I hope you are feeling better. But yes, let's check out the other rooms.

>>1005136
No thanks on the break room, we can come back later for snacks. Go to the other one.

Rolling clears, Toal. If we didn't, something could come up behind us.

SubCritical: Weapons that Live, Chapter 4: Those who Venture Triti 2021/07/10(Sat)06:22 No. 1005262 ID: c45047
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Toal is unusually impatient. Or maybe this is normal?

>Do a sweep of the current room at least.

That's what I was thinking.

"I don't know why you're in a hurry, but we need to be cautious." Toal shows her disapproval with an melodramatic sigh and eye roll. "A quick sweep of the room. It won't take long."
Toal mumbles something and starts checking the room. I follow and start from the East side.

Our search turns up a few things, but nothing that sticks out to me as critical.
>Staff break room in Lab 4P
-Snacks
-Electric kettle
-Bottled drinks of various types
-Powder for mixing drinks
-Scraps of papers with writing on them in the bedside tables
-A board game under the monitor
-Various novels under the monitor
-A first aid kit
-Various connection cables

"Can we go now?" Toal appears to be uncomfortable; she's looking around more than usual, and her ears are twitching much more too.
"The next spot is that room we passed." Toal doesn't wait, she's already leaving for it. I follow with her.

We breach the next room, and it's a lot larger than I thought it would be. Rows of desks and terminals with books stacked up on the sides. Various notes and papers are scattered on the desks, and on the North side of the room are some clear tubes connected to some kind of pipes.

"I think this is the observation room."

What should we search first? Or should we go back to the last room and check something more thoroughly?

>>1005262
First, make sure the room is clear of hostiles. Then get camera feeds open, see what's in those overgrown rooms. Get a look into the areas you haven't been yet as well. If you don't understand what you're looking at, check the notes.

First, quick sweep around the room to make sure there's nothing hostile lurking about. Then let's split up the search and investigating here. One of you should check the security camera feeds to see what's in the plant rooms, and check for any notes. The other should check and look into what all these tubes, tanks, and vials have, or what they're for. I don't think it matters much on who does what, so pick what you two have more interest in doing.

>>1005262
Something isn’t right here. Toal is on edge more than normal. She might be detecting something with her tails that you can’t see with your eyes. Ask her what’s wrong?

>>1005262
>>1005332
I'm seconding this. At the very least, we need to know why Toal's upset and see if it's something we can help with. Stressful situation aside, both of you need to be on top of your game if you wanna be sure to get out of this place in one piece.

Toal is on edge, which is good because you don't want to be caught off guard. Just reassure her that we're only clearing rooms so there's this little surprises as possible. We're not treasure hunting here

SubCritical: Weapons that Live, Chapter 4: Those who Venture Triti 2021/07/12(Mon)09:57 No. 1005408 ID: c45047
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Toal seems to be on edge still.

>So ask her what's bothering her.

"Hey, are you sensing something here?" Toal still looks really uncomfortable.
"No." She's gritting her teeth though.
"Something is bothering you."
"I'll be fine."

I can tell that Toal doesn't want to talk about it. She assures me that it's not because of any imminent danger, and just some kind of personal issue. At this point, I don't think I can press her for it unless I get some idea of what's making her uncomfortable.

>Make sure the room is clear of hostiles.

I signal to Toal to do a sweep of the room. We don't find anything at first glance, and nothing appears to be hiding either.

We find some items scattered about.

>Found in Observation room in Lab 4P
-Papers scattered on desks
-Various books on plant lifeforms and similar creatures
-Containers of various plant hormones and nutrients
-Office supplies
-Incendary grenades (5 in the large desks at the back)
-ID card belonging to one of the researchers

The desks have terminals built into them. All of them seem to be connected to visual feeds; the small ones to the rooms in the East corridor, and the large ones to rooms in the West corridor.

What should we look into first?

Grab the grenades and the ID, then look at the monitors for the west corridor chambers.

>>1005408
Nab those grenades. Pin the ID badge to someone's coat. If there's nothing of value on those screens, keep moving. The sooner we can clear this section of lab, the sooner we can relax Toal.

>>1005408
Mmh. Let her know that you're willing to listen if she changes her mind and let her be. Let's take a glance at those camera feeds, too. If nothing serious pops up, we could... try to get an idea about what they were doing here by going quickly through the books and papers?

>>1005408
Grab grenades and ID, look at cameras for unknown areas and especially the overgrown rooms.

SubCritical: Weapons that Live, Chapter 4: Those who Venture Triti 2021/07/14(Wed)11:24 No. 1005554 ID: c45047
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The room is silent, save for the hum of the electronics and vents.

>Grab those grenades!

The grenades are dispersed throughout the desks. I'm not sure if this is an indication of poor organization, panic or coincidence. Toal takes 3 and I add 2 to my bag. I also slip the ID card into my chest pocket.

"Hey, Toal." She startles, turning to me quickly. "Do you want to stay here instead of searching the area with me?"
"Why?"
"Something is bothering you. If it was dangerous, you would have told me, but I think something here is reminding you of something you don't like."
She sighs, letting herself fall into one of the office chairs. "I should come with you. We don't know what's going on here, and I can't help you or talk to you from here."
"Think about it." I'd rather she stay back if this place is going to get to her that bad, but I can't force her to stay. If I had a good argument for convincing her that I'd be safe, or some way of communicating with her from a distance, we could probably split up for a bit.

>Check those cameras.

Each of the four small desks has a feed into two of the rooms on the East, and the large desks each have visual on three of the rooms on the West. The feeds are dark in the Western rooms. A message on the screen says to activate the local power room.
The overgrown rooms seem to be completely full of the plant bioforms. I can't tell if the screen is being obscured of if the growth is that thick.

We have a few options now. Try to clear out the overgrown rooms so we can search them, look for and activate the power room, look for a way to convince Toal that it's okay to stay behind if she's not okay, or we can look though these terminals more. Which one sounds like the best idea?

>>1005554

Look at the terminals more

Wasn't there a walkie-talkie in the room we woke up in? If we could find another one, we could put them on the same channel and communicate from a distance.

>>1005554
Look for information on what these plants are. We won't know whether or not to open the overgrown rooms until we get that information. Also, if we run into one out in the open the information could save us a lot of pain.

>>1005554
I feel like power ought to be our first priority. At the very least, doing something in here might help to soothe Toal's nerves, instead of wandering around.

>>1005554
Finding power might be an idea. And your Tozol buddy could maybe use a hug. Reassurance and all that. Don't mess with the plants until you're more informed on potential hazards, finding neurotoxins like naturally-generated cholinesterase inhibitors the hard way isn't a mistake one tends to have the opportunity to make twice.

>>1005554
Let's look through the terminals more.

SubCritical: Weapons that Live, Chapter 4: Those who Venture Triti 2021/07/16(Fri)12:38 No. 1005697 ID: c45047
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I take a moment to think on our situation.

>Wasn't there a radio in the room you woke up in?

I don't recall seeing one, you can show me what you mean though, right?

>You should go though the terminals a bit more.

The three other small terminals provide video feeds of the remaining rooms on the East side. The two at the back don't show anything. The cameras need power to display what's in the rooms.
It looks like they have options for delivering nutrients to the samples in the rooms too. Based on what the terminals say, it's the fluids in the back of this room.
That does give me an idea though. If I can learn what kinds of stuff will destroy the plants in the overgrown rooms, I could mix that into the solution and deliver that to the samples to destroy them.

The rooms at the end of the Western corridor could house the power room.

Toal seems a bit too on edge for a hug right now.

Should we keep looking though the terminals, or go and look for the power room?

>>1005697
Power room.

>>1005697
Objectives in mind, locate the power room

Let's go find the power room.
As for Toal, keep her feelings to be close by in consideration. Something's bothering her, but something possibly happening to you and not being able to help would certainly bother her more.

SubCritical: Weapons that Live, Chapter 4: Those who Venture Triti 2021/07/18(Sun)10:39 No. 1005908 ID: c45047
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It looks like we need to get the power room activated if we want to see what's in those rooms so...

>Go and search for the power room.

The power room is likely one of the rooms in the West hall.

"I'll go look for the power room." As I turn to leave, I hear Toal come up behind me.
"I'm going with you."
"Are you sure?"
Toal nods. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Having Toal does make me feel more comfortable, but I really don't want to put her at risk. Still, I don't think she'll take no for an answer.

We leave the room and enter the Western corridor. The first six doors we pass look like their built for containment, so we decide to come back to these later. Further down the hall, there are two doors. Both of them are on the East side of the hall.

Should we check the Northern door, or the Southern door first?

>>1005908
Southern door.

>>1005908
Southern

>>1005908
Have Toal sense for anything. Go with her suggestion. If they're the same, southern.

>>1005908
Seems like we're going South to North!

SubCritical: Weapons that Live, Chapter 4: Those who Venture Triti 2021/07/20(Tue)13:45 No. 1006048 ID: c45047
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The pair of us breach the Southern door.

"This looks like the right spot." Toal remarks.

The room is dim and filled with electrical equipment. It looks pretty much just like the one in lab 4S. This means that this room should have a breaker for activating the power.

Toal doesn't seem to want to enter the room, but I'm not sure if I should leave her here.

What should I do with Toal?

If she is not alerting us to anything... I think we gotta press the issue and ask her.

>>1006048
Ask her if the bad feeling she's getting is stronger here.

>>1006048
I agree with the sentiment of the other neurons here. Being at unease is, frankly, understandable given your circumstances, but she really needs to at least share her concerns with the one friend she has here so far.

...If she keeps it to herself, though, at least ask her if she can keep an eye on things outside while you go in and try to get the power back on.

"Talk to me." Continue forward by yourself. But keep it at pace where she can still reach you quickly.

>>1006048
"Toal. Please tell me what is bothering you. It is very clear something is occupying your mind."

SubCritical: Weapons that Live, Chapter 4: Those who Venture Triti 2021/07/23(Fri)10:58 No. 1006211 ID: c45047
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The power room isn't too dark, and not too big. I could probably find the breaker pretty fast.

>Talk to Toal.

I turn to Toal. "What's going on? What's bothering you?"
She doesn't respond at first. "Nothing important."
I step into to the room and start looking around. "Could you keep watch while I look for the power breaker?"
I don't see her reaction, but she does respond. "Yeah, I can keep watch."
The room is filled with electrical equipment, like the one in lab 4S. "Something is bothering you. I need to know what's going on before it becomes a problem."
Looks like this room will power the repair drones in this area when I find the breaker. "It won't be a problem."
I sigh. "It's already a problem. You're on edge and that can be bad." Ah, here it is, the breaker!
"Everything here is trying to kill us. I think being on edge is normal." I flip the breaker and the lights flicker on, the soft hum of the generator filling the room.
"Just tell me so I can cover for you." The hatch opens and a repair drone starts working on maintenance.
"I don't like plant-based weapons." That's unusually specific.
"Stuff like the plants in that room, or larger, mobile, plant-forms?" I walk back out to Toal.
"All of them, and I don't want to talk about it." I guess that's because of bad memories.
I place a hand on Toal's shoulder. "I can take care of those, so don't worry." I don't know if that helps her relax, but it's really the best I can do.
"... Thanks." I don't know if she's actually happy or not, but I have to make sure that I can keep plant-based enemies away from her.

Now what should we do? There's the other room in the hall, the observation monitors have power, and we could look at the other rooms in the hall.

>>1006211

head to the observation room

>>1006211
Let’s see the monitors and stay alert.

>>1006211
Ask Toal if she would be more comfortable either with you keeping the herbicide pistol, and letting you focus on taking care of any plant baddies you come across, or if she'd rather hold onto it in case you get surprised, or something to that effect. Also? Thank her for being open about something that was clearly embarrassing for her to say.

>>1006211
Alright we did this to get the monitors working so let's check the monitors.

Check those monitors

>>1006211
Ops. We have our eyes now.

If we're not already carrying the herbicide/plant weapon stuff ourselves, let's make a switch to something Toal is more happy with.

Jesus, stop fawning over Toal. You're soldiers, you can handle a little stress. If you gotta take the lead because she's distracted, fine, but she's a big girl and doesn't need you constantly pointing out she's on edge.

SubCritical: Weapons that Live, Chapter 4: Those who Venture Triti 2021/07/28(Wed)08:53 No. 1006542 ID: c45047
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The hall is brighter now. I guess reserve power still uses the same lights, but at lower brightness.

>Return to the observation room.

Toal and I return to the obserrvation room. On our way, I notice that the doors in the hall are now a different colour. I think they're unlocked now.

When we get back to the observation room, I go and check the monitors that were darkened before. The cells in the West corridor seem to be used for larger orgtanisms. Cells 1, 2, 4 and 6 are empty, with nothing of note showing up on the monitor. Cell 3 apparently has some kind of Miklik in it, but nothing shows up on the monitor. Cell 5 is obstructed by foilage, so I can't see what's in it. The records say it's supposed to be empty.

>Stop fawning over Toal, you're soldiers.

Actually, right now we're both just survivors of whatever the hell this place is. I'd like to have a bit of a friendship with the only other living person I've found here.

Should we look at one of the cells, or something else?

Politely knock on the miklik's cell door. Announce there's a big unplanned family outing and invite them to come along.

This should reduce the chances of a miklik hiding in the camera's dead angle to pounce on whoever opens the door.

I don't think we're going to find much here. Let's just crack the miklik's door open and announce you're not hostile. Toal can guard the door while you enter. If they're awake, you can talk. If they're still in stasis, you can wake them up.

>>1006542
Ok, so, every interesting room has its camera blocked.
I guess all we can do now is find some information on what we're dealing with, and keep an eye on the corridor to see if anything comes out of the newly-unlocked rooms.

Well, that or try to investigate room 3, with friendly but guarded intentions. Tell them you're subjects from another area and want to talk to them.

Guess we're checking cells.