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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

[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.

[undertakings]

[Huh. That's good to know? Even if he doesn't know what it would ultimately change in the long run, at least for him.]

I don't get the impression that she cares about our situations enough to try and put people at ease. Maybe that's even the point... especially with the way the exercises are supposed to go.

[Keeping people stressed out is one way to force some kind of connection, after all.]

[herlocksholmes]

All that would achieve is encourage everyone to fight her. Ms. Lorelei is not daft. She knows what she's doing.

[Especially because it wasn't like he needed to cajole her that much to get her to say they would stay for two months and that time doesn't pass too quickly at home]

[undertakings]

...Would that be a problem for her? She hasn't shown up in front of us even once. There isn't much risk for her, as long as she's safely hidden away.

[He's not super committed to this conjecture, but...]

[herlocksholmes]

I wonder...if she's even listening to us right now.

[It's just a guess from the kind of technology he has seen so far, but he wouldn't be surprised if there's stuff that could allow her to spy on everyone. Sholmes himself has created security cameras for someone in his world -- device that take one single picture every half an hour and consumes incredible amounts of photographic paper -- but he would imagine Lorelei has something like that]

[undertakings]

[Well. Now that Sholmes mentions it, it does remind him of something, and in more ways than one too.]

...There's a device called the Para-RAID. While I don't know much about the operating principles besides the basics, it lets the users share sensory information and emotions over large distances. One way of using it is as a communications device... it can't be intercepted electronically, and jamming doesn't affect the quality of the connection either. But you can also use it to listen in on those connected to the system, as long as you Resonate with them when they're conscious.

[enjoy the exposition dump.]

[herlocksholmes]

[Oh, the infodump does get his interest! It's likely he will forget the majority of it in within an hour, but right now? Right now it gets his attention]

...share sensory information...

[Oh, oh hey, what if, listen, what if...]

We are sharing sensory information, you and I, Mr. Nouzen. What you describe wouldn't be out of her capacity.

[undertakings]

Right. Normally you'd only share your sense of hearing when communicating, but in theory, sharing other senses is possible. ...At any rate, I don't expect it to be exactly the same system, but they can already manage something as complicated as transporting us all here.

[If even the Republic can manage it, then it's not impossible. But...]

That would have to mean that she's able to connect with us individually somehow, though. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to listen in on us.

[herlocksholmes]

[Inwardly Sholmes tries to come up with ways to test this theory. Could she be listening? Hm, hm, hm...would convincing Flat to practice his nyancat for a ridiculous number of hours again and then check her mood work? Yeah, maybe! But it would be so overwhelming to track so many people at once and be unable to turn it off at any point, so perhaps she would just tune away any connection with Flat.

Oh well, you lose nothing by testing theories!]

Mr. Nouzen, about this para-RAID you mentioned, is there a way to create interference? Or obstruct the communications?

[undertakings]

It connects peoples’ consciousness, so I don’t think external interference is possible. [He closes his eyes.] But if the noise from one side is loud enough, then you can force the other person to disconnect manually, if they can’t stand it.

In the worst case scenario, you could probably create a sensory overload. If someone faints, the connection would cut automatically.

[time to try short circuiting the instructor via nyancat]

[herlocksholmes]

An intriguing scenario! My gratitude to you, my esteemed fellow. This has been an enlightening conversation.

[Yup, time to short-circuit the instructor through the power of a trombone!]

[undertakings]

[what is this ominous feeling that threatens to engulf him




Nah, he doesn’t give a shit. He doesn’t exactly want to hurt the Instructor but he also doesn’t feel any obligation to protect her so live your best trombone life.]

I’ll let you know if I find out anything else.

[That’s probably the bare minimum that he could do in this situation.]