ROOK: To help out with the Candypaluna mission, I recruited Gordon...
GORDON: Hello there, friends! I'm here to read books and take names.
ROOK: ...and put him in the basement, bumping Pinky to the first floor. After optimizing the basement, I sent its occupants to deal with the Candypaluna problem, and went back to the beach. I decided to speak with Buddy.
ROOK: Let's review what we learned here, Buddy.
BUDDY: Crabs are dangerous in large numbers? Always wear a helmet when jumping through fire? Krakens love tea?
ROOK: I meant what we learned about Morcu Corp's activities on the beach...
BUDDY: Oh, right. Sure thing, pal. I'm ready if you are!
ROOK: Yeah, let's figure this out.
BUDDY: I'm with you, pal!
ROOK: We went to the bottom of the stairs, for some reason.
ROOK: All the pieces are starting to fall into place.
BUDDY: They sure are, pal! But tell me how just in case I have no idea what's going on.
ROOK: Mr. Suckers was angry because something was intruding upon his deep sea territory. Yuki set up Morcu Corp's MUBA shop as a front so she could operate her submarine at night.
BUDDY: So Yuki is looking for something deep underwater in her sub.
ROOK: Look. If you had something that Morcubus really wanted, what would you do?
BUDDY: Get it away from Morcubus!
ROOK: Right. Would you put it on a ship and sail it somewhere far away?
BUDDY: Sure, maybe, but after the ship arrived there would be records of the cargo and passengers, right?
ROOK: Unless the ship never arrived. What if Cyrus and Dr. Gray tried to move the Nightmare Crown, but the ship it was on sank?
BUDDY: That's it!! Yuki's trying to salvage a sunken ship! We've got to find out what she's after.
ROOK: But how are we going to do that? We don't have a submarine.
BUDDY: Yeah, just a stupid, useless jet.
DR. F: I WILL ASSIST YOU!
ROOK: Dr. F! How's your day going?
DR. F: Great! Just sunbathing with my robot.
TOBOR: I told him I converted to solar power. Got me a day at the beach!
DR. F: I respect your religious beliefs! You can use Tobor for your deep sea salvage. I specifically engineered him to operate remotely under several atmospheres of pressure.
ROOK: Wow! That's convenient. Good thing we stood there to talk!
DR. F: Not really. I also programmed him with an irrational fear of kelp.
TOBOR: Kelp? Kelp?!! No! Don't make me go!
BUDDY: Is he okay?
TOBOR: ...It's so slimy.
DR. F: He will be fine! You just hack into Tobor's brain and reprogram him. And I will question my decision to artificially induce kelpophobia in a robot.
ROOK: Thanks, Dr. F!
DR. F: Wait! Where did I leave Tobor's remote control?!
ROOK: I started with the hacking thing, then went to find the remote. It was in a pile of sand on the far side of the beach.
DJ CANDY: ''Wow, what a great space crew, Rook! They're brave, in good physical shape — they've definitely got the correct stuff! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, LIFTOFF!
WE HAVE A LIFTOFF!''
ROOK: Unfortunately, it needed repair... and a battery. I started by salvaging spare radar reflector parts. The weirdest place I found one was in a gumball machine. While at the opposite end of the beach from it (why I didn't go ahead and pck it up to take with me is beyond me), I asked Dr. F if I might need anything to make it work. He gave me a battery, and I went back to fix the remote. ...Okay, I know I grabbed more than two items identified as reflectors. Anyway, repair complete, I popped in the battery. Before I went to see the doc, however, I'd have to find out where to go.
ELMIRA: I was excited about all the heavy lifting, but there's so little gravity on the moon that I'm not even breaking a sweat! Where's the fun?
ROOK: To this end, I went to the secret dock. I found the sonar station in need of repair! A quick salvage job and repair later, it was up and running. I tried to get the coordinates from the terminal, but the security system was too advanced.
Yeah, it didn't even present us with a scrolling maze.
ROOK: I picked the lock on some lockers and found... a password disc. Indeed, it let me interface with the comm station! I reformatted the station after I was done with it... and got some more games for the arcade machine! I needed someone who knew the underwater area better. My best option? Go see Mr. Suckers!
CLARA: That's by his undersea cave! There's a sunken ship there with a chest holding a strange piece of paper with a big X on it.
ROOK: I thanked them, and went to see the doc.
Hey, a figurine! It has "real tentacle action".
ROOK: ...I don't wanna think about that.
ROOK: Hey, Doc, I'm ready to send Tobor underwater.
DR. F: Finally. I almost altered the time-space continuum to skip all this waiting. Robot, into the waves with you! Submerge, I say!
ROOK: I fit the radio receiver into him.
TOBOR: Perfect, Rook! And thanks for everything. Life's great now that I'm over my kelpophobia!
BUDDY: Good for you, Tobor!
TOBOR: But now I'm terrified of... squirrels!!!
DR. F: Good enough!
ROOK: I started using the remote, and walked him underwater. One nice thing was that he had rockets in his feet, allowing him to jump high, even underwater. Also, he had all the same tools that I did. ... I won't bore you with the details; suffice it to say that, along with a number of objects—
A hypnodisc, a collection of sofas, a bench, a pink and blue bunny, and a jade dragon.
ROOK: —and outfit components—
A white ninja outfit and an eyepatch.
ROOK: —in the makelike depths, Tobor found three chests, each with a part of a combination on it.
DJ CANDY: Alright, your team successfully landed on the moon and have begun to set up the concert stage. Looking good, Rook!
ROOK: He used it to unlock a hatch, though he had to F-space it the rest of the way. At the end of the passage was a sunken ship with the map in a chest. He brought it back. It was a map to a temple in the jungle! There was even handwriting on the back:
Ivy, keep this safe. No one knows where this crown is going!ROOK: Finally, a real lead to the location of the crown.
(New dispatch missions! And a Turkey-on-a-Fork uniform.)
ROOK: At HQ—
You got a replica of Tobor's remote, and a suit of armor outfit!
ROOK: Uh, okay. Why didn't I get that with the other stuff? Anyway—
GORDON: Did you know that the moon was formed from the collision between the Earth and another planet billions of years ago? I read all about it in the moon's autobiography "The Earth and I: A Lunar Reflection."
ROOK: ...Okay, I've spoken with a yeti, a zombie, and a kraken, but a moon? I'm just going to assume that someone wrote it and intended for the reader to pretend it was autobiographical. Probably a book for young Sims. Anyway, before we left, I spoke with Roxie...
ROOK: Hey Roxie, what do you know about jungle temples?
ROXIE: Rook! A temple in the jungle?! Centuries old filth! Decay! Mold! And... and old dust!
ROOK: Um... Roxie...
ROXIE: I know, let's just go swimming in the sewers and bathe in the industrial runoff from Morcu Corp's factories!!
ROOK: Roxie, I think you need a vacation.
ROOK: ...and some others.
ROOK: Hey Leaf.
LEAF: How ancient is this temple you're going to? My cousin used to build temples. His name is Acorn.
ROOK: We arrived in the jungle. I advised Evelyn to stay by the jet — Buddy agreed, saying he wanted anything bad to happen to me first — but she wanted to come along. We took a look at the temple from our nice vantage point. Pretty impressive, but the entrance seemed to be rather high up. I figured it might have something to do with the four pedestals. Just as we were wondering about our guide, she came up to us, exclaiming about everything. She introduced herself as Lyndsay, our guide. We introduced ourselves, and I asked her if it was her first time to the temple. ...Not only that, but it was her first time to this jungle. However, she said she did a lot of online research... none of which said how to get in. My first tip was to examine the pedestals. The one to the far left said:
Hold purest water in ornate cup / and the temple may just open upROOK: I doubted that was all there would be to it, so I checked the one beside it:
A magic torch locked safely away, / bring it afire to light the way.ROOK: And the one right of center:
Find Magellan with necklace of stone, / and put this lemur critter upon this throne.ROOK: And the one to the far right:
Find a horn and then a player / unlock this temple's final layer.ROOK: Water, fire, earth, and wind. I decided to poke around the camp somebody left. There's a laptop, without power. I also found pith helmets in the tent, and tiki behind it. I set off across the stone bridge to the right. I found a pair of shrines. I talked to a creepy guy, Sir Vincent Skullfinder, blocking the entrance to one of them. I proposed that we work together, but he didn't think we'd be any help.
DJ CANDY: Amazing! Rook, while setting up the concert, your crew uncovered a [[2001ASpaceOdyssey mysterious black monolith buried under the lunar surface! Did aliens build it?]] What should they do?
ROOK: I advised them to touch it; I mean, they might get some kind of cool power. On the other hand, they might be transported to a set of white rooms where nothing works and watch themselves get older until they turn into space fetuses.
That may be weirder than any of the references I've made...
ROOK: Hmm. Maybe. At any rate, the campsite was almost certainly his. I went back, but this time to the temple. I climbed up some stones to the side, and up a rope to a grassy area with a waterfall. I found a pump up there, but it was broken. I also found a laptop battery, and a chest with a tent in it! I did all the salvaging I could, then popped the battery into the laptop, and hacked it. I found out that Skullfinder was a greedy treasure hunter calling himself a museum curator. I figured I might be able to trade him something for access to the shrine. He wanted the golden idol of the Bobabians for it. Fine. I F-spaced some blocks into a column and hopped my way up, then picked a lock and F-spaced its door.
DJ CANDY: They touched the monolith and got warped to a distant alien planet! Apparently, the aliens communicate by glow stick. We're going to make Sapphire our ambassador and ask her to decipher their language so they can help us.
ROOK: Nice. Anyway, I entered the shrine. I was able to salvage a set of spare parts from the Jack-in-the-Box, but before I left, I wanted to grab the contents of the chests. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them open using normal methods. I had to bounce light around with mirrors to get them to open!
ROGER: Aww, this low gravity makes exercising too easy! Next time, let's hit up Jupiter. 2.36 Gs! Now that would be a workout!
ROOK: My rewards for doing this: a set of masks, a torch, a cup, and the idol! Something to boost agents' skills, the torch for the Fire Pedestal, the cup to hold water in, and something to bribe Skullfinder with! I set to the last activity quickly. He made fun of me, thinking I got a raw deal, but that's his loss. A chest on a block scored me some Smarts-boosting tunes. I also found an agent's outfit inside a sarcophagus. But the major thing I would be looking for was in a stone chest.
I repaired its lock mechanism and pulled out... a horn! I left the temple and went back to the pump to repair it. After that, I had Roxie analyze it.
ROXIE: It's...it's beautiful!! This water is completely pure! Rook, you have to bring me some!!!
ROOK: I got down, and headed off to the left in the direction of a gigantic tree. I stopped at its roots and snagged a statue, and a voodoo doll. Then I formed stairs from blocks to get up a cliff. I figured the last call for the mission would be coming in soon, so I hung around at the base.
DJ CANDY: Alright! Your team is back on Earth, and the concert is all set up. Can't wait to go check it out myself. Candypaluna will sound great in the vacuum of space!
ROOK: And there it was. I went back to HQ to see Jenny.
JENNY: I heard DJ Candy's Candypluna was a success! And without any prior astronaut experience, to boot. I must admit, I'm somewhat impressed.
(Rewards: a DJ booth and the "Music That Moves You" mission! So, here are the new missions!)
- Blade of Destiny
STAR: The Blade of Destiny has been stolen from my village. I suspect a rival ninja clan, but I need help tracking them down and recovering the blade.
5 stars. 15 minutes. Athletic/Charismatic. New object and recruit.
- Music That Moves You
DJ CANDY: I'm trying a new genre: beats that attack the listener's brain and directly stimulate their dance cortex. You can't not dance to this music! Just need a few people to test it on—I mean, party with!
3 stars. 15 minutes. Paranormal/Smarts. New Outfits and Trophy.
- Tobor's Destiny
TOBOR: Greetings, human. Help please. I've been working for Dr. F for a while now, but feel I must have been built for some greater purpose. Right? Get back to me, will ya?
4 stars. Smarts/Charismatic. 20 minutes. New Outfits and Object.
- Writer's Block
GOTH BOY: Rook, the tedium of my job is destroying my soul. Normally I can just channel my despair into beautiful and haunting poetry, but lately I'm coming up blank. I need someone to help me get past this block before my brain explodes!
4 stars. 20 minutes. Smarts/Paranormal. New Outfits and Object.
I'd probably send Violet on this mission, but if told to do otherwise, well, that's how it'll go.
- Missions
- Blade of Destiny: *****; A/C; Object, Recruit (NEW!)
- The Bushido Code: ***; A/C; Outfits, Object
- Episode X: **; S/P; Object, Trophy
- Equipment Recovery: **; A/S; Outfits, Mission
- The Extremest Case: ****; A/C; Outfits, Object
- F, Robot: ***; S/C; Outfits, Mission
- Failing Forest: ***; N/P; Object, Paint, Recruit
- The Finest Blade: ***; N/S; Outfits, Mission
- Gonk Need Food, Badly: ****; N/A; Object, Recruit
- H 4 XXOR 3 D!: ****; S/C; Object, Recruit
- High School Yearbook: ***; C/P; Object, Mission
- Justice for Justice: *****; A/C; Outfits, Trophy
- Legendary Cheese: *; A/N; Outfits, Trophy
- Magical Assistant: ***; C/P; Object, Mission
- Missing Bugs: **; N/A; Objects
- Music That Moves You: ***; P/S; Outfits, Trophy (NEW!)
- Ol' Gabby's Mine: **; S/N; Objects
- The Prominence: ***; P/S; Outfits
- Reagent Run: **; P/N; Outfits, Recruit
- Red Buddy: ***; P/A; Outfits, Object, Trophy
- Roadie Despair: *; C/S; Objects, Recruit
- The Sadness Parade: **; C/P; Outfits
- Sewer Search: ***; S/N; Object, Trophy
- Snack Thief: ***; S/C; Outfits, Object, Trophy
- Suckers Sabotage!; *****; C/P; Outfits, Trophy
- Surf's Up!: ***; A/C; Outfits
- Tainted Broth: ***; P/N; Object, Paint, Recruit
- Tobor's Destiny: ****; S/C; Outfits, Object (NEW!)
- Writer's Block: ****; S/P; Outfits, Object (NEW!)
- Yeti Begins: **; P/N; Objects, Paint
- Recruits and Recruitables
- Beebee: N,A,3C
- Carl: 3P,N,S
- Elmira: P,N,3S
- Gordon: 5S
- Leaf: 3N,2C
- Ms. Nicole: 4C,S
- Nova: 2P,N,2S
- Pinky: P,4C
- Preston: A,3C,S
- Renée: 3N,2C
- Roger: 5A
- Agent Rosalyn: 2P,3S
- Travis: 3C,2S
- Trevor: 5C
- Agent Vic: 3P,C,S
- Violet: 3P,N,S
- Wolfah: 3N,2A
- Zoe: 4P,S
Next time: Trees and Temples... the last act before the story stalls for a while!
That's right! The end of the story draws nigh, so I hope to have dispatch missions — hopefully four — going on in the meantime so I can get that much closer to the actual end! You've got until I get through:
- another day of Viva Pinata
- another chapter of Yotsuba&!
- another episode of Azumanga Daioh
- another section of Eternal Sonata
- another episode of Garfield And Friends
- another episode of Ichigo Mashimaro
- another episode of Lucky Star
- and another episode of The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya
...to advise me! That's plenty of time... right?
