[IC] News from the Metacontinuity

[Labster]

Mysterious 'Jetpack Man' may have been spotted again in the skies near LAX

[Labster]

Lunar rover spots mysterious "hut" on far side of moon

Moonbase Alpha was a small city, concentric arcs of light gray buildings, connected to its central complex and tower by a transport tubes. In some parts, it stretched deep into the basalt below Plato Crater. It was a fully self-sufficient city perched on the Moon. The only problem, from their point of view, is that it wasn't on their version of Earth's Moon.

Yet, there it was, eternally hanging in the southern sky like a glorious blue and white marble: Earth, exactly where it was supposed to be. Ever since they had been blasted out of Earth's orbit, this is where they longed to return. But it wasn't quite where the Alphans wanted to be. Not only was it fifteen years too late, it wasn't really their Earth -- a dimensional copy -- a clone. Not the place where their loved ones lived.

It was, however, a great place for shore leave, and the cities of Earth themselves seemed like old friends. London, Chicago, and Kingston had all of their own usual charms, but for the many of the Alphans, their fellow crewmen had become their new family. Most remained in the artificial habitat, hopeful to return to their true home.

So with the cooperation of the Moon Kingdom, the Alphans restored the the base and all of its outlying sensors to its previous full complement. By and large, of the crew didn't seem to mind its role under the aegis of a fledgling monarchy -- many of them were British, and somewhat used to the idea, if not enamored of it.

Honestly, it was the commander, John Koenig, who had the most difficulty with the idea. And ironically so, given his last name. Certainly, the Sailor Guardians were a lot easier to deal with than the World Space Commissioners. Still, people had the right to choose their leaders, he thought. Of course, he kept this thought to himself, as he ran what was effectively a military dictatorship on the Moon.

He was lost in such thoughts as he walked past the control stations in the centre of the large, well-lit Main Mission room. As he walked up the steps to his main office, he heard a voice calling to him from next to the banks of computers on the wall.

"Commander Koenig, we detected a moonquake nearby."

"Thank you, Mr. Kano. It's good to know the our sensor network is up and running." Moonbase Alpha, as part of its scientific mission, had seismic sensors all across the Moon in it's own timelime, and decided to redeploy them in the Metacontinuity. Still, moonquakes were not uncommon. "Nothing too big, I imagine."

"No, it was a small quake. Commander, it's just that, according to Computer, the epicenter of the quake is in the exact site where Radiation Disposal Unit 1 used to be."

"Huh," the handsome captain said quizzically. "I think we need some eyes on this one." He turned his head across the room. Alan, do you think you can rev up Eagle 1 and take her on little sightseeing tour of the old disposal site?"

Eager as a dog whose owner just offered it a walk, the pilot replied, "On it, Commander."

--

Alan Carter announced over the radio, "Main Mission, this is Eagle One. Coming into range now."

"Roger," Koenig declared.

"There's something here, let me get a little closer."

"Careful Alan, remember what happened last time."

"Oh I remember," the pilot confirmed. "Last time, I ended up blown halfway to nowhere. But detecting no magnetic or radioactive disturbance. No giant crater either, for that matter." The radio link went silent for half a minute, then came back, "What the heck? Commander, you're going to want to see this."

"Sandra, viewscreen 3."

"Yes, Commander," she said, and everyone in Main Mission turned to watch. The video beamed back from the spacecraft showed what looked to be a collapsed structure, it's steep V-shaped roof tipped sideways and partially destroyed, covering the rubble of the lower floors. In front of it stood a great torii gate, all gray and covered in dust from the lunar regolith.

"Now, what's that doing up here on the Moon?" Professor Victor Bergman asked. The implication of the question was obvious -- whatever it was looked more like an ancient Earth ruin than a space habitation.

Koenig said in his standard American accent, "That looks like the gate from a Japanese temple. I remember seeing buildings like that when I was stationed in Yokohama. As to what it's doing there, your guess is as good as mine." He paused a moment, then declared, "Well, let's get out there and take a look. Eagle One, return to base. Paul, prepare a expedition."

--

John Koenig and Victor Bergman took a break looking through the collapsed building, while others of their crew in bright orange spacesuits continued looking. While none of their instruments had yet detected life signs, they felt it was their duty to at least look under the collapsed beams for anyone -- or any clue as to why this was out here.

"Could this have been built by the Silver Millennium?"

"No, I don't think so, John. Everything that remains from back then is made of stone and metal. This is wood!" Victor knocked on a beam. "And far too new to have survived thousands of years in a high-radiation environment."

"They did have magic."

"Sure, but why has no other organic material survived? And why would this old Japanese shrine choose to collapse now?"

"So, has it just appeared on this timeline's Moon? Just like us?"

"It does seem to be the plausible explanation for all the implausible things lately."

"I think we're going need the help of the Sailor Guardians to untangle this one."

--

One week later, a skinny teenager with short brown hair stood at the front of a classroom in an exclusive private school, set far enough outside Tokyo to accommodate the luxury estates around it. The teacher of the class announced, "Today, we have a new transfer student joining us. Please, introduce yourself."

She boldly took a piece of chalk and wrote three characters vertically, 木野 翼. "I'm Tsubasa Kino. Please take care of me, everyone!" She greeted her new classmates with a warm smile.

It belied her own nervousness about attending a new school, giving a false name, and the urgency of end goal. But remembering that Hiiragizawa-kun had once done the same for her, her resolve was steeled for the mission. Surely, everything would be okay.

[Labster]

Huge supply of subterranean water discovered in Mars' Grand Canyon

Headline written by Alice Carroll.

[robkelk]

Here's a quiz for Tomo and Ruiko: How much do you really know about reindeer?

And to keep the interest of the musicians at Douglass Gardens, I'll mention that the quiz ends with a mondegreen.

[robkelk]

Wanted: All-in-one landlord, pub manager and monarch for remote U.K. island

Applicant must like smoking, drinking and cavorting

EDIT: The castle's a bit of a fixer-upper, though.

[robkelk]

Kyoto University is designing and plans to launch a wooden satellite.

No word on whether the Juraians are involved.

[robkelk]

"Adrienne Van Halem woke up one recent morning to find it had rained soybeans overnight."

[robkelk]

Rugby-ball-shaped planet discovered 1500ly away

Somebody needs to go investigate it. I'd call that task a mission of gravity, but I don't want to jinx it.

[robkelk]

FreeDOS puts out first new version in six years

No word as to whether a particular greatest scientific genius in the universe was involved.

This isn't your father's DOS. Your correspondent booted the CD image under VirtualBox and was startled to see it acquire an IP address (and still have 608kB of free base memory). It installs to a FAT32 partition, with optional support for long filenames. It comes with its own full-screen text editor, but also Emacs and Vim. It has an IPv4 stack and basic IP connectivity, and the shell even does Tab-completion. The bonus CD includes a choice of GUIs including Digital Research's GEM desktop, web browsers, file managers, development tools, games and more. FreeDOS 1.3 not only runs Doom, it includes a copy.

You don't need to install all that stuff if you don't want it.

[Black Aeronaut]

She probably had nothing to do with it, but she’d likely be happy to mess around with it.

[Labster]

After 1000 years, stone sealing demonic temptress Tamamo-no-Mae splits in half

[Mamorien]

After 1000 years, stone sealing demonic temptress Tamamo-no-Mae splits in half

Mae's Wikipedia entry gives hope: "The stone was said to have been destroyed in the Nanboku-chō period by the Buddhist monk Gennō Shinshō (源翁心昭), who exorcised the now-repentant fox spirit. He held a Buddhist memorial service after the deed, allowing the spirit to finally rest in peace." Events will reveal whether that ritual made the nut.

[Labster]

Is It Cake? The bizarre baking show that might rescue 2022

From Executive Producer Kaolla Su.

After 1000 years, stone sealing demonic temptress Tamamo-no-Mae splits in half

Mae's Wikipedia entry gives hope: "The stone was said to have been destroyed in the Nanboku-chō period by the Buddhist monk Gennō Shinshō (源翁心昭), who exorcised the now-repentant fox spirit. He held a Buddhist memorial service after the deed, allowing the spirit to finally rest in peace." Events will reveal whether that ritual made the nut.

Mist descends upon Japan’s “Killing Stone” after ceremony to appease nine-tailed fox spirit.  Well, something happened.

[robkelk]

Is It Cake? The bizarre baking show that might rescue 2022

From Executive Producer Kaolla Su.

* robkelk reads article

So... The lie is a cake?

[Bob Schroeck]

I so wish I had thought of that first.

[robkelk]

I have no idea whether we can use this in a story: The Atlanta Blood House.

tl;dr: Police records say that a house bled in the late-1980s - human blood, of a blood type different from anybody who lived there at the time.

Creepy... but what can we do with it?

---

EDIT: According to the same website, specifically this article, the Southern California, Division 19 branch of the SCP Foundation has a public phone number... in Banning, California, "just south of the San Bernardino National Forest".

[robkelk]

US Army to 3D-print barracks in El Paso

Did somebody raid Washuu-chan's maintenance shop for her five-planets-large lab and walk off with some printers?

[Labster]

The Pentagon Just Confirmed the First-Ever Interstellar Visitor to Earth

In a carrot field.

[robkelk]

The Pentagon Just Confirmed the First-Ever Interstellar Visitor to Earth

In a carrot field.

Mya-mya myaaa mya!

[Labster]

Linking Sigil from chaos magick included in Unicode and no one knows why

The sigil is U+237C ⍼ RIGHT ANGLE WITH DOWNWARDS ZIGZAG ARROW -- which a link to a Miraheze wiki notes is basically an Ellis, a way to create lines of power to connect nodes of power.

I will just note that I have introduced Lain via the concordance (she exists on Manhome, but not on Aqua).

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh my god, a level of Meaningful Naming in El Cazador de la Bruja just became clear.

[robkelk]

Crimes on the moon could soon be added to Canada's Criminal Code

[robkelk]

You know it's a slow news day when a planetary conjunction makes the national news.


"'Venus and Jupiter get up-close and personal'. They wish."

Makoto nodded in agreement with Minako. "Yeah. Not happening."

"Right. You're a great person and all, but I don't swing that way." After a moment, she added, "It would be nice to have a boyfriend to get up-close and personal with."

[Bob Schroeck]

<enter Zeus, stage right>

[robkelk]

<enter Zeus, stage right>

Funny you should mention that. I tried for hours last night to make sense of the Europa myth, for something we discussed earlier this month regarding Star Seeds... and my brain still hurts.