Wapsi Held Hostage - Day 14 (was Castela Notice 2015-07-05)

[jwhouk]

Paul's on unfortunate radio silence because his phone is lousy with net connections.

[DinkyInky]

Being an Aggie, I have full joking rights. Making them and appreciating them!

And is this meeting in Austin???

Your loc lists you in UT country, hence my response. Or are you alumni? Anyway, I have just as much right to joke about them...

EDIT: Now I see the north of part...

UT is in Austin, about 2-3 hours (depending on which side of Houston you leave from, traffic, and how many suggested speed limits are ignored) from Houston. I live in the Conroe area, north of Houston.

And am A&M alum. So bring on the jokes!

I do have a question, where is there more than Corn?

I do suppose we should eventually pay attention to the buzzy/hummy thingy Gyrre is messing with, it might prove to be entertaining!

It's from an old gimmicky Indiana Beach tourism commercial(I cannot believe nobody has uploaded that annoying jingle yet), though I used to hail from about 45 minutes from Glytch, in NWI. From my house in three separate directions 20 minutes away are VU, IUN, and PNC.

[Hansontoons]

Corn must be getting tall about now. I was in Chicago, Minneapolis, and northern Iowa a month or so back and things were nice and green and growing. Wishing I was back up there, it's finally getting hot in Texas.

[GlytchMeister]

Corn must be getting tall about now. I was in Chicago, Minneapolis, and northern Iowa a month or so back and things were nice and green and growing. Wishing I was back up there, it's finally getting hot in Texas.

Dude, all the rain we are getting is either drowning the corn or making it absolutely HULK up. The farmers that don't have drainage to handle the rediculous amount of rain we've had are stuck with lakes instead of fields.
...
But the farmers with properly drained fields have fully-grown corn. Already.
A friend I mine told me some have already harvested and re-planted? Not sure if that's accurate, but I don't know much about farming.
*shrug* I'm pretty sure it's fairly crazy, though.

[kingklash]

Meanwhile, I say we need to send Paul a new running wheel, and one of those sleek new European racing hamsters to help run his setup.

[jwhouk]

All the hamsters and wheels don't mean diddly if he ain't connected.

[GlytchMeister]

Glytch checked his phone and furrowed his brow. "Looks like we're gonna be here longer than I originally planned." He shrugged off his backpack and dug around for a moment before extracting a bag of trail mix. (The food brought by the others had long since been exhausted). Glytch smiled to himself as he caught several glances toward him as he was repacking his bag with the sharpening stone, first aid kit, fire kit, emergency poncho, and backup chargers for his phone.
Munching on his trail mix, Glytch sat back and contemplated the situation.
I'm in a nexus of realities, with the ability to interact with any universe imaginable, surrounded by alternate reality versions of people from the Wapsi forums. It's... Kinda nice. Sure, waiting for Paul to drop the next comic isn't very awesome... But the time has allowed for the creation of this whole situation. I kinda like it. Maybe we could do this more often? During other hiatuses?... Hiati? Whatever. Or during long weekends or holiday breaks, maybe.

[TazManiac]

Taz looked around at the sound of Trail Mix being crunched on and said; "I'll be right back..."

<Insert Final Jeopardy Theme Music...>

Twisting back into place from elsewhere, he set a rectangular covered serving dish on the table next to the Coffey Urn and spoke again;

"Folks?, I took a little time, elsewhen, to slow roast some 'Stuff on the Bone', some twice cooked Potatoes, and some dark green veggies tossed in there for roughage. We might be here awhile longer..."

[kingklash]

"Looks like we have some general Timey-wimey stuff going on in the outside worlds." king said after the announcement about the slight delay. "Guess I should have deployed these earlier." Pulling out a small spray can from a side pocket, he went to a corner ad pressed the button. Soon, he had three spider-web hammocks set up there, and three more in the other unused corner. "These will be good for at least a year."

[Sgt. Howard]

Greg was noticing the beginnings of 'barracks housekeeping' going on... he wandered over to the (alleged) bathroom and looked inside. The toilet was sufficiently foul that fresh excrement would likely crawl out and run for safety. The sink was marginally better. He closed the door, having successfully stifled a gag reflex, and pulled an ancient, hand-held two-way wireless device that was probably salvaged from Omaha beach RED-DOG-EASY sector on June 8th, 1944 when most of the bodies had been cleared.

"Bravo Base this is Bravo Charley, do you read? Over"

"SWWIIIIIIIIIIIEKRACK! an u ou a ear- ow u ea ee? Oer"

"Bravo Base this is Bravo Charley, I read you loud and clear- requesting accommodations accessory M-43-A12-X to these co-ordinates, with hook-up to civilian utilities in accordance to Adjutant Corps SOP TM-56-987, page 14, paragraph 2- can you comply? Over,"

"POPPOPPOPOPOPOPOPOPWEEEEEEE! a-ive, oress in out, oer,"

" Bravo Base this is Bravo Charley, much obliged, over and out,"

There was a slight rumble behind the door and a loud THUD- Greg opened the door again to expose a short hallway with a door at the end and on either side- "Men", "Women" and "Jacuzzi" were the demarcations in white stencil over olive-drab paint... all fresh by the smell of it.

"Is there anything else that might be of use?" he asked the crowd.

[jwhouk]

Think we might need rations, too. See if Becky can deliver some of her stuff, along with a few urns of Tina's finest.

[GlytchMeister]

Glytch eyed the door again, and his mind kicked into high gear. He pulled out a small notepad and a metal mechanical pencil (0.5 millimeter lead, of course) and approached the door to the Wapsiverse.
He made a quick 5x5 grid in his notepad before swiftly unsheathing his pipe and quickly inserting it into the upper left corner of the door, timing the speed of the transformation.
He noted the number of mississippi's he could say (four) in the corresponding square in his grid. Repeating this process, Glytch completed his grid and considered the data:
44544
45554
45654
45554
44544
"The transformation occurs at a higher rate closer to the corners..." Glytch muttered to himself. He sheathed his pipe, set the notepad down, drew his knife, and began to carefully deconstruct the wooden frame and drywall on the bottom right hand corner.
His efforts revealed a device the likes of which Glytch had never seen. It was... Well, it kind of looked like a projector of some kind, and the image it projected was of the Wapsiverse.
"Gyrre? Kingklash? Anybody else with advanced knowledge in electronics, spacetime continuum-warping mechanisms, and circuitry? Come over here and see this!"

[Sgt. Howard]

Greg ambled over to where glitch had discovered the device-
"Beyond my understanding- I can say for a fact that it don't run on steam..."
He went back to the table and started considering what rations might be in order for an extended stay while Gryye and Kingklasch focused on the gizmo in question. He turned to Louise the XIV-
"We're stuck here for the duration- seems we have sleeping quarters and bath facilities adequate for the time being... what delicacies would strike YOUR fancy during this trial?"
He looked at Greg in a semi-amused fashion and asked, " And why, pray tell, should you consult MY opinion in this matter?"
"I figure yours would be the fussiest palette to please while the rest here have all the dietary discrimination of a landfill- am I correct?"

[jwhouk]

Y'all are starting to want me to drive down to Des Moines and install a few hundred yards of CAT30 line just so Pablo can keep us all from going crazy!!!!!

[GlytchMeister]

Y'all are starting to want me to drive down to Des Moines and install a few hundred yards of CAT30 line just so Pablo can keep us all from going crazy!!!!!

*cheshire cat grin*
Who says we aren't already there?

[GlytchMeister]

Glytch carefully took out a sizeable chunk of wall before he found the edges of the device. Two cables ran along the edges of the door. "Must be three other devices at the other corners," he muttered to himself as he extracted his phone. He opened and tried to calibrate a compass app, but the magnetic interference was far too strong. "I guess I'll have to check for any auxiliary devices the hard way..." Glytch growled as he got his knife out again.
Several minutes passed as Glytch worked to uncover the other three portal projectors before he found one with a third cable, running left from the upper left projector. He followed the cable through the wall, eventually finding a new device hidden behind a moth-eaten reproduction painting.
It was a clear glass-like panel edged with a shiny chrome-colored metal. John lightly touched the surface and the surface was instantly covered with several glowing markings that were very familiar to Glytch.
They were Monica's Glyphs.
Just as GlytchMeister was preparing to curse under his breath, the screen shifted and all of the markings switched to Roman numerals in the same positions. As Glytch watched, the symbols flashed through several styles of numerical systems, including Arabic numerals.
Glytch smiled. It wasn't quite a Rosetta Stone, but it helped.

[jwhouk]

Remember, don't press the Oo glyph until you know what everything else does...

[Dave]

Y'all are starting to want me to drive down to Des Moines and install a few hundred yards of CAT30 line just so Pablo can keep us all from going crazy!!!!!

*cheshire cat grin*
Who says we aren't already there?

I'd say that was a gibbon.

[Hansontoons]

Hanson (DWC) looks up from loading goodies from Taz's spread into a hubcap he found earlier and says, "Who let Dave's wife leave?!? She still has work to do iff'n she has any of those darts left!"

[kingklash]

"Verrrrrry interstink," said kingklash. "But workable. My expertise isn't quite knowing, but intuition and tinkering. I've always had good luck with machines, and they seem to like me. I get no bad vibes off of this. Patterns of those numbers are fairly regular. Let's see what the extadimensional alien tech has to say about this....." Touching his index fingers together, he slowly drew them apart, and a small metallic rod about the length of a new pencil materialized between them. "I'm not going to get into the machinery, but I want to check some of the effects on outside environment." He tapped the rod on the frame, and one end split and reformed into a tuning fork. "It's not a sonic screwdriver, but it does in a pinch. You should see the big ones I usually use." Pressing the other end of the fork on the frame, a pleasant tone began to sound. Moving away a few inches, he held it to the floor, and got the same tone again. Twice more, until about three feet away, the sound dropped dramatically in volume. Checking the walls at that distance, he said, "That should be about the effective range of the portal's biggest influence. Might as well check the view from the other side, Roller Camera!" He bent the rod into a circle, and the ends clicked together. With a quick flip of the wrist, the little ring was rolled out the door, into the street. It reached nearly the other side, stopping before it hit the far curb, and spun in place. Then it suddenly returned, hopping the near curb and front steps, and king caught it. He placed it on his map device, and a video played in the air above it. It showed the worm's eye view of the street as it neared the other curb. nothing new, same artwork as seen from the door. then a quick 360 pan as it spun in place. Then it pointed back at the meeting hall and headed back. Just before it re-entered, the view of the others it saw showed them in Wapsi-style, right before it crossed back inside. After that, everything was back to normal.

"Spooky." king said.