The strange hallway to what you guess is north is tiled with the most nauseating patterned tiles you've seen.  Each one is grooved in a different but somewhat similar pattern.  It doesn't help that Raksasha has inlaid the grooves of each tile with ultraviolet light tubes.  It feels like you're walking on a schizophrenic's dance floor.

The hall turns back to the west.  It seems to turn south just up ahead.  Hopefully this isn't a labyrinth.

And it's then that you walk into the wall.  You just walk right into it. Why you did that...you aren't really sure.


Map!

Let's try the music note door first, then, and fiddle with the organ if that doesn't open immediately. I really dislike all this mind woojie stuff. If nothing happens, I suppose I'll have to do the ol' left hand on the wall thing. Without looking at the floor.

I like the optimism.  But first...

You turn around to head back down the hall...

...and walk into the wall again.

Left.  Right.  Backwards.  Forwards.  Up.  Down.

Which direction would you like to step towards?

Oh for fuck's sake.

I pinch the bridge of my nose in irritation and breathe deeply a few times, collecting myself.

Then I go left. Over and over and over again.

As long as there are no disconnected parts of the maze, going left repeatedly will eventually get me out, no matter how Rakshasa designed it. Of course there's probably some bullshit involved.

The first left manages to turn you around so you are facing the other wall.

The second left takes you a step further down the hall.

The third left, and you have to stop yourself from walking into the same wall you did last time again.

The fourth left seems to turn you around so you are facing the other wall.

In looking at it:

The first time you turned left, it basically got you facing the opposite of the way you were.  You took a step in that direction.

The second left actually went left.  Good job you.

The third left seems to have made you run into the wall again.

The fourth left seemed to do the same thing the first left did.

So either every time you turn left, you will actually travel backwards, left, into the wall.

Or no matter which way you turn, you will actually travel backwards, left, and into a wall.

Then I need to figure it out. Test other things.

I get out my notepad and start diligently scribing my findings. First I try turning right, until a pattern presents itself. Then going forward, then going backwards. If I can learn the rules, I can know what to do to get out.

The pattern doesn't seem to matter what direction you take.

The first time you step in a direction, you end up facing the opposite way.  So if you take a step forward to the right, you end up standing in the same space you were trying to leave, except you are now facing the opposite direction.

The second time you take a step forward in the same direction...wham.  You walk into a wall.  Literally.

Stepping backwards seems to get you better results.  You can move the direction you want until the third step, when you're suddenly back to where you started.

After what feels like hours, you try...one step forward, and two steps back...and bingo. You manage to head in the direction you wanted.  For two backwards steps at least.

You have to use that first step to "aim" yourself, so you are facing away from the direction you want to go.  And then take two backward steps towards that goal.  Then you have to start the process all over again.

Wait.  Where were you heading again?

Back to the organ?  Or down the hall to see where it goes?

I'm going back to the organ first. I don't think I've "figured out" that stupid hallway. I have all the time I want, so it may as well take me a quarter second to navigate that "maze" even if it feels like hours and hours. But I really don't like it.

So I'd rather try to figure out the organ and the music note door thing first. If I can.

I need to figure out a way to beat someone up and steal their powers so I can stop this psychic nonsense. I already have a headache.

The organ is on and pressing a key gets you a musical note.  You work through Chopsticks, but it doesn't cause anything to happen.

There's a spot above the keyboard.  It's a small ledge where sheet music is supposed to go.  But no sheet music.

You're guessing you need to find the sheet music and, once you play out the tune, the door to the south will open up.

At least that's how things work in Point and Click games.

I rub the bridge of my nose in further irritation. I start searching through the piles of machinery and "stuff" to see if there's any sheet music. I really don't want to solve the hallway puzzle.

Also I try to kick down the door, just in case.

Rooting through the piles of junk nets you zero sheet music.  Actually there doesn't seem to be any paper of any kind.

Kicking the door turns out to be even worse for the headache you're working on.  Not only does the door not budge, it rings.  It sets off this loud, piercing ringing sound from the kick which is at the perfect frequency and volume to make your eardrums wish they could hide further inside your sinus passages.

It's like Raksasha designed all this to case the maximum amount of irritation.

I am sure she did.

I sit on the ground and keep my knees close to my chest and hands over my ears until the ringing stops.

Then I have one last thing to try before actually "solving" that stupid fucking maze. I the pitch of the door's gong sound might be the key on the organ that opens the door, so I'll try to pick it out and play it for a few seconds.

It probably won't work, though.

At least I can work through the maze if I have to, Sideways.

That would make sense, wouldn't it.  But...

You find the pitch fairly easily.  E above middle C.

It doesn't open the door.

Somewhere, you are sure Raksasha is sniggering.

If you want to take a crack at solving the maze, go ahead.  If it's too frustrating, we can say Sera does it.  Cos that is the kind of gal she is.

Thanks

I am willing to take a look at the maze and try to figure out the steps to exit based on the rules you gave earlier in the thread. If I get too stumped, or if you haven't actually made the puzzle yet, I'm fine with Sera solving it, too. She has as much time as she needs and is definitely some level of obsessive.

See below.

It's not about the number of steps you take.  It's about the pattern of the steps you take.  You just need to give me the modus operandi Sera will take to move down the hallway.  And of course, narrate how she feels about having to do all that.

I just love when Sera gets testy



Map!

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

I let out a sigh that shakes the room. Literally. I put extra oomph in it to really let the building understand my displeasure with its shenanigans. I am going to do really mean things to Rakshasa when I catch her. Like dislocate all of her major joints and hoist her from a flagpole by her underwear.

I just let myself completely relax for a minute, to gather my thoughts.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

I sit down and close my eyes, meditating like my mother taught me, though admittedly more relaxed than it's supposed to be.

Okay fine. I fish around for a metronome and set it, then step Sideways to make sure my powers are still working. I want to take a nap. Assuming I'm in Sideways normally and time isn't passing, I go ahead and take that nap. If my powers aren't working, or after the nap, I go back to the hallway of stupid crap.

Step forward. Now I'm looking the opposite way. Step backwards twice. Step forward once to face the way I want to go. Step forward again, facing the way I want to go that time, then face away from where I want to go. Then step back twice. Forward the wrong way. Forward the right way. Backward twice.

Over and over and over again until I'm through.

By the time you take the last step and come to the end of the spiral, it's likely that the irritation boiling behind your eyeballs can be compared to the heat of the Vesuvius eruption that took out Pompeii.

Or maybe not.  Maybe you're just fine with it all.

In any event, at the end of the spiral is music stand.  On it is a piece of sheet music.

Seems you have what you need to play on the pipe organ.

It's apparently the theme to My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas.  You end up having to play it three times on the organ before that damn door swings open.

Now that song is stuck in your head...

New Map!


And beyond the musical door is a new rom.  It looks like another puzzle chamber.  Great.

The walls and ceiling and floor are made of glass.  The high density kind you walk on without worrying about it.  Under the glass are lots and lots and lots and lots of clockwork gears.  They are set up in elaborate arrays that seem to be accomplishing nothing.

No. Wait. They are accomplishing something.  All the clanking and tapping and whirring are creating a distinct rhthymic and muscial pattern.  It's like you're inside a giant music box that's all wound up.  And the music box is playing My Humps.

Over and over and over and over again.

There's another vault style door leading further on. Of course it's locked.  Too durable to pound through it?  You know it!

There are three cogs on the doorway with gaps between them.  Apparently if there were smaller cogs stuck between them, then the array would turn.

Oh yeah.  Those piles of cogs in the last room.  Now you get it.

Of course there are thousands of cogs in those piles.

There are clues.  Each of the cogs on the door are labled with numbers.  From left to right they are numbered

18

14

12

And all the cogs in the piles are numbered as well.  From 1 to 500.

So you seem to have to find the two cogs that fit the sequence you guess?

I am going to beat Rakshasa with an orange in a sock. For at least three hours. Then put Legos in all of her shoes.

Also break all of her fingers and remove her teeth with an electric drill. I punch the wall until I feel better. While every other wall on Earth has a tendency to be severely damaged when I hit it, I have a feeling these walls won't budge. At least this next puzzle seems easy. I hope it's as easy as it looks. I swear, when I get out of here, I am going to give Rakshasa the world's most powerful atomic wedge. They'll feel the mushroom cloud of justice in China.

I feel confident that 16 goes between 18 and 14 and 13 goes between 14 and 12.

Nothing happens.

Does the song have clues?

Ass. Shit. Motherfucker cunt bitch.

I should be able to narrow down which gears go in the empty spots by their teeth-space-differential. There are probably a lot of candidates anyway. Good thing I have as much time as I want.

Having no other ideas, I'll start by trying to slot gears between 12 and 14, starting from gear 1 and going up. The first two gears should turn together when I get the right one.

Unless it's more magic bullshit.

Ree.

It's not magic.  It's just that the Raksasha focused on reaaaaaaaaallly pissing Sera off with these.

Just wait until you see the last one.

But in the meantime...

7

It's the 7 cog that seems to fit between 12 and 14.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 06:21, Sat 06 Apr.

I'm curious what everything is made out of! I bet you're having fun torturing poor Sera with things she has to be clever or subtle about. Gosh, you big meanie. =p

Well...

7 is half of 14, so the gear between 18 and 14 is probably 9. It could also be 6. I'll try 9 first.

Nine doesn't fit.

Let me know if you want to give in.

Hint:  One of the numbers on the three cogs may not be a whole number.

Remember that Raksasha is a superb specimen of asshat.

The only thing I can think of to do is to list out all of the cogs and do a numerical sieve on them. Do you want to list them all? When you say "not a whole number," do you mean that a cog is numbered with a fraction, rather than all the ordinals from 1 to 500?

You start the process.  The slow, tedious process.  The slow, annoyingly tedious process.  Of the sieve.

You're gonna hate this solution.  But remember: it's Raksasha doing this.  Not me.

And during all that, you notice something odd about the 14 cog.  There's a small scratch between the numbers.  Down near their bases.

Well.  Maybe not a scratch.  Maybe more like...a tiny little cross...or...

1₊4