Part 50: Steam engine room

[Music: Tinderbox]



She managed a small nod before leaning back to rest her head on the wall.





[Music: Quinary Game]

Okay, so... this room might just be my least favourite room.



Every other room has at least something about it that makes it more bearable than this one.



Even the prison, for all the shit you can give it, at least has cool info about Seven in it.

It probably comes from over there and then the belt carries it down the tunnel and out here.
So, if the conveyor belt was moving...
Yes, the coal would almost certainly come out here.



This room, however, is ridiculously large as you might expect. It takes a while to just figure out how to get to where you want to go.



Ah, look at the back wall there.



You mean you think we're supposed to plug something in here?
Perhaps.



It even has the joyous bonus of flatout hiding a very important part. Not in the "it's in a drawer" kinda sense.



The place where you solve one puzzle is in an area that you have no reason to suspect even exists, because you can see it. Except, you can't. You'll see what I mean when we get to it.

I guess a ship this big needs something like that to power it.
True, but I doubt a single boiler of this size could actually move a ship like this at any reasonable speed.



Huh, I guess you know a lot about boats, huh?
Well, not really. It's just common sense, you know?



I know I've been complaining a lot and we've only just started, but there is something nice I can say about it: we don't have to deal with terrible flirting at least.



...Okay, yeah, that was pretty obvious all things considered but could you really call that a bad thing?

If we were to put some coal in here, and ignite it...
Then the steam engine might start working?
It's certainly possible.



Ah, that all out of the way let's actually focus on finding stuff in the room rather than just complaining a lot.



Unfortunately, it's empty.



It'd be just like that old game, remember?



And you tried to jump over the barrels, and make your way to the top...

Y'know, I can't say I was expecting a reference like that in this room of all places.



Other than the stairs upward, it doesn't look like there's anywhere else we can go normally. The arrow leading to the right here will take us to the back of the area too... but it doesn't appear if you haven't been back there yet.



There's not really much back here, other than those stairs upwards though.

...And these things at the back.

Look, Ace!



Those are just bags full of sand.



Man, you're too serious...



Well, we're here now so let's look upstairs here shall we?



There doesn't appear to be much here but we can see that there's... something about those stairs at least.



What's so important?
Look at those stairs... Look at them carefully!



Perfect? Perfect for what...?





Huh?
(Clover's not here... What the hell is he talking about?)

...I would be beginning to think that sometimes Junpei's idiocy is faked just to avoid having to talk to Santa about... well, stuff like THAT.

Then his own thoughts reveal that, no, he's just an idiot.



So, let's look at this door instead.



You think this is...



Looks like this door slides up into the ceiling.



So, what's this pedastal thing right next to it all about then?

What is this...
Given its placement...



There's a weird indentation on the top of this thing. You think that means you have to insert something here?
Yes, I would imagine so.

I suppose we should look for... whatever it is we're meant to put in this thing.



You probably noticed something or other in each of these alcoves to the left of the stairs. They're certainly worth looking at, at least.



It doesn't look like it was always golden like this.
Well then, I imagine it was prepared especially for this game.





Do you think it's made of pure silver?



It's gotta be a steel or iron gear that's been coated with silver.
Ugh... Shouldn't have called it a silver gear then.
Shouldn't have got your hopes up. Were you thinking you'd haul this thing back?



...



We're done downstairs for now, so let's take a look around at what's upstairs for a bit.



It's just a series of, uh... what's the term?



Catwalks, right.

Hey Junpei, I think that catwalk there is like the ones you see up in the tops of theaters, you know? Like, for adjusting the lighting and stuff.
Yeah, I know.
But...what do you call it?



It's...uh...wider than a catwalk...
...



(Anyway, I think I'll still call it a catwalk, for now.)

Before doing anything else, let's look at what's just behind us.



It's kind of hard to tell, but that door there? It has a "C" on it, and it's slightly below the platform we're on. This sounds obvious, if you look back at the A door, but notice how we can't see the stairs.

Unsurprisingly, this little detail turns out to be very important.



Yeah, if by "catwalk" you mean, "narrow strip of metal"...
Junpei, are you brave enough to cross that? If you were to fall, you do realize that



...

Okay, now for something that you weren't necessarily aware was possible.



It relates to this door.



(There's a circular wheel in the center of the door.)
All right, let's give that sucker a twist...



(...And it's totally pitch-black in there.)



All right.
Let's go.

You'd think walking through the door that leads inside the furnace would be kind of a bad idea.



...You would be wrong.

Uh...where are we...?
We must be on the other side, yes?



At any rate, we should keep moving. There's a great deal we've yet to investigate.

That sounds like a good idea. Shame there's nothing worth our time on this side of the area. Yet.



So, let's look over first.



You want me to push you off her, Junpei?
No way, meow.
You jackass...



The only other aspect here worth looking at here is the door with a "B" on it. You might have noticed another door on the same screen as the "A" door... only it was stuck past the boxes.



That was the "B" door, of course, so we had to walk through the giant furnace twice to get over here.

...Good thing it doesn't appear to work, huh?



You have an excellent memory. Use that to draw a map inside your head. That way, you won't get lost.

From here, we can just walk around to the other side of the rom using the catwalk.



That leads us to little area in the corner we can't access otherwise.



(This supports and braces the side of the ship. It's not the rail for the train.)

(This supports and braces the side of the ship. It's not a centipede.)



(That's just too ridiculous.)



This pulley system looks like it'll be actually important, so let's give that a quick once over.



It's a simple machine, used to lift things up and down. You simply turn the wheel to pull up the rope.



All right, let's give this wheel a spin!
Wh-What? That's weird...



(Gah! Ahhhh shit...)



(There are some pegs on the back that look like they go into the holes on the winch.)



I didn't break it! It broke all by itself!



(Let's see if I can get it back on. There's a couple of posts on the back of it that look like they fit into holes on the winch...)



It's like throwing a hot dog down a hallway, to be honest.
If that's the case, then...
That wheel wasn't originally part of this winch...
Then that means...

So, yeah, we need to find where we can put the wheel now. We've seen all of the room but for one area. We know, via elimination, that the winch we need must be in that area.

We have no idea where the hell it could be though. We've seen every part of the room, and there's nowhere else we could look for where it could be.

Except one area.



If we go back through the "B" door and then head to the far side of that area, we come across the "C" door.



Somehow, this leads us to a new area. Which we should have been able to see already, but we couldn't. For no reason at all.



Before we bother with the winch, though, there is one little thing to look at.

...No, it's not the wall.

(One of the great metal ribs of the ship.)



(Well, to be exact, she's really kind of to the left, not straight below it...)
(Uh, I guess that's not really an important detail right now.)



Now, we'll deal with the sole reason we even came over to this part of the room.



Junpei, why don't you put that wheel you broke off the other winch on here?
I didn't break it! It just fell off, all right!
Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just put it on.



Not shaky at all... Good, I should be able to turn this now.
Good work, Junpei.



You see? The wooden box... It's under the catwalk...Can you see it? It's hanging from the rope on the winch, isn't it? It looks like there's some sort of...device in the box.



At any rate, you might as well turn that wheel now. I'm counting on you.
All right, I'll turn the wheel.



What happened?
This wheel only turns to the left.
It only turns to the left?
That means we can't reel up that rope.



Interesting... I don't think that will be a problem. We will simply need to go downstairs after letting the wooden box down. I will be counting on you, Junpei.
Sure thing. No sweat.



Yeah.

He stuck his head out over the side of the catwalk, and looked down.

The box that had only recently hung just below the catwalk now sat on the floor. It had come to rest near the end of the tunnel that covered the conveyor belt. Near where June had collapsed...





She doesn't seem to be improving.

Ace's expression was inscrutable, but he'd said what they had all been thinking.

Well, of course not. She's not gonna just get better right away, you know? It'll take time.

He tried desperately to convince himself that what he'd said was true.

What could be causing this, I wonder. Illness, perhaps?



Santa's response was confident and certain.

She gets dropped into some weird-ass ship... forced to play some messed-up game... If you think about it, it's a lot weirder that we aren't freakin' out just like her, you know?
So you're saying we're...abnormal?
Yeah. We're just running around this room, solvin'



How the hell could you call that "normal"? We're just guinea pigs.

Santa snorted in disgust.

A guinea pig... You mean like a lab rat...



Is that what you're saying?
Dunno. But...it does seem like a possibility, you know?

They stood there for a few more minutes, no one speaking, until Santa turned, and walked away from the winch.

Junpei and Ace followed him.

Well, now that we've dealt with that we can finally head all the way back downstairs.



Of course, on our way downstairs there's still no sign of where the hell Door "C" is meant to lead.

...There is, however, a strange device on the wall. Let's take a look.



Four odd sliders, one in a box, and a bunch of lights? Well, let's take these things left-to-right before we do anything else.

(Well, let's see if I can get this thing to go anywhere...)



(Looks like Santa wants to give this one a shot...)



(I guess Ace feels like giving it a try...)



The three sliders on the left are down, but this one is up.
There are a number of lines engraved in these. I suspect we are meant to do something rather specific with them.
Junpei, why don't you move that slider down?
(Well, there's no harm in trying, I suppose.)



Nothing happened.
Maybe it needs to be...prepared, somehow.
You're saying if we did...something, somewhere else, it'd respond somehow?



I suppose we'll be back to tdeal with this thing later.



For now, we'll return to the beginning where we are now able to collect whatever was in that crate.



Hmm... I'm pretty sure we know where we can use this. There's only really one spot for it to go, after all.



Don't you think that panel you just found would fit in it?
(Well, there's only one way to find out... In you go!_



Okay, but... What do we do now?
Why don't you press the button next to it?
The orange one?
Yes.
All right, I'll do that.
Pushing!



(And...oh! Yes, I think I just heard something turn on!)
Oh!? What's that!? What happened!?
Junpei, look! The conveyor belt's moving!
The conveyor belt..?



(There's still a bunch of coal on the belt, though...)
(It looks like a bunch of it got dumped off the end of the belt into that wooden box where we found the control panel.)
Coal... Coal, huh...

Well, we could use that. Let's grab some.



Guess there's really only one thing we can do with this stuff...

Yeah, there is just the one place we can put this. Might as well do that right now.



Okay, let's do it.
(All right, that's the last of it... No coal left in the wooden box.)
(And...nothing. Great.)
(Well, I guess I should have expected that.)



(Ah well, a man can dream...)
Junpei, explain it to me again. You're planning to stoke the furnace with coal... which will heat the water stored up there, and make steam...



Am I correct?
In other words, you wanna generate enough pressure with the steam to power the turbine... and drive the steam engine, right?
Y-Yeah, I guess that's the...uh...gist of it.



This furnace is enormous. So we're gonna need a whole hell of a lot more coal than this.
Very well then, if the 3 of us work together, then we should manage to fill it much faster.



(Man, I totally didn't even see her walk up...)
Are...are you feeling up to that?
Y-Yes...



I think you'd better rest some more, all right?
But...I--!
No arguing! You need your rest! So you just stay there. We'll handle this.
...
...
Okay... I understand...



(Let's get this coal into those furnaces!)
(...Man, this is a lot of work...)



All right, now we just gotta light it. Junpei, hand me your matches.



I see... Then how're we gonna light it?



Let's take a look, shall we?
Some sort of ignition device, huh...

There is one thing that could work. There's absolutely no reason to assume it would now, since nothing we've done has been even remotely relevant to it.



...So, of course, it works perfectly fine now.

When I went by earlier, I think the 2 columns on the right were lit up red.
You're right, but it seems they're all yellow now. I would imagine that indicates something is ready to activate, wouldn't you?



I think it might be...
It probably is. I think this is how we might ignite the furnace.
That means that if we move that thing down...
All right, let's do it!
(Here we go!)



There's big gears turning under the boiler here!
...?



The gears...
They're spinning...
What the hell are you guys waiting for!?



Well, it is rather obvious what we're gonna do next. There's nothing else in the room after all.



I can make out 3 colors here... Red, blue, and...black. Hmm... I wonder what they mean...

...Hmm, I wonder. I think I know where we can use this.



(There's a depression here that looks like it's the outline of 3 circles laid on top of each other in a triangle.)
If I put the discs we found in there...
Hey, hold up there, Junpei.



We don't have enough of 'em...

Well, let's go and collect these remaining discs, then shall we?



It looks like a calotte model of...ah...
What...? Hey, are you all right?!
Yes... I'm...um...fine...



See? I told you. Now get some rest, all right?
Yes... I'm sorry...

Examining the Bronze disc gives us nothing of interest at all...



So let's skip on ahead to the silver one.

The silver disc.



The red ones, huh...

I'm sure that won't be relevant at all.

Let's go use these things and get the hell out of here now.



(Well, there's only one way to find out. Let's stick 'em in...)



Maybe you're...I dunno...putting them in the wrong places?



Perhaps you should rotate the discs to make some of the lines connect to one another?
Hmm... Well, no harm in trying.



It looks less complicated than usual, but I dunno. I'm not convinced we can quite manage this just yet.

I don't know where each disc is supposed to go...
If I could just figure that out the rest of this would be cake.
Junpei...



If we know that, it might help us figure out where each disc is supposed to go.
Where each disc was when I found it...
(If I look at the 3 gears again, I might remember...)

Hrm. Not sure I can quite remember that right now.



Hey, Junpei, why don't you go have another look at where you found the discs?



You might find some clues you missed out on, you know?

Right... So, in that case I'm gonna look up to see where they were without relying on Junpei's memory for something like this. Just in case.





(I think maybe I can make a star polygon with these...!)