.
You carefully take note of the door and mark the wall outside it, just in case. You then close the door to prevent any sort of hilarious trip and fall accidents.
You can indeed disassemble the chair, though it takes a hell of a lot of force.
You open another door. Inside is a small cubicle of a room. It appears visibly desaturated and somehow makes you feel like your skin, eyes, nose and throat are all burning slightly. You decide not to stick your face into it.
"Hey there, handsome." Flint said, pointing with both hands at the new arrival. "Looking good."
Oh, wait, no ears. That means he probably can't hear me.
Then again, aliens and headless clones, so who knows?
"So, you come here often?"
Did I see anything interesting through the door FlintOther opened?
Is the otherhallway a clone of this one? With elevator, melting walls and everything? What about the paint?
Put some spray paint and a pole through the doorway and inspect it for anything strange, like blurriness. Then try the same with my hand.
If nothing weird is found with the door, ask someone to hold the door for me and use a pole to block it for good measure. Then walk towards FlintOther and try to talk to him and see if I can tell where he is going.
"This better not be those damn aliens doing some of that symbolic crap to do a smug critique of my character or skills or something. Everybody is an art critic these days. Even the damn aliens."
Edit:
Stay behind Flint
If we encounter the stumphead demon man, liquid helium it.
((I'm still on holiday in Kyoto.))
If I see him trying to attack that handsome headless stranger, stop him, with words and actions. Get between the two if I have to. We have no idea what's going on here. For all we know the two of us are linked. Even if we aren't, it would be a crime to deprive the world of a second me.
He closed the door before you got a good look, and his body obstructed most of the entrance anyways.
It looks similar; though you can't see the elevator from either position, your hall or his.
You seem to be able to stick various things into the hall without causing problems to yourself, others or reality.
You get the door propped open and have one of your companions jam his foot in there, just for good measure. That done, you squeeze through the door and start crawling after flintother. You can't seem to catch up with him, he always seems to stay equidistant to you, regardless of your speed.
That's not good, with the whole not remembering thing. Sympathize with the liver. Then gracefully exit out of the conversation. Ask the other organs what they think of Xan Vanessa. Or if they have any good stories.
They say that...it is a good enough host, better than expiring on the cold metal floor. Probably. A kidney tells you about his experiences with the mob and a bathtub of ice.
Provisionary action: at the slightest hint of anything fuckery with Christopher sticking the bone spike into the fuzzy thing or the artefact, mangle him into a (still alive) paste with my medical skills and excellent bedside manner.
Well, he seems ok...but he did just feed a chunk of alien space demon into a distorted reality hellmouth.
That might be problematic in the future.
Explore the hallway which Flint is in... Find a door. If I do find one, is it hot or cold to the touch? Anything odd about it? If not, open the thing up.
The one which flint entered?The one with Flint other? Or the normal one? Assuming Other.
You grab a door. It appears to be pretty cold. But it also appears to be locked, or at least stuck.
Stay behind Flint
If we encounter the stumphead demon man, liquid helium it.
((I'm still on holiday in Kyoto.))
Flint cracks his knuckles at you. Quite impressive considering he's in a robot.