Author's Note: Thanks for your patience! I've not been writing this as much as I'd like recently, but there still is a sizable amount of work that's been written and is perfectly good for posting.
Nonary Game: Resonance
(Current path: 5)
(Suggested listening: Cabin)
Robin carried the bucket lid across the room, with a heaping pile of chalk powder atop it. He sat it carefully down atop the largest plyo box before taking a deep breath. "Alright, which one had the adhesive on it?"
"It's this one," Delta said, pointing from a safe distance. "How could I forget…" His face looked sour in a bit of an over-the-top way, but Robin ignored it, carefully sprinkling a liberal supply of chalk over the top of the box.
"And now it's white," Boxcars answered. "You should tip it to pour off the excess or blow it or something."
"Uh…" Leo started. "You might want to… pat it. Or something. So that we're sure it sticks to the sticky parts."
"I would not recommend that," Delta whispered. Nodding a few times, Robin decided to use the lid to follow Leo's suggestion, then blowing heartily over the surface. Fortunately, it seemed to work, as they were greeted by a somewhat clear word.
"CIRCLE," Leo read aloud.
"Oh!" Robin replied. "These four clues we've found... Star, plus, square, and circle. They've got to be the symbols on the mats back there." He could distinctly recall seeing the circle symbol near the row of benches, so hopefully the others could find the rest.
"I got the star," Leo replied, wasting no time departing the group.
"I think I remember where the plus is," Delta nodded.
"And I've got the circle," Robin assured.
"Cool. I'll find the square then," Boxcars finished. "Let's, ah, follow Leo's lead."
After their search, they had come up with five small clues. Each had found a slip of paper hiding underneath their panel. "Mine says ", 7, 10, 5," but the commas make me think it's incomplete," Leo read.
"Yeah," Boxcars followed. "The square one says ", 1, 3, 9," commas on both sides."
"I think yours goes before mine," Delta answered. "Mine starts with the 9 and then goes 14 and 6, but there's no comma after the 6."
"And this one doesn't start with a comma. "12, 2, 7," so it's before Leo's." Robin took all the slips and slid them beside each other in order. "So we're probably missing another one or two. It's a good thing I've got something else, then."
"What is it?" The item he'd been referring to was the fifth small clue. He held it up then, showing off his somewhat more interesting find. "A small key, huh." Boxcars didn't seem terribly impressed, but he took it and gave it a quick examination. "I think we know where this goes."
Robin followed him back to the closet, finding he'd already opened the small case inside it. "About time, huh? This was the first damn thing we saw."
"...That wasn't really what I was expecting," Robin said as Boxcars pulled out three jump ropes. "Wouldn't you think a locked case would have something a bit more valuable than… this?"
"Hey, it's a small case. You can't really fit much more in there than this anyway. And it's not like there's a lot of petite weight equipment." Boxcars handed Robin the ropes. "But seriously, it's probably something we need for the end of this puzzle. Got any ideas?"
They took the three ropes out to the other two, setting them on the ground between them to bounce ideas around. "Is there anything else we haven't used? Or any part of this room we haven't completed, perhaps?" Delta asked.
"We haven't got that thing out of the drainage yet," Robin answered.
"And we haven't used the chin-up bar," Leo continued. "Maybe we're supposed to rig it up with the ropes to make some kind of basket thing."
"That would explain why there are three of them," Delta nodded. "You can't make a stable scoop with only one or two; it would be able to tip and dump whatever you were carrying."
"Is there anything about triangles you don't know?" Robin asked, a bit impressed.
"My boy, everything about triangles is worth knowing. Why do you think I chose this name?" Delta replied.
"It's embarrassing to know you two." Leo crossed the room immediately after, fixing the jump ropes to three different parts of the chin-up bar and dipping it over the drainage wall. Delta winked at Robin before following.
When the two arrived alongside the others, Boxcars held up the retrieved speed bag and spoke. "There's four buttons on it. I bet we have to press them in a specific order."
With a slight grin, Robin glanced into his notebook. "And I bet that order is yellow, black, cyan, magenta." Boxcars followed suit quickly, giving Robin a raise of eyebrows and a nod of approval as the speed bag popped open. He reached inside and pulled out a sturdy, square card.
"It's got three wavy lines on it," Delta observed. "That must be where our other slip is. Let's see if we can find that panel." He and Leo nodded to each other and headed back across the room to search the floor mats, but Boxcars' stillness kept Robin from moving as well.
Boxcars was staring at the card in his hands, almost as though it were mesmerizing him. His mouth curled slowly as he began to mouth a word to himself, but naturally Robin couldn't identify it. "You alright?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, it's just… All five of the symbols we've found. I think I recognize them all."
"Is… well, who wouldn't? I mean, squares and stuff are ubiquitous," Robin replied.
(Suggested listening: Digital Root)
Boxcars waved his free hand at Robin, dismissively. "Obviously. But that's not what I mean. Like… a circle, a plus sign, three waves, a square, and a five point star. These symbols were all used together in a test."
"What kind of test?" Robin asked.
"The Zener test. Well, I'm not sure that's what it was called, but it uses the Zener cards. That is, there is a deck of cards, and each one has one of those five symbols on it. Actually, this card is remarkably like one of them." Boxcars held up the card for a moment, turning it a bit showingly. "So there are five of each type of card in the deck. The person running the test draws a card and looks at it." Demonstrating, Boxcars held the card such that the side with the design faced himself. "Can't see anything, right?"
"Yep," Robin affirmed, although he doubted the point, considering he already knew the symbol it bore.
"That's all the person being tested sees, the back. Anyway, the test is simple enough. You'd have to guess what symbol is on the card."
"I'm gonna say… the wavy lines."
Boxcars slowly turned the card around, his face lighting up animatedly. "Shit! You got it." He slapped the card against his other hand, thoughtfully. "Anyway, this test was used in, like, the 1930's to test people for ESP."
"Extrasensory perception, huh?" Robin could see why these tests only took place almost a hundred years prior. "I guess they didn't turn up with any especially interesting results, did they?"
"I wouldn't be so quick to say that," Boxcars countered. "Although, I admit, it's not what you're thinking. You'd expect someone who was completely guessing to get about 20 percent of the cards right, right? Well, I guess at some point they found people were getting better than that, which may have been statistically significant; I don't really know all the details."
Robin found himself remembering the discussion Delta had given earlier, about numerology, and he was beginning to wonder if he was the only one who took no stock in pseudoscience. "So what, ESP is real?"
To his surprise, though, Boxcars began to laugh. "Please, there were so many ways that test's results are untrustable. Cards aren't always opaque, the tester could be signalling the answer to the people taking the test, even a shitty shuffle job could have made the cards nonrandom. Anyway, why should all these random people they tested be able to connect mentally with someone they hadn't even met before?"
For several seconds, Robin scratched the top of his head, now unsure what point Boxcars was trying to make. "I don't think research into ESP was a waste, I guess, since we figured out it wasn't a thing. That's science, huh. Anyway, like I said, two random people shouldn't just be connected to each other. Unless, of course, everyone is connected, but in some kind of way that isn't parapsychologic crap."
"Um…" Robin droned. "What kind of way might that be?"
"Everyone kind of understands the expectations of the society around them, at least for the most part, yeah?" Boxcars asked. "It's that sort of… unwritten knowledge. That information that spreads between people indirectly. Are you familiar with Rupert Sheldrake?"
"Depends, is he friends with Paul Dirac?"
Boxcars' head jerked back a bit, in a look that was confused but not about the entertain Robin's joke. "I'll take that as a no. He's been a cellular biologist, a plant physiologist, and most recently a psychologist. He observed behaviors in plants, I guess, that lead him to come up with a theory he called morphic resonance."
For a moment, Robin could have sworn he'd heard of the concept before, perhaps from his biology teacher several years back. Alas, he couldn't recall what it was. "Go on," he encouraged.
"Right. His idea was that all life, or even all natural things, have some kind of shared memory, something inherent to them from their creation. Like, think about, I don't know… termites. They're all tiny, and their brains aren't exactly geared for deep thought, but they all somehow get together in colonies, build complicated tunnels to live in, and eat my neighbor's house. Or something. Where did they all learn to do this, you think?"
The consideration had never even crossed Robin's mind, as he found termites to be especially uninteresting creatures, but he did spend a decent few seconds thinking up a legitimate answer. "I guess I always thought it was their instinct. As animals, they just know in their brains how to survive and thrive."
"Sure, sure," Boxcars nodded. "But Sheldrake was like, well, where do these instincts come from? You could do all sorts of examinations on termites' cells and never find the gene for "dig a big tunnel." Or, uh, so I assume." He took a few moments to let that tangent die off before speaking again. "And it wasn't just them. He thought, maybe plants have some kind of way that they share processes with each other, since you can look at one species of plant across the world and see it behaving the same way when growing on soil with the same compounds in it. Maybe even molecules themselves have some kind of way of sharing information. Maybe even humans."
"Humans?" Robin interjected. "Are we back to ESP, then?"
"Morphic resonance. Try to keep up, buddy. Anyway, there was also an experiment to test for it. A group of people were tested on their ability to solve a puzzle, and the number of them that were successful was measured. Later, the same puzzle was broadcasted on a television network that was only available to viewers in the United Kingdom. Ah, maybe you even saw it when you were a kid, if you liked the news."
"Maybe, what kind of puzzle?" Robin asked.
"I think it was something to do with a funyarinpa. Don't quote me on that."
Robin smirked. "I don't see how that's an experiment."
"That wasn't the interesting part," Boxcars continued. "Then, they got another group of people to do the puzzle, but they got people from outside the United Kingdom and separate from their first group. So, none of them had seen the puzzle before, and none of them knew the solution from outside. Anyway, the percentage of them that were successful was almost twice as much as from the first group, which is crazy, right?" Robin was a bit impressed, but he wondered where Boxcars of all people could have gotten all of this information from. "Sheldrake ate that shit up. It totally supported his idea that the puzzle had entered some kind of field that was common to all humanity, whether they knew the solution from direct experience or just from, well, the connections between everyone's minds."
"I guess we'd better be careful not to let any dangerous people share information about how to break into banks or anything," Robin replied, whimsically.
Boxcars was silent for several seconds then, and Robin began to wonder if he'd upset the man. "Have you ever been told something you couldn't have known about at all, but you somehow already did?" Robin's face dropped then, as he had, recalling the voice in his head while he was still in Classroom 8. It had told him a clue about digital roots, which he naturally wouldn't have figured out so quickly by himself. Thus, not only had Boxcars hit the nail on the head, but the event was recent enough that Robin couldn't be sure it was a coincidence. "Exactly." Boxcars' face almost had an aura of contentment, as though he'd won a debate. "It's important to keep an open mind, Topaz, especially here. Don't forget that."
With that, he made for the other side of the room, leaving Robin alone to reflect as the others returned to their escape effort.
(Suggested listening: Cabin)
"That was a lot more trouble than I was expecting," Delta sighed, breathing heavily. It seemed that he and Leo had been forced to move one of the squat racks entirely to get at the last panel, but it had been removed. "All for one slip of paper."
"It's more numbers. ", 5, 8, 4, 1," so I guess it's our last one," Leo noted.
Robin added the sequence to what he'd written. "Yep, we've got a full chain of twelve numbers. 12, 2, 7, 10, 5, 8, 4, 1, 3, 9, 14, 6," he recited.
"Hey, those are all the weights of those free weights." Leo moved to them quickly, waving Robin over. "I don't think this will trip anything if we put them in a different order, since this doesn't look like it's connected to anything."
"They're all different colors, though. Topaz, you've got the sequence written down, right? You should copy down the right colors beneath each number," Delta suggested.
"Alright then," Robin replied, scratching away. In about a minute, he was complete. "So it's grey, pink, turquoise, brown, yellow, blue, orange, white, red, purple, black, green. Agreed?" Boxcars leered over his shoulder, checking to see the sequence and comparing the numbers and colors. He patted Robin on the shoulder in affirmation.
"Twelve colors, twelve yoga mats," Boxcars said, pulling the closet door open. "Twelve letters to the password. Delta, Leo, help me out. Robin, hit me with the order."
"Grey, pink, turquoise, br…" He let his words drown off as the others struggled to keep up. I wonder how many more rooms I'll have to solve with this motley crew, he thought.
Soon enough, though, the mats were ordered. "The letter is C," Delta said.
"The letter?" Robin briefly recalled the mysterious letter E he'd found in the locker rooms.
"That's the password," Delta replied. "Or, perhaps, THELETTERISC. Not so appealing as one word, if you ask me."
"Oh. Alright, then." As Leo and Boxcars dashed out to type the password in the door, Robin made sure to write a single letter into the bottom of the page he'd had open.
"Sweet," Leo called. "Let's get out of here." With that, he pulled the door open, and it gave without so much as a creak.
The four found themselves immediately on the other side of the gate that Delta and Leo had described before entering the gym. "Yep, there's a card reader on this side of it. Just like that first door," Delta noticed.
"Did we find another key card in there?" Boxcars asked.
"The only one we have is from the locker rooms," Robin replied, fishing it out of his cinch bag. "It's worth a shot, I guess." His swipe was met with a receptive beep, and the door of the gate slid open, allowing them back into the portion of the hallway they'd just been in. "While we're here, it might be a good idea to open the other one," he said, so that the others wouldn't be confused when he moved back down the hall.
"All that's down there is the numbered door, though," Boxcars countered.
"Why do you think they made it so we could open these doors if there's nothing to go back to?" Leo asked.
"Beats me," Robin replied, swiping the card. The door gave similar results to the last. "So, who votes we go back to the numbered door? Uh, I'll stay out, to keep it fair."
"What the hell; we're in no rush. I say yes," Leo said.
"Like I said, it's the numbered door. There's no way we'd be able to pass through it again, not without starting up that timer. It's a no from me," Boxcars sighed.
"Delta?" Robin asked. He wasn't met with an answer. "Wait, where did he run off to... Delta?" His second call was louder.
"Just a moment." His reply came from the branch of the hallway just beside them, back toward the exit of the locker rooms. Within a few seconds, he returned. "I was just testing something. The exit door we unlocked is still, well, unlocked. The same is true of the entrance to the gym. That means we should be able to go back to any of the rooms we've explored at our leisure."
"Perhaps," Robin said. Anticipating Delta's vote, he lead the charge back down the hall, making for Door [5]. Boxcars' response was, fortunately, only a sigh.
"I don't see anything that looks like a card reader here," Robin said. He pressed his hands on the back of the numbered door, shoving to no avail.
"I'm not getting any response from the DEAD either," Leo added.
"I guess not necessarily any of the rooms we've explored, then," Robin sighed. He remained curious about the key chained up in the bathroom, but it seemed that would be a question for another time. Running a finger over its twin in his pocket, Robin clicked his tongue a few times before admitting defeat to Boxcars and pressing onward.