①
After numerous attempts of fruitless pursuit, the Girl decided she’d had enough, and started crafting traps to ensnare the annoyance. It was a clever design. A simple tripwire that would activate and stumble any unobservant passerbys who wouldn’t notice.
She’d barely gone one lap when due to her forgetfulness, wound up ensnared in the very trap she’d set up. Rocking in her crudely built rudimentary trap, she saw from the corner of the corner, that her prey she’d been chasing all this time was also caught in a trap...
Waitaminit, she’d only designed one trap that was exactly like this. And her prey was in a trap that was at the far end over there. Either her prey had also made a trap the exact same design as she did, and wound up getting caught in the same trap, or...
She mentally kicked herself. She’d been chasing her shadow.
There was something funny about the dimensions of this place. Besides the unusual behaviour from the SeerSighters and the confounding layout of the room, there was one more worrying detail that’d been eluding her. She called the attention of everybody present.
“Hey, does anybody remember what the outside of the place looked like?”
“Pretty dull and ordinary, actually.”
“Didn’t think it was worth pointing out.”
“Wasn’t aware I’d have to memorize it for the final exam.”
“It was a Mobius Klein encasement looping upon itself in the form of a sterile environment resembling the shape of an ordinary structure so as not to frighten off 3rd-Dimensional living forms.”
That was what she thought. She remembered following the directions to the address, but she couldn’t recall what the exterior of the place looked like. She had the vague sense that it was taller than it was wide, despite only being 1 story tall. There was the feeling that the outside was outfitted with seemingly redundant juttings that served no purpose other than to appear fancy. If the outside was ordinary while the inside was anything but, then there should’ve been some kind of sign.
If she couldn’t figure out which one of them was going to die, she might as well figure out the logistics of this place. If she was to find any way out of here that didn’t rely on going back the way she came, she’d need an alternate route.
②
Taking a breather, the Girl found herself in the presence of the Silver-Haired Reporter musing over his current conditions.
“They never covered this kind of thing in training. Contending with hazardous situations in countless battles, never knowing if or when the enemy combatants would show up is easier in comparison. There are causes worth dying for. Never thought I’d meet my demise under such mundane conditions.”
She really didn’t want to be anywhere near him, but her argumentative nature made it impossible to let compelling arguments go by without a fight.
“What makes you so certain that you’ll die before I do?”
“Contemplated your mortality, have you?”
“I still haven’t forgiven you for that.”
“I only pointed out truths that needed saying.”
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Old habit. When you’ve been in the field as long as I have, you learn how to answer questions without answering any questions. I just have to find a singular question that’ll cover all the angles and surprise them in a way they won’t expect.”
“Here’s my singular question - why’re you so sure you’re going to die?”
“Logistics. Given the rate of survival given my past experience of narrow escapes through disaster scenarios, it’s just a matter of time before my run of luck dries up.”
“Considering my past experience, I think I’m unluckier than you.”
“I don’t object to dying - it’s one of the risks of the job. What I object to is dying under such stupid circumstances. It’s not enough that we’re allowed to ask questions only getting ambiguous responses. We have to ask the right kind of question. Ask a very revealing armor-piercing question that’ll reveal a watershed event about themselves and ourselves.”
“You really think it’ll be that easy? That they’ll spill the secrets they’ve kept so secret all this time? That they’ll answer our questions if we just ask nicely? From what I’ve seen, they’re very blunt and to the point, leaving very little room for interpretation. Let me pretend I’m them so you can rehearse your questions against them. ‘We are very vague and mysterious and will answer any questions about the future, but only up to a point. Woo.’”
“You may be content with throwing content at them and seeing the results, but who knows how long that’ll last. If we’re only allowed a limited amount of questions each, I prefer to keep mine until I’m ready. I still haven’t finished formulating my question yet. I’ll have my query assembled once I have more data. With my luck, I’ll wind up dying before then.”
“Sure, and I could win the lottery tomorrow.”
“Yes, but between something good happening to you, and something bad happening to me, which is more likely?”
“Point taken. I have an idea. I can ask the SeerSighters what the winning lottery numbers are, then I’ll be luckier than you!”
“You’d still need to leave this place to cash in the lottery numbers first.”
The Girl grumbled in dissatisfaction. She shouldn’t have let herself get distracted. There were more important things to focus on.
③
The Girl had barely moved from her designated spot when she was overcome with a bout of tiredness and dizziness. At first, she thought she suffering the ill effects of some unexplained phenomenon and was going to fall victim, until she realized she’d been moving all this time without rest.
“Is anybody else feeling hungry?” There were murmurs of agreement all around, which led her to spout a thought that came to mind. “Say, what do SeerSighters eat anyways?”
“I’m curious too. What does your diet consist of?”
{Certainly not you}
{Definitely not you}
{Our nourishment comes from the essence of shapes}
On cue, a litany of refreshments were served at the table. Instead of just basic shapes, these servings were twisted into creative patterns that weren’t the least bit symmetrical or perpendicular, the forms being different no matter which angle you looked at. She poked the unusual cast mold experimentally. There was some kind of unidentifiable liquid sloshing about inside. She was about to take a bite when another disturbing thought came to her. People were also cast in forms that could be considered creative shapes. These SeerSighters could very likely be fattening them up, feasting on the remaining discovery team, reducing their numbers one by one until their ability was discovered. If they were fattening them up first, then she’d conveniently forget how to eat!
“Might as well eat as we brainstorm.”
“You’ve been observing them this whole time. Have you picked up on anything?”
“They’re hard to get a handle on. They don’t interact with us much. Or each other for that matter.”
“Would it be any better if they did? That lack of involvement may be an improvement.”
“I suppose there’s not much use for dialogue if they already know what’s going to happen.”
“I’m much more used to this kind of behavior with macroscopic ONEs than regular-sized ONEs in a smaller environment. Those big guys at least have a reason for remaining distant.”
The Girl observed their actions at the table in front of all this inviting alien nourishment. No one bothered to take any. They were just pushing their food around, using it as personal playthings as they talked. The Alien Woman was just holding hers in her hand, lifting it up against the light.
“Isn’t anyone going to have some delicious geometry??”
“No thanks, I’m full.”
“I’ve always had my Assistants cut it up for me.”
“Can’t eat and talk at the same time.”
“I don’t drink.”
①
“For such reputed predictors, SeerSighters don’t seem to notice things that’re right in front of them. They should be able to handle the most basic things.”
“Like pouring a glass of beet juice?”
“This and that are two completely different things!”
“You’re not thinking of having a drink right now, are you?”
{You’re going to need a towel}
“We don’t need foresight to know that.”
“I’ll have you know I’ve gotten better at pouring liquids!”
“I’m afraid to know.”
“You don’t have to act so worried around me! Here, let me show you. I’ve been using jars with twist-off lids, instead of those confusing cartons with their impossible-to-open instructions. There. One simple tweak, and the opening is open without any further drama. All I have to do is lift and pour.”
“Very impressive, except you forgot to use a glass.”
The Accountant stared at the beet-stained table he’d just caused. “This is actually an improvement.”
“Here’s a stumper for you”, the Girl asked in passing. “Why won’t you give us the answer?”
{You have been given all the clues you need}
“Care to give a hint on what those clues were? Because I haven’t a clue.”
{We already gave you one}
“WHEN?!?” She grasped her head in frustration, wrapping her arms around until her fingers touched the base of her skull. These SeerSighters had done absolutely nothing to help her out, save for that one time. And that one time wasn’t much help either.
{That’s because you understand, but you don’t understand}
“And ambiguous statements like that don’t help much either!”
{You will, in time}
The Girl went off in a huff while the SeerSighters wafted aimlessly throughout, taking care to step over the extended rope.
“It’s not fair that we’ve been asking you all kinds of questions. You should ask us some.”
{Why would we ask questions when we already know the answer?}
“Good question.”
“I’ve got one. Is there something we could ask that would stump you?”
{Yes, there is}
There was a tense moment of anticipation that stretched on longer than it should’ve until the Silver-Haired Reporter caught on to the delay. “You’re not going to tell us what it is, are you?”
{You already asked it}
②
She took a moment to absorb what’d just been said. “Incredible!” the Girl declared. “The top minds available, and none of you can handle the simplest menialness requests of tasks!”
“So, could you pour us some?”
The Girl glowered at the Accountant. “It’s not that difficult. Figure it out yourself.”
The Accountant reached a hand out, only to be severely slapped down.
“Not you. Remember what happened last time??”
“She raises a good point. I can’t allow myself to depend on the actions of others. I’ll never be self-sufficient if I let everybody else delegate tasks for me. How hard can it be?””
“Please please please let somebody else do the work for you.”
“No need to worry. I just need to concentrate on the task at hand.”
The Accountant strained with exaggerated effort, his eyes scrunched to miniscule size, a sliver of his sightline barely visible as he focused every sliver of effort on the task at hand. Once he was done, he gave a wide Canary smile.
“It’s an improvement! I buttered my toast!”
This was a bigger accomplishment than you’d think, since there wasn’t any bread or butter to begin with.
“Where’d the toast come from?”
“That’s another puzzle for another day.”
“A lot of items seem to pop up without explanation.” The Silver-Haired Reporter held up his watch. “I don’t own a watch, yet one showed up just when I needed one.”
“Lemme try something,” the Girl said, getting up and picking up a length of rope that just happened to be lying around with a determined look. Experimentatively, she poked her arm through the corridor, and saw it reappear on the other side. She moved it in and out, back and forth, seeing it disappear and reappear with every motion. She tied a section of the rope to an end of the table that was firmly lodged and went off in a direction, chasing her shadow again.
“Process of elimination,” the Alien Woman piped up.
“Excuse me?”
“Was anybody else told to bring anything with them?”
“No.”
“Not me.”
“Didn’t hear anything.”
“There you go. The fact that we were told not to bring your tools means something.”
“Meaning...”
“Meaning that the way they foresee events can’t be determined by our tools alone.”
“Meaning that with intense concentration, we could materialize the tools we need?”
“So, does that mean other stuff might be useful?”
“That’s what I hoped, but I haven’t had much success on that front. I’ve been trying to materialize my tools without much success.”
“So, they only allow items that don’t let us get any closer to how their abilities work?”
“How does that help us?”
Just then, a SeerSighter tripped on the outer expanded strung section of rope that’d stretched from one end of the room to the other.
{What is this?}
“Just doing a little experiment! Nothing to worry about!”
③
At this point, they noticed that the Girl had made several repeated trips around the table without sitting down. They also noticed that in the multiple trips made, she’d gone into the further reaches of the room, looping back until the rope she had trailing behind her was taut, knotted into a compound pulley in the middle.
“What are you doing?”
“They’re not going to make a corpse outta me! I’mma gonna collapse the integrity of this room first! If I keep pulling at this end, the whole structure should collapse!”
She tugged the rope at her end, the stretched fabric looped around the curved corners of the room, straining against itself, pulled at multiple directions, the friction causing undue pressure to the structure within until the rope snapped and she fell back in slight embarrassment.
“You’re going to have to work harder than that to collapse reality upon itself.”
“I must say this is quite impressive for a first attempt.”
“Thank you,” she sarcastically replied.
{We did not see that coming}
“How could you not see that coming?!”
“Aren’t you omniscient?!”
{We see plenty, but we don’t see all}
The Girl finally addressed the elephant in the room. “I’ve been listening to all the theories you’ve gathered so far, and my conclusion so far is thus: WE’RE ALL ACTING LIKE A BUNCHA BLIND MEN OBSERVING AN ELEPHANT!”*
*(That story had it all wrong. It wasn’t an Elephant, but a nightmarish combination of a Wall, Tree, Snake, Spear, Rope and Fan meshed together into a being that would’ve conducted madness upon all who gazed upon it. Good thing those men were blind, otherwise they never would’ve survived the experience.)
“We may be blind, but we’re still getting closer with every process of elimination.”
“There’s a clue in there somewhere.”
“Hmph! We’re still trapped here! What do you think?”
“The SeerSighters tripped over your rope.”
“THAT’S your takeaway???”
“Did you notice their reaction? They looked surprised. They weren’t expecting that. They’re normally prescient of events that occur before they happen. Why would they get caught up in something as minor as this?”
“So? Even *I* forget things sometimes.”
“Maybe their thought process is not through space, but through...” she trailed off. “Is it backwards? ...no, that doesn’t work either...”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to imitate them to better understand them. It’s difficult enough operating without my tools. They don’t have very many defining characteristics. What we’re forgetting is that none of us have ever tried to understand them from the SeerSighter’s side of view. Until we can add their input with our observations, we’ll be going around in circles. Until any of us can combine these theories together into a comprehensive whole, we’ll wind up going nowhere. If there aren’t any other observations, I’ll call this meeting closed.”
The second day ended without anybody having eaten a lavish meal.
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