Acai: You wanted a hint, yeah? Here’s your hint: Read the manual.
WiB: Time-looping has a manual?
Acai: What I mean is — when you get a new smartcrystal, you don’t tap every button one-at-a-time to see what it does, yeah?
If you can’t figure out straight away how to do a thing — you stop tapping, and go read up on the bit of the manual that can explain how to do the thing.
. . . Or do children in your era just come out already knowing how to use a smartcrystal?
Well. If you can’t sort it, you know where to find me.
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the “cracks through the panels” effect was already top-notch but seeing Acai through them?? glorious
Thank you!
I have a couple more “fun new use of the cracks effect” plans still waiting in the wings…hope they continue to please =)
My last guess was wrong, but I’ll guess again: “The Manual” in this case is Future Thorn, who can remember a significant part of how today is supposed to go.
I think this is correct, assuming Thorn and WiB are from the same future (and I haven’t seen anything yet suggesting they’re not).
My partner has added that maybe the solution is to get Kale out of the house and bring him to the Embassy–the Whispers can’t infect him once he’s inside, and in the meantime he’ll have Thorn (and possibly Lief) around for emotional support. (And I’m adding to that that maybe this is where Kale and Lief work out what they think of each other, and how that affects future relationship potential…)
That MIGHT work except I don’t believe WiB knows about FutureThorn.
If only smartphones actually came with manuals.
They do. The problem is that they’re hardware manuals, and manufacturers keep reducing the number of buttons in the hardware because rich people like minimalism. So they’ve become less and less informative.
Here: https://developer.android.com/reference 🙂
Really? That’s the only information you’re gonna give her? That tells her nothing about how to carry this out, it’s so vague she could interpret any possible thing as the “manual” she’s looking for.
I think that’s the idea. She doesn’t know the answer, but she can suggest an approach. She doesn’t need to try to “win” every loop, she can spend one information-gathering. Time is on her side.
W: That’s literally the reason I came here today, to consult with you!
A: I’m more of an oracle than a manual. As you may have figured out, future-me is not the only one who’s kind of a d–[Time loop ends]
Hey Thorn, I need to convince you that I’m in a time loop – is there anything you’d recommend I try next time I loop?
– this is inspired by the fact that I have a secret password that has never been told to anyone or written down anywhere, specifically so that if someone is looping and I find out in one of their loops, I can give them the password, and they’ll be able to instantly convince me on subsequent loops (plus, I’ll do my best to adjust my response based on minor actions they take to maximise the butterfly effect and help give them a break from the monotony of repeating events that they’ll probably be experiencing)
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