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[selfconcept]

Congratulations! You survived the first week of Personal Enrichment Class! Or at least, your body did if you feel like astral projecting. It's time to mingle with your fellow students after the Saturday lesson. Maybe get revenge. Or maybe you're going to your room right away. Either way, it's free time! Let loose. Go wild.

Comments

[herlocksholmes]

[There's Sholmes with the fake bomb. He has it in front of him, and it seems he managed to open it up. His eyes are sparkling like a kid with a new toy. Despite lacking the right tools, he still got to open the casing and is now examining the components, far more carefully than you would expect from him]

Fascinating, simply fascinating. It's nothing more than a large toy, but its electrical mechanisms are...I must say, I may reuse some of these in my own work upon my return home! Perhaps I should seek to disassemble more technology available around here!

[Sholmes taps the containers in which the glitter was stored]

Careful, this is very much functional even now. One wrong move can end with you being blasted with paper and glitter before you can inch away from this!

[...........

Is it a bluff? Is it true? Is he lying and already disarmed that? Who knows. Who knowssssss]

[selfconcept]

If it blasts me, it might as well be karma.

[ Hello, Sholmes. Hien is also curious of the bomb and tries to take a peek. ]

[herlocksholmes]

Ah ha ha ha hah! True enough! You committed a most grievous trangression today, didn't you, Mr. Callias!

[Which, hey, Sholmes took in good spirits, but...]

I bear you no ill will but I won't speak for my fellow team members. You should watch your back.

[...but he sure won't lift a finger to stop anyone from pettily striking back, and that is because he can be a little petty too, hah]

I pray you didn't experience any shocking experiences today, did you? This did have such a function, I can see.

[selfconcept]

Yeah, well, that's fine. I'm expecting them to come at me any day now.

[ He's so quickly resigned to it that it makes him look used to things like these. But that's not the point for Hien. ]

We almost got shocked, but a groupmate pointed out my mistake after we double-checked, so we actually succeeded pretty smoothly.

[ Barring him and Owen getting into an almost-fight. ]

What about you?

[herlocksholmes]

Hm, they were all clever individuals. I believe we weren't close to getting a nasty surprise from this bomb, thanks to their cautious way of handling it. If they will behave these two months like they did today, I find likely they will do well.

[They gained his respect, at least. That's a good thing]

[selfconcept]

You sound quite fond of them.

[ Though he's not sure if they'll be placed in the same groups next week. ]

[herlocksholmes]

Perhaps I'm currently in good mood because they spared me from feeling an electric shock today!

[Hah, he's no tsundere but he's just so reticent to talk about what he feels and that kind of stuff, even when it's as benign as this]

[selfconcept]

[ Mood though. ]

That's a good of a reason as any.

[ Hien looks back at the bomb. ]

Is there anyone you don't like here so far?

[undertakings]

If the mechanism was a timer, then it should be safe unless you rearmed it. [But anyway.] Are you bringing it back to the room?

[He ultimately doesn't really care what Sholmes does with the bomb, but he just wants to know if he should be expecting the glitterpocalypse in their room in the off chance the containers are broken or opened somehow.]

[herlocksholmes]

Should I?

[Sholmes shakes his head]

Have no fear. A bedroom is for sleeping. I keep my experiments and objects of interest away from the rooms.

[...fortunately, because Sholmes causes disaster to his own home from time to time, so it's a really good thing he keeps potentially dangerous objects out from the bedrooms]

[undertakings]

That's fine, then.

[Although most of the spaces they have are public, so that sort of begs the question of where this glitter cache will end up, but. Probably not his problem!! In any case, it seems like Shin's satisfied enough with the answer that he falls silent for a bit. Still, he lingers with a pensive expression on his face. Finally:]

How likely do you think it is that they'll follow through with their promises?

[herlocksholmes]

[The glitter probably will end all over the common room once Sholmes sets it off by mistake because, skillful as he is, he's not perfect and likely will make a mistake, haha. Guy has scorched the walls of his own living room and blown up the roof and attic of his rented home before -- reasons why he doesn't do experiments wherever he sleeps, he would like to have a place to sleep in, thank you very much]

Hm, not all that likely. If it's inconsequential perhaps they will, but I consider it unlikely they will uphold any promises that could affect the smooth flow of this self-improvement course.

[He shrugs]

Don't hold your hopes too high, Mr. Nouzen.

[undertakings]

[the Instructor's gonna hate them after this, making her clean up all their messes--

He'll mirror Sholmes' shrug with one of his own though, not looking all that surprised at the conclusion.]

I never expected anything from the start. They wouldn't have went through the trouble of bringing us all here if they were willing to let us escape that easily.

[But does help to know that Sholmes is still a realist underneath all that eccentricity.]

[herlocksholmes]

[Hah, in the end he's a realist through and through indeed. There's no room for ungrounded optimism when you're in his line of work, you know!]

According to what Ms. Lorelei said, we're meant to be here for two months, and time isn't passing with the same speed as it is here.

[But that depends on she telling the truth! Which he's inclined to believe, at least for the time being]

I find most curious she didn't inform us all of this fact when she first met us.

[exofractured]

[Phantom mostly wants food and then sleep. But the allure of that shiny toy Holmes has pulls him over like a magnet.]

So in addition to detective work and stage magic, you dabble in engineering? You have hidden depths.

[Was that an insult or not? Never mind, Phantom is too busy peering through the components now too.]

[herlocksholmes]

I create all of the gadgets and concoctions I use in my work.

[So in addition, he also knows chemistry. Well, that one is more thanks to his former job as a hospital technician, before he was a detective]

I'm considering asking our esteemed instructor for materials to create my tools once again. There may not be crime scenes around here, but having those would be welcome.

[exofractured]

Chemistry as well? I'm impressed. It could be useful if they were willing to provide better tools than these.

[The compliment sounds like it might even be genuine. Phantom touches a wire curiously, carefully avoiding anything that looks delicate.]

You may wish to avoid tapping those containers. [AT LEAST WHILE HE'S STANDING HERE, PLEASE.] Whatever the original mechanism, likely pressure would open them just as well.

[herlocksholmes]

[Hah, these containers are going to explode in a couple hours, hopefully when nobody is around so Sholmes is the only casualty of the glitter apocalypse]

From what I can tell these are pressurized canisters with an explosion ratio roughly larger than this common room.

[Sholmes seems pretty interested about that, welp]

Now if I could figure out how the wires regenerate almost instantly...!

[Yeah, when one failed during the wire cutting part the wires just appeared again, it's amazing -- not that he saw it himself]

[exofractured]

All the more reason to take care with it here.

[RIP Phantom finding the carnage the next day.]

I wonder if our dear instructor would feel inclined to do some actual instructing in that regard. A self-regenerative spell of some sort?

[Oh, that would be neat. Phantom's actually having a good time with this now, running his fingers over a wire again. Nothing here looks magical.]

Fascinating. Can you repeat it? I wasn't handling the bomb itself during the exercise.

[And he doesn't want to get shocked by it now just in case, but if Sholmes would like to take that on he certainly won't stop him.]

[herlocksholmes]

[Sholmes pretty much shoves Phantom's hand away -- wow, you could have asked, Sholmes -- and sticks his own into the mechanisms of the bomb, pushing away a couple connections. Those were the ones that would cause a shock to happen. Usually he would be more than fine with experiencing it, it would hardly be the first time he gets shocked!

But there's Shin to consider. His pain-sharing with Shin does a lot to curb Sholmes' willingness to take risks that may harm himself, really]

Now, gaze upon me cutting the wrong wires while disabling this bomb.

[He says that and randomly takes the green and red wires, pulling and ripping it apart with a hand. It takes just a couple seconds for the wires to appear back, growing almost instantly, in the blink of an eye]

Fascinating, indeed.

[unsinksyourship]

You're still not tired of this stupid thing? Wouldn't it be more interesting to look at a real bomb or something??

[Should he be encouraging Sholmes to look at an Actual Bomb. No one ever said Tamamori made good life choices nor enabled them, so here they are -- he is kind of curious considering all the bullshit that happened to the other groups that they somehow avoided (like, don't get him wrong, he's glad he avoided getting zapped or glittered or whatever but apparently their group was more competent than expected....... huh).

He does keep a small distance considering it's supposed to be a bomb of some kind. It still just looks absurd to him, honestly.]

Also, if you blast me with paper and glitter I'm telling everyone you're the weak link on our team.

[He has no mercy.]

[herlocksholmes]

[Kawase threatens with the physical pain, Tamamori threatens with the psychological pain. No wonder they're in the same team]

I will take your preferences for electric shocks instead of glitter into account.

[He says that and does something with the insides of the bomb, presumably disabling the glitter bomb part and enable the electricity]

[unsinksyourship]

[Ah, yes, Psychological Warfare! 'Tis his middle name.



Honestly, he and Kawase do make the worst of combos, for so many, many reasons. But Tamamori may or may not be an entire banquet of worms to himself; depends on the day and the hour. Today he's in a relatively good mood despite the loss, even if he's ostensibly sulking a little about it. Just a dash of salt.]

Oh, what, do you fancy yourself a comedian? I'm just saying, maybe you're the one who's really disappointed we didn't get some of the more annoying side effects of the bomb. Why else would you be playing around with it?

Also, either way the result is the same. I'm not going to have any mercy if you picked up a bomb you can't control.

[Watching the bomb poking with narrow eyes. Probably poorly concealing his interest, but either way he's still here.]

[herlocksholmes]

Science requires a healthy dose of risk, and I wouldn't be a great detective if I couldn't look at danger to the eye and jump right in. That's why I'm risking the integrity of myself and this common room to decipher the mysteries of this bomb! For, this bomb may hold a breakthrough I wish to study!

[Which would be pretty okay if it wasn't for how he just admitted he's risking the integrity of this common room. No wonder it will suffer a glittery doom later tonight]

[unsinksyourship]

Science also requires knowing what you're doing! Most of the time!!

[Not. Strictly true. Even Tamamori knows that's not strictly true, but it doesn't prevent him from nattering on about it; it may be nervous chatter at this point, watching Sholmes and the bomb watch each other watching the common room's certain doom later, but anyway.

He backs up a few paces but doesn't go running away arms akimbo just yet. He does currently have at least a couch between himself and the Bombshell Blond Bastard.]

Besides, aren't you supposed to do this sort of thing where other people aren't living? [shaking his head] What kind of breakthrough could you possibly even get from this.