[ Hanako pats Ryuki on the arm as he passes on his way to the fireplace, following Rita towards the fireplace to check out what's caught her eye—-
no, no, wait! He snatches the photo up and waves it in front of his own face to bring Rita's attention back to him. ]
Hold up! It's way too early to go towards the light! We still need you, Rita. That guy doesn't seem to know you're here, so that's the perfect opportunity to follow him and see what his deal is!
Nothing stands out in particular in the study--all items like notebooks and tools seem to have been put away. There are books, of course, thousands of them, but none in particular stand out.
Looking at the fireplace mantle more closely, though, will show that one of the two gold football statues (fucking vlad) is shinier than the other, and even contains a few scratch marks embedded in it, as though it has scraped against itself with movement dozens of times before. ]
[ Rita swats at the picture Hanako's waving. The gesture doesn't accomplish anything other than express her irritation. One could almost tell she was mouthing the words don't tell me what to do, you little...
before noticing the tarnished statue.
Rita's an eccentric mage herself, and she's known a few other eccentric mages throughout her life. This is totally the kind of thing some weirdo sorcerer would have in their home. She gestures at it while looking to the other two. She can't do anything with it, but you jerks can!]
[ one of the statues does not budge whatsoever. the other, the shinier one with the scratches, does. The football acts as a handle, and the rest of the statue swivels forward on its base like a lever being pulled under Hanako's hand.
The fireplace splits in half like two sliding doors to reveal a staircase that is somehow both medieval but also sci-fi: the walls and stairs are made of sleek chrome fastened with rivets, but also all the light comes from torches attached to the walls???
The stairs lead down somewhere--the bottom of them isn't visible from here. ]
the torches aren't attached necessarily but they are fucking huge.
At the bottom of the staircase is...a futuristic looking lab that is very pink for some reason. In it is, of course, the giant portal built into the wall, but the doors are currently closed. There are dozens of machines and monitors lining the walls, tracking various things. What look like giant ray lasers and an operating table are shoved into the far corners. Small contraptions like this one rest on top of some of the monitoring computers.
Of the three lab benches, two look relatively pristine. Beakers, test tubes, burets, and other material litter one bench. What looks like the inner guts of a computer is open on the other with various tools nearby. But the third bench is the fullest. A small glowing black box sits on this messiest lab bench, strewn about with papers full of calculations and theories. This bench also has, next to the box, another photo of Hanako, Ryuki, and Rita together before the tragic accident.
Also, a massive contraption dangles from the ceiling. It doesn't do anything, it's just there looking ominous. ]
[ There are two wolves inside of Ryuki, one of them is the 23-year old idealist that's genuinely alarmed about all of this, and the other is the 29-year old who's over it. ]
I don't remember this ever being mentioned.
[ Again he'd LIKE to tell them both to like, not touch anything, but he thinks he has absolutely no right to tell Rita to do anything, and Hanako has proven to him multiple times that if he says not to do it, Hanako will probably do it harder on purpose.
Well, he'll go to the computer. What can he find on that? ]
Rita's seen secret laboratories before, but this is one hell of a secret laboratory. Sinister, yes, but it triggers her insatiable curiosity. She has to know what all of these things do!
She's running right over to the monitoring computers with the little contraptions. Can she see what was being monitored here? Or try to get a better look at that device? It's truly terrible that she can't just paw at things. This is just like that Twilight Zone episode when the guy breaks his glasses. She's giving room for Ryuki to touch things, maybe. Maybe she can live vicariously through his functioning mortal hands. ]
[ That guy upstairs is nuts for having something like this down here. For all he knows, he and Ryuki are about to get lobotomized in an attempt to "fix" them and ooooooohhh are they all lucky Hanako can't tear the torches off the walls and set this entire place ablaze. ]
As if anybody would mention this place to us. I bet somebody died in here.
[ It just seems like that sort of place. Ominous. More than a little creepy, especially when he sees yet another photo of the three of them, the guy's obsessed. ]
Ryuki, you're smart. What sort of math is this?
[ pokes at the glowing black box, what is this... ]
[ the monitors Rita looks at contains a radar screen of pac-man ghost blips, and then another one tracking ambient ectoplasm readings in the air. The pronged device that Rita tries to poke is turned off. Which is lucky for her because if it were on she would've gotten seriously fucking fried by it. lol
At the computer, Ryuki will find--well, first of all, the desktop is littered with photos of a woman with red hair cut in a bob. But BEYOND that, some of the open windows include articles on the effect of trauma on memory, how emotions affect brain chemistry and hormones and vice versa, and studies on the ties between emotion, memory, and ectoplasm in the formation and stability of ghosts.
The box does nothing, currently. But one of the papers around it, now that Hanako is closer, has "RECTIFYING THE PAST? PERCEPTUAL TIMELINE ADJUSTMENT" scribbled over top and circled repeatedly. ]
[ It might be knock on wood, etc. Ryuki sighs as he starts moving redhead photos out of the way or minimising them. That's fucking weird. I say, as I look her up to rate whether Ryuki would find her attractive (the answer is no but none of it is Maddie's fault, she just looks a bit like an actual mom he also knows).
Anyway, he is smart unbelievably so he does glance over these documents in a flash. ]
It's not math, it's psychological studies about trauma and its effects on a person's physical and mental well-being. [ Ryuki could really take a lot of lessons out of this but he thinks none of this applies to him? ] And... something about the formation and stability of ghosts.
[ That last bit is creepy. He's clicking through and typing in Command-R prompts in anyway if he must to pull extra stuff up. What else can be find regarding the PTSD-To-Ghost pipeline studies? Rita can also read over his shoulder. ]
[ Rita is a little offended Hanako would ask Ryuki and not her about math. What, just because he wasn't freaking out as much as the rest of them during that test!? Whatever. (Putting aside the fact that it would be literally pointless to ask the person who can't talk to them. And also, it's not math.)
Anyway, she unfortunately didn't double-die in a freak ghost-taser accident, so she's looking over Ryuki's shoulder as he goes through the documents. They might see her pull away and make a face when Ryuki relays the part about ghosts, but otherwise, she's following along. ]
[ Hanako rolls his eyes because he already knows how ghosts are formed- you just have to jam in as much trauma as you can, easy. It's really no wonder to him why Rita is the way she is. ]
"Rectifying the past"... "time line adjustment"... Hey, take a look at this.
[ He picks up the papers and plops it down on top of Ryuki's hands, presumably he can type without seeing ]
[ Ryuki will find no more studies, but rather haphazard notes that Vlad wrote himself! Disjointed snippets about the removal and isolation of emotionally imprinted ectoplasm, altering the perception of time, and if human therapy techniques would have any effect on ghosts.
which i guess the other two can also see because now they've all congregated around Ryuki ]
[ Rita moves her mouth as if to say something about what they're seeing, then realizes they do not hear a goddamn word she's saying and just glowers at all of this. ]
[ congrats! ryuki has managed to partially activate it!
the cube grows much larger, suddenly, large enough to reach up to rita's neck. And it's covered in green circuitry patterns, albeit not glowing.
meanwhile, rita will feel somewhat suspicious of the giant cube, and will instead feel herself getting drawn to the giant portal in the wall...which appears only to her to be open now. ]
[ When that cube expands, Rita jumps back with a start, giving it a distinctly sketched-out look. Yeah, okay. She's not touching that.
Besides, that portal is looking a lot more interesting. She starts walking over towards it... and glances back at the others, wondering why it hasn't gotten their attention. It's pretty damn conspicuous!
She comes up close to the portal, so close she can almost touch it, and stares into it. Can she see anything through it?
If not, she'll try extending a hand towards it, experimentally. ]
[ Hanako says this with the utmost confidence. He knows because he's seen it, because he's hung up all his hopes on it being real. ]
I don't really understand these papers, but I know that—- Rita?
[ She was hovering RIGHT here, where'd she get off to? He takes a quick look around before abandoning Ryuki to follow her towards the suspicious portal on the other side of the room, head forgetting but hands still itching to grab her if the portal suddenly sucks her inside or something. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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no, no, wait! He snatches the photo up and waves it in front of his own face to bring Rita's attention back to him. ]
Hold up! It's way too early to go towards the light! We still need you, Rita. That guy doesn't seem to know you're here, so that's the perfect opportunity to follow him and see what his deal is!
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Nothing stands out in particular in the study--all items like notebooks and tools seem to have been put away. There are books, of course, thousands of them, but none in particular stand out.
Looking at the fireplace mantle more closely, though, will show that one of the two gold football statues (fucking vlad) is shinier than the other, and even contains a few scratch marks embedded in it, as though it has scraped against itself with movement dozens of times before. ]
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I think she's just curious?
[ The fireplace isn't like, lit is it. ]
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before noticing the tarnished statue.
Rita's an eccentric mage herself, and she's known a few other eccentric mages throughout her life. This is totally the kind of thing some weirdo sorcerer would have in their home. She gestures at it while looking to the other two. She can't do anything with it, but you jerks can!]
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[ The pictures? Yeah, it does look like a harrowing parent-teacher conference rather than two students in the aftermath of tragedy.
He sticks the photo in his pocket, and does his utmost trying to pick up the statues— both of them, one in each hand. ]
Now's not the time to play football, Rita, come on...
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The fireplace splits in half like two sliding doors to reveal a staircase that is somehow both medieval but also sci-fi: the walls and stairs are made of sleek chrome fastened with rivets, but also all the light comes from torches attached to the walls???
The stairs lead down somewhere--the bottom of them isn't visible from here. ]
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[ Thank you, statue, for making his point on his behalf. ]
Creepy hidden doorway. Of course that's a thing.
[ Of course. Well, shall we descend. He'd ask but the chances of Rita and Hanako just leaving him in the dust anyway is so high. ]
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She won't wait; Ryuki is completely correct and without hesitation, she's headed straight down these stairs. ]
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the torches aren't attached necessarily but they are fucking huge.
At the bottom of the staircase is...a futuristic looking lab that is very pink for some reason. In it is, of course, the giant portal built into the wall, but the doors are currently closed. There are dozens of machines and monitors lining the walls, tracking various things. What look like giant ray lasers and an operating table are shoved into the far corners. Small contraptions like this one rest on top of some of the monitoring computers.
Of the three lab benches, two look relatively pristine. Beakers, test tubes, burets, and other material litter one bench. What looks like the inner guts of a computer is open on the other with various tools nearby. But the third bench is the fullest. A small glowing black box sits on this messiest lab bench, strewn about with papers full of calculations and theories. This bench also has, next to the box, another photo of Hanako, Ryuki, and Rita together before the tragic accident.
Also, a massive contraption dangles from the ceiling. It doesn't do anything, it's just there looking ominous. ]
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...
[ There are two wolves inside of Ryuki, one of them is the 23-year old idealist that's genuinely alarmed about all of this, and the other is the 29-year old who's over it. ]
I don't remember this ever being mentioned.
[ Again he'd LIKE to tell them both to like, not touch anything, but he thinks he has absolutely no right to tell Rita to do anything, and Hanako has proven to him multiple times that if he says not to do it, Hanako will probably do it harder on purpose.
Well, he'll go to the computer. What can he find on that? ]
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Rita's seen secret laboratories before, but this is one hell of a secret laboratory. Sinister, yes, but it triggers her insatiable curiosity. She has to know what all of these things do!
She's running right over to the monitoring computers with the little contraptions. Can she see what was being monitored here? Or try to get a better look at that device? It's truly terrible that she can't just paw at things. This is just like that Twilight Zone episode when the guy breaks his glasses. She's giving room for Ryuki to touch things, maybe. Maybe she can live vicariously through his functioning mortal hands. ]
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As if anybody would mention this place to us. I bet somebody died in here.
[ It just seems like that sort of place. Ominous. More than a little creepy, especially when he sees yet another photo of the three of them, the guy's obsessed. ]
Ryuki, you're smart. What sort of math is this?
[ pokes at the glowing black box, what is this... ]
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At the computer, Ryuki will find--well, first of all, the desktop is littered with photos of a woman with red hair cut in a bob. But BEYOND that, some of the open windows include articles on the effect of trauma on memory, how emotions affect brain chemistry and hormones and vice versa, and studies on the ties between emotion, memory, and ectoplasm in the formation and stability of ghosts.
The box does nothing, currently. But one of the papers around it, now that Hanako is closer, has "RECTIFYING THE PAST? PERCEPTUAL TIMELINE ADJUSTMENT" scribbled over top and circled repeatedly. ]
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[ It might be knock on wood, etc. Ryuki sighs as he starts moving redhead photos out of the way or minimising them. That's fucking weird. I say, as I look her up to rate whether Ryuki would find her attractive (the answer is no but none of it is Maddie's fault, she just looks a bit like an actual mom he also knows).
Anyway, he is smart unbelievably so he does glance over these documents in a flash. ]
It's not math, it's psychological studies about trauma and its effects on a person's physical and mental well-being. [ Ryuki could really take a lot of lessons out of this but he thinks none of this applies to him? ] And... something about the formation and stability of ghosts.
[ That last bit is creepy. He's clicking through and typing in Command-R prompts in anyway if he must to pull extra stuff up. What else can be find regarding the PTSD-To-Ghost pipeline studies? Rita can also read over his shoulder. ]
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Anyway, she unfortunately didn't double-die in a freak ghost-taser accident, so she's looking over Ryuki's shoulder as he goes through the documents. They might see her pull away and make a face when Ryuki relays the part about ghosts, but otherwise, she's following along. ]
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"Rectifying the past"... "time line adjustment"... Hey, take a look at this.
[ He picks up the papers and plops it down on top of Ryuki's hands, presumably he can type without seeing ]
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which i guess the other two can also see because now they've all congregated around Ryuki ]
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The... past... time adjustment...?
[ Huh... what... he turns this cube around in his hands. Is there anything else on it? ]
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[ what about saving Rita? no, clearly none of this would have happened if they knew the test answers ]
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the cube grows much larger, suddenly, large enough to reach up to rita's neck. And it's covered in green circuitry patterns, albeit not glowing.
meanwhile, rita will feel somewhat suspicious of the giant cube, and will instead feel herself getting drawn to the giant portal in the wall...which appears only to her to be open now. ]
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[ Even as the green cube starts glowing all ominous-like. Yikes. ]
Um. I-I'm going to put this down.
[ BECAUSE IT'S MCLARGE NOW. ]
Do you see anything that could help us understand this, Hanako?... Rita?
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Besides, that portal is looking a lot more interesting. She starts walking over towards it... and glances back at the others, wondering why it hasn't gotten their attention. It's pretty damn conspicuous!
She comes up close to the portal, so close she can almost touch it, and stares into it. Can she see anything through it?
If not, she'll try extending a hand towards it, experimentally. ]
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[ Hanako says this with the utmost confidence. He knows because he's seen it, because he's hung up all his hopes on it being real. ]
I don't really understand these papers, but I know that—- Rita?
[ She was hovering RIGHT here, where'd she get off to? He takes a quick look around before abandoning Ryuki to follow her towards the suspicious portal on the other side of the room, head forgetting but hands still itching to grab her if the portal suddenly sucks her inside or something. ]
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