EMERGENCY BROADCAST (text)

[justribbing]

(All active cellphones sound an alarm briefly during the delivery of this message.)

To: All Users
From: sans.
Subject: (SUBJECT HERE)
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URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT: The following is an automated message.

Nature of Emergency: cagey queen left us hanging


PRESS 1 if outside the vicinity of: home If it is safe to do so, follow the prompts to take and send an image of your surroundings to the administrator.

Users in the vicinity of: home are requested to congregate in the: mess hall immediately for: probably a good idea to come save us


Additional Notes:

* sup.
* not much, not much, just hangin' with about 3 new and old friends in this cage dangling precariously above the water.
* can't say i like the conditions either, but the cold and damp doesn't get under my skin. i think i see other cages, tho and, uh, i can't say much for them yet.
* six other occupied cages, with about three in each. hey, it's like those math problems you used to get in school.
* startin' to get a real sinking feeling so if there's anybody out there who ain't locked up, it'd mean a lot to me and over 20 other people if you bailed us out.
* see ya. sans.

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Comments

2/2

[justribbing]

[ oh come on, not another one. ]

* ok.

* mind snapping a picture of the others in there with ya for me?

[egotrigger]

Um... sure.

[He takes a few pictures of the other two, and some of the... mysterious images and the text.]

[justribbing]

[ Tim he recognizes right off the bat.

Oof, Sans thinks, glad he didn't end up in that particular cage.

The kid, though... he thinks he's seen him before, but can't bring up a name. That's rough. ]

Thanks. You guys have any idea what those are supposed to be?

[egotrigger]

I... don't know. Maybe the others do... I'm just trying to get everyone to be calm.

[justribbing]

Yeah, well. Find out for me, wouldja?

Thanks a million.

If this threadjack isn't okay feel free to tell me

[generalflirt]

Eto, wait a minute there, Calm-san.

[ This reply comes a little bit late there, perhaps five or so minutes after hr first puts out the comment, because he needed to go and get in the Mess Hall. ]

Could you go back to that one with the zig-zag lightning bolt looking thing?

[ Of the images ]

THIS IS THE THREADJACKING CONTENT I'M HERE FOR

[justribbing]

* you recognize something, kid?

[generalflirt]

Maybe, but that first image wasn't that clear, at least to my eyes, so a second look'd be great.

[egotrigger]

Ah, one moment...

[He takes another, clearer picture.]

This one?

[generalflirt]

[ This guy didn't object to being called Calm-san? Awesome, nickname hoy. For now. That said, now he's got a better picture, he studies it for a long moment and...

... Could it be ... ?

It's a bit weird for a puzzle but, ]

Isn't that a Pikachu?

[egotrigger]

[He's been called so much worse.]

... A what?

[generalflirt]

Pikachu! It's a species of Pokémon. [ Which seem to be common knowledge here, but oh well ] That little lightning bolt looks like the tail and I think that's otherwise the ears and head.

anotehr threadjack SORRY

[postictal]

wait seriously? these are pokemon??

THAT'S our puzzle?

[generalflirt]

I can't speak for all of them, of course! Just saying that one looks like a Pikachu to me. And I've lived with a gal who used to be one for years now.

[ So he's a Pikachu Authority. ... Sort of. Not really. ]

[postictal]

no i mean
these were card games and shit where i grew up.

they weren't real but people would play them and watch the cartoons and stuff.

[Not that Tim ever really had that experience. Most of what he remembers is what he gleaned through cultural osmosis.]

i'm kinda rusty but i can try my best to remember what i can? i think that's our ticket out of this thing.

[generalflirt]

There's a lot of real ones around this Castle, so give it a shot, Tim-san! If it looks like you'll be stuck though, because of that, you can ask around to the audience.

[ Assuming he's right, of course. ]

[justribbing]

Ring up AZ, or uh, one of that couple that works in the Day Care up on the roof. They know tons about this stuff.

[postictal]

i hope this doesn't require us to write the answers in our own blood or something like that because then i'm gonna be really pissed

[And lightheaded from blood loss, probably. But he's done worse to get out of similar scrapes.]

[justribbing]

* hey, if sayin' it don't work?
* try, uh, literally anything else.

* and if we survive this?
* then i didn't go refillin' your prescription for nothin'.

[postictal]

just wouldn't put it past our queen to

[His text abruptly stops as he reads the second set of texts.

His fingers kinda...

Freeze up for a bit. Ah. That's weird.]

what.

[justribbing]

* yeah, asked ozzy to do me a solid and fetch some of those pills you needed.

[postictal]

[For a long moment, Tim's just kind of frozen there in indecision. He's - what's he - why would he - would he do that? Would he just do that out of the goodness of his heart, or whatever the skeleton monster equivalent is? Do people do that?

No. People aren't just nice to him. It's gotta have a secondary motive here. Or maybe a primary one. There has to be more to this.

So he sends something back, slowly typed out, with trembling fingers.]

why

[egotrigger]

Do you know their names? In case we can't get in touch with this 'AZ' person?

[justribbing]

Nope.

[ He's never met them. Surprisingly, there are still some people Sans just can't manage to pin down. ]

[egotrigger]

All right. I'll see if anyone else knows. Thank you for your help, though.