lucetilocked | [Locked to Residents]

Hey-o Luceti, how's it going?! This is Pascal coming to you from the super secret tappy-tap things! I've been waiting to come down here forever and get my hands on 'em ever since Precis did her thing not too long ago, they're pretty intense. I bet if I just plonk on this thing...

[Everyone is now treated to a few minutes of Pascal tapping the camera and purposely rubbing her hands over the microphone a few times. Now this setup is pretty sweet, way better than the outdated junk that was found further down the tunnels... Oh right, important stuff. It wouldn't be right if Pascal came down here and just talked, she has a journal for that, so have some typing.]

Okay, so a little while back me and some other guys all went off on this mission to learn about the droids. Not only that, but we went off to make sure all the droidy guys get super messed up! Not sooo messed up that you can tell, but you know, tiny itty-bitty things that are actually HUGE. If any droids showed up to drag you off to the draft then maybe you already know that they've seriously been knocked down a peg, or ten. Or whole stack of pegs!

Let's see. The droids have this endless zappy battery so they can keep going on and on and ooon, but a few of us guys tweaked a few things or whatever and now they're not so endless! Or they might just overheat on you, but that's really good too! Just not for the droids. I think there was some thunkathunk on the armor and joints the droids have, but one of the techies will need to field that!

What else... Oh, yeah, right! There are like billions of lines of code and stuff in those guys! There's so much that you could slip in something without anyone else knowing, but that secret something ends up being major pain in the butt. Or a pain in the crotch, you should all go for the crotch! Those droids might be able to calculate a kabillion different way to fight back, but they'll be totally stumped if you aim for between their legs. Not only that, but if the droids seem distracted or frozen then that was us too! Turns out that if you turn (this) into ((this) then you really kafrazzle them!

And that's it! If you want to ask anything then go ahead, I'll be here to answer all your droid-like questions and stuff.

[Or she'll be answering when she isn't staring intently at the laptop and poking around a little.

OOC - Open discussion. Threadjacking is definitely encouraged, especially as Pascal probably isn't the best at explaining the nitty gritty stuff in a more straightforward way.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Luckily for Don the room won't feel cold at all. Even with all the ice around it should feel room temperature. If anyone touches the ice rink or cubes then they're going to feel cold, but that's it. What's more, none of the ice is melting either!]

Y'okay, looks like it's working just like I hoped. You're gonna need one of these.

[Pascal runs around the ice rink to a weapon rack she programmed in. On the rack are a number of staves, of which Pascal takes two and heads back over to Don.]

Now let's play us some Shot Cube!

[If there's a thermal equivalent of motion sickness, Donatello is experiencing it now. His eyes tell him it should be cold, but the temperature he's perceiving is well within his safe range.]

[It's bizarrely disorienting, but Pascal seems to be offering him some combination of programming, sports, and ninja weapons, which rates very highly as a desirable distraction. He'll put his hand out for one of the staves.]

How do you... play?

It's easy! Okay, first, take this thing and just...

[Pascal takes her own stave and spins it around, twirling it over her arm. As she does this the staff folds over, now looking more like a rifle.]

Do that! Then you take your shotstaff, walk up real close and fire at those ice cubes over there. You can slide them aaall over the place, but what you've gotta do is get all the cubes into the middle of the ice, in the red part, got it?

[So, all in all, it's like this.]

[Sorry, Don was not listening. You have a bo that turns into a gun, and you know how to use it. Why did you not mention this sooner?]

[Whoops, she didn't figure that part was important. It's just a shotstaff after all!

Pascal decides to take the first move and runs over to an ice cube.]

Fire!

[There goes the ice cube, sliding off and hitting another cube in the middle of the rink.]

[Okay, right. Flip the bo into a gun and shoot at the ice cubes. Don can do that.]

[He heads out onto the ice - it's cold under his feet, but he'll be fine as long as he doesn't stand still too long - flips the staff, and shoots at a cube. He missed the instructions, though, so it may take him a while to figure out the point of the game.]

[It's a simple aim really, just make sure all the cubes out on the ice are shot into the center of the rink. The way the cubes slip around though means you have to think ahead and plan where the cube is going to go.

Or, if worst comes to worst...]

Don't hit that one you just shot to the right, or you're gonna mess up and we'll have to reset all the cubes. Somehow.

[What? Don pauses in his shooting, to watch Pascal and try to figure out the rules. From ground level the pattern of the cubes and their movements is not immediately obvious.]

See, 'cuz if you hit it that way it's gonna get stuck in the corner. But if you go for this one first- Shoot!

[Pascal fires at another cube and slides it across the rink to the other side.]

Now you can knock that cube to the right without gettin' trapped!

[Don does as he's told, beginning to get a sense of the larger aim. Is this - a kind of logic puzzle?]

[It is! You've really got to get your thinking cap on for something like this. If you didn't need to really put some thought into it then it wouldn't be fun at all.]

Are you gettin' the hang of it now? It's a real blast once you get all the rules down!

[Something clicks, and Don gets it: This is a logic puzzle sport played with bo-staff-guns. Programmer, you have just become this Turtle's new best friend.]

[Don surveys the rink, does some mental calculations, and shoots at a cube, aligning it with an empty space in the goal square.]

[Awesome, she's already got all her friend points back! Pascal claps and cheers when the cube slides home.]

There we go, you cleared it! Wanna try another? This time I won't help out though, promise!

[Don nods eagerly, giving the shotstaff a complicated spin just because it's fun and he can. This is the happiest he's been in weeks.]

Y'okay, stand back!

[Better get off the rink quickly. Pascal moves back over to the weapon rack and gives it a sharp kick. At that, another set of ice cubes starts to fall from the sky while the ones that were already there simply fade out.

... Kicking a weapon rack probably wasn't how they reset the puzzles back in the Amarcian Enclave, but considering she put together this whole game in a minute or two who can really complain?]

[Interesting choice of controls, programmer. Don dodges the new set of ice cubes, and starts mentally solving the reset puzzle. He'll let Pascal have first try at it, though.]

[Well alrighty, Pascal gets right to it when she realises Don is taking his time to think it over.

It doesn't take her long to run over to each ice cube, shoot it and move to the next. There are a few pauses here and there while she thinks over her next move, but the whole display is pretty fluid.]

Bam! And then that guy slides off over there, so next up is... Ka-pow!

[You have clearly practiced this a lot.]

Did you... make this?

[She has a bit of an unfair advantage, given she made up most of these puzzles. If she randomized the set up then there might end up being a few unsolvable puzzles, and that would just be a drag.]

You bet I did!

[... You mean the simulation that he was there for her programming minutes ago right? Yup. She did it aaall.]

[No, he means whether she invented this game in the first place, but that's a difficult concept to convey. He drops the subject and just enjoys playing.]

[Locked to Residents]

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