Part 16: First Playthrough - 1 AM (♀ + ♃)
[MUSIC: Draining Neptune]
The winner by a single vote is Venus and Jupiter, the pairing we haven't seen ONCE since starting. I love Neptune but it's time we put her on the bench.
[MUSIC: The Sirens]
♃: It'll be fine. ♃: Anyway, you suggested it.
♀: Yeah but...
♀: Why won't the others just come help?
♃: Because we can do it?
♀: I hate... ♀: I hate being treated like this.
♃: Like what? ♀: Like a scapegoat.
♃: I mean...that's not it. ♀: But it totally is. ♀: If we were in the normal scouts, they'd rush to help us. ♀: They act like real teams and take care of each other and get crystodyne diodes and transformation sequences.So crystodyne diodes do have a basis in reality, at least within the history of early radio. A crystodyne radio set was thought to have been first developed by Russian inventor Oleg Losev in the early 1920's, though there had been work with crystals in receiving radio waves earlier in the 20th century. One common crystal used to detect signals was galena. Crystal sets are outdated at this point, though they are easy to make and are often built by Cub Scouts. Interesting how old radio tech that you could build for your merit badge is such a staple here, where even the crystals in the lock and sirens we saw earlier could be extensions on the same idea.
Transformation sequences, on the other hand, are more magic than science. Even still, someone out there has probably definitely written a thesis on those in Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura for your reading pleasure
♃: We can get them too. We just have to get through this. ♀: Right, "try hard."
♃: It doesn't hurt to try...I know it's no guarantee...
♀: Not everyone in the normal scouts tried all that hard, you know.
♀: Do you think everyone in the normal scouts tried harder than you ever have. ♃: Well... ♀: If that's true, then it's true. ♀: But if even one person who didn't try as hard as you got more than you, you have to say it isn't fair.
♃: ...you sure won't budge on this, will you? ♀: Doesn't it feel unfair? ♃: It's just reality. ♀: It's reality on purpose. Reality that's someone's fault. ♃: You can still get better at this, if you try, you know?
♃: It's not fair, but it's not the end. ♀: So? ♃: So... ♀: When someone rigs it from the start, and then says "try your best!" doesn't that make you mad? ♀: Doesn't that make you so inconsolably mad you never want to try it at all?
♃: Sometimes even more than Neptune is.
♀: Really?
♃: If you put in the minimum you'll be fine. Right? ♃: That's what I do.Says the sports star with the best grades
♀: Does it work? ♃: Yeah. Well, mostly. ♃: Well, better than nothing. ♀: ...I don't know what's wrong with me. ♀: But I can't. Not when it comes to this.
♃: What is "this"? ♀: Whatever they want out of me that's not fixing radios.
[Music stops.]
[SFX: The eerie clicking of insects echoes loudly.] ♃: Hey, what's wrong?
♀: Can you see that? ♃: See what? ♀: There. Right there. ♃: I don't—
♃: Venus hey, stop.
♃: There's nothing there.
♀: But...
♃: Venus. I'm telling you, I don't see it. ♀: ... ♀: ...okay.