h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*the dealer lays down the river -- which turns out to be the two of hearts*

*all the bots turn their heads and stare at Santra*

*In one corner of the lab, what appears to be a pile of miscellaneous glassware and rubber stoppers shifts slightly so that two of the rubber stoppers track Runescribe as she walks around the room.*

*notices the stoppers moving and flinches*

*gets off duffle, removes mufflewhump*

*takes mufflewhump to Solnuska*

Sol, would you rather find shoes or make some?

*enters and immediately spots his elf standing wide eyed in the middle of a very strange room*

*waddles up to Titania*

Meep!

*curious, the fairy flutters towards the pile of stoppers and glassware*

Runescribe, I could swear these are following you!

*watches as two more swing in her direction*

Uh... Runes... they *are* following us. Not quite so funny...

*goes slightly closer to investigate*

*takes a step towards the stoppers, and thinks about picking them up*

If we all forget the card game for looking at these moving things, would that make them show-stoppers?

*considers explaining to the robots that the theory was just speculating*

Errrm...

*whispers* Would this be a good time to try the key with two red stripes, Lil?

*given the way the bots are looking at Santra, David thinks a distraction may be in order, so moves in the direction of Runescribe and Vip, and begins carefully executing a double time step, and intense look of concentration on his face as his feet clack rhythmically*

*wishes he'd brought his tap shoes, but quite likes the sound his talons make on the nice hard floor*

*Keeps his eye on the apparently cheating bot*

*The collection of glassware and stoppers, realizing that it has been noticed, slowly unfolds itself, standing up on two large graduated cylinders, an Erlenmeyer flask for a torso, large beaker for a chest and a Florence flask for a head. The glassware is held together by rubber stoppers and rubber tubing, with two rubber stoppers located where you would imagine eyes would be. An assemblage of burettes and pipettes of various sizes form arms and fingers, which, at the moment, are covering it's eyes, in an attempt to hide. An unsuccessful attempt, since it can easily see right through its own fingers.

Slowly, it takes its hands away from its eyes and backs farther into the corner. There is a tinkle of glass as it quietly shakes in fear.*

*flip, quack, flip, quack, giggle, sigh*

Okay, better get back to finding the light switch.

*flip, hissing sound, followed a minute later by the sound of a balloon popping*

Oooo, the squid inflator! Hope that didn't get on anything important.

*flip, distant clang of iron door opening.*

Hope that cell was empty.

Ooh poor thing. Makes soothing noises as if attempting to calm a cat..

*here nothing to worry about, we're friendly..*

*stops tapping, as the glassware is clearly more distracting than a dancing owl*

Um? Hello? We come in peace. I think.

*after a final round of betting, the bots reveal their hands. The bot who did the sleight-of-hand has 4 queens. But another one of the bots has a queen in his hand*

David, Santra, I think you're right. In printing, magenta and yellow make red. But we ought to see if we can communicate with this fragile fellow first.

Um, I'm probably the least threatening being here...

*walks in front of all the flesh folk*

Hello

*looks at Ripley*

Still not too big for a ride, eh?

*bends to allow Ripley to wrap his arms around her neck and then straigthens up, nicely balanced both front and back due to backpack*

Eh, this might be a stupid question, but what would happen if we were to try all the keys one after one? Would too many false attempts trigger some kind of alarm?

*Runes waves at the glass creature in its usual cheerful and uncommunicative fashion*

"Hello!"

I think if we used the wrong key we'd have an orange button situation. But David B had a good idea -- he noticed that the keys are in RGB and that the lock strips might be in CMYK. All you have to do is compare color charts.

*regards the glass entity* Someone as fragile as that has probably got a strong defense mode. I think we should be careful. Hallo there, can you speak?

Maybe it would feel more comfortable with something stuffed, and soft. That way it wouldn't need to worry about getting broken...