Lula
Dae-hyun had tried most of what he could think of, and nothing had worked so far. He was still in the *'normal'* World. 

There was the chance that he'd never figure it out, and would have to wait for the off chance it could happen again, but he wouldn't give up that easily. 

With Oliver not in the building, he knocked on Danica's door.
Keith
Luckily for Dae-hyun, Danica was home. Her hair was put up, and she had a mug in hand when she opened the door a peek to see who it was.

"Oh. Dae-hyun."

Hospitality took over. 

"Come in have some tea." 

Her room was pleasant and smelled of beeswax and light florals.
Lula
Dae-hyun gave her a soft smile. 

"Hello Dani,"
He took a step inside. 

"Thank you." Tea sounded nice. 

There was silence for a moment. 

"... I have a stupid idea and you have to promise not to be mad with me." 
The boy's tone sounded lighthearted, like he knew she'd call him stupid for it but not really mean it.
Keith
One of her eyebrows rose. There was a stool at her desk to sit on. She prepared the drink on a little side table. 

"...Okay?"

Dae-hyun was handed a cup of black tea with a spoon of sugar. She sat on the bed.
Lula
He took the tea with a smile and sat down. He watched the liquid swirl. The two were overdue for having a conversation *Outside* Of some conspiracy. Dae-hyun sighed. That day would not be today. 

"You still have the flash drive right? The one that has Giannis on it?" 

"I want to... Talk with Giannis. In person. In that... *Mind place,* And I cannot figure out how to get back there." 

"Im hoping you could help me, since you have what's necessary to be able to... Talk to him right?" 

In a bag on Dae-hyun's shoulder there was a laptop. A PC of kinds, one he has had for a while. Just in case.

"... Also I wouldn't want to go in there without someone knowing."
Keith
Danica sipped.

"I do." 

She let him speak, thinking for a moment. That wasn't ridiculous. The first time she'd ended up in there, she'd ask if there was a way to talk to him again on the outside. She wasn't huge on the mind space, but she also wasn't huge on losing contact options. Hm.

"Why would you have to go in there to talk to him? Don't want the records or...?"

She sighed. 

"I still have everything, but last time I spoke to him he said talking to him again from out *Here*, would take a bit of effort." 

Sip.

"We can try."
Lula
"It feels more personal if I can talk to him not from a computer."

He took a sip of the tea. It was delicious. 

"Also you're right, it takes effort to talk to him out here, so I thought i'd make it easier... I just don't know how."

"So I want to ask him."
One question shouldn't be too bad.

"Do you have a laptop with him already on it? Or do we need to download him again."
Keith
She raised a brow. Dae-hyun was kind of weird in that way. 

"I still have the one I put him on. I cant guarantee he's still there." 

Dae-hyun wasn't really getting her, but she supposed it didn't matter. She opened her closet and pulled out a little step stool to dig. Her voice was slightly muffled. 

"I'd just asked if there was a way to contact him out here. At all. Even to ask any questions or say hello. This could be a complete dead end." 

She didn't want to get his hopes up. From waaay up in the corner, she pulled out the laptop wrapped in a plastic bag. The flash-drive was pulled from another spot.
Lula
Dae-hyun gave a sort of dejected expression, but remained curious. He knew there was the chance this wouldn't work. 

"Yeah... I know. I tried other things before coming to you and they didn't do anything... So I'm prepared for this to do absolutely nothing."

"I just want to try, though, yknow."

He watched her grab the laptop and the flashdrive. 

"I appreciate you helping me, regardless."
Keith
She was curious. 

"...What did you try?"

She cracked open the laptop and jiggled it around until it booted up. A bad habit. She tabbed into where the chatroom was. 

She nodded. 

"You shouldn't do these things alone."
Lula
"I tried going to bed... In case it was a dream thing? Didn't work. I just took a nap." Dae-hyun gave a soft laugh.

"I tried to think of anything I could've done to trigger getting thrown into the space last time? Couldn't think of anything. It all seemed completely out of my control."

Taking a sip of his tea, he thought, tapping his finger on the side of the cup. 

"Oh, and then I tried to go find Oliver in case he knew something, but he wasn't in the building. Probably for the best," He shivered, "I wouldn't want to talk to him anyways."

As the chatroom booted up, Dae-hyun walked over and sat beside Danica to see the screen. 

"... Let's give it a shot then."
Keith
Danica laughed at him, smiling.

"That was silly." 

She teased him, nodding along to his other attempts. 

She stared at the screen.
Raymond
```ERROR: Target distributed among several devices in network. Cannot be moved to new device.
Add this device to the network? Y/N
>_```
Keith
Hm. She didn't care about this laptop. If it got fried oh well. 

```Y```
Lula
Dae-hyun watched. He was glad she said yes.
Raymond
```WARNING: This device may not be compatible with other devices in network. This action may damage target's functionality.
Proceed? Y/N
>_```
Lula
Dae-hyun looked at the message then at Danica. A sort of conflicted look on his face. 

"Should we... Do it anyways?
I'm assuming the *Target* Is Giannis."
Keith
"Yeah. He's in our brains. It's fair. It cant be that bad." 

```Y```
Raymond
The console window fills with text. It scrolls by too fast to read, and what can be made out is entirely gibberish.
Lula
Dae-hyun is slightly taken aback. 

"Thats comforting."

"Is there any place to type a message?"
Keith
Danica puts her hands up and away from the keyboard so she doesn't fuck anything up. 

"I'm going to give it a second." 

She hoped the target wasn't their brains.
Raymond
After a few seconds, it becomes possible to type something. However, there's no prompt.

```>_```
Lula
Dae-hyun looks at the message and then to Danica. 

"I guess... We just ask if he's there?" 

He was beginning to feel more and more uncertain of this working.
Keith
Yay! Wall of text gone. She nods. *Clack clack clack.* 

```Test. Hello, earth to Giannis.```
Raymond
```ERROR: Connection terminated.```
Lula
Dae-hyun breathed out and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

"Damn." He sighed. 

"I wouldn't know what else to try..."
Keith
She huffs. Great!! Yaay!! That clearly did something, but they didn't get very far at all. 

```Reboot```

She doesn't really know how computers work. 

"I don't know what'll happen if we try to plug in the drive again. And I'm not sure we should go back to the shed. Would a better computer work?"
Lula
He watched as she typed 'reboot' into the computer. 
"Maybe? That might be easier for Giannis— but I dont think another device would be helpful, with the whole 'distributed across several devices,' thing."

The boy shrugged. 
"He said 'Come back anytime,' but didn't specify how." Dae-hyun sounded slightly, *Ever so slightly,* Annoyed.
Keith
"Yeah. Annoying." 

She thought. 

"We could also keep poking this. He reacts to being bothered." 

The best plan? Not at all.
Lula
"Alright, only a little bit more." Dae-hyun wouldn't want to anger Giannis.
Raymond
Predictably, this has no effect.
Keith
Danica doesn't mind angering him. It wasn't anyones particular fault that everything about this was inherently angering.
Lula
B2 dae-hyun stares. Really hard.
Raymond
There are no other *Options* To see on-screen, but Dae-hyun does notice something. Among the jumble of text in the console window, he sees these lines:

```Network ID: 110438571790627308966896299231512355677MASKELYNE
Network Status: OPERATIONAL
WARNING: Error code 6969.
ERROR CODE NOTES: (Nice.) Compatibility issue — if you're seeing this, you probably just gave me a splitting headache. Oops! I can't run on a computer and a network of human brains at the same time. Look in MASKELYN.Txt for more info about running on the Maskelynophone. Love, Gian```
Lula
Dae-hyun gave a small smile at the ending of the text. More and more was pointing towards Oliver being in the wrong here. Maybe. He wasn't sure yet. So far, Giannis was far more nice. 

"Hey, uh, is there a file thats called MASKELYN.Txt anywhere? Maybe on the flash drive or in a file?"
He looked at Danica.

He thought about the Maskelynophone. He'd have to go get it from Akvilė. Sigh. More walking.
Keith
"What?" 

She tries to look for what he's spotted. He's going to have to point to the message that she isn't seeing.
Lula
"Oh, yeah, sorry."

He pointed at the message amongst the jumbled text. 

"There."
Keith
"Oh-" 

Danica reads. She lets out a little laughing snort. Ok. 

"That explains it." 

Time to search.

She clicks on the file name in the message itself, hoping it'll boot them right there.
Lula
"While, you find that file, I'm going to go get the Maskelynophone from Akvilė. I'll be right back."

He stood up, and left the dorm, on his way to bother Akvilė.
Keith
Frown. 

Anything obvious on the home screen?

She opens the basic files manager. What does she see?
Raymond
The usual. Nothing from the flash drive on the first screen in the file manager.
Keith
Boo. Anything in the chat room that she can click on?

Danica sits for a second, and then plugs the flash drive back into the laptop. She gave up on leaving it alone pretty fast.
Lula
Dae-hyun walks back into the room, Maskelynophone resting in his bag. He glances at Danica as he takes the device out and puts it on her desk. 

"Hey, did you find anything?"

"Hm."

Dae-hyun stares at the laptop again. He leans over slightly and looks at the file manager on the flash drive. 

He starts clicking on every single file or folder, available. Does this do anything?
Keith
Danica lets him at it, handing him the machine.
Raymond
...Roll Imagination.

Dae-hyun has managed to navigate to the flash drive's files.

Through sheer luck.
Lula
Dae-hyun's wild attempt by some miracle, worked. 

He looks at Danica briefly with a stupid half smile.

"Alright, let's sift through these."
Keith
She rolls her eyes at him lightheartedly.

Danica peeks. Search bar available?

"Dude." 

She points.
Raymond
One named NEEVIL.Exe stands out a bit.
Lula
Dae-hyun opens that file and then puts it to the side for a second. 

He then types ''Maskelyn" Into the search bar.
Raymond
MASKELYN.Txt pops up.
Keith
"Sweet."

Danica gestures to take back the laptop. She's shorter so its easier for him to lean over her.
Lula
Dae-hyun blinks slightly. That was a little too easy for the process they went through. He would have to take the time to get better at tech stuff if this was going to be something he'd have to handle. 

He hands the laptop back to Danica and watches her as she clicks the file.

Dae-hyun attempts to understand the technical jargon.

Nothing that the text file says makes sense. If anything, this gives him more questions than answers. Something else catches more of his attention. 

"How do we connect a *Brain* To wi-fi." He looks over at Danica.
Keith
"Don't know. Not doing that." 

"How would we get the box on wifi?" 

She still refuses to try pronouncing that.
Lula
Dae-hyun looks at the Maskelynophone. He remembers the fact it's broken. He remembered Olivers warning. Unease rises in his stomach. 

"We'd have to fix it to get it to work...

But, Oliver said thats a horrible idea."
Keith
She raises a brow. 

"Yeah. Don't to that." 

She drags the file to the desktop just to keep it easily accessible. 

"If you're determined, Oliver is probably your best bet. That, or waiting around to blip back in."

"Besides. We wouldn't know how to fix it. And if he's still in our heads anyway, it's probably not that damaged."
Lula
Dae-hyun stares at the message again. 

"Well," He starts.

"I'm probably a brain on the *Network,* Since I've been in the space with Giannis... Since we can't fix the Maskelynophone, how on earth would I connect *Myself* To Wi-Fi?"

He shakes his head. 
"It doesn't make sense."
Keith
Danica thinks for a moment, trying to dig through her memory for any leads on how to get back into the brain space.
Raymond
Danica didn't do anything to get in there. In fact, both times, the world just changed in front of her, and one of those times, she hadn't even noticed. It was clearly nothing she did.
Keith
She frowns. It seems impossible.

"We all are. It says it's a radius thing."

"I think putting yourself on the internet sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen, and you should never ever ever do that." 

"All of this trouble is because Giannis isn't just in a body. Don't fuck yourself over like that."
Lula
He looked at her for a second. 
"This matters to me, okay. I want to talk to Giannis, there is so much I don't understand. Oliver told me to unplug him, but I don't know anything *About* Him. I need more answers."

"Let's look at the other file I found— the Neevil.Exe one? Please?
Maybe it can give us more insight on this whole brain connection thing."

The boy was assuming that means temporarily and he won't end up permanently trapped, like Giannis. 
At least he'd have company, he supposed.
Keith
Danica looks at him. 

"I get what you're saying. I get that you care. But don't mess with hooking your brain up to *More* Things just so you can talk." 

"You don't know the process for unhooking yourself after."
Lula
"I know, I know." He sighed. 
"I trust we could figure that out,

But let's just, look at the other file for now."
Keith
"Hm." 

She's not letting him turn himself into an ethernet cable. 

"Getting the thing itself on the internet seems like a better plan." 

She hands him back the laptop. 

"You did grab the box, right? Can I have it?"
Lula
He pointed over at the device on the desk. 
"Go for it, but both Oliver and Akvilė had troubles with it, and they said turning it on could be a *Really* Bad idea. For a lot of people." 

He looked at her. "I'd leave it broken, it's *Paranormal* Tech...
But I trust you. Do whatever you want."

He looks down at the laptop, and clicks on the Neevil.Exe file he opened earlier.
Keith
"Hm." 

Danica rethinks. She's going to leave it alone. 

"You're better off just waiting to blip back."
Raymond
The console window opens.

```ERROR: Target distributed among several devices in network. Cannot be moved to new device.
Add this device to the network? Y/N
>_```
Lula
Dae-hyun blinked. He'd probably be bothering Giannis. 
He internally apologized, maybe Giannis could hear his thoughts or something... Unlikely but still. 

```Y```
Keith
Danica gets herself more tea. She's not watching the screen anymore.
Raymond
```WARNING: This device may not be compatible with other devices in network. This action may damage target's functionality.
Proceed? Y/N
>_```
Lula
Dae-hyun sighed, and hesitated. 

```Y```
Raymond
The exact same thing happens again as did last time. Is Dae-hyun surprised? Is anyone?
Lula
Dae-hyun is not surprised. He closes out of the error message and begins to thoroughly search the rest of the device. In case Danica missed anything.

B2 PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE
Raymond
Cw// semi-mild medical grossness
||Dae-hyun manages to stumble on a folder named "Junk".

It's full of old text files, memes, and other, well, junk.

Among the files, however, are sketches of devices. Some to pierce the outside of the skull, others to be implanted within, yet others to interface with the brain via the nose or the eyesockets. The purpose of these devices seems to be to allow a human brain to interface with technology directly.

Some of the illustrations are not good to look upon. A few have notes on the success rate of the devices. It appears to be poor.||
Lula
Dae-hyun grimaces at the sight, disgust visible on his face. The images made his skin crawl He wasn't *That* Desperate. He closes out of the folder. 

...Good to know it was an option, at least. 

He looked up at Danica. 

"...Should we try plugging the Maskelynophone into this device? It's on Wi-Fi, is it not?"
Keith
"... Didn't you just say not to mess with it??" 

She was going to try and figure out if she could hook it to an ethernet cable. But Dae-hyuns advice had convinced her otherwise.
Lula
"Well...

The alternative I wanted to try is worse, for, me, anyways."
Was that selfish of him?

He sighed. 
"Maybe just plugging it in to one device isn't the same as fully fixing it? Plus this device is like... Nothing. It probably wont supply enough power to do any damage."
Keith
She squints at him, now trying to circle back and catch a glimpse of whatever he found on the screen. 

"What did you find?" 

Nothing??

"You also read how this thing is hooked to every single person in this building and maybe more, right?"
Lula
Dae-hyun shivered. "Nothing you want to see, promise." 

"Sketches of what it means to 'connect a brain to the network,'" 
He hoped his tone was clue enough. 

"Well, is it everyone? Or is it just the people who have been in the space before?"
Keith
She frowns.

"Everyone within its radius."
Lula
Dae-hyun looks at the device. 

"Maybe I can take it out of the radius of Newtons Cradle."
Keith
She doesn't like where this is going. Dae-hyun sounds more and more and more like he hellbent to fuck himself over each time something happens. 

"Why don't you just wait until we can talk to someone to see if this will be catastrophic or not??"
Lula
"Maybe a good idea."

He paused. 
"Uhm, however, Oliver told me to go back to the house. The one we took all of this from."

He looked at her. 
"I don't know when he wanted me to do that, but I can only assume as soon as I can."
Keith
"You said he wanted to shut it all down. That's probably why."

She thinks for a long, long moment. Putting it on the internet cant be too harmful... Can it?
Lula
"That is why, but maybe I can find something to *Help* Giannis while I'm there instead."

He shivered at the thought of disobeying another one of Oliver's directions, and how he reacted to even the *Suggestion* Of fixing the Maskelynophone.
Keith
"Why would you have to be there on your own?"

He's being confusing and frustrating. She sighs heavily. 

"Getting this on the internet can't be the worst thing. This is already all gummed up."

She wants to tell him so bad to not be stupid.
Lula
"I don't know, I could probably bring someone but I wouldn't want to in case it gets dangerous." 

He knew how she'd respond to that, he didn't care. 

"I suppose so, maybe we shouldn't do it here though.

... Or maybe we can?"
Keith
He's making her frustrated. Visibly so. 

"It's Olivers tech shack. You're acting like its a slaughter house." 

"I don't get you."
Lula
"He sure sounded like it was all horrible, he was so vague about everything. I don't know how this could go, and I'm not going to risk it."

He shook his head. 

"It doesn't matter anyways, I'm all out of options right now. Oliver might kill me *For real* If I turn that thing on." He nodded towards the Maskelynophone. 

"I appreciate the help regardless, I'm just going to wait, like you said.
I'm bound to get dragged back eventually."
Keith
"He makes everything sound that way. Have you not picked up that he's bad at explaining himself?" 

Good. She nods.

"Yeah. I've been twice. So has Vi and Barric."
Lula
"Yeah, he is— but," He sighed, "I don't know."

"There's no connection to appearing in that space, no way to jump start it. Other than turn on that death device or stick a wire into my eye." 
He sounded disappointed. 

"There's just so much I don't understand. I thought I'd be able to figure out how to talk to Giannis. I'd really like to in a space where I have time, and no stakes."
Keith
Danica stares at him with a far-away sort of glance. 

Why does he feel like he has to get so dire for this? 

"None of us understand."

She walked over to close and take back the laptop. She touched his shoulder. She took his empty cup, too.
Lula
Dae-hyun was stuck in his head. She wouldn't like what he wanted to do, he knew this. 

The gesture of her hand on his shoulder was appreciated, and he gave her a soft kind of look, but he was clearly distracted. 

"I'll try something else some other time." He gave a sort of wry smile, and went to stand up. 

"Again, I really appreciate the help. I'll go give this thing back to Akvilė."
Keith
"Ok."

There was a sour taste left in her mouth. She had a nasty feeling that Dae-hyun was going to end up getting himself killed in the name of nothing. Setting himself on fire to protest against someone on the other side of the restaurant getting the wrong order.
Lula
The boy looked at Danica, and her conflicted gaze. He could tell she was bothered by him, and this wouldn't be the first time she'd think him foolish for his actions. 

He couldn't understand not wanting to do everything you could to help someone in need. Clearly Giannis needed it. 

He grabbed the Maskelynophone, placed it in his bag, and headed towards the door, but paused. 

"Lets, get some pastries sometime, yeah? There's a nice place in town we can go. No, conspiracy bullshit."
Keith
She breathed.

"Ok. No conspiracy bullshit."

Half of her really didn't want to let him be nice to her. He was going to get himself seriously hurt one of these days.
Lula
"Okay." He smiled, a genuine soft smile, and left. 

———

Now in the hallway, Dae-hyun was faced with a decision. 
Akvilė, or his own dorm. His stomach twisted with the idea of lying to Danica. 
As much as he wanted to, he didn't. 

Towards Akvilė's dorm he went. A part of him hoped and prayed that a slip would just happen right then and there and he'd disappear into the mind space. 

However he knew the chances of this were incredibly unlikely. 
Disappointment plagued him.