20230718 - Run 41

We get another loop through the time loop, and this time we think maybe we know how to solve it. Our plan at this point is to make Propulsion have no doors, by getting everyone out of Propulsion and then drop the forcefield at the back of the ship, If there’s a forcefield, it has the airlock/door nature, which will cause acid to flood the entire compartment when the effects of the dead door god kick in; with no forcefield, it’s more of a cup, and a cup is not a door.

It looks like we manage to pull this off, and so instead of the cascade of shit blowing up, we get a new development. Chad starts to feel an oily... emanation. Like half his body is covered in oil; the half that’s oriented towards Propulsion. So Chad starts saying we have to go to Propulsion. Everyone is a bit confused as to why, and then we hear a deep roar coming from that direction. Chad takes off running and we follow him. 

The primary way to get there is fucked - broken, deformed so that it would not slide open, and we could hear wind and rain on the other side, somehow - but Curly takes us a different way through, and we manage to get to another door. Curly opens the door and … it looks like we succeeded. Propulsion isn’t a portal to Hell. There’s a weird overlap, double vision, in here. We can look out this space into the vastness of the stars… but we can also see the neverending storm, the torrential winds, the hideous downpour that is the _present day_ environs of this ship. Then we hear movement to our right and we get jumped by something.

President Dickfingers flies out, after declaring that he will be the first out. His next statement is “Ah. Shit. Well, it’s not looking this way yet. Perhaps 60 feet away.” “It” turns out to be a huge ball of tentacles, which are I guess the wrong kind of schlong-knot, because Nyla starts blasting it with eldritch blast. I guess it’s not just dicks, it’s also mouths, pseudopods, and acidic slime. So, basically like this party we have every 3 years in the University that we call VBTB. D.va takes a look and shoots some magic missiles at it. (I’ll note that these are pretty typical reactions to this party as well.)

Chad informs us that that “licked by an oily dog’s tongue” sensation is getting stronger, and then there’s a tentacly mass in front of the doorway. The tentacled mass grabs Caleb, slams Chad, and does some kind of mental attack on Nyla as well.  Curly, screaming, has levelled his pistol-grip wand weapon at the enemy and just starts firing, actually hitting it for a bit of damage. I move up, but just can’t get a good hit in; I manage to hit it once, but something …. non-causal, extradimensional …. happens, like I shift to the side all of a sudden, and the ball of tentacles becomes clearer to my eyes, and the rest of the room seems blurrier. 

Caleb breaks out his greataxe and begins to try cutting tentacles from the greater mass of tentacles. Chad then goes in and starts cutting the thing apart. Tentacles severed and flying, flashes of TSLA$ and PLTR$ strobe with flashes of radiant light, Chad swings twice with the blade and once with the butt, ripping the shit out of the pile of tentacles and mouths enough that the extradimensional horror begins to recoil in an attempt to defend itself instead of the flappy dickwaving it had started the combat with. The horror tries to swing back at Chad, but misses, and Chad, surrounded by a nimbus of divine light, calmly says “I think my market position is very strong.”

Nyla and D.va blast it again, and then the thing does something to Chad and tries to jet away, letting me land a hand of harm and letting Caleb land a psionic strike with his axe, killing the pile of tentacles.

And then I can’t breathe, because of some sort of sympathetic connection. After I diagnose myself and am sure it’s not going away, I concentrate on circulating my qi to break whatever this effect is. So that sucked, but then the timelines look like they’re trying to reset.

And then Propulsion stabilizes as the vacuum of space, and Curly slaps the emergency door close button. D.va and I are here, and I don’t see Chad, Caleb, or Nyla.

——

Nyla, Caleb, and Chad look out from the rusted remains of the back of the Propulsion section. D.va and Dr. Castle are nowhere to be seen, but they are _certain_ that this ship is not the same one that they saved. Perhaps the worldlines split and there is now both a crashed ship and a ship that survived.