That wasn't supposed to happen

[whatamithinking]

The parameters are recalibrated, the dial is spun, and a new universe is selected.
It won't be home--they haven't collected anywhere near enough coordinate data to think they can find home yet--but it will be another step closer.
And who knows, it might be interesting.
Edie steps through the portal first.

Comments

[pythbox]

The green thing bounces off Trent's head. Trent does not explode; he does, however, put away his canvas bag (somehow?) and get out a bow and arrow (from somewhere?) and start firing arrows at the green thing as it hops away. The arrows just sort of appear as needed.

"Once you have a wooden sword, you might try to gather some gel from the slimes. Combine wood and gel to make a torch!" says Trent.

[iamnotpolaris]

"...We've. Wandered into some kind of animate video game."

[whatamithinking]

'I will take your word for it. (mild disdain for video-based media)'

[iamnotpolaris]

'Are there any other minds here or is it just us? If we're the only actual people here there's not much point in staying longer than necessary to calibrate the coordinates."

[whatamithinking]

'...Yes, actually. One. That way. (sense of direction)'

[pythbox]

Trent finally finishes off the green thing.

It violently explodes, showering its surroundings in translucent green slime and chunks of itself.

Two copper coins also appear amid its remains.

Trent returns his bow to wherever it came from, produces the bag again, and holds it out toward Emily, totally ignoring Edie. "You can use your pickaxe to dig through dirt, and your axe to chop down trees."

[iamnotpolaris]

Emily idly grabs the coins, twisting them through the air towards her hand, because why not.
'We might as well head that way, then.'

[whatamithinking]

'(confirmation)'
They set off in that direction.

[iamnotpolaris]

If any more hopping blobs cross their path Emily will smack them with assorted metal she has on her person.

[pythbox]

There are a fair number of hopping blobs around! The blue ones are slightly bigger than the green ones. Smacking them with metal is a good way to get them to explode, yielding coins and little balls of blobstuff - well, plenty of blobstuff, but the little balls consistently don't fade away with the rest of the exploded blobstuff after a minute.

Trent wanders after them for a bit, repeating his helpful advice, but soon falls behind.

After some walking, the weird forest abruptly gives way to a weird... tundra? There is a perfectly straight line separating grassy ground from snowy. On the snowy side, there is a new kind of hopping blob, prettily frosted and sparkling in the sun. There are also penguins instead of bunnies.

[iamnotpolaris]

Penguins, that's cute.
Emily will drape some of her metal over Emily and warm them both with magnetism. If the pretty frosted blobs produce pretty frosted balls she might collect some of them.

[pythbox]

When she picks up a frosted ball, there is an unobtrusive helpful notification in her mind that this object represents 1 Gel.

When it touches another frosted ball, they merge into one with a quiet little ruffling/popping noise and now she has a little frosted ball representing 2 Gel.

[iamnotpolaris]

Sure fits the videogame theme, doesn't it.
If she throws the combined gels at the ground, do they bounce?

[pythbox]

A little!

Snow, snow, ice, snow, small ice-lined pond. Frosted blobs, penguins. The landscape is very regular - almost like it's laid out on an invisible grid of cubes. If it is, the cell size is about 2' x 2' x 2'. This becomes particularly obvious when they pass by a steep hill - its silhouette against the sky clearly shows the cube layout, even though some of the cubes are cut in half along various planes to provide a smoother surface.

After the snowy area, there is another forest exactly like the previous forest.

And a brief discontinuity in the perceptibility of the mind up ahead, as though whoever it is faded out of existence for a few seconds and then came back. They're much more clearly perceptible afterward.

[whatamithinking]

Huh.
She gives the mind a brief telepathic nudge--not much in the way of content, just, hello, I am here, I exist.

[not_only]

The mind is extremely startled, and somewhat alarmed!

[whatamithinking]

'Sorry to alarm you. I'm a telepath from another universe. My sister and I arrived here recently and you seem to be the only other actual person within range.'

[not_only]

Alarmed. Wary. Calming down gradually. No direct answer. (He has no prior experience with telepathy and very little concept of how one might communicate with a telepath.)

[whatamithinking]

'I'm not reading your mind, by the way. A lot of people worry about that when they hear what I can do.'
She and Emily will continue walking in the direction she can sense him in.

[not_only]

Somewhat less alarmed; still very wary; and he seems to be approaching them, much faster than their walking pace.

[whatamithinking]

Okay.

[iamnotpolaris]

Emily will be over here, walking beside her sister, trying to get a wire through a ball of gel.

[not_only]

The ball of gel is slightly squishy, but oddly resistant to piercing.

The approaching mind is a little higher up than the sisters are. A lot higher up, actually. Like, flying.

In fact, that's probably him up there in the sky.

When he spots the sisters, he changes course and starts circling lower.

[whatamithinking]

Edie waves.

[iamnotpolaris]

Emily puts her gel and wire away in a pocket and pays attention to the descending flying dude.