Charlie fixes his gaze on a far point and walks crosswise as though following its circumference. He asks, "Does everyone's watch show the same time when they return to the station? Is it always the same number of paces to a feature as back from it?"

"Yeah no weird time effects as far as anybody's noticed," Ramierez said. "Aside from what's in it, this is still the regular world. Not like, virtual reality. Far as any of the science team have said, anyway.

"There are some weird things, though. Like the pits? Empty out into space. But the atmosphere stays in here. The blocks that float, that's funky too, but I figure if they can make gravity they can make things... not gravity? You get me?"

Sure, Riley asked about the jumping height in the briefing room and the soldiers had said it wasn't normal... but Riley wants to feel for herself.

So while the others are talking she does a little jump.  Just to make sure.

Dash glanced over at Riley's jump attempt and stood up, recalling critical information. "The digital version has a timer. She has the right of it. Learn through doing. Hopefully this is designed, or we are going to have a rough time of it."

He began searching for metal within the brickwork as he began moving ahead, speaking as he did so. "Hey, how many of you actually know the lore to the game, anyhow? It's absolutely insane, by the way."

Ramierez started moving with Dash, keeping a half-dozen yards ahead, while Corporal Baker moved to the side, staying approximately to the center of the group's flank.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:53, Fri 04 Aug 2023.

In reply to Dash (msg # 34):

"I do not. Had reoccurring glandular fever and the game was well documented by others so I was too late for this," replies Charlie.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:22, Fri 04 Aug 2023.

Riley seems a little disappointed that her immunity to this place doesn't give her the ability to jump really high.   But it's just as advertised.  A perfectly normal jump.

Once she's done, she starts walking alongside Dash.

"I picked up most of my games used, or from my dad.  Have a lot of missing manuals.  So is the game lore anything like the old movie?"

The group moves out down the center, the Marines in formation, while the guides talk about the nature of the game Super Mario Bros. As they travel it becomes apparent that the walls are at obtuse angles from the outer hull, and growing father apart the deeper they go - by the time the group has left sight of the airlock both walls are distant to either side.

The terrain shifts slightly as well, cobblestones becoming interrupted by patches of a fibrous grass - short, uniformly, like a mowed lawn or golf-course. These patches grow until they reach parity, then subsume it until the cobblestone areas are isolated islands within the sea of green.

It's shortly after this - perhaps ten minutes after setting out - that the pipes begin to appear, jutting from patches of cobblestone. Most are perpendicular to the ground, but some are at angles ranging from 45 to 75 degrees. Ahead, beyond the first few pipes, the grassland chamber grows dark... the lights dimming not quite to the point of pitch-blackness, but a noticeable shift that appears to continue into the distance. Some of the distant ceiling lights seem completely dark, or flickering uncertainly.

ooc: It's not an unnatural cut-off or anything, but the light quality will be getting rapidly worse.

Jack shifted his back for easier access to his flashlight. "Do you think we'll have to climb the pipes?" he said to the team.

"The live action movie? God no. That would have been fine if it wasn't a cash grab. Good practical effects, social commentary, very surreal, subject matter game in name only, but I'm not sure what anyone expected. But it was a cash grab by multiple parties pulling the work in multiple directions, and you got a train wreck. Couldn't be helped. Everyone felt their moves were optimal, no one had an incentive to back down, and thus they all got less."

Dash noted the closing darkness, and his train of thought changed to respond to Casey's inquiry. "Hmm. Might be the case. Could be encouragement, although trading one darkness for another isn't an ideal situation. I didn't find any flares in our supplies, so unless this very green grass burns... "

"Say, is anyone actually good at lighting a fire in a wilderness situation without messing up their hands doing it?"

Riley turns on the light on her headset once it starts getting a little darker.  "A fire?  Bit early to set up camp, even if that was the plan."

She looks around some more.  "Even though it wasn't in the video, I was still sort of expecting to hear the music in here.  It doesn't seem right for it to be this quiet."

"We'll be heading back long before we'd need to make camp," Corporal Baker said. "Sometimes longer expeditions are called for, but we don't stay out longer than we have to."

Ramierez flicks on the light mounted on his helmet. then turns to address the guides. "We goin' on in, or you want to head parallel to the left or right?"

Dash shook his head. "Wasn't thinking camp. I need a light source so that I know what's in these pipes, and maybe in the darkness. My objective is information, not rest. Going in blind is a good way to not come back. And I'm hoping they are a transport system, rather like the game. I'm just trying to make sure we'd survive the physics based on what I'm seeing."

He raised a finger in thought for a moment, then lowered it, raised it again, and dropped it again. It was fairly clear his thoughts and his ability to communicate them were warring for supremacy.

"We popped a few chemlights down 'em when we first encountered the pipes," the Corporal said. "Most go maybe a meter or two into the hull - just enough to anchor them. A few go much deeper, possibly several decks down. And we've encountered vertical and horizontal pipes as well. As yet we have not yet been ordered to traverse."

She pulled a green plastic tube out of her vest and offered it to Dash. "Crack it and chuck it in if you want." She looked up towards the rim of the closest pipe, rising to a height of eight feet. "I won't say no if you want to be lowered down into it, but I would recommend waiting until we've been issued climbing rigs."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:57, Tue 08 Aug 2023.

Jack put his light on his head as the others had done. He squinted and shielded his eyes when Ramierez turned towards them, blinding him for a second. "Sergeant, when you say 'going on in', you're saying forward- not in one of these pipes. Correct? Just wanna be sure." Jack asked, and looked ahead along the way they had been traveling.

"Of course not, Jack.". Riley says.

"That's tomorrow's mission."

"Yeah, I'm not eager to jump down one of those, least not without proper gear," Ramierez said. "I meant 'in' as in deeper into the object the way we been headed."

Charlie remains quiet, having inspected the grass as they passed. He looked for differwent types of growth, perhaps weeds, or maybe ants or other insect life.
On reaching the cobblestones he gently taps a couple with something metallic, perhaps a coin or clip, testing whether they sound like cobbelstones.

Jack noticed Charlie's behavior with bewilderment for a moment before he realized these were experiments; then he just stood there and watched for unusual reactions.

After a moment he said "Deeper in then. Lets go strait", still staring at the cobblestones.

Noting Jack's stare, Charlie looks back blankly clearly not registering anything unusual in their silent exchange. At the suggestion that they should go deeper in he gives the briefest of nods and follows along, eyes glancing around as the group head onwards.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:30, Sat 12 Aug 2023.

Dash broke his mild mental loop to focus on the situation in front of him. "Hmm. Very well. Just be leery about walking further if all you see is more darkness. What this... place... interprets as the end of the screen might be lethal."

Dash glanced to the pipe, put a mental note on it, and shone a light into the darkness ahead.

"Do we have string? Or twine? Or flexywire?" asks Charlie.

There are two kinds of rope in everyone's pack.  Did Charlie even look at it?

Riley responds to the Sergent instead.  "Is the object a little castle, with a flagpole?  Or does it just skip that and the darkness is the transiton to level 2?

Also, I'm sure someone said there were... residents here.  The turtles and such.  But we haven't seen any."

Charlies starts to unravel the end 5' of his rope.