Tesladyne: Every Day's an Adventure!

[tesla_bot]

The door that opens is a free standing frame on a small plywood dais at the focus of a tremendous amount of cabling and particle emitters. The whole area smells of ozone.

Tesladyne's high energy physics department (Advanced Topology Division) is marked by a school of design that thinks things should be able to be cleaned with a pressure washer - painted cinder block, tiles floors, scorch resistant counters, wire reinforced glass and plenty of drains. Decorations lean towards lolcats, and mock safety signs saying 'Do not look at laser with remaining eye'.

There's a calendar open to December 2010 and a clock that says it's about 10.

"Right it's still morning," says Robo, "Watch your step, it was easier to raise the door three inches than to cut down all the equipment by that much."

Comments

[basic_powers]

"Wrrp!" Is all Tyler manages, stumbling a bit out the door, before looking around the room.

...This place is oddly reminicent of both his gym classes for some reason. One for the decorations, the other for being easily cleaned.

"Is this the course?"

[tesla_bot]

"Nah. My door is down here. Partly a natural weak point and partly the rest of the gear here," says Robo, "The course is upstairs in the spare hangar bay."

Upstairs and over really, but there's not much else this far down.

"We've got a sort of hunting blind set up there for you to run things from."

[basic_powers]

"That'll be perfect..Could I run through it before the drill goes through? Get a better picture of where to have something leap out and drag someone to the ceiling and stuff." Tyler asks, following Robo's lead out of this room.

Seriously, he learned the 'do not touch the science gear' a long time ago.

[tesla_bot]

The people who come in from Milliways are so much better at this than the local hires. It's kind of depressing.

"Shouldn't be a problem," says Robo as he heads for the hall followed by a set of stairs, "Most of the delays happen when people panic."

The maze of twisty passages all alike opens out, eventually, into a two story concrete floored space. There's an area where it looks like someone spilled a shipment of jungle gyms and an extra pile of tires.

"The straight sprint comes at the beginning."

[basic_powers]

...Tyler wants to come here to practice his gymnastics. Just so you know.

Or well, Robo can probably guess from the way he's eyeing the course and all of the places to put something that screams and roars, or snarls and grabs.

"Oh this is AWESOME, I know just where I'm gonna set the first glowing shoggoth."

[tesla_bot]

Robo's only expressions come from his eyes; the rest of his face doesn't move. That said, he's smiling.

"Have fun," he says, I'm going to double check the blind set up."

The blind is inside one of the tire piles. Tyler can swing by when he's ready.

[basic_powers]

Tyler brought along eight daffy putty eggs. Each egg is capable of making something the size of the Mystery Machine. Really though, he tends to use these to get more bang for his buck.

3 eggs are set, mixed with glowing dye, and programmed to chase ONLY a certain active radio signal in shoggoth shape and 'trap' a maximum of 3 victims. We're getting two shoggoths an egg and one egg is getting placed just behind the starting line. The other two get hidden about the course.

4 eggs get set into random places along the pipe-gym and the walls to produce tentacle grabbers. These are the ones that Tyler's going to end up having to remote control. They've got a good 15 foot reach, and as an afterthought, each egg gets treated with a dose of dye. This is just to make showing who got grabbed, and elminate the need for a doll to show where the mean tentacle touched them later.

The last egg gets set to produce what Tyler's dubbed 'screaming mimi's. 2 screeching howling blobs per egg, that swing around and chase anything with that tracer signal, once again.

Eventually Tyler comes back to the blind to check his traps, and get the altered gameboy ready to do it's work operating the 4 tentacles. One run-through with the motion of the tentacles aand...

"How many trainees do you have?"

[tesla_bot]

"Fourteen right now," says Robo, "I try and keep the groups fairly small."

The blind has a recliner with a double rank of LCD monitors in an arc in front of it. To one side, the snacks; to the the other, a lighting board and a stereo.

"I'm going to get a guy in to run the lights. Phil is pretty cool most stuff."

Mostly, Phil is going to miss the chair.

[basic_powers]

With that number in mind, Tyler opens up a pouch on his belt loop and counts out 14 discs, running them under something..Oh hey, once they're run under that freaky game-boy thingie they start putting out a little radio signal.

NICE.

"Here ya go, find a way to hide one on each trainee where they can't remove it." Tyler says, settling into the recliner and looking over the ranks of LCD monitors with a grin. Nice view, and here's the first test of the tentacles grabbing all at once...

...put your witty dialogue here.

[tesla_bot]

"Evard's Affectionate Tentacles?" says a new voice.

"Get in here! Phil this is Tyler, he's running the extras. Tyler, Phil."

Phil is in his early twenties with messy hair and a company t-shirt .

"Hey."

"Someone get the fresh meat and tell them it's time for a practical!"

[basic_powers]

"Hi Phil, I'm running the 'monsters' you're gonna be running the effects, right?"

[tesla_bot]

"Lights and smoke mostly," says Phil, "Plus a couple of sound effects."

Phil eyes Tyler for a moment. These 'outside consultants' get younger every time.

"Everyone is going to be able to breathe after this, right?"

[basic_powers]

"Yup, the stuff I'm using'll let em breath just fine inside of it." Tyler says, running the tentacles through their paces once more.

After a moment he eyes Phil back.

"No one's going to need a trip to the hospital unless they crack wise about my age."

[tesla_bot]

Phil is the picture of exaggerated innocence. "I didn't say a thing!"

A beat.

"But, uh, you wouldn't be willing to show up afterward and help illustrate who was behind their running would you."

A look at the tentacles again.

"That and the screaming."

[basic_powers]

"Definitely. And you haven't even seen the really nasty stuff yet." Tyler grins and points towards the camera that watches the start of the course. "Wait and watch."

[tesla_bot]

A few other people have, near the beginning of the track, piled a whole bunch of boots. One pair for each trainee. The tracers are in each left boot, under the insole.

"Let's move people!" yells Robo, "Time spent changing your shoes is time that counts against your group!"

Robo is herding by yelling. It's a tried and true technique. The small muddle begins yelling shoe sizes at each other and tossing footwear back and forth.

"Nobody runs until everyone is ready!"

[basic_powers]

With that, Tyler starts watching the screen with the focus of a hawk studying a field.





"...five dollars and a cola say that blue-vest is going to be the first one to wet their pants."

[tesla_bot]

Phil hasn't looked up from his last touch ups to the controls.

"Oh you're on."

With the shoes straightened out and the group roughly lined up near the starting line, everyone outside is waiting for Robo's signal to start.

Whenever you're ready Tyler.

[basic_powers]

Select-> Remote Egg Activation

Activating

->Egg1 Double Shoggoth
Egg2 Double Shoggoth
Egg3 Double Shoggoth

Executing....


There should be a word for what happens when two glowing masses of ever-shifting eyeballs and tentacles, each size of a volkswagen bug appear behind you. Because they're going to need new cusswords after this.

"GLRRLBLBLRRRAAAWWRRRBBLRRAWWRRR!"

[tesla_bot]

The first attempt is a collective, "Eeee!" Faint cursing also makes an appearance.

Phil has, helpfully, cut the general lighting a few notches and added a strobe in the UV range.

"Run my pretties!"

Climbing wall next.

[basic_powers]

Yes! Yes! The Climbing wall! Shoggoths don't climb well do they?

...oh. They do. More motivation to climb faster!

And waiting above the climbing wall...the first tentacle lurks, waving back and forth lazily.

[tesla_bot]

"...I cleared that from the history," comes plaintively from a poor fellow in a baseball cap on spotting the tentacle.

He's going to get plenty of space now from the rest of the class, alas.

More interesting is the guy with the clipboard trying to fight the tentacle off long enough to get the rest of the people past.

"How is he even still carrying a clipboard?" asks Robo, "Clarkson! Where were you carrying that?"

[basic_powers]

Plenty of space also means no one else gets wrapped up when one of the shoggoths catches up to Mr. Tentacle Fetish. Bet being devoured by an amorphus volkwagen of hate was never something that crossed his mind.

Now Clarkson Clipboard warrior has been doing fair battle so far...the tentacle withdraws back...and then lashes out grabbing him by the hands holding onto the clipboard. Then Clarkson disappears out of sight with the rest of the tentacle screaming.

Better move it people!

[tesla_bot]

Clarkson's sacrifice has moved the remaining dozen onto a bridge of swinging tires. Surely the holes will just drop those terrible blobs through...

"And smoke now, I think," adds Phil.

Or slow everyone down in mist. That could happen too.

[basic_powers]

"...think I should start up the screaming mimis?" Tyler asks quietly as the blobs try to bridge the swinging tires...and fall below. Where their glowing shapes can be seen lurking below the mist watching those in the tires.

Wait. Save for that one that ate TentacleFetish. That ones staying on the bridge.

So why are there...three...blobs...oh shit.