video | un: agentmothman (forward dated to the start of the event)

[zib]

[In front of the camera today is what appears to be a very young teenager, adjusting the makeshift hood he has over his head to make sure that it's covering the back of his head well before he addresses the camera directly with a cough and attempt to sound prepared.]

Hello, people of Trench! If we haven't met before, then allow me to introduce myself: Dib Membrane, paranormal investigator and inventor!

Now, it hasn't really been easy to invent the things I wanted to here, given that my latest projects involved the fabric of time and space, but!! I'm determined to try to accomplish something here nonetheless, starting with seeing just how far the limits of this place actually reach. Physically, that is, to start with.

[And that's when he steps aside, revealing that he has what appears to be a rather futuristic looking aircraft.]

Ta-da! I got lucky and found that my ship from back home made it here with me! So I've spent the past few months doing work on it to make sure that it was still capable of flight despite the limited resources I have at my disposal right now. And now, I think it's ready to go up as high as possible, past the atmosphere and into space itself! And all of you are gonna get to watch!

[Zib picks up his device now, and carries it with him to come closer, and now those watching will see that it is actually quite small up close, big enough for only maybe two people at most to sit comfortably in. There's also a brief glimpse where, behind the seat, there's some furs and foodstuff that implies that Zib... might have actually been doing a lot of his sleeping and eating in here, which he kicks aside with a foot before setting the camera down so that now everyone will have a front row seat to look through the front window of the ship. It's angled though where you won't really be able to see the controls of the ship and what exactly he's doing as he moves his hands about while talking.]

If I succeed in this test, then finding a method for people to leave this place and return home without having to... I don't know, wait until something happens, could be possible. There might even be other planets aside from this one with resources that can be used to benefit everyone here as well.

[He mumbles to himself then a few more things about fuel supply check, controls check, etc. to make sure he is indeed prepared, before the sound of some kind of engine can be heard starting up.]

Okay... begin the ascension!



[An automated voice suddenly chimes in now, saying "Right away, Number One", and then... there's movement, the ship shaking a bit before it becomes obvious that some kind of lift is indeed occurring here, the camera tracking the movement of the ship rising off the ground and into the air. You'll likely be able to catch sight of the ocean, and the strange moving towers that have shown up lately.]

No detections in anything concerning on our scanners... atmosphere pressure normal... and no smoke or explosions! Yes, yes, this will work! It has to!

[He sounds excited, perhaps even relieved that this is going rather well... until the automated voice from before suddenly chimes in--]

"Detecting... something, to the left of the ship approaching. Proceed with caution."

... "Something"? Well that's stupidly vague. What is it?

"Unknown. Scanner does not recognize the signature. Does not appear to be hostile, however."

Then what--

"It is now right behind us, Number One."

[There's a very quick jerk of movement of the ship to spin the ship around, and sure enough, the camera will suddenly greet everyone with the image of... The Moon Presence, right there in front of the ship in the skies here.

Well then.

Zib seems to have forgotten that he's essentially live-streaming this, as he pushes a few buttons to open the front window of the ship so that he can lean out and get a better look at it. It's hard to hear what he's trying to say to it, as there's a lot of wind noise that cuts in with the window open now, but it becomes obvious that he's trying to get Moon Presence's attention here with the gestures he's making. It seems to be working, because she actually comes closer where he could maybe even touch her if tried hard enough. But he doesn't, instead making more gestures and then, momentarily, reaching back inside of the ship to pick up something to write something down.

What can be heard that he's saying however, does start to be within hearing of the camera when he eventually finally leans back instead of hanging out the front here any more, although it sounds like he's having a rather one-sided conversation.]

"Missing Sleepers"? No, I haven't noticed anyone missing myself yet... no, I'm up here because I'm trying to reach space and leave this place... what? The ocean? Why? ... Seriously? No way. That would be weird... well, weirder than what I'm normally used to.

[A rather long bit of silence, and then Zib is sitting back in his seat, folding his arms across his chest like a petulant child--]

Well, what if I don't want to just sit around and wait until that happens? I should just keep going higher here instead and--

[The moment he says that, however, there's a very sudden blur of movement that sends the ship spinning and Zib can be heard giving a startled shout as the camera gets thrown sideways and onto the floor, the automated voice from before noting a sudden significant change in atmosphere pressure and then, no more movement. It's quiet except for Zib breathing, and then, the camera is picked up and now everyone will see trees, and that the Moon Presence is gone, with the ship is definitely not in the air anymore. The automated voice sounds a bit garbled and hard to make out, but Zib brings the camera up to his face to look at everyone watching properly.]

So, uh... I... I think she warped us somewhere else? And... uh, my scanners in here are not working too good right now.

[A pause, and then--]

This is going to be a mess to fix.

Comments

un: trienemybest; video

[droptheious]

[Varian's bright and curious when Zib first puts the feed on.]

Hey! You finished-

[And then off he goes. Varian watches with growing worry. From what Luz had described, it didn't sound like the safest was to try and find an out from Trench. But he guesses Zib needs to learn that for himself. Seeing the Moon Presence wasn't what he expected though, and he leans a little closer to the screen.]

...Cynthia?

[Okay just- focus on what's important right now.]

Do you know where you are? Do you need help?

[zib]

I'm... not sure? I don't think I've been in this part of Trench very much.

There's a lot of trees? Hang on.

[He moves his device so that the camera can be pointed out the window. It kind of looks like he might have gotten tossed over into Trenchwood, maybe? Good thing it's still day out rather than night, otherwise this might be a bigger problem...]

[droptheious]

[Oh good, Trenchwood, that's super safe. ]

Okay. Can you see any Lamps nearby? Somewhere to run to?

[zib]

Not from this angle, no... plus, I don't know if it's a good idea to leave my ship behind if I do run off. What if something happens to it or any of my things inside if I leave it here?

video; un: ushiromiya

[entreats]

[ Considering it's Zib, Ange is expecting some of this. The weird machine, the plan that would sound outrageous by anyone else's standards.

But then it goes into so many wild directions that Ange isn't even really sure of what to comment on first when it's over. She's kind of impressed he actually got a machine to work to that extent, but there's so much more to say..

.. you know, like her being nice enough to first say: ]

Did you land in town? [ ... ] I'm assuming you're doing relatively alright, if you can still talk and move.

[zib]

I had some... uh, safety precautions that helped keep me from banging my head or something that would knock me out, thankfully.

[Namely, the PAK likely stabbed its spider legs into something to keep him from being tossed around any farther after that sudden warping of the ship there, but he's gotten the hood tugged back up over his head to try to hide it when he's back in front of the camera again.]

Just a few cuts and bruises instead, so I'll be fine... but now I gotta figure out how to get this thing moving again so that I can get out of what looks like some woods I landed in?

[entreats]

[ Zib, it says a lot about how much faith Ange at least has in your ability to invent weird things that she just assumes there were some actual safety measures in place.

You know, rather than that thing. ]

Is it not moving at all?

[ Ange, on the other hand, is just about the furthest thing one can get from a mechnical expert. ]

Did she just totally break it?

[zib]

It moves, somewhat, but...

[He demonstrates by moving something on his control panel here that looks like a joystick, and the ship groans with the movement as it appears to be attempting to right itself back up.

But then, it makes an unholy noise of screeching metal as if it's caught on something, and Zib quickly takes his hand off the joystick to stop making it move.]

I gotta figure out what that is making that noise first, cause attempting to push it might break something further.

Video; un: darkness

[survivalthroughhate]

Well, you're not dead, so I'd consider this experiment to be a partial success.

[Sure, Zib hadn't left the atmosphere, but based off what Deerington had previously been like Maul didn't really think that was even possible. Frankly, he thought he'd gotten off pretty lightly with the Moon Presence only apparently sending his ship off somewhere else in Trench.]

[zib]

I agree, even if it's not ideal.

... I wish that getting smacked into a tree had not happened from the sudden teleportation movement though, because now it's going to take me longer to repair those parts.

[survivalthroughhate]

What do you need to repair them?

[Consider Maul interested. He's done things like make custom modifications to his speeder bike and create his own lightsaber before so he's got a bit of a knack for tinkering with things.]

[zib]

Well, from what it sounds like when I try to move the controls to get it moving again, it sounded like something either broke off and got stuck, or... possibly some tree branches got lodged inside. If it's the latter, then it might not be too big of a problem, but if it's the former, I'll likely need new gears and wires, or... hmm.

[He digs around on the floor here for something he can use to unscrew the control panel in front of him here, before opening it up and giving Maul a chance to see the inside where all the screws and wires and various other parts in this part of the ship are holding it together that one may expect for a space travel vehicle.]

Any of this look familiar to you?

Video | UN: alcaid

[ghostharasser]

[All of this is extremely interesting to Dipper for like a thousand predictable reasons. That Dib gets his spacecraft as far as to reach Moon Presence has Dipper practically glued to the feed, waiting to see if there's an opportunity for him to pass along some questions to Cynthia.]

[But then it all goes pear-shaped super fast and before Dipper can even do anything, the feed is back.]

...Okay so, first, I hope you're okay because that was bananas. Second: What was that about missing Sleepers!?

[zib]

I'm fine, I think... just some cuts and bruises, and nothing broken as far as I can feel yet.

[He moves his neck here for a moment and winces at something though before he straightens up and moves on, picking up something that had gotten tossed around in the ship.]

Yeah, that's what they said--I asked what they were doing out there, and they told me that they were looking for Sleepers that had gone missing recently, apparently. Which is the first I'm hearing about this.

[ghostharasser]

Do you need help? Where did you land? Can you see any landmarks or anything?

[He will run out there if Dib needs help! He's kind of worried about the guy.]

Uh. That's concerning. She wouldn't lie about something like that- maybe we should do a head count? Ohhh great, what is it this time? Monsters? Dimensional voids? I was really hoping we left this crap behind with the Dream.

[zib]

I think I landed in a forest, maybe? There's a lot of trees out here... including the one I think my ship smacked into when we got warped to this place.

[On the subject of missing Sleepers, though--]

Who knows, our conversation was... kind of cut short, but yeah, a head count would probably be best. And then once we figure out who is missing, maybe we can figure out what they all have in common and see if that helps narrow down where they might have disappeared to?

video; un: doublehedgedsword

[laminae]

[Oh boy, this is a lot to take in. It sounds like a reasonable enough plan (at least, for someone whose only experience with being in space is through shenanigans like this), but the appearance of the Moon Presence and the mention of missing Sleepers and oh Glob is Zib going to die -

At least that last worry is taken care of??]

Dude, what the flip?? Are you okay? Please tell you aren't missing an arm or something!

[zib]

No, not missing any arms... I mostly just feel really sore and bruised up.

[He holds up a hand to examine, where there's a large cut with vileblood oozing from it, but otherwise he drops it back down and looks toward the window.]

The ship though... that's probably going to take a lot longer to fix than anything I need, since it looks like we hit a tree or something when we got warped here.

[laminae]

[Okay, okay that's good. Zib has all of his limbs still attached. That's better than how things could have gone!]

Geez, that's a relief.... [The blood isn't great, but it looks like that's an injury that can be healed.]

But you can do it, right? Your ship's not junkyard food now, is it?

text | carcinoGeneticist

[klawful]

(Karkat watches this all the way through and isn't even remotely surprised when it doesn't totally work. But the big boss lady in the sky is fascinating. He wonders silently if she was supposed to be this world's version of the Mother Grub. He makes a mental note to try and see what he could do to get in touch with her.

But in the meantime...)

YOU ARE USING A SHIP TO TRAVEL AGAINST SPACE ABILITIES. IT ISN'T GOING TO WORK.

un: agentmothman | text

[zib]

[It takes him a little while to respond via text, but once he does--]

Look, it was the best solution I had, okay? If I had special abilities that allowed me to travel space or something without needing the technology to do it, then I would have done so.

text

[klawful]

YOU SHOULDN'T SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST. AND YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE TEST DRIVES FIRST OR SOMETHING. THIS COULD HAVE ENDED WAY WORSE.

video; un: morningstar

[morningstud]

[That's. Uh. That's a whole lot. He's not sure what to address first here, so he decides on the whole... easiest thing to focus on.]

Are you unharmed? That creature has always struck me as the sort to kill people for fun.

[zib]

I'm fine... I think? I'm sore, but nothing feels broken as far as any limbs go.

... Don't think I can say the same about my ship though, as it looks like it definitely had something broken here when it was sent flying here.

[morningstud]

Yes, that... Well, I don't know anything about spaceships outside of movies, but that doesn't seem like the easiest thing to fix, given what decided to go and knock it out of the sky.