OOM: Poking around

[seat_five_girl]

Ako has one of the medicinal smelling bullets out of the clip again and is looking at it closely while she sits at a table.

There has to be some way to figure out what the pistol is supposed to do without shooting anyone or anything.

Comments

[a1enzo]

She's lucky he didn't put his shades on.

Enzo nods and approaches the console, ears alert for the humming of machinery and eyes for indicator lights or other signs of activity.

[seat_five_girl]

Sunglasses, at least, would provide some eye and flash protection. Not that any is needed for that at the moment. The indicator lights glow softly, but that's about as far as the indications of active power go.

"Can I come in yet bodyguard-san?"

[a1enzo]

Fortunately, if it comes to that, sprites can don/change clothing very quickly.

"It looks okay. There's power, but nothing seems active. I think you're clear."

[seat_five_girl]

Ako comes over to the controls and does her best to center herself in front of them.

"Karkat-san was here and his hands were about here..."

The display comes on as Ako nudges a dial.

"That's not a book."

[a1enzo]

"Huh. What's it showing us a cube primitive for?"

[seat_five_girl]

"I think that's what it would make if we started it now," says Ako, "Let me just try..."

Another small nudge causes the item displayed to change wildly while the alphanumeric code increase calmly.

Mostly because Homestuck canon has fixed only a handful of the codes used and a lot of that was for keyboard mashing.

[a1enzo]

"Dude. It can make all these?"

[seat_five_girl]

"If you have the raw materials, I guess so."

Ako points to, but does not touch, the list of required grist.

There is an awful lot of different codes here.

[a1enzo]

"You need polyhedra?"

Again, that'd make sense in his world...

[seat_five_girl]

"Some kind of ingredients anyway," says Ako, "Karkat'san's world seems to go weird in places. Or maybe all over."

[a1enzo]

"Yeah, well." Shrug. "I think that's every world."

In other words: carry on.

[seat_five_girl]

Hey now, Ako's world is perfectly normal.*

"Actually, let me see if I can get the pistol into my regular storage instead of the weapon one. That would give us the code."

And then they can skip a whole lot of numbers and letters.


*Actual normality may vary. Please consult a local expert who is not Ako.

[a1enzo]

"Does it count as a weapon if it shoots medicine?"

[seat_five_girl]

Ako looks up from where she is wrapping the ribbon from her wrist around the pistol in question.

"I don't see why it wouldn't," she says, "The categories are pretty broad and it's been holding it fine until now."

If healing is what stops that from working, it surely isn't something the pistol does then. She's been popping it in and out of existence without accompanying wrapping paper enough to know.

[a1enzo]

"Fair enough."

[seat_five_girl]

Ako frowns as she brings the pistol back into existence and begins rotating the wrapped box to find the tag.

"Now, let me just see..."

Spin, spin! Too far, spin back slower. There it is.

"Huh."

[a1enzo]

Enzo looks, still not sure just what information may be derived from this.

[seat_five_girl]

Well, among other things, there is the name...

"So, almost certainly healing then," says Ako tapping the name, "And three different kinds of ingredients to make another one."

Not that those are labeled, but it is a sort of progress.

[a1enzo]

"Good to know," he admits. "Is that it?"

[seat_five_girl]

"Unless you want to make another one, I think so."

[a1enzo]

"Not without knowing more about it, I think."

Goodness knows how digitizing would affect it, too.

[seat_five_girl]

"Then that's it," says Ako, "And I'll put it on my list of crazy tech to show to Jordan-chan the next time I bump into her."

Presents for friends and all that.