You hug Red tightly. You kind of want to find a way to externalize her--even if she is just a different facet of yourself, you've grown pretty attached to the representation of her.
You're... still a bit torn on what to do about the crack in the wall. On the one hand, worrying about it without fixing it is probably how it got there. On the other hand... you're real worried about what'll happen when you try to fix it.
For now, you pull back out to the lab. Caius is still working on getting pizzas, so you ask Fuse if he wants to try the error room.
"Yeah," he says. He takes a deep breath, then breathes out slowly... then nods. "Yeah, let's do it."
You and Fuse head to the Mars base. Michelle helps you flip the doors around so you can enter the error room. As you suggested earlier, you enter the room with Fuse.
You almost trip, having to physically stop yourself to keep from stepping in
Fuse.
You can't recognize any features from the... flattened... gore pile on the floor, but you do spot Fuse's cracked visor and blood soaked over-shirt. Instinctively, you throw a hand back, almost trying to stop Fuse from wandering in after you--
"Hoooly shit."
Fuse pales. He stares at the alternate him, then at you... then at the alternate you... then back at himself.
"Wh..." Fuse can barely manage the words. "What the fuck...?!"
The error room version of you has blood on her face, but it looks splattered--like it's not her own wound, but fresh from someone else's. She also looks... a lot more confused than you were expecting from an error room version of yourself. Confused, and sad. She looks like she hardly knows where she is.
You level Fuse, and quickly--he looks like he's about to have a nervous breakdown, still focused wide-eyed on his own brutalized remains.
...You up the dosage further as you hear the pile of gore begin to wheeze. One of the almost intact ribs visibly moves.
Despite the... unsalvageable condition of error-Fuse, he's still breathing. It may be the nature of the error room, presenting someone that should by all rights have died in a timeline that didn't happen.
Fuse may need some time before going back in after this experience. Like, maybe upwards of a week if, "Never again is too soon," is his reaction to this.
One of my biggest concerns right now is how traumatic this experience is for Fuse. He's only holding it together right now because of us leveling him. It's up to him if he wants to leave and never come back, I'd say.
My guess is not - Jane lost control and accidentally broke not - fuse.
We should leave this place, I don't think there is much to learn here.. or maybe I just don't want to.
I'm guessing there aren't that many time lines where fuse has survived meeting us.
So let fuse go in alone next time, and we can follow him with the blood.
I know it's probably impossible and pointless, but was anyone else's first instinct seeing a barely alive blood pile of Fuse was to try and save him? Or at least try to get alt-Jane to pain killer him?
Remember, in a Jane-vs.-Jane scenario, the one with the stronger intent wins. That Jane doesn't look committed (heh) to whatever it is she's doing. If she tries to mess with our Fuse, we should easily be able to overpower it and get the heck outta EGDOD.
That said, it would be nice to get a little more info before we leave. This might be a little lesson about what happens if we try to salvage an... unsalvageable injury on one of our friends. I'm going to go out on a limb that not!Fuse there is only, "alive," because of not!Jane.
Really think Fuse is going to need a hug after this (unless it turns out this makes Fuse terrorfied of us in which case we should hold off).
Send Fuse out *now*... all we really need to know is if he remembers.
It might be worth the risk to learn what the "bad end" is, but keep safe. And if the error was caused by poking in your brain (mirror-Jane may have made it past that point before diverging...), you may not want to know.
Have we established what happens if we bring someone from the error room back with us?
Not for certain established but more-or-less yes. Everything in here was never meant to be. It seems the spell we got was a rare break in those rules (and one that will be undone once we no longer need to have broken it).
We've never brought back one of the not!Janes with us, and none of them have been eager to join us either.
Well... looks like they tried something that failed hard. Probably not tactful to ask what it was, though... Offer condolences, and wisely choose another occupation for the rest of the day.
I think we're going to break Fuse pretty bad at this rate.
Re: externalising Red, it would be totally rad if Jane also went blood-haired when she does so. Hair changing colours is totally superhero stuff, after all.
leave. leave leave leave. this is bad enough it's only going to get worse if he tries to speak. get out now and offer to remove fuse's memory of it to spare him the fucking nightmare fuel.
We should ask Mac if he can get us some heavy duty equipment. See if we can get anything extra via gratitude by telling him we saved him from becoming mulch flooding Thale's tunnels.
Error
so ah, kinda... leave? Or, like... maybe we can help or something.
Let's... okay. Let's be ready to bolt at any second, but for the moment, ask what the fuck.
Just.. Knock Fuse out with The Blood, ask her how Fuse died and why she's in a prison outfit, then leave on our
merryway.We should leave this place, I don't think there is much to learn here.. or maybe I just don't want to.
I'm guessing there aren't that many time lines where fuse has survived meeting us.
So let fuse go in alone next time, and we can follow him with the blood.
That said, it would be nice to get a little more info before we leave. This might be a little lesson about what happens if we try to salvage an... unsalvageable injury on one of our friends. I'm going to go out on a limb that not!Fuse there is only, "alive," because of not!Jane.
Really think Fuse is going to need a hug after this (unless it turns out this makes Fuse terrorfied of us in which case we should hold off).
It might be worth the risk to learn what the "bad end" is, but keep safe. And if the error was caused by poking in your brain (mirror-Jane may have made it past that point before diverging...), you may not want to know.
Have we established what happens if we bring someone from the error room back with us?
We've never brought back one of the not!Janes with us, and none of them have been eager to join us either.
I think we're going to break Fuse pretty bad at this rate.
Re: externalising Red, it would be totally rad if Jane also went blood-haired when she does so. Hair changing colours is totally superhero stuff, after all.