Arjun narrows his eyes and furtively watches each person as they accept the quest, checking to see who had figured out on their own that the System was already in their brain, recording everything they think and do, and who was used to it.

Jerzy seeks to monopolize both interactions with this new entity, while Dmitri answers despite having been the only one NOT invited to participate by the God, and Arjun narrows his eyes at the group while silently thinking.

Meanwhile, Otto is probably still against the idea of cooperating with these entities more than is necessary...

---

After a few moments, a window emerges, this time visible to ALL of you.


Then... after a moment... your own windows appear in front of many of you.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 06:06, Mon 21 Mar 2022.

Arjun glares up into the sky like it had said something nasty about his mother.

Jerzy is a little crestfallen from not succeeding at the quest, but is not surprised as he is the newest arrival.

"Thank you for the opportunity. Can we complete our deal regarding monster information. At present I would like to know of the we previously encountered on the vine disk and the monsters on this disk. "

"Check available tasks." says Emily.  She then plays a short and previously unknown tune on the banjo.   Then she says allowed.  "I hereby name this disc, 'sweatrag'".

Then she speaks to her companions and says, "I don't know whether this is even possible, but what do you all think we should call System?"

Otto rolled his eyes and seemed somewhat amused, clearly not impressed by this particular "God". The irony that he had been a University student, that he had been studying anthropology and history in particular was not lost upon him.

He was amused because here he was, literally a Barbarian in this new place, half naked with his club in hand and the God of Knowledge was chiding him for not playing along. It all seemed very thematic.

"Alright...we're wasting time. Arjun. Can you do a billhook you think? If they can clear sod and brush, maybe we can hack up enough of this stuff to make some progress" he suggested. "Or maybe a spear? We can kind of prod down with it until we hit it's pocket? Try to lance it or force it to the surface?" He added.

At Emily's question he glanced over. "Whatever it is it should be original I think. Not some knockoff."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:51, Mon 21 Mar 2022.

Emily nods to Otto, "So you'd rule out any existing game and probably anything of the form something and something else?"

"If it were up to me I would." Otto affirmed. "If only because it's an opportunity to do our own thing. Sure the Gods have had some influence, but a lot of this seems completely up to us."

Emily nods, she starts to sit down and then said, "No, I won't be sitting here. We've explored and helped create the world, but wouldn't you say we're a bit like rats in a maze?"

"What's a billhook? I'd need material to work with, and the only nearby essences are, uh, currently being used. Kill that one, and then I can make you a spear."

Turning to Emily, he says, "Name for System? How about Arsehole? Villain? No? You want a serious suggestion, huh? But not a reference to anything? How about Incantation?"

"Rats, maybe. Probably a whole lot more interesting than rats I would guess." Otto shrugged and looked to Arjun.

"Point me in the right direction man, I'll see what I can do." he seemed resigned to the task, believing it vital for their safety, and seemed to be taking it quite seriously.

"Of Mice and Mephistopheles...Faustian abduction...The Devils Unknown...Players in an unknown time and space...Lab rats...The alien's playground...unidentified foreign game (UFG)..." Jerzy says, mostly to himself. He was never the best with originality and was instead extremely derivative.

Arjun nocks an arrow and draws it, pointing at the nearest essence source, his Body Language pointing out the threat.

"Maybe we should start by picking a general theme? Are we looking for funny sounding names? Epic sounding ones? Me, I'd go for puns, if I was in charge of naming stuff. Oh, and thanks for calling this hell hole Sweatrag. I kind of like the name."

As Emily declares her intent to name the locale, a screen appears before her.

"Oh", sighed Emily, "Sweatrag has been rejected by the System.  Now I'll have to come up with another one.  They've made five suggestions, four of which are not recommended and the other of which is positively discouraged.  Then..."

She paused and thought for a while and then her face broke into a smile and she winked at Jerzy.  "I have an idea.  That may be unacceptable too but what do you guys think of Pripyet?  Or failing that, Eyam?"

Arjun throws up a hand in a warding gesture. "Hold up. Why isn't Sweatrag acceptable? If there are parameters, then we should know what they are, otherwise we're just going to keep offering unacceptable suggestions."

"Yeah, that seems odd. You do the quest and still don't let you name stuff?" Otto seemed a little miffed on Emily's behalf. "It's not even obscene or anything, and what if it was? We're all adults here." he pointed out.

"...That is not necessarily true, nor is it necessarily true that the observers and system entities in the space are human..."

Arjun gets a panicky look on his face. "HEY! Remember what happened the last time we speculated on the nature of our abductors and their guests."

Emily nodded to Jerzy, and was about to speak until Arjun made a comment about the last time.  Her lips clamped closed for a moment but then...

...at the mention of parameters, she facepalmed and said, "Oh wait!  It could be the format that makes it unacceptable, all the suggestions were of a certain form.  Adjective and a description of a land formation or in one case instead of an adjective, there was land formation of noun (that was discouraged) I think maybe I could call it 'magical marsh' or 'sweet-smelling swamp' if I wanted to be sarcastic.  What do you guys think?"

To the system she said, "View parameters for naming."

Arjun considers the landscape around him, with its rolling hills of flesh and abscess filled with giant pimple-like cancers. "I mean, land formation-wise, I'd probably call this place either a field, or a glade, maybe a heath, moor, prairie, or lowland...I'd kind of like to call Vineland something like The Ebon Dunes, you know, for the Herbert reference....Maybe we could call Sweatrag....The Fields of... Regret?"

Arjun doesn't seem particularly happy with his final suggestion for Sweatrag.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:32, Mon 21 Mar 2022.

Emily snorts and for a moment considers Arjun's suggestion but she stops herself.  "Considering the lyrics, I think I don't want to tempt fate."

"It's the Taint " Otto quipped. "'Cause it taint skin, and it taint cloth. It's just...taint." he joked.

"What happened last time?"

As the group discusses possible names for the disc, Emily tries to specify any parameters.

After a fairly long moment of no response, a window emerges.