etraya | un: aurora

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un: aurora | text

Hello, citizens of Etraya.

I hope you are making yourselves at home.

Thank you for participating in our bonding activities during the previous mission. Your willingness to get to know one another is admirable and you should all give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done. We hope you've come away with both the satisfaction of a job well done and maybe a new friend.

Your second mission will be a team exercise and will begin in four days.

You will enter the Labyrinth that has appeared outside of the city dome. As the Labyrinth is meant to be a challenge one person cannot overtake alone, some of you may find that your extraordinary abilities are affected to some degree, ensuring you will not fly through the challenge in a wink. Teamwork is necessary and the Labyrinth itself will be making sure everyone is working together.

If you have brought any animal companions with you, you may choose to bring them into the Labyrinth or leave them in my care. Please note for the duration of the mission, the city will not be inhabitable by those who require oxygen to breathe. Please do not leave any companions behind in apartment buildings.

If you have any questions, please ask them now.

Thank you,
Aurora

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( there is a reason people don't complain about too much pepper ruining a meal as often as too much salt... it's the superior seasoning. )

Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I'd guess we all had a really awful time. It wasn't like they were just mindless drones, the doubles had their own agendas here.

Like they were actual real people.
Like genuine doppelgängers.

Why didn't she tell you? Was that supposed to be part of the test?

I guess? That was my first experience with something like that.

And your guess would be as good as mine. I see you've spoken with Aurora as well — was it a fully enlightening conversation or did you just walk away with more questions? I'll tell you she didn't hesitate to provide us the means to dispatch the doppelgangers, though. Sharp, ugly knives that showed up next to us when we slept.

I've had people send me in circles before. At least this time I knew where my feet were.

I don't know how I feel about an artificial intelligence capable of conjuration like that—it's definitely new—but I guess I'll have time to figure out how I feel about it after this mission.
Or test exercise.

I still think a jigsaw puzzle would suffice in team building.

I'm sorry to say, but I think the "test exercise" was last month, and this one is probably going to be more of the real deal.

( but hey, a group puzzle session is about as innocuous as a mandatory coffee hour, so like — )

She did just say that whoever gets through the maze first gets to decide the next mission. If it's not me, hopefully it's you. Then you can pitch jigsaw puzzles.

[ Isn't it a good thing he's fast? Look at Barry, assuming he'll be the first one finished. 🤡 ]

If we're being completely honest, I'd love to do an escape room. I have a feeling that'd be way more fun, and maybe have more oxygen.

[ Would it??? ]

Did the first mission-test exercise-whatever include, you know… diverting the oxygen?

( it's okay, both of their egos can be crushed simultaneously in this event: barry out here assuming he can outrun the horrors, and clarke assuming she can weather them with the power of indomitable human spirit and spite on her side. )

No, it did not. Honestly I hadn't considered the fact the air was as manufactured as everything else in this place until now.

( also: )

What's an escape room?

[ He stops himself from typing You don't know what an escape room is? He can hear Thawne and Wells in his head: Duh. ]

It's a puzzle room. You get locked in a room and have to find all these clues and solve these puzzles to either get out of the room or, if you're lucky enough, move on to another room. If your escape room has a series of rooms, you usually look for clues, complete tasks, that kind of thing to find a key to unlock a door to move on.

There's a time limit, too. It's so much fun.
Good for team building and figuring out who does not know their lefts from their rights.

Like a labyrinth, but the air is real.

( hmmm... a time limit to solve the puzzles and then they're... punished or killed if they fail? how do they get out of the locked room? what's the trap, where's the trick?

— clarke has to catch herself from immediately assuming the worst case scenario about absolutely everything. he'd said this was fun, something friends . it just still sounds wholly unpleasant because who voluntarily locks themself in a room in the first place? especially on top of experiencing interdimensional kidnapping and not being able to return home? )

So it's one of those things people do, like watching a horror movie, because they want to scare and challenge themselves. But the stakes are low, the air flow isn't restricted, and no one is in any real danger.

Pretty much.
The escape room doesn't have to be scary. Sometimes, you can be put in a room with a beach theme—or it can be like an office.
Some of them can be scary, but you can just go to a haunted house if you want to be spooked.

[ We're bringing an escape room into Etraya, aren't we? ]

So long as you can guarantee it'd be harmless, that sounds fine.

( or at least sounds fine until they all make it out of The Horrors of the maze and surprise it's probably a little too similar for the residents that ran into puzzle games. )

I vote for the least scary theme you can think of, if you win.

Do you like clowns? A lot of people find them scary.

(

)

Not a big fan.

So, no clowns.
Good to know.

How do you feel about balloons? Some people are terrified of them.

Like... dirigibles? Or just normal balloons?

I've never seen a balloon stab anyone so, no strong feelings there.

Normal balloons.

Man, remind me to show you IT one day.
It'll change your mind on balloons for sure.

But until then, I'll consider a mission featuring balloons. Maybe one where we have to make animals out of them. I think that'd be fun.

( literally NEVER going to remind him but okaaaaay. )

Don't get too carried away with the planning stage. You'd still need to win the maze first. And there's always a chance that, even if we're allowed to pitch an idea, Aurora could still dismiss it.

Nothing here's been "fun" so far, and I don't really expect that to change.

[ Don't worry, he will remember. ]

You really think she'd go back on her word? I feel like that'd be some damaging PR.

( squints at "pr", ultimately going off context clues. )

I think our perception doesn't really matter to her, she can apparently turn off the oxygen at any given time if we don't cooperate.

Huge red flag.
Major red flag.
Bigger than a flag, really.

I've never been to an Earth where someone can just Monty Burns the sun.
But then the Earth I went to wasn't exactly run by an A.I.

Lucky you.

Really?
You have?

( hrnk — )

Not exactly, but close.

Listen, it's been nice talking about escape rooms and balloon phobias, but we only have four days to prepare for this. So I'm going to go do that now.

Oh, yeah.
I should probably go do that, too.

[ Even though he'll be done in a flash. Ha. ]

It was nice talking to you.

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