Search Requests

[glencolans]

SEARCH REQUESTS

At game start, the map is completely unexplored and covered by a "fog of war" obscuring its features. New characters will be randomly dropped onto the island's shores; from there, to uncover tiles on the map and figure out more about where they are, search requests are required to document movement, attempt to uncover hidden materials and passages, discover or confront dangers, find old ruins and create new settlements, and potentially, solve puzzles related to the mystery of the island itself.

RULES AND GUIDELINES

• Search requests are a required mechanic of this game. A search request for the current AC cycle must be submitted in order to pass AC without a strike.
• Mistakes in search requests will never be penalized. Don't be afraid to eyeball a distance or make an approximate guess; if the math doesn't quite match up, or the path doesn't exist, I will offer alternate destinations and work with you in order to decide how the search request will resolve.
• Search requests will rarely be immediately fatal. Unless your character is doing something intentionally reckless, I will do my best to offer paths of escape for any sudden dangers that arise.
• You can be as precise or as vague as you want. If you want to exactly plot out the squares your character will travel through and search every IC day, that is totally fine. It's also fine to simply report that your character is staying in one place all month, or to give a starting point and a desired destination, with a general request to search a wide area. Just note that, the more vague you are in your request, the more I will extrapolate to fill in the blanks.
• Retroactive/backdated search requests are allowed. They just can't be used for the current month's AC if they fall outside of the current month's AC period, or overwrite a previously submitted search request. Forward-dated search requests are also allowed as long as they fall within the same IC day that the request was posted (for example, if you post a search request on IC Day 30 morning, you can make that search request last for the entirety of IC day 30, not just the morning of).
• Thoroughly searching a square, rather than just traveling through it, halves movement through that square. So if you choose to search every square along a path, you'll only travel half as far as someone moving with purpose to a destination. Remember that simply traveling through a square will still fully reveal it.
• IC Days are split into three 8-hour increments. Each of these corresponds to one OOC day. Morning is from 4AM -> 11:59AM, Day is from 12PM -> 7:59PM, and Night is 8PM -> 3:59AM.
• Several examples of search requests are provided below to help illustrate how they work. If you still have questions, please ask them in the FAQ (or in your search request!).

MAP REFERENCE/TRAVEL CONDITIONS

TRAVEL CONDITIONS | IC DAYS 15 → 17

MORNING

DAY

NIGHT

BEACH

OCEAN*

JUNGLE

FOOTHILLS

MOUNTAINS

4 squares/hour
(32 total)
3 square visibility

4 squares/hour
(32 total)
5 square visibility

4 squares/hour
(32 total)
1 square visibility

2 squares/hour
(16 total)
3 square visibility

2 squares/hour
(16 total)
5 square visibility

2 squares/hour
(16 total)
1 square visibility

2 squares/hour
(16 total)
1 square visibility

2 squares/hour
(16 total)
1 square visibility

1 square/hour
(8 total)
0 square visibility

2 squares/hour
(16 total)
2 square visibility

2 squares/hour
(16 total)
3 square visibility

1 square/hour
(8 total)
1 square visibility

1 square/hour
(8 total)
5 square visibility

1 square/hour
(8 total)
7 square visibility

1 square/hour
(8 total)
3 square visibility

*The average human can only tread water for three hours

LEGEND

- Preexisting Structure

- Ocean

- Reef

- Deep Water

- River

- Natural Landmark

- Beach

- Jungle

- Mangroves

- Character-Made Landmark

- Foothills

- Mountain

Click on any of the map tiles for details.

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

SUBMISSIONS

# | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
All new characters will be given a toplevel to this post. To submit a search request, fill out the below form and copy/paste it as a response to your toplevel.

<b>IC DATES:</b> <b>STARTING SQUARE:</b> <b>ENDING SQUARE:</b> <b>DETAILS:</b>

IC DATES: The IC dates the search request covers (I would also recommend putting this in the subject line to make it easier to keyword search later). You can use whole days, partial days, or a combination of either. To verify what IC days line up with real-world days and events, consult the Calendar.

STARTING SQUARE: The square your character is starting their search request on, format TILE.COLUMN.ROW. This should line up with your previous search request, or your starting location if newly arrived/revived.

ENDING SQUARE: The square your character is ending their search request on. If you're not sure where they'll end up (the area is unexplored/your character has a vague idea of where they want to go/you're not sure on the math/etc.), you can give a more rough answer here. Something like "they want to make it to Tile II," or "as close to II.AA.3 as possible" are perfectly valid answers.

DETAILS: The meat of your request. This is where you describe:

1. The path your character is taking,
2. The squares you want them to search,
3. Any special actions your character is taking during this period of time (or inaction), and
4. Any other special notes or questions you might have about this request.

Again, you can provide as much or as little information as you want; saying that your character is simply moving from point A to point B without searching anything is 100% acceptable.

NAVIGATION

Comments

[aluminumandash]

He’ll take one of the willow shoots and whittle one end to a point with his knife (if necessary he’ll also whittle the whole thing down so it’s thin enough to fit through the bars), then extend it between the bars and attempt to prod at the panel.

(If willow shoots aren’t sturdy enough for this, he’ll give it a go with the knife itself—the blade’s a little over three inches.)

He’ll also eat a mango, and keep an eye on the cockroach (as much as possible while doing all this)—where’s it going? If it leaves the room, how does it leave?

[glencolans]

Night 003
Hour 6: III.J.25 (whittling a willow shoot)

The willow shoot is long and thin enough to fit through the bars, but a little too bendy to do much more than prod limply at the panel. His knife has a more firm action to it, but aside from leaving a few marks in the tempered metal, he doesn't make much headway. If he were on the other side of that cell, maybe he could wedge the knife under the panel to get at the meat inside...unfortunately Rust just isn't at the right angle for that where he is.

Hour 7: III.J.25 (eating and watching the wildlife)

The cockroach stays mostly stationary on the floor on the other side of the room, antennae twitching. But when Rust diverts his attention for a moment to navigate the pith of his mango and looks back, the cockroach has disappeared.

Rust has 1 hour remaining before Morning 004.

[aluminumandash]

Rust’ll set out the peel/remains of the mango near the entrance to the cell, in case he can lure the roach into reappearing, but he won’t dedicate his full attention to it.

He’ll then try to reach one of the non-functioning lights in the cell’s ceiling, via…standing on the toilet. He’ll try to remove the panel, using his knife for leverage/ the tip as a poor man’s screwdriver if necessary. He's trying to get his hands on a lightbulb, get an idea of how the place is wired, or maybe someone stashed something up there...

Following that, he’ll spend some time talking on the network/contemplating mortality, and then turn his attention to the physical components of his walkie. He’ll attempt to unscrew the back panel, using: his knife, the keys to his handcuffs, and/or the prong of his belt on the screw.

How thick are the building’s walls? (Assuming he would’ve been able to get a sense of this when he was at the door.)

[glencolans]

It's hard to tell just how thick the walls are from his current position. The wall near the front door, though, was extremely dense - the door itself was nearly six inches of pure metal and it was covered entirely by concrete on either side when fully retracted. A foot of concrete, maybe?

Night 003
Hour 8: III.J.25

The mango refuse is left on the ground while Rust hikes his way onto the toilet. It takes a lot of stabbing and levering and cracking plastic away from screws, but eventually the panel over the lights comes off, revealing a strip of LED lights. They don't look obviously broken, but they definitely aren't turning on, either. It looks like they're fastened in place near the ends with screws, and there's something dark, like the head of a large nail, showing from underneath the opaque LED casing directly in the center.

Morning 004
Hour 1: III.J.25 (network contemplations)

While Rust is messing around on the network, he'll notice a drone - the one closest to the door - slowly rev up, lift off, and then exit the building. The damaged front door seems to struggle to open for it, but there's just enough room for the large robot to fit, and it's graceful as ever when navigating the gap.

Hour 2: III.J.25

Rust's knife works well enough as an impromptu screwdriver for the hex-head screw in the back of his transceiver. However, the first affirmative twist causes an inexplicable shock of pain through Rust's sternum. It's quick, but doesn't completely fade as long as the screw is left loose. Does he continue?

Rust has 6 hours remaining before Day 004.

[aluminumandash]

I'm sorry to say...he will stop, take his pulse, and then keep going. He'll stop if the pain spreads to somewhere other than his sternum or after two more jolts 🙃

[glencolans]

His pulse will be elevated from the pain, likely, but not to a dangerous degree. This will only get worse the more he fiddles with the screw. Each twist produces another jolt, and by three total, Rust is probably going to be in rough shape. Some significant underlying discomfort will remain for as long as the screw remains loose, radiating from the center of his chest out through his ribcage.

[aluminumandash]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

He'll take his pulse again (I'm sure the results will be great...), then try to take a break in the hopes the pain will subside. After a minute or so he'll give in and twist the screw back into place.

Then he'll probably (assuming in he's in any condition to do so), like, chill on the floor for a while.

[glencolans]

His pulse is rapid, but steady, and once the screw is put back into place - with a few more pangs of discomfort - the pain will immediately start to lessen, going away completely after about an hour of rest.

Rust has 5 hours remaining before Day 004.

[aluminumandash]

Time to pick himself up off the floor! He’ll drink a little water (like, a sip, he doesn’t have much) and turn his attention back to the lights.

He’ll get up on the toilet and attempt to unscrew the screws holding the LED lights in place, once again using his knife as an impromptu screwdriver. If that doesn’t work or the screws are too far to reach, he’ll attempt to pry the casing off (using the knife for leverage) or crack it open with the knife handle.

[glencolans]

Rust can manage the screws closest to the toilet side of the cell, but the ones on the other end are too far away for him to reach - he'll have to lever the whole thing off, which will destroy most of the lights in the process. Rust ends up with a small strip of LEDs and some broken pieces of plastic. The bit in the center (broken) seems to have been some kind of plug, leading to a simple, circular outlet in the ceiling.

Rust has 4 hours remaining before Day 004.

[aluminumandash]

Wow, we love creating garbage. The light-related detritus will get dumped on the floor semi-haphazardly, then he’ll go back for a closer look at the plug and outlet—he’ll try to remove the broken plug by hand if it’s not…just metal…but if it looks iffy he’ll grab one of the broken bits of plastic and try using that to work it free. He’ll want to inspect the outlet if he can—he has zero electrical expertise so he’ll basically just be eyeballing it and also trying to see if it was installed sloppily/carefully/somewhere in the middle (oh, and whether it looks like a standard American outlet or something else).

Realistically, he’s also spending a good chunk of time on the walkie about now.

[glencolans]

The plug itself had been built into the light fixture and is basically just one solid metal prong. Closer inspection (once he pries it out of the outlet) will reveal slight groves in the sides, which are not mirrored. The outlet only has one hole in it to match the plug. Rust is not at a good angle while standing on top of the toilet to get more detail than that, and it's too far above his head while standing on the floor to see what the outlet's insides look like from there, either.

Rust spends 2 hours doing this and chatting, leaving him with 2 hours remaining before Day 004.

[aluminumandash]

After all that time chatting, Rust will do some light stretching. Then he’ll take off his belt, take the laces out of his shoes, and unknot his tie. He’ll tie all of this together as securely as possible (he’s very good with knots), attaching his handcuffs to the end, leaving the farthest cuff unlocked. (It’d probably go—belt, which he’d hold in his hand, shoelace, tie, shoelace, cuffs.)

He’ll then try to feed this, uh, rope-like assemblage through the bars in the direction of the desk, the ultimate goal being to snap the cuff around one of the desk’s legs, then pull it toward him. (He’s prepared for a lot of frustration and a lot of time spent wiggling the thing just to get a feel for how it moves, but he'll give up if it's clearly impossible.)

[glencolans]

It takes most of an hour to wiggle his makeshift limp rope around, but amazingly, Rust does manage to eventually snag the nearest leg of the desk. Unfortunately, a single firm tug will reveal the sad truth: The table appears to be bolted into the floor. His knots are more likely to come undone than he is to pull the table out of concrete, especially with the materials he's using.

Rust has 1 hour remaining before Day 004.

[aluminumandash]

AHAAHAHAHAHHAHAH he spends the next hour swearing.

But really...there is some swearing. He'll then take a break and smoke a cigarette. He'll come back to the rope ("rope") after that and make an attempt to change his angle/slide the cuff further up the desk leg and tug, then concede defeat. When drone shift change happens, he'll wiggle it around/slide the cuff up and down just to see if it attracts any attention, but it’ll be semi-idle.

Once we're into day 004 🙌 Martin 🙌 will tell him about opening the cells by luring the drones to the door...leaving him many, many hours to ponder. (If drone arrival/departure coincides with the announcements, Rust’ll use that to keep track of time.)

He will: eat another mango and observe the drones and their docking stations for about an hour, trying to discern: any patterns in the lights, whether the drones have any obvious (…to someone from 1995) sensors, how and where they’re connected to the stations, and if the stations have any visible cords/plugs.

He’ll also experiment with drawing their attention (which I don’t anticipate yielding any results, but you know). Antics will include: lighting his lighter and extending the flame through the bars, cutting off a chunk of the mattress and flicking it at them, and making noise by banging the lid of the toilet tank down, as well as some good old-fashioned yelling.

All that out of the way, get ready for Even Worse Rope! He’ll try to cut a horizontal slit through the center of a willow shoot—if successful, he’ll thread toilet paper through it, wrapping the end of the roll around the shoot and tying it in whatever semblance of a knot one-ply will allow. If unsuccessful at carving the slit, he’ll wrap even more of the toilet paper around the shoot (over and over and over), knot it as best he can, moisten it with…toilet water (doing his best not to touch the water himself)…and allow it to dry.

Then he’ll wait. Right before the next changing of the drones (as soon as he hears one approach), he’ll unroll about 30 feet of toilet paper and twist it to make it slightly stronger. He’ll try to throw the willow shoot like a dart at the drone that’s leaving, hoping to hit it. Regardless of whether it hits, he’ll attempt to haul the willow shoot back towards his cell while shaking the toilet paper to create as much movement as possible (without breaking it, since it is…one ply…).

[glencolans]

Morning 004
Hour 8: III.J.25 (a solid hour of swearing)

Day 004
Hour 1: III.J.25

Another drone slips its way through the jammed front door, settling onto the empty pedestal. The drone next to it revs and lifts off to take its place. Rust's jiggling table tether does not seem to distract it as it exits the building.

Hour 2 - 8: III.J.25 (assorted antics)

The blinking lights on the pedestals flicker on and off on a regular, coordinated cadence, flashing once every five seconds or so. Or at least that's how they start off; the longer Rust watches, the longer it takes for the lights to flash, taking about seven seconds per tick by the end of Day 004. It's a subtle change, but still noticeable.

The drones themselves only have one obvious sensor visible: A small, circular aperture in the center of their chassis between their forward-facing prongs, covered with clear glass. It's hard to make out what's behind the glass from Rust's position across the room. They seem like they're just sitting directly on the pedestals, with no connections leading to or from them whatsoever, and the stations are inscrutable solid blocks of metal with a few discrete seams in the front.

None of Rust's fire- or noise-related antics seem to cause any reaction in the dormant drones.

Night 004
Hour 1: III.J.25

Just like before, one drone enters and parks, another one leaves, but this time Rust is prepared. His improvised willow-shoot projectile exits the thin space between bars and, with remarkable precision and accuracy, spears the departing drone in a rotor. The drone drops like a rock and just barely manages to stabilize before hitting the ground, other four rotors whirring furiously to compensate for the broken one.

The previously-soaked toilet paper has a little bit more structural integrity, but not much. It breaks almost immediately after colliding with the drone. However, that trailing bit of makeshift papier-mâché still comes in handy, as the unsteady drone wobbles in a drunken circle and another rotor becomes tangled in it. At this point it can no longer feasibly remain airborne and clatters to the floor.

Rust has 7 hours remaining before Morning 005.

[aluminumandash]

YESSSSS TP'D TO DEATH

How far is the downed drone from Rust?

[glencolans]

Roughly halfway between Rust and the front door - let's say 13 feet away.

[aluminumandash]

Roger that! An hour of jubilant swearing ensues.

He'll deliberately try to break rope #1 (the menswear rope) by yanking on it abruptly and forcefully at an upward angle—the goal being, naturally, to salvage as much of the rope as possible. But the knots he tied are very strong, so this might take a while/might not even happen at all.

If his attempts don't yield anything within an hour he'll stop and reassess.

[glencolans]

It takes Rust a better part of that hour to do it, but he does eventually manage to yank the other makeshift cloth rope loose, snapping at the shoelace closest to the cuffs.

Rust now has 5 hours remaining before Morning 005 (on account of the excited swearing).

[aluminumandash]

And Rust, being a normal person, puts the laces back in his shoes…ahahahahaahhaah just kidding.

Okay, so he’s going to try to make a mini-bow and arrow using a willow shoot and a shoelace (the one that isn’t frayed). He grew up bow hunting for years and years (though he hasn’t done it in some time), so he does know how to shape and string a bow. He’ll use his knife for carving/cutting notches in the wood.

If this is successful, he’ll fashion the remaining willow shoot (the one he originally whittled to prod at the card reader outside the cell) into sort-of-an arrow: he’ll cut it down (whatever’s proportional to the bow), sharpen and harden the tip with the aid of his knife and lighter, and cut a notch into the other end.

He’ll take off his shirt (that’s right folks!!) and cut the sleeves off, then make another rope using sleeves, tie, belt, and remaining shoelace. After some practice shots with the bow inside the cell (but not too many), he’ll attach the rope to the arrow via a knot. (It’ll go—arrow, shoelace, tie, sleeves 1 and 2, belt.)

Then he’ll try to shoot…this thing…at the drone, aiming to lodge it in a rotor or anywhere that looks like a good sticking point. He has a ton of experience bow hunting, but it’s been a really long time and the materials at hand are, shall we say, suboptimal.

(Also: the book I used for research says the bow will lose its spring after a certain number of uses since the wood isn’t seasoned, so he can’t attempt this indefinitely.)

If he’s unable to work the willow shoot into a bow, he’ll attempt pretty much the same thing but he’ll be throwing the arrow by hand. (If the bow creation/stringing takes longer than three hours, he'll also switch to this method.)

Also he’ll put his shirt back on.

In the event that the arrow does hit its mark, he'll try to haul it in the direction of the cell, even using the belt as leverage by looping it around the bars of the cell, threading it through the buckle, and pulling (hopefully that makes sense...)

[glencolans]

Fashioning the bow and improvised arrow, plus preliminary testing to check if the contraption even works (it does, just about), takes the better part of 3 hours. Threading the arrow through the tiny gaps in the cell door while still being able to aim the bow behind it is another thing entirely. Rust's considerable experience with bow hunting should tell him after the first few attempts that the poor angle plus heavily improvised materials simply isn't going to work in his favor, so I imagine he'd give up soon after that and go for the "direct spear throwing" method instead.

The alternative - though just as clumsy - does allow Rust more attempts. After several more hours (just before the start of Morning 005, let's say), Rust is finally able to snag the drone firmly by the carapace, which a tug confirms is good enough to hold it in place while he cinches the drone towards him across the floor. When the drone is about a foot away from the cell, the door lifts open on its own.

Of course, the belt is still wrapped around the bars, and the drone is still attached to the other side of it. The drone goes up and swings wildly into the cell, its prongs crackling to life with electricity.

[aluminumandash]

AHAHAHA AN EVIL PINATA

How quickly does the door open? Does it open smoothly? (And because I have trouble picturing shit—how does it open? Retracting into the ceiling, swinging outwards, something else?)

[glencolans]

The door opens pretty quickly and smoothly - within the span of a few seconds, and without slowing down when it starts dragging the drone with it. It seems to retract completely into the ceiling.

[aluminumandash]

As soon as he loses his grip on the belt (which I’m assuming has happened by the time the drone’s swinging around), Rust will scramble to the back of the cell and grab the toilet tank lid, which he’ll hold in front of himself like a shield.

If the drone’s coming at him fast, he’ll try to deflect with the lid (or smack the drone toward the ground if he’s really lucky) while grabbing for his discarded bow (“bow”) and trying to jam it in the rotors. He’ll try to move in the direction of his shit (which is mostly in a neat pile in his suit jacket…except for his shoes rip) as he does this, but his priority will be neutralizing the drone.

If the drone’s moving slowly/doesn’t seem to have zeroed in on him, he’ll dart to the mattress, put down the toilet tank lid, and lmao hide under the mattress while moving turtle-style (but faster, he knows shift change is coming…) toward the door to the cell, gripping the mattress from underneath. When he’s close to the door (but not directly under it, THANKS), he’ll thrust the entire mattress beneath where the door would descend, trying to block it from closing all the way. Then he’ll probably…get zapped, but he’d roll away from the mattress (into the cell) and would have his knife at the ready, trying to fend off the drone with it.

EDIT: ACTUALLY sorry for the late edit and feel free to disregard, but in the event he goes the mattress route, it'd make so much more sense for him to be on his back when he does it! Harder to keep track of where he is spatially, but he'd stop every so often and like...tip his head back/look from side to side.