01.50 - week one, saturday

[afflictionmods]

W1 SATURDAY

The first week of the Personal Enrichment Course draws to a close, which means it’s time for the first lesson. Hopefully by now you’ve gotten to know your classmates a bit better - but if you haven’t, that’s okay.

This first lesson is just going to be teamwork exercises, after all.

Bright and early Saturday morning, you wake up. Maybe you had a good night’s rest, or maybe you hardly got any sleep... Either way, the sun is shining, the day is beginning, and Lorelei's voice suddenly comes through everyone's tablets as well as the P.A. system on campus.

”Good morning. All students must report to the lecture hall by 8 o’clock for their first lesson. Lessons are mandatory. Please report to the classroom with its doors open.”

Which gives you about thirty minutes, so it’d be best to hurry. Do you want to be tardy? And if you think about bailing, well… you know what might happen if you fail the course.

When everyone gathers in the same hall they awoke in, Florence is there to greet you. They will gesture for everyone to take a seat, and once seated, the projector in the room turns on. Say hello to Lorelei and her usual cup of coffee.

“Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your first official exercise; today’s activities are designed to emphasize teamwork and cooperation so you are all more prepared for dealing with what’s yet to come. I have already split you into teams for the day, via raffle. There will be two activities total, and you will be completing them in the same teams. Regardless of whether you get along with your teammates or not, you’re going to have to figure out a way to finish each exercise successfully.”

She keeps that same calm, collected smile on her lips as she props up what appears to be a tablet of her own on her desk.

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[unsinksyourship]

Why start narrowing things down before you've even started? Throw in anything and everything! Make it a screwdriver as big as Florence, make it a screwdriver that can sing. Give it a pair of wheels that it can transport itself.

I, for one, want a screwdriver that can open any bottle.

[Isn't that just a bottle opener.]

[cloudalike]

What is so hard about opening bottles??

[unsinksyourship]

Kid! Have you ever tried to open a bottle without a specialized tool? You could drop the bottle, cut yourself, or worse, lose the drink!

[cloudalike]

[ He tries to drink nothing but plain water, so no... ]

You could slice the top off with a blade! ... Are you suggesting we should make a bladed-screwdriver that can fire ice-bullets and teleport us?

[unsinksyourship]

Slicing off the top of a bottle looks cool, but trying to drink from it would also cut you! Are you suggesting that we need a screwdriver that can be bladed, fire ice bullets, teleport -- I don't remember this -- and also function as a drinking nozzle?!

[fabulation]

How big is Florence?

[ HONESTLY CURIOUS... ]

Well, a screwdriver that can open any bottle is thinking a little small then, right? What about a screwdriver that can open any locked door?

1/2

[unsinksyourship]

[...]

[......]

Bigger than both of us! But smaller than Kawase. [he thinks about this for a moment] Florel! A question for you. Can you change sizes at will?

[affligere]

[....................]










No.

[unsinksyourship]

Then our screwdriver must have better abilities than you, because a tool can't lose to what it's meant to service.

Our screwdriver should change sizes at will!

2/2

[unsinksyourship]

Of course, a screwdriver that can open multiple things is a screwdriver with a lot of screwing to do. Isn't that what we're after? The greatest functioning screwdriver in the world?

[You might as well leave the jingles or the slogans or whatever to him, he's here spouting nonsense anyways.]

[fabulation]

Absolutely!

Doors, treasure boxes, boxes, barriers...the sky's the limit!

[ This is fine... ]

[unsinksyourship]

If this screwdriver could open up the sky, that would be pretty convenient...

[It seems like a mutter to himself for once, but after a moment he resumes his usual intonation. That is, the hollering volume of a hawker of wares on a street corner in Tokyo covered in blaring trucks and a million pedestrians, never mind the anachronisms happening in this analogy.]

That's a fine idea, though. Treasure, currency, the ability to find things -- they say that dowsing was a way to divine water, murders and treasures! That means this screwdriver could even find the source of the fog.

[........... could it.]

[herlocksholmes]

You're thinking too narrow. Why, I could make any of that myself given the right tools. Think bigger!

[Yeah this is a man who does things like a compound to add into a cup of tea to find out if tea is authentic or not, with the side effect of making the tea undrinkable and smell awful if it's authentic. You can be sure if he felt like it he would make a screwdriver that can sing]

[cloudalike]

If this is something we'll be given, I think we should start with what we're lacking. What do you think we need?

[herlocksholmes]

Do you know what would be useful? [Sholmes takes out the compact mirrors] I acquired this object, enticed its potential uses. Among the many wares offered, I noticed other useful objects, as well as convenient snacks.

[Sholmes raises a finger]

How about a screwdriver that can provide us with enough currency to always acquire anything we want?

['how about we break the in-game economy' suggests sholmes]

[cloudalike]

Wait - we need mora here!?

[undertakings]

[i can't believe this is just going to be the bitcoindriver]

That's one option... It's guaranteed to be something they should be capable of doing as well, since it's their own store.

[so no weaseling out of it with 'we can't implement this feature'!!]

[unsinksyourship]

I thought the currency was everything they were giving us in exchange for getting us stuck in this course. Food! Lodging! Books! Musical instruments...?

Isn't thinking currency thinking smaller?

[teidaisei]

Don't tell him that.

[ Just sighs heavily while smoking his first cigarette of probably, many. ]

[herlocksholmes]

Science and technology don't advance unless you dare to imagine big. Do you think we would have gotten hot air balloons if people hadn't dreamed of flying?

[Point he remarks by, after that, saying again to Tamamori he's thinking too narrow, thanks, Sholmes]

[teidaisei]

If you let him carry on likely that, he's like to turn the screwdriver into a giant snake that devours the eyes of children while they sleep.

[teidaisei]

[ ...what is this luck. Kawase's response is to simply light a cigarette, walk over to Tamamori, take a drag, and then blow the smoke right in his face. His job here is done. ]

[unsinksyourship]

[Is it luck??? Who knows, Tamamori is just going full unhinged here but at least he's awake now -- unfortunately it also means his mouth is probably wide open (because he's being loud and chattering nonstop now, his switch has accidentally been flipped here) when the smoke arrives.

COUGH?? HACK????? RUDE.]

K-Kawase! That's bad manners, d-didn't you start smoking to look less like a brute?!

[Possibly technically true but also technically not the most true. His eyes are watering, give him a break.]

[teidaisei]

Who told you that, Minakami? [ He has perfect manners ty. ]

[unsinksyourship]

W-Why else would anyone take up smoking? You should at least have the same pose they do in the movies...

[Still waving his hand and sleeve in front of his face, flapping away all the smoke. He seems thoughtful for like, a split-second before it goes away and he just looks offended again.

What kind of manners is second-hand smoke!!! Hanazawa taught you better than this, Kawase!!]

I don't think Minakami knows anything about this sort of thing.