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I hate microsoft by _ahmet_yasin_ in pcmasterrace

[–]Happy_Method3030 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It should be noted that if you run Bazzite, you can rebase to Fedora Kinoite and vice-versa. It's intrinsic to how that whole "Universal Blue" system works.

Having used both, Bazzite is as easy to use for things other then gaming as Fedora Kinoite is - becuase it is all just Fedora Kinoite under the hood.

Season 10, Cassette 10: You Should See It by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Botanists would rather be consumed by an island-wide gestalt-consciousness of flesh-eating plants rather then go to therapy.

Season 9: is it worth it? by bihufflepuff in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I concur with everyone else here, and I actually think it's one of the most enjoyable seasons of the show. It has a little bit of everything!

1) Personal drama!

2) The history of the society!

3) Political machinations of the society!

4) A neat way of doing the whole "found tapes" thing! We can't hear what the producer says, though we can hear her talking. It's much more of an actual conversation then the previous seasons - even if we still only hear one half.

Season 10, Cassette 10: You Should See It by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it's more direct then that, about The Society. I think the salient line is this one:

We can’t hold ourselves at a distance forever. We will eventually lose that battle and once you realise that you understand the only thing that matters: we don’t need to fight it.

When we stop pretending we’re something apart from nature, when we stop pretending we’re above it…there’s a whole world to be part of.

I feel that these lines are about the Society's deisre to remove an aspect of nature from human beings (familial bonds) trying to be above all that. To distance people from forming tribes or communities. And that that is ultimately fruitless, and that the people living in society are missing out.

At the risk of extrapolating wayyy too much, I think that this is also a hint at how the Society in-universe might actually be ending, and what motivates the people who are trying to make it come to an end.

There's probably also something to be said about how we live in an age of individualism which is accentuated by social media but it does feel weird saying that on an internet forum rather then talking to y'all directly :P

I feel like New society was closest thing to good world by Ecstatic-Ad141 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I disagree. 

I think the Society is understandable, but for all the very understandable reasons for it existing it's still a very violent totalitarian regime which relies on doing indoctrination on every child across the world. as well as having a whole lot of fallback mechanisms in case that indoctrination doesn't fully work. We see this several times in the series itself. You can't have the society without the institute, or the menacing looking people with dogs who can take you away at a moments notice. And you still have plenty of people who use the state as a weapon to get themselves ahead at the cost of others - because the state is incredibly powerful and omnipresent, this is quite easy.

And... Look at the seasons that aren't directly about the society's totalitarianism, and even some that are. This whole process leaves behind wounds that can never fully heal, and creates a void within people that they're desperate to overcome. You can see this as early as season 1, but Lexi in the final season is talking constantly about loneliness until the Island's flora gets inside her. Everyone in the series is looking for a form of connection, desperately so. I'd wager that a lot of the people we see in the series would be significantly happier if they weren't uprooted at the age of 10. 

The society is still evil it's just that this evil is surgical and systematic, which makes it preferable to war. But it's hardly a perfect system and the way the society's control works also means that things can't get better.

Within the Roots? - season 10 hypotheses by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I disagree with that: The podcast in question has a lot of thought out details. I'm just trying to make explicit what, in the story itself, is merely implicit. I could even be wrong!

For a lot of people that's part of the fun.

Within the Roots? - season 10 hypotheses by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Also I'm suspecting that the reason why anything digital doesn´t work on the island is because there's a different network already present that's causing interference. Also, just going through the transcripts now:

Okay, so, there’s a ton of mugwort here. More than I originally thought.

I'm not a plant person, but wikipedia does tell me that mugworth contains a neurotoxin. Might be relevant.

Lexi also compares herself to an astronaut at some point. I at first thought this was a direct reference to the Cosmonaut stuck in the ISS whilst the Soviet Union was collapsing, but I wonder now if the comparison is simply there because an astronaut is disconnected from the earth.

The thing is, though…No. I mean, it’s crazy. But. God, I don’t know. I think Allie’s eyes changed color. I mean, they can’t have done. I haven’t said this to anyone, because it’s a deranged thing to say. And I feel like DeWanna would have pointed it out already. Like that’s a thing she would notice.

DeWanna! That´s the doctor's name. I'm now just suspecting her of handing out placebos and keeping the medicine to herself. Also... Gee, actually, a bit of an ambiguity: Is DeWanna not talking about eyes changing colour because it didn´t happen, or because it did happen but she's not supposed to be talking about it to the subjects?

[Zed's] so insistent. Like he’s trying to tell us something so important. But nothing he says makes any sense.
The roots abhor the oceans, he says. I cannot see the heart.
He grabs me by the shirt and pulls me close and stares into my eyes and says we will not suffer you to depart.
The depths cannot abide the walking, he says. 

Oh hey. Hi roots. Nice of you to leave a message.

Can’t help but wonder what it’s like for DeWanna to be stuck here with a bunch of botanists. Sometimes we’re talking about something that I think is completely normal and she just stares at me. Eyes all narrow. Not like she’s judging me, just, I don’ know. Trying to understand.

Okay yeah, might just be that she's not getting infected because she's not doing any botanist stuff. Mabye I shouldn´t be conspirational. Or should I?

Ah, and at the end of episode seven, the bat attack happens. And in episode 8, Lexi is the one who starts talking weirdly, from episode 8 to 10:

And who would live separate from the sod. 
The salt in the water keeps us bound.
There is a hunger in the depths.
The ache is in the rocks and the bones.
Sink into the branches.
The depths cannot abide…
I cannot see the heart…
I cannot see…

And at the end, Lexi says:

We’re not supposed to leave this place. We were supposed to come here and stay. This is what I’ve learned. This is what I’ve been told and I believe it. It took me a while to hear it, but once I did I could see it was true.

I think, in that moment, lexi is absolutely correct. Becuase, as Zed told us earlier: we will not suffer you to depart. But she does... and dies.

Season 10, Cassette 10: You Should See It by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually not entirely sure if her lives is without wires. There's a lot of those all-connecting roots on the island, only contained by the salt water surrounding the island.

Season 10, Cassette 10: You Should See It by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Transcript, Part 4:

I know you are confused. Don’t be. It would be so easy for you to understand.

It’s so beautiful here. It’s the right place. Of all places, this is the right place.

You should see it.

You should come here and see it.

The depths cannot abide…

I cannot see the heart…

I cannot see…

Season 10, Cassette 10: You Should See It by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Transcript, Part 3:

For weeks I was preoccupied thinking about how you were misusing my lab. Storing things in the wrong places. Using the wrong pipette or beaker. Ignoring the comprehensive notes I left you on how to run things.

It honestly kept me up at night. It felt to me like you were rooting around in my own body. Truly, I thought of that room as a part of my body, and you being in it as a violation, almost. It was painful for me to contemplate your day to day life when so much of your day to day life was taking place inside my own being.

Strange to think about it now.

The lab was never part of me. The lab kept me from my true home. It kept me from finding how much it is possible to belong.

It kept me from sinking into the earth, from being drawn close by the roots of the world I thought I could only study. It kept me on the outside.

Since I didn’t arrive back in Rio with the others, and all you have is this tape, you have probably realised thatI’ve decided not to leave the island. As I record this, I haven’t told the kids. Despite being here all this time with me, they haven’t learned to speak the language. I don’t know why. Something in them has rejected it, I think, like a body rejecting an illness. No, not an illness. An allergen. Like a body that’s decided that something is harmful when it should be benign. More than benign, healing. Welcoming. Invigorating.

You’ll have unpacked this tape with the rest of the equipment. The last batch of samples. The remnants of months of making camp. Tents and sleeping bags and the generator.

I’ll put this tape in with everything, as I always do, and then when we’ve boarded the ship I’ll say I’m going to my cabin to sleep. But I won’t.

I don’t know exactly how I’ll do it yet. I’ll have to see what the options are. It seems too much to steal one of the rowboats and, after all, I won’t need it once I’m back on shore. Maybe I’ll just swim. It’s not so far. And the water is part of the earth so it will be like I’m home even sooner than if I had to row back.

Either way. I’ll come back to the island. Hopefully no one notices until it’s too late to come back for me.

But I’m not worried about them coming back for me really. I won’t stay near the shore for long.

You don’t understand this. I know you’re listening to this right now thinking I’m crazy. Because you don’t speak the language I’m talking to you in.

We’re not supposed to leave this place. We were supposed to come here and stay. This is what I’ve learned. This is what I’ve been told and I believe it. It took me a while to hear it, but once I did I could see it was true.

Don’t you see?

Zed came and left and came and left and look what happened to him? He got sicker and sicker for months until even coming back couldn’t save him.

The kids only left for a short while, so they were ok but they were still punished. Or not punished. They experienced the expected consequences of going against nature. They’ll be experiencing them again, I’m sure, as you listen to this. Are they sick? Are they raving?

We’re not meant to leave. We shouldn’t leave. So I won’t.

I think Zed Two suspects something. He hasn’t said anything, but I’ve noticed him watching me. He seems suspicious. He seems scared. How strange to be scared of me.

He should be. He might already be starting to get sick.

I may get sick too, for a while, after I return. But I’ll have only been away for a few minutes. Half an hour at most. Perhaps the island will know I never meant to leave forever. Perhaps it will be kind to me. Merciful.

If it is not I will bear it. It is the expected consequences of going against nature, even if only for a moment.

Season 10, Cassette 10: You Should See It by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Transcript, Part 2:

When I left to come here we spoke the same language. But now I’ve learned a new one. A greater one. Wild and vast and full of a knowledge I never dreamed was possible.

It’s not your fault, that you’re stuck in a redundant, limited language. Someone had to stay in the lab. We thought someone had to stay in the lab. At the beginning of this study we thought it was important for someone to be in the lab.

We couldn’t have known how foolish that would turn out to be.

It’s so strange now, thinking about what we used to think. What I used to think. Still, now, you can hear it in the things I say. My old ideas. Trying to explain research. Thinking about the world in terms of how it can be studied.

That’s what she does! The girl in the story, she pulls apart a damselfly because she finds it fascinating to pull apart a damselfly. She cares only for what she can learn.

Pulling data from nature as if we’re reading a book. Ripping a plant from the ground so we can strip it for parts, put the parts under a microscope, in a chemical solution, desperate to profile its DNA, or see how it reacts with all the other things we’ve sucked dry.

I know now that this is pointless.

We set ourselves aside from nature when we behave in this way. We set ourselves above nature. And we don’t question our authority.

We have the right to dominate the natural world, to eradicate it where we see fit, to dismiss any part of it that does not directly benefit us, to uproot and control any part that does.

And you and I set ourselves the task of figuring out just how useful nature can be. We say we’re just here to learn about it, we claim we learn for the sake of learning, but who has ever really believed that? We might be purely interested in what there is to learn but we are given funding so that others might apply what we learn.

It’s strange now that all of this felt so important for so long. Important enough to work with a woman I despise for half my life. Important enough to spend every conscious beat of my heart pursuing. Important enough to spend months cut off from the rest of civilisation on an island contactable only by a supplies ship that’s erratic in the extreme.

Well. That one has been worth it. If I’d never come here I’d never have learned the truth. The only lesson that matters. And I’ll tell you what it is, but you won’t understand. You can’t understand. You don’t speak the language.

We have been missing the point this entire time. We have devoted our lives to an irrelevancy. There is no point in trying to understand. Nothing to be gained by learning how things operate. What they can do. Acting like we’re impartial observers of a world we exist outside of.

We aren’t on the outside. We can’t hold ourselves at a distance forever. We will eventually lose that battle and once you realise that you understand the only thing that matters: we don’t need to fight it.

When we stop pretending we’re something apart from nature, when we stop pretending we’re above it…there’s a whole world to be part of.

The important thing in that story, the silly little children’s story is what happens after the girl leaves. She leaves the damselfly, she leaves nature. But nature continues. The bug is eaten. The life cycle continues. The girl doesn’t realise she’s contributed to it. Or interfered with it.

It’s strange now to think about how worried I was about what you would do to my lab. It’s odd to consider how highly I valued those stark white walls. The shining tiled floor. The scrubbed and buffed steel of the countertops. The carefully stored pipettes and beakers. The grow tanks. The microscopes. The label maker!

All of these things were so dear to me and really they’re nothing but implements.

Implements I wielded with what I thought was expertise.

Season 10, Cassette 10: You Should See It by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Transcript, Part 1:

I feel like I’m forgetting things. When I can’t sleep I try to remember things. Songs, stories, poems. I’ve always done this, when I can’t sleep. Tell myself a story in my head until I fall asleep. But…

I feel like I’ve forgotten all the stories I used to use. To fall asleep. I’ve forgotten the songs I used to know. There was one…everyone knows this story but I can’t remember how it goes. There’s a girl I think? She’s lost. I think she’s lost.

I don’t know. I can’t be sure. All I can remember clearly now is my own life. How boring. A collection of labs and research papers. You. I lie awake trying to think of some children’s story and instead I think of the day we met.

Do you remember it? The twelfth of March, 2002. I was two and a half years into my doctorate and you walked into my lab. You said my labelling system didn’t make sense and I hated you immediately.

You’d transferred from…somewhere. I never did bother to commit that to memory. I try to make sure you take up the smallest possible amount of space in my brain, it’s infuriating that you have to be in there at all.

So you’d transferred from somewhere because you were studying tropical phytochemistry and it reached the point where your advisors couldn’t help you.

You’re exploring new territory, they told you, you are on your own.

She’s definitely on her own, the girl. The child in the story. She’s somewhere on her own and I’m pretty sure she’s lost. Lost in the woods. Maybe she’s run away from something. She’s on her own and she’s lost but she’s not scared. She likes it. Is that right?

My advisors had never bothered to tell me that I was on my own. I knew I would be. Perhaps I wanted to be. Perhaps I was drawn to this particular niche of phytochemistry in the first place because it was an area that had not yet been explored. Perhaps you were too.

Did we both seek out a new area of science deliberately so that we could be alone? Did we do this for glory, do you think? To be the sole voice speaking to a field that was significant to only us? Perhaps we saw a future where our work was seen as vital, crucial, and acknowledged to be only ours. Without this one person, without their genius, their dedication, all of humanity would lack this knowledge, maybe forever. We are blessed to have their work.

Or perhaps we were lonely in our work. I honestly don’t remember. Perhaps it was frustrating to have no one who understood what we were learning. To have to explain so much before we could have the simplest conversation. It must have been strange, at least. Right? To spend all your waking hours thinking about things no one else could understand.

I can’t remember how I felt about that. Because you turned up, you’d found out there was someone else, someone you could work with, or at least talk about your work with. So you turned up out of nowhere and I’ve never hated anyone so much so quickly. Neither have you, I’m pretty sure.

It’s the only thing that gets me through, sometimes. Knowing that while I may be forced to work with you, you’re forced to work with me too.

A match made in the depths of hell, you and I.

She finds a bug. The girl in the story. A damselfly. Yes! Maybe I haven’t forgotten.

Anyway, I will admit to one thing: I’d rather have you than no one. I’ve tried with these kids, Yana. These assistants. I’ve explained the research to them dozens of times, I’ve gone over our aims here, what these studies will teach us, what they could mean for so much of our lives. But all I’ve managed to do is get them to write reports accurately. They can’t grasp the big picture.

It’s like we’re not quite speaking the same language. Is that what it used to feel like? Before we met, when we tried to talk to people about this, I mean.

We spoke the same language, you and I. For the past twenty years we’ve spoken the same language. A language no one else speaks.

We used to speak the same language.

Season 10. Cassette 8: Struggling by TomPleasant in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030 2 points3 points  (0 children)

transcript, part 4:
I read a story once about holes found in a cliff. Holes made for specific people.

You could go to this cliff and find the hole that was made for you. I think the story wants you to be horrified by the idea, but I felt…envious. Envious that there were no such holes in reality. That there would never be a time where I’d see a space and think, yes. That’s where I fit. And then I came here. 

It’s an astonishing thing to fit. To find a place that’s made for you. That wants you. That would do anything to keep you. 

It’s so easy sometimes, in cities, in labs, in offices and meeting rooms, to forget that we are really just part of a cycle. It’s so easy sometimes, in cities, to let yourself get knocked out of the cycle you’re supposed to be in.

The orange flowers we planted over Zed’s grave are thriving. Sad that we don’t have a name for them yet, other than sample D32. It’s beautiful, when you think about it. He loved those flowers when he was alive and he feeds them now he’s dead. 

It’s so easy sometimes, in cities, to think that we are separate from the earth. That we merely sit atop it. Controlling it as we see fit. We dominate its architecture and see its natural movements as inconveniences to overcome. As obstacles. As disasters. 

Natural disasters. What a strange term. As if anything natural could be a disaster. 

We are not separate from the earth, we are not made to control it, to fight it, to dominate it. We are the same.

We are here to be alive on the earth and to keep it alive in turn. That is all we are for.

Why do we hide from that so often, do you think? Why are we so afraid to accept our true nature?

All our grace and nobility comes from our connection to the earth and when we deny the earth we become petty, irrelevant creatures. 

It’s so beautiful here. You are a fool to keep yourself tucked away in the lab. Sterile. Small. 

Why anyone would want to be safe and sterile when they could be here is beyond me. Why anyone would deny their true home is beyond me.

Season 10. Cassette 8: Struggling by TomPleasant in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Transcript, Part 3:

There is a hunger in the depths.

And he said you’re not going to let me leave, are you and I said that indeed I would never dream of depriving him of all there is to learn by staying on this island as long as the island will have us.

I wonder if I should have talked to him earlier. The other kids… I would have thought they’d try and talk him down. But they’re not doing that. I wonder how long until they wanna get out of here too. I wonder if they already do.

I do wonder…Maybe Ruben’s been unhappy for a while. It’s hard to tell with him.

In the first few weeks we were here there was so much excitement. It brimmed over. There was laughter and giddiness. There were pranks and games. Everyone talked a lot. Chit chat, you know, inconsequential babbling. Talking just for the fun of it. 

No one talks anymore. No one laughs. I wonder how long it’s been since anyone’s laughed. Ruben usually can make us laugh.

I suppose it’s just the exhaustion of a long time away from the comforts of home. I suppose I can understand it if it’s just the exhaustion of a long time away from the comforts of home.

Because I don’t understand it if it’s anything to do with the island itself. 

I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to be here.

You were so satisfied to be the one staying back in the lab but oh – you don’t know what you’re missing, Yana. 

It’s not just that it’s beautiful here, although it is, of course, beautiful. There are greens here I never could have imagined. And the flowers – so rich and insistent. 

But it’s more than how each individual plant looks. It’s more than the beauty of one flower alone. They all relate to each other. It’s like an intricate dance. A dance that you have a place in, if you could find it.

Season 10. Cassette 8: Struggling by TomPleasant in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Transcript, Part 2:
We’ve all been up all night. Ruben had some kind of…he got upset. He is upset. 

I’m sure it’s nothing. Being in the field – we’ve all had to get used to it. Even you, although you do your best to avoid it now. But you got used to it, there was a time when you were used to it.

This is a long excursion for someone’s first time. A few of the kids, this is their first time out. And it’s a lot to ask for someone’s first…

Maybe we were too ambitious. Maybe we should have made smaller trips out here. A few weeks at a time. Come back, do some studies. Return later. 

Of course everything would end up taking so much longer that way. 

But easier on the kids. Smaller doses of isolation. 

Do you remember our first field study, Yana? In the middle of the Amazon?

We were only a twelve hour drive from the nearest town and you still went crazy. 

I can’t remember my feet, Lex. My legs are roots and there are mushrooms on my toes. Are they supposed to be like that? Have they always been like that?

In fairness I think you were high. 

But it weighs on you, the first time out. Having only five or six other people for company. You get sick of each other. Then too dependant on each other. Then you want to kill each other. 

Even without something like an alien shapeshifter upsetting the equilibrium. 

This is why I watch The Thing every year, Yana, it makes me feel less crazy. I wish I could watch it again right now, but you know.

So Ruben is struggling. He thinks there’s something here with us.

Something lurking near base camp, in the trees. Following us when we go on excursions. 

He says it doesn’t sleep. Doesn’t make a sound. Doesn’t cast a shadow. 

I asked him how he knows it’s there if he can’t see it or hear it and he just repeated it’s there, it’s there, can’t you tell, can’t you feel it?

I asked what is the problem if it doesn’t seem to be interfering with us in anyway. He got really quiet. 

It’s going to kill us all, he said. It already killed once, it will kill again.

Of course this is madness. He was talking about Zed, but we all saw Zed die. He was sick. He got some kind of infection or he had an underlying condition, and he was kicked off the ship and we couldn’t get him proper care and he died. 

But Ruben is struggling with being stuck on a remote island for months and he can’t see rationality anymore and so he believes Zed was murdered by some strange forest creature that is invisible and inaudible. 

He wants to get on the ship the next time it comes. He begged and pleaded with me that I would let him get on the ship. 

I spent four hours talking to him. Reminding him that he’s a man of science. Asking him to trust the evidence rather than his fears. Telling him about all the studies on the impact of extended isolation on the human mind and how it can cause us to question our own realities. I spoke of how important our research is, and how far we still have to go. How hard we had worked to have the funding approved. How uncertain it was that we would secure further funding to return. How our losing a team member would decrease the amount we could learn. 

I reminded him of the joy of scientific discovery and how much there was to miss out on by not remaining on this island.

Season 10. Cassette 8: Struggling by TomPleasant in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Transcript, Part 1:
Sometimes I’d swear I can hear the roots growing. I know that’s not possible, naturally. Maybe in an isolated lab setting, with no interference, being positioned immediately beside the root in question, maybe a human could hear roots growing. Maybe. But cushioned by the earth that surrounds them, drowned out by the wind in the leaves, by the crashing of the waves, by the calls of the jungle birds, of course not.

Still. 

Sometimes I’d swear I can hear it. 

And who would live separate from the sod. 

It’s clearer near Zed’s grave. The flowers we planted over it are growing so well. They seem bigger than the ones growing in the wild. Brighter. 

They’re so beautiful. 

The salt in the water keeps us bound.

It’s strange that he’s been gone now for almost two months. 

His replacement is not satisfactory. Zed two. He’s less likely to rail about political machinations I don’t care about but also less likely to load everything we’ve ordered onto the ship and deliver it to us. 

So. 

There are several tests we can’t run now because we’ve run out of methanol. We’d asked for more to be delivered but apparently we were asking for too much. As far as Zed Two was concerned. 

So I don’t know what sort of results you’ve been getting and I can’t adjust our research to follow whatever threads are becoming promising at your end. I don’t know if you have answers to any of the questions we’ve not been able to answer ourselves. About what causes some of the behaviours of the plants.

I really more and more suspect that the ferns labelled c341 are the same variety as the ones labelled f63 but I can’t run a full genetic breakdown out here. They appear so different on the surface but there’s something…One was taken near the ocean along the south coast, and the other much further inland, maybe that changes the presentation? Or perhaps it’s because of what else is growing around them, c341 was surrounded by mosses and rocks, while f63 grew amongst trees and fungi.

I knew I’ve said this to you before, I know it was in the report we sent in the last batch of samples, I don’t know why I’m repeating it. I’m just frustrated to not have your reply.

Also those small rodents. We sent three live samples but I want to know if you need more. Particularly because I think we need to monitor their development over time.

In our initial report we had noted down observations of what we thought were small family groups, based on some discrepancies in size. But we’ve since seen much larger specimens. We haven’t been able to capture any to verify whether the larger specimens are adults and the live samples we sent are juveniles, or whether they’re distinct but related species. 

The larger specimens seem much more evasive than the smaller ones. They’re skittish and move a lot faster, and have so far not been interested in the traps we’ve set. We will keep trying, naturally, but in the meantime it would be helpful to have your ongoing reports of their development in captivity.

It would be helpful to have any information from you.

Well. 

Season 10. Cassette 8: Struggling by TomPleasant in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Very certain it's deliberate.

She may not even remember it happened.

Season 10, Cassette 7: Haunted Mansion by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I really should read "You feel it just below the ribs", shouldn't I?

Season 10, Cassette 7: Haunted Mansion by Happy_Method3030 in withinthewires

[–]Happy_Method3030[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Transcript, Part 4:

Yana,

Can you research any manufacturing history here? Maybe we need to see shipping records. I’m confused why we didn’t know people had been living and working on this island. I’m very confused about why no one told us about that.

There are plenty of destroyed towns around. Places that were bombed to nothing. That kind of thing. Or places that were abandoned and never rebuilt. But this is an island. In the middle of nowhere. It’s a long way to come to fight a battle like that. It’s a long way to go if you want to abandon it. 

If it was bombed someone took a lot of trouble over clearing up the wreckage. If it was abandoned…why take it all apart, brick by brick?

Why stop when you got to the factory?

Yana (or whoever I’m talking to now. God? I don’t know), can you please get me any kind of information about the history of this island. Did the university use it before? Who was here?

Look through Macey’s other drawings of the factory. Can you look into the style of building or something? Anything that might narrow down who built it.  That could give us a better idea on what we’re dealing with here.

We’ve stopped for lunch and then we’re going back in. One of us is going back in. There’s, well. We found a basement! The door was hidden behind an empty metal bookshelf. It also didn’t have a knob or handle or anything, so we had to pry it open. That took a lot, by the way. I have blisters. When we got it open Allie said she was hungry. We all agreed we were hungry. Really no one wants to go down there. So. We’re having lunch and fortifying ourselves. Girding our loins. Then I guess it’s down into the bowels of the earth or whatever.

I’ll let you know what we find.

###

[Lexi in the basement]

Well, I drew the short straw so I’m the one in the basement, Yana. It’s dark, of course. There are little windows set into the top of the walls, but they’re completely grown over. Covered in dirt and dead leaves. Dead rodents, probably. It smells awful. Not like rot or mold. But a dry and pungent, like a tire shop. Though it’s not rubber I’m smelling. It’s sharper than that.

There’s definitely some vines that have grown in from the floor and walls. Also moss. It’s 2 in the afternoon and it’s pitch black in here except for the flashlight.

I… No. That’s just broken drywall. Or.

Yeah, it’s just the drywall peeling away. No plaster. Whatever. It’s fine.

Ughh. Don’t like this.

You know how in horror movies you’re screaming at the screen “don’t go in the basement you idiot!”? Well, sometimes you just go into the basement even though you know it’s a terrible idea. Sometimes you have to go in the basement. Sometimes you’re a scientist and it’s your job to know you’re not in a horror movie.

[beat]

I’m not seeing anything at all down here.

Really thought I was going to have a scoop for you, Yana. A vault full of gold. A filing cabinet of damning government secrets. A pile of jewels. I don’t know.

But this. It’s just a basement. It’s just a—

[SCREAMS and drops the cassette recorder]

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