entranceway | e x p e r i m e n t #08 (video)

[Some time Friday morning, September 8th, a new and particularly important broadcast appears on the network.

The feed flicks on to show Ford at a desk in his lab looking both tired and very guilty. ]

Uh, yes! Hello. Uh. Good morning?

[He clears his throat. Might as well get right down to it.]

As anyone who's slept since Wednesday will know, something weird has been happening. I may have been experimenting with a ward against a certain demonic triangle when there was an explosion that caused the ward's effects to warp and, for lack of better layman's terms, gave everyone the ability to traverse the Mindscape--that is, the realm parallel to any waking dimension.

To put it simply: Once you left consciousness at any point, you likely were able to explore your own mind, and the minds of others.

Fortunately, the effects seem to be temporary and I only singed half an eyebrow in the explosion, so... Good news! Everything should be back to normal by tomorrow.

Ahh, science. Well! That's all for today. If you don't want to deal with it, I suggest visiting one of the tea rooms for a delightful pot of industrial coffee. Always works for me!

[With a winning smile from Ford, the broadcast ends.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[HEY FORD, HOWDY.]

how do you keep people out

Under normal circumstances, a surgically implanted metal plate did the trick for me.

no one is putting anything into my head
what else

That depends on what or who you're trying to keep out. Are we talking a telepath, mechanical mind-reading, or some kind of demonic presence?

no
just a guy who doesn't know how to mind his own goddamn business

Oh.

Have you tried adding extra locks to your door and encrypting your messages? And blackout curtains. Always blackout curtains.

i meant more how can i keep him from poking around in my head
is there like a ward i can put up for that

[ a g a i n ]

There is, but you'll need to visit the vendors for one of the ingredients.

It's unicorn hair. You need unicorn hair from my world. I can give you the rest. The ward is startlingly effective against otherworldly horrors who can't mind their own damn business.

[...shit.]

[Rock and a hard place.]

but he's not

he's just some guy

[Some guy who probably breached his privacy. Again.]

Look.

If he's just some guy, then a locked door and a simple security system should keep him out of your hair. I don't know what else to tell you. If he's not some guy and he has superpowers where he can somehow navigate your head outside the context of this business with the mindscape, I will again suggest the metal plate.

I'm a scientist, not a magician.

it's more complicated than that

but if i don't fall asleep he can't get inside right

It always is. Why do you think I have a metal plate in my skull?

That's right. Give it another 24 hours and you can sleep like a baby.

i'm pretty sure babies sleep even less than i do
are you sure it'll be patched by then

You get the drift, though I do recommend at least three or four hours during every 24 hour cycle. Sleep deprivation hallucinations aren't conducive to keeping nosy jerks out of your life.

Like I said: I'm a scientist, not a magician. The effects will definitively last no longer than another 12-14 hours.

[Hallucinations he can handle. Even ones brought along by sleep deprivation.]

i just don't want people walking around in there
i can't

[...]

how can you be sure

[There's a pause before the next message comes.]

I'm sorry. I know how you feel.

According to the machine I have measuring the effects of the magic dispersed by the explosion, I can be sure give or take two hours.

ok

[Time to...stay awake for the next sixteen hours. Just to be safe.]

is isn't gonna happen again right

I will write a "DO NOT DO THIS" poster to ensure it doesn't.

Is that what was occurring? I had assumed it was just Wonderland messing with our dreams somehow again.

...That is somewhat distressing actually, if that was someone's mind that I had unintentionally visited.

I still feel I have to question though, what, if any, safety precautions you use with your experiments.

I'd be interested in reviewing the notes you've constructed regarding this form of travel. Anything that crosses a dimensional boundary could be fine-tuned to suit our larger research regarding escape.

Is the concept of "safety procedures" entirely alien to you people?

[Georgia hasn't slept much since realizing this shit was happening when she went to bed. The promise of sleep without nightmares doesn't make up for having her head invaded. So she's running even lower on sleep than usual and she's left feeling cranky, scowling under her sunglasses as she sips from her Coke.]

You know what happens to people in my world who ignore basic safety protocol? They get eaten.

Hello to you too, Toriel.

Normally I would be happy to combine the research of all the scientists in Wonderland for an escape, but I have the sinking feeling all our failed attempts may be indicating we take another approach--one that doesn't involve building an interdimensional portal.

Eaten by what? Does OSHA have a pit monster in your world? [He's being serious but also aggressively sarcastic.] Zombies, I know, I remember.

For your information I do use safety procedures because I share my lab with someone else. [That is the only reason, frankly. And he'd never hear the end of it from Fiddleford otherwise. He definitely wasn't wearing goggles at the time though; an act of stark defiance.]

Safety procedures don't ensure 100% containment, ever, especially not with magic.

Edited 2017-09-09 18:03 (UTC)

[Hesitantly, a quiet voice adds another opinion.]

... I liked it.

Edited (typo) 2017-09-09 18:27 (UTC)

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e x p e r i m e n t #08 (video)

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