Alex I.'s page

Santa gives a salute, then moves to the other end of the room. Star follows.

When you go to the door, you see that it is heavy, metal, and locked, with a card scanner next to it. (Assuming you go to the next door clockwise). The next door opens easily, revealing a pantry. The shelves are filled with a variety of cheese wheels and other foods (but mostly cheese wheels).

Using the key, the door clicks open. Stepping through the door, you find yourself in a wide hallway. A short distance away, a metal grate extends across the width of the hallway. Santa shakes it, but it refuses to move.
Nearby are a pair of elevators. It takes only a few button presses to determine that the elevators do not respond to your efforts. The only door left is the one at the end of the hallway. Star pushes the door open slowly. (Assuming you enter)

June: "Oh... So it's a kitchen..."

She looks depressed.

Santa: "What were you expecting?"

June: "The exit. I was hoping this would be the way out of here."

Star: "Heh. You really think it'd be that easy?"

June: "Yeah, yeah, I know. Still..."

The kitchen in front of you is large. Immediately to your right is a table filled with fancy dishes and silverware. In front of you, you can see a door, as well as several counters with cupboards. Around the corner, you see two more doors, an oven on the far wall, and a sink. At the bottom of one of the cupboards, you also see what looks like a safe.

Santa: "Probably the Mars door in the hallway."

Placing the tiles, you hear a click, and the frame swings open, revealing a key with the Mars symbol on it.

Santa: "Yeah, is that what you're saying? Does it have something to do with that 'invisible field' you were talking about earlier? So if more people know the answer, the answer will pass through the field?"

Star: ".......................................................................... ........................................................................... ........................................................................... ........................................................................... ........................................................................... ........................................................................... ........................... PPPSSSSYYYYYCCCCHHHH!!!" His manner suddenly shifts, and he smiles broadly at the group. He waves his hand dismissively.

Star: "Oh, I was just kidding. You really shouldn't take me seriously. Well, I mean, the things I just told you about are true. They really did happen. But the results of that experiment really aren't anything to go by. They could have easily falsified them. In the end, I'm sure they were just in it for the ratings. They are a TV station, after all."

Santa: "R-Riiiight! Man, I gotta admit, you had me there for a minute! I, uh, really thought you were serious..."

Star: "*Chuckle* Of course not! Like I told you before, I'm sure it's all just pseudoscience."

Santa: "O-Oh, okay, right! Ha ha ha hahahaha!"

Santa and Star laugh, and give one another jovial claps on the shoulder.

June: "Hey, wasn't there a frame in one of the rooms? Let's see if the tiles fit in there. I have no idea where else they would go."

Star: "Fortunately, it's much less morbid." He turns it back. "Its actually a picture of a dog." He outlines it for you (Check your e-mail).

Santa: "So? What difference does the picture make?"

Star: "A TV show from Great Britain did an experiment once. They took 2 similar pictures. Both of them were difficult to identify, initially... But once you'd figured out the answer, you couldn't see it as anything
else. The first picture was a woman wearing a hat. The other one... was this picture of a dog." He pauses. "So. Their experiment...

So, do you understand? Do you realize the significance of this experiment? There was no way the second group could have seen the picture. They lived far away from Britain, and couldn't have seen the picture. But even so, it was only the success rate for the dog picture that went up. Why? How did that happen? What does it mean?"

Star looks back and forth, from you to Santa to June and back again.
Normally calm and collected, he looks now as though he is very nearly possessed, and there is something manic about his manner.

The key definitely unlocks the case. You're able to ask the group where they should go. Before your fingers even pass your waistband, however, Star speaks up.

Star: "Hold on, I've seen this picture before." He rotates the picture 180 degrees.

Santa: "Where?"

Star: "I went to University in England before I joined the military. While there, I read a book by a British biochemist named Rupert Sheldrake. He had a rather interesting theory. The picture was in that book."

June: "What was the theory?"

Star: "Morphogenetic field, which relies on morphic resonance."

Santa: "You're giving me a headache..." He massages his temples jokingly.

Star: "It's not a difficult concept to grasp. In essence, he states that the shapes of living organisms and their behavioral patterns are transmitted through a field not visible to the eye..."

Santa: "Uh, what part of that isn't difficult, exactly?"

Star: "All right, how about this... Theory of the Telepathic Mechanism."

Santa: "Telepathy?"

Star: "Not exactly. But close enough for approximation."

Santa (laughing): "Are you serious!? Telepathy? Who do you think we are? Kids from the 70s? I can't believe someone would actually do serious research on something like that."

Star: "Yes, I agree. I read the book, but I can hardly say I understood it. I'm in no position to defend or condemn anything it said. It was probably just someone latching on to a statistical outlier from some study and turning it into a ridiculous theory. There's no scientific merit to any of it, I'm sure. But even so... Anyway, I saw a picture like that one in his book." He pauses a moment. "Hey, what do you think this picture looks like anyway?"

June: "It just looks like a bunch of abstract black and white scribbles to me."

Santa: "What about you Maya?"

While searching through the items you've collected, you notice that the candle you used to light the dark room had half melted. Inside the wax, you notice a small shaft of metal poking out. From its shape, you deduce that it is a small key.

You are definitely able to find something to scrape of the grout and remove the tile. On the backside is another white and black pattern. Check your email.

Santa: "Nice!! Now we just need the one that's locked in the glass case!"

Nothing happens when you push it. The grout around the tile is slightly discolored, however.

Are you searching the bathroom for tools, or the items you've accumulated in the room?

Santa: "What if..." He stands on the footprints. Nothing happens. He sighs, and closes the curtain. "HOLY SHIT!!!"

June: "Whats wrong?!?!" She tears open the curtain.

Santa: "No wait!!! The hole lines up exactly with one of the wall tiles!!! Like, when I stand on the prints, I can only see one tile!!! It has to mean something!!!" He opens and closes the curtain about four times. "It's the fifth one down, third to the right from the left corner." He comes out of the shower and points to it.

You're not really able to get them out. The dye in the paint has stained the floor of the shower.

You have tried to turn it on. It works.

Santa: "What about the footprints? There's got to be a reason they're there."

Star: "How does this help us? Didn't we already try this?"

You don't have two parts. Unless you mean you're hanging the other curtain as well. You have the full curtain from the other room and the one from the bed with a square hole. You don't have the piece that was cut out.

You don't have the cut out part of the curtain. It is only a curtain with a square hole in it.

When you say blanket, do you mean the one with the square cut out? I should mention that when I said it was identical to the curtain, I meant that it was actually a shower curtain laid on the bed to look like a blanket. Thus, it was not sewn together. And what square are you putting it?

The curtain is checkered red and gold. One of the checkers has been cut out.

The whole square has been cut out.

Santa: "Makes sense I suppose. But what's with the hole?"

Which shower room?

You find that the blanket upon the bed is actually identical to the shower curtain with the red and gold checkers. You can see that one of the squares has been cut out. The candle is half melted.

The room has the same features as the other bedroom. The drawer where you found the key is still open. The others follow you in.

June: "It's exactly the same!"

Santa: "I don't believe it. There has to be something!"

Star: "Wait, why don't we use this candle?" He pulls a thick candle from his pocket

Santa: "... You've had that the whole time? What the hell!!"

Star (nonchalantly): "Why does it matter so much? It's not like we could have lit it anyway."

Santa: "If we want to survive this, we need to share f##@ing information!!! Where did you get it anyway?!"

Star: "I found it behind the toilet of the room with the footprints. Calm down, Santa. I'm not hiding anything else."

Santa still looks furious, but doesn't say anything else. Star hands you the candle.

The toilets flush. Nothing is hidden.

Santa: "It's too bad Zero didn't let us keep our phones. We could have used the light from the screens."

The others follow you in silence, obviously deep in thought.

Star: "I'm going back to the bathroom. Those footprints have to mean something, and I'm going to find out what it is." He leaves. June follows.

Santa: "I just had an idea. What if there's a clue written on the wall in the dark room or something? We wouldn't have been able to see it."

It works.

All of the tiles are present. The color pattern of the tiles is constant, and you see no odd tiles.

Santa: "I don't get it... Nothing happened!" He goes to stand on the footprints. That also does nothing.

Star: "We must have missed something somewhere..."

Star, in an almost bored voice, says "You think maybe we need to hang it on the empty shower rod. Interesting thought, but I have no idea how it will change anything."

June: "We won't know until we try though, right?"

Santa: "I agree. We don't have any other leads to go on. I say we do it."

Star and June greet you as you reenter the room.

Star: "Did you find something? What's that?"

Santa: "But a mummy? Jesus, that's kind of a stretch, especially since we haven't seen anything like that."

Santa follows.

Santa: "Why does this shower have a curtain but the other one doesn't?"

You can't feel anything interesting.

Star: "Huh, very similar. I bet you're right, it is like a puzzle."

Out in the light, you see that the object you are holding is another tile. Emailed picture

You find one, and the key fits. Inside the drawer, you feel a cold, hard, square object that you are able to remove.

The first thing you feel is a dresser, identical to the other. Assuming you pull on the drawer, you find it to be locked. You can also feel a bed on the other side of the room.

Nothing is blocking the door. It seems as though the hinges were designed to only open the door that far.

I think you misunderstood. The door is open enough to squeeze through, but it doesn't open enough for a good amount of light to get through. The light switch doesn't work, so its impossible to see anything. You can get in though.

However, when you go and check, none of them work.

The curtain is made of a thin cloth. It doesn't look like it would keep water out though.

I emailed a picture of the tile to you.

Star: "You think that your key opens up one of the other room doors? That's a good idea"

The tile is behind the locked case. You can see, but you can't touch.

Santa and Star both look at each other. You notice Santa's hand subtly move to cover his crotch, and Star turns a bright shade of red and begins to closely examine the tile. June giggles.

The bathroom has a sink and a toilet. The bathtub/shower is missing a shower curtain. In the center of the tub are two red footprints. Although it looks like blood, your intuition tells you its probably paint.

I made a mistake. I said that the first room had no shower curtain, but it does. It is cloth with red and gold checkers.

However, closer to the case, you see a tile that looks similar to the one you found on the table in the other room, but with a different pattern.

The key doesn't fit... Wha wha...

June looks startled by your words and pauses, then runs after you.

June: "But... wait! They say she looked like that because she was... frozen... That she was like that from the time of discovery all the way until they put it on the Titanic. And even though they carried the body through the blistering desert heat... It never melted." She falls silent. "I don't know if I believe it or not, but I guess... sometimes the real world is stranger than fiction, right?"

You reach the other room. You find it to be superficially identical to the one you were just in, with the same furniture. However, one of the chairs lies on the ground, broken, and the empty frame that was near the door in the previous room is absent. You see Santa and Star near the display case, sweating and panting, each holding a chair leg. Santa notices you walk in.

Santa: "...This isn't what it looks like..."

Star: "We've been trying to get into this locked display case and get at some of these artifacts to see if they can help us. But this glass must be bulletproof or something because we've gotten nowhere."

Santa: "There's some creepy ass footprints in the shower, and that room behind the case doesn't have a working light. The door is jammed though, so even though you can squeeze in, it doesn't let any good light in. Feeling around, though, we think it's a bedroom."

You find nothing behind the mirror.

June has an almost sheepish look on her face.

June: "Supposedly the Titanic carried the mummy of the Priestess Amon-Ra, which was stolen from a pyramid. They say that the mummy had a history, and that everyone involved with it died mysterious deaths." June's eyes lit up as she talked. "Some people believe she's the reason the real Titanic went down. But it gets weirder... Like, the mummy was really pretty... I mean, she wasn't all shriveled up and stuff."

June: "I don't know what this is. I just think that what Zero said was kinda weird. But the legends say that the real Titanic was renamed the Olympic and was used for a full twenty years before it was sunk by the curse." June takes a closer look at the key. "I haven't seen any keyholes in these rooms. Could it work in the Mars door? Or maybe it works in the room with Santa and Star?"

You are already at the dresser. The only components of the dresser are the mirror and the drawer, which you opened.

The drawer opens and reveals a modern looking key. June turns around to look at you.

June: "What if... Have you ever heard of the controversy surrounding the Titanic? The Titanic supposedly had a sister ship that was essentially identical, called the Olympic. If I remember correctly, the Olympic was a ship that had a lot of problems. And the company that owned it didn't know how to get rid of it, right? So they made the Olympic up to look just like the brand-new Titanic... And then, they sunk it, on purpose." June moves over to you to look at the key you found as she talks.

June: "I don't know, I haven't even been in there yet." She follows you into the room. You see a dresser with a mirror and a single closed drawer directly in front of you. To your right is a bed with a bright green and blue checkered blanket. Above the bed is a picture of a similar ship to the one in the room you woke up in.

June moves to the picture and attempts to pull it off of the wall. It doesn't budge.

June: "Looks like its bolted down." She pauses, looking at the picture. "This boat is huge." She pauses again. "Do you remember what Zero said? 'On April 14th, 1912...the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic.' It seems weird that he would mention it without a reason. Do you think that this boat and the Titanic have something to do with each other?"

When you enter the bathroom, you find it to be rather small, with a carpeted floor and tiled walls. The tiles appear to have sides of about 4 inches. The toilet is filled with water, and is relatively clean. It has no flush lever, but a long chain with a ball on the end hangs next to it. The sink is plain, but somewhat nicer than the one in the room you woke up in. To the left of the sink is a bathtub and shower. Although there is a rod, no curtain hangs from it.

The main area is carpeted with thick, green carpet. It feels almost brand new beneath your feet. The couches are black leather, and are not worn. You find nothing beneath either. The table is a dark wood. On top of it is a box of five matches. They are of terrible quality. Also on the table is a strange black and white tile.

You see June looking at what seems to be a clear display case. It is filled with a number of artifacts, such as vases, plates, and semi valuable jewelry. It is about ten feet tall, with three shelves on the inside. Behind the case is a door. It is slightly ajar. June turns her head towards you.

June: "Look at this stuff. It's beautiful..."