SLEEPY MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)13:58 No. 942968 ID: b7b602
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You are in THE MEZZANINE, which you can tell because of the colour of the sky all around you, the taste of electricity in your beak, and the 20,000 other MEZZ workers currently flitting around you.

What are your plans for today, MEZZ-9293?

Find your coworker MEZZ-9294, who is totes your best friend and wingman.

DISAPPOINTED MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)14:17 No. 942971 ID: b7b602
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>>942969
MEZZ-9294 is, it appears, on assignment, helping a smallish creature in a dark forest within a designation you don't recognize. It will take a while for your acquaintance to return.

You have a number of ASSIGNMENTS yourself, actually. Unless you wish to reflect on your existence for a moment, feel free to proceed and inspect the list of OPEN ASSIGNMENTS.

Check your [grumble] assignments.

What do you eat for breakfast?

RELUCTANT MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)15:07 No. 942976 ID: 25df77
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>>942973

ASSIGNMENTS

A: A child in DESIGNATION 393/ζ is stuck at the bottom of a water-drawing-device. Will not be found for a week.

B: A member of a crime family in DESIGNATION 29/α is afraid its partner is an informant to local authorities; extreme risk of suicide.

C: An entity in 2238/φ is within a vehicle which is about to be hit by an animal, fatal to both.

D: A child in 827/δ is about to take a bite of a comrade's lunch, unknowingly ingesting substances to which it is allergic. It will be braindead before medical help can arrive.


You take a moment to reflect on the MODUS OPERANDI.

When you select an ASSIGNMENT, you will be taken to the corresponding DESIGNATION and temporal/geographical location. There you will be presented with a FREEZE-FRAME of the scene. You will be able to decide to appear invisible, as a local creature of your choosing, or as your CLIENT's subconscious. Your physical form will do in a pinch. You will need to find a solution to the problem. There will be no second chance.

If you fail, you will be DECOMMISSIONED, and your soul will be recycled.

>>942976
A seems simple. You can turn into a local animal and draw attention to the well(though it's strange noone uses it for a week). If there's absolutely noone nearby you can probably help the child directly.

Are there any risks to being seen in your physical form?

So you gotta save their lives or you die.

Try the mobster I guess, but if you're going to the first one you can probably just appear as a human and get a rope to drag the child out.

>If you fail, you will be DECOMMISSIONED, and your soul will be recycled.
Have THE MEZZANINE properly considered the long-term implications of forced soul recycling and the potential this has for splintering the eternal subconscious into several, if not dozens, of faint egos and the impulses thereof?

>Choice of action
D
Manifest as Invisible, allowing you to smack the sandwich from their hand and kicking it along the floor, away from the child, preventing three-second-rule. Child is child, and thus an unreliable witness to supernatural phenomena.

MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)16:10 No. 942982 ID: 38cd4d
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>>942980
That might be the case on regular DESIGNATIONS, most of which follow strict natural laws. The MEZZANINE follows its own regulations, which are of a different nature entirely. It's more dream than physical space.

You take to the air and drift towards DESIGNATION 393/ζ.

WARY MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)16:31 No. 942983 ID: a11044
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You land in the DESIGNATION.

It is HOT AND DUSTY. Gravity is a little higher than average, humidity is lower. There is little wind. You are happy for your hat's brim, for while you are technically immortal, blinding light can nevertheless be annoying.

There is no sign of life anywhere, save for some grey brick structures which appear to have been placed purposefully. They look run-down.

Your CLIENT is within a 30 cubit radius. You will need to find them. You cannot exit this area.

You can explore here for a time, and exit the freeze-frame when you're ready. You will need to know how you wish to appear when you do.

>>942983
How much time do you have to save them after you exit freeze-frame? I mean, the kid's not gonna die immediately, but are you otherwise on a time limit?

Let's look around the perimeter. Head left first.

CURIOUS MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)17:01 No. 942989 ID: 7ff815
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>>942985
After you resume local time, you will have until the client is either successfully saved, or dies. But the less time you spend in this place, the less of THE MEZZANINE's collective energy you sap, which is naturally a positive.

There is what appears to be a dark hole in the ground, ringed by tumbled bricks. Dead plants are nearby.

>>942989
Take a look down there.

Can you fly?

MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)17:23 No. 942994 ID: 7ff815
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>>942990
You cannot fly here, unless you turn into local fauna capable of flight.
You look down.

ALARMED MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)17:30 No. 942995 ID: 7ff815
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Yes, that's your CLIENT, maybe ten feet down. It's a biped creature with an elongated muzzle and large ears, and what might be fur. Its eyes are reflective. It looks to be thrashing in muddy water of indefinite depth, and likely cannot swim.
It's grasping at the slick stone wall desperately.

>>942995
Well, shoot. This is gonna be trouble. Gotta look around a bit more, see what we have to work with. Optimally we'd find a rope or ladder to lower down there and retrieve the child.

Do you know what the local creatures are, or will you need to see an example before you can turn into one?

Try looking in the other direction.

Can you measure each stone carefully to indicate where the kid should climb?

Exploring the well’s surroundings could show something useful

MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)17:56 No. 943000 ID: cd73ff
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>>942997
No.

>>942996
You need to observe fauna and its movement before you can realistically imitate it. If your CLIENT or other observers are in a stressful situation, they may not notice an abnormality, but it is better to be safe.

You turn to the other side of the area. There are more decrepit walls, and a long, thin object on the ground. It looks organic. Nothing else of note, really.

Follow the object, or explore somewhere else?

Follow the rope-shaped object, it’s pretty clearly gonna be helpful here

DISGUSTED MEZZ-9293 2019/08/18(Sun)18:06 No. 943002 ID: cd73ff
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>>943001
It appears to be some sort of animal. Nothing you recognize.

>>943002
Is the "tail" long enough to reach the child? May have to use what you've got.
Can you move objects during the time-freeze?
What's the penalty for the client noticing something weird?

...wait how are you supposed to see how a creature moves to copy it? Time is frozen at the moment, and all these assignments have had very limited time to act after unfreezing it. Not enough time to study.

>>943004
Ours is not to wonder why
Ours is but to do and die.

Turning into this sort of animal might be our best bet.

If it's not long enough to reach down to the kid, then look elsewhere.

CONFOUNDED MEZZ-9293 2019/08/19(Mon)08:21 No. 943038 ID: 63cfb3
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>>943004
The issue is looking convincing. If you appear as a predator and scare your CLIENT even further, it could potentially worsen the situation. If you appear as a biped, but move like a quadruped, you could unnerve them or startle them. You know how most standard fauna moves- the position of the legs generally gives it away- but this creature is new to you. The long growth may be a neck, a tail, a reproductive organ, a snout, any number of things. You cannot see legs. It may move by leaping. You will need to unfreeze time before being able to tell.

It could work, but unless you're sure, you should arrange for a backup plan.

>>943038
Oh that thing is pretty big. Another option I was thinking of would be to grab the animal and move it to the well to throw the tail in, but maybe it's too big for that.

Is there anything else of interest in the area of operation?
If you turned into an adult of the client's species, would you be able to go down the well and grab the kid then climb out?

Oh wait, what if you cut off the tail? Eh, you might not have the means... Are you allowed to kill animals anyway?

>>943038
Perhaps there's a settlement nearby? This kid obviously had to come from somewhere.

Also where's the other end of that thing lead off to?

Well, look around! This truly would be a terrible situation if there were no other options.

>>943038
While time is frozen we have all the time in the world so lets follow the tail how much can we affect the world while its frozen?

GROSSED OUT MEZZ-9293 2019/10/29(Tue)11:57 No. 948259 ID: 080b2a
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>>943170
The tail comes to an abrupt end in a smallish bulb. It's faintly disgusting.

>>943193
You cannot directly affect anything. Only observe within a little radius.

There is no settlement nearby. Indeed there isn't much of anything. Only this well. Perhaps these creatures live underground, or as nomads. Both are, in your experience, quite common.

And you do not have forever. Time in the MEZZANINE is still passing, and the longer you spend outside it, the more of its energy you sap, so you ought to hurry up. Lots of work left today.

>>948259
This seems like our solution. Throw the tail down the well. Use whatever form can get it there most efficiently, since the boy won't see you.

Backup plan is to just go down there and grab the kid yourself, then climb out. Transform into an adult version of him and it'll be fine.

>>948265
This

Oh! Another backup plan is to turn into the weird thing with the long tail, and put your own damn tail down the well. You could even grab the child with your tail if he's intimidated by it.

Drop its tail down the well.

EXCITED MEZZ-9293 2019/10/30(Wed)02:48 No. 948372 ID: 080b2a
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>>948265
In your experience, grabbing random wild animals can have TERRIBLE results. You think you could approximate this one's motions fairly well, however.

>>948362
So your plan is to:

* Turn into the animal
* Stick your tail down well
* Grab the child with it if it doesn't grab on

Is this correct?

Sounds good. If all else fails may have to suck up the kid and spit him out.

You'll want to anchor yourself; it doesn't look like either end is very heavy. Maybe resort to pinning the less threatening end of yourself under a heavy rock you summon. You can do that, right?

>>948372
Yes, that should work.

BUZZED MEZZ-9293 2019/11/10(Sun)10:49 No. 949190 ID: cdbe58
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TRANSFORM!

You're successful in copying the creature's shape. Not that it's very complicated.

HOT MEZZ-9293 2019/11/10(Sun)11:04 No. 949192 ID: cdbe58
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Time unfreezes. Heat washes over you. There are low gurgling sounds from the ground below you, and the air starts smelling intensely sulfurous. You detect relatively high levels of cosmic background radiation, though not high enough to damage you.

The sound of the child in the well squealing becomes very clear.

What would you like to do?

The plan was to lower your tail to him, right? Do that. It looks like you’re heavy enough that you don’t need to find anything to anchor yourself.

Yep just flop over there (or however this creature moves) and dip your tail into the water. If the kid grabs on but doesn't climb, pull your tail out with the kid on it. If the kid doesn't try to touch you at all, maybe just let the tail dangle down there for a while... unless the kid gets too tired to stay above water, then try to grab him.
If he bites you, then... well, just deal with it I guess.

Is it considered okay to turn back into your normal form after the deed is done to let them know they've been saved by a Mezz?

observe the other one for a moment and see how it moves. gotta get this right.

It's possible we could try to draw attention to ourselves and therefore also the well, try making noises.

Why does the Mezzanine save people, anyway?

Would it be possible for you to give him a subconscious suggestion to climb the tail? I'm not sure if you can do that while also assuming the shape of something.