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The Black Hole
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Inverse Crescent. You are drawn by a gradually increasing force towards MC. The measurement of the force (which we will call "Pull") is basically -LV, but it does not increase at a uniform rate. This is probably due to quantum. (The technical specialists among us can expand on this.) Periodic announcements on the current level of Pull will be made by Mission Control. The aim is to resist the increasing attraction to MC as long as possible. The higher your LV away from MC, the longer you can resist, but if your LV becomes greater than 186,000, then you break free of Pull altogether and spin off into outer wotsit, ending up god knows where. The first person to arrive at MC, obviously, loses the game.
Good morning. Pull has been measured at -0.375. Tolerances are within normal parameters. Today's special is Chicken Kiev. That is all.
Well, it seems to me that a sensible strategy may be to start as far away as possible. Hainault, with an LV of 0.375, maintaining stability.
I shall start at Heathrow Terminal 4 with an LV of 15. Preparing to loop the airport...
I will start a little riskier and verry close to MC but may the Dollis Hill loop save me.
[Snagandorf] I fear you will find yourself caught in a perpetual motion loop, playing off the Dollis Hill effect against the Pull, but that's your lookout. I'm starting at West Ruislip to build up the LV to at least 2,750 along the Central Line to swoop close to the centre of the Black Hole for a closer look. Geronimo!!!!!!
Borough, with LV as high as I can manage at this stage, which is 18.21. The reasoning being that, by starting on the Bank branch of the Northern line, I'll hurtle through Camden Town with hardly a hesitation and end up further away than I started. Home at Devons Road to provide an additional spectral pull.
Chalfont and Latimer, so far. not sure what my LV is, the spring's come out so the whole thing is basically a rather colourful paperweight until I get an engineer out. that won't be for a while either. home at Lewisham, as usual.
as a side note, mission control, when they put an announcement over the pa in our library, they really do say 'that is all' at the end. I love it! I need a hobby.
I can get as far as Covent Garden, for now, and by declaring home at Goodge Street can raise my LV to 245129.
Good morning. Pull has been measured today at 7.32. This is a slightly bigger jump than expected, but well within normal tolerances. We would advise all players that the use of high LV to pass close to MC is a logical strategy at low levels of Pull, but becomes more risky as Pull increases. The inverse strategy, that of using a low LV combined with high levels of Pull to induce a "sling-shot" is equally risky without meticulous calculation. Tuj has spun-off altogether, by virtue of increasing his LV to greater than 186,000. By our calculations, he is now either somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant or possibly Taunton. With some careful positional play, he may get back into the game in a few moves. Today's special is Lamb Korma. That is all.
I'll move to Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 and increasing LV to 50.
Breakdown on Picadilly line at Turnham Green causes terminal velocity to diminish exponentially, resulting in LV dropping dangerously low to 1.0987.
Holding steady at Wanstead, LV at 10 exactly.
Wobbling at Walthamstow, with LV jumping between 9.085 and 11.23 - I think the Piccadilly breakdown must have increased quantum on the Victoria. MC] Is there naan bread?
I guess I'll join in with North Woolwich which puts my LV at 185,990.9 so I should be careful
Wheeeeee! Hurtled past the Great Station without even a momentary hesitation. The slingshot effect has put me out to the comparative safety of Eastcote with LV only marginally increased to 23.33333......
Launching from Carpenders Park after a short hold due to unstable freem. LV negligible.
Damn! Held at Baker Street with a dangerously high LV of 2,750, which can be maintained in geo-statis only with the careful application of a buttered cat and a tall stepladder from which to drop it, thus creating a source of perpetual motion, and saving the LV Potential for use when the rush hour is over.
Good morning-ing. We apologise for thethethethethe temporary interruption to announcements. Sometime the day before yesterday, Pull unexpectedly spiked at a significant, but not critical, -2,750, causing all players to experience jolt and causing some local servers to fall over temporarily. Pull appears to have settled again at -42. Some microfractures have been observed in Zone 6; caution is advised. Today's special is Cod Mornay. That is all.
It seems that the jolt has pushed me back to Heathrow Terminal 4 and given me an LV of 45.
aarghfarkleaaaargh
Err....hi. Err... the guys at the Mission Control reporting desk have left a yellow sticky which says "Pull=85.292, Zone 6 unsafe". The Christmas party last night was quite a bash. I guess the guys and gals from the desk will be in later.
Aw, heck, err....."that is all".
Luckily I'm waaaay closer to the centre of the Black Hole than Zone 6, so am relatively unaffected. Unfortunately a mince pie on the track has left my LV down at 0.3 and I'm being sucked into the centre. I need a solar flare or something to give me a bit if pep - going to check out Great Portland Street and hoping I don't catch too much gravity. [Mission Control] What's today's Special?
Ramping up the LV sharply through the gearbox into third, and speeding towards Dollis Hill, desperately hoping that we won't get drawn into a sub-orbit.
We apologise for the interruption to today's normal service. Sorry, don't know what today's special is, or was. Constitutions not strong enough even to look at the menu.
Darn it! We've got a problem. Euston
What happened then? I was just taking a leisurely swing through Chalfont & Latimer when I ran into a quantum entanglement. Now I've got an LV of 27,238 and climbing and I'm at Lancaster Gate
No problem. Invoking a swift Neasden and LV returns to 9.01 and falling.
Returning to Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 and increasing LV to 186,000.00001
Good morning. is Mission Control. Pull meas -246.232 and appears to be ris entially. Zone 6 is now completely f . Anynynynynynyone caught in the Franczovic Wave at the border of Zone 5 should reset shield manifolds and re- by means of a pa understrile at Ealing Broadway, taking care not to . AXI has spun off and should . Today's special is Bee . is all.
aarghfarkleaaaargh
Time to put Hawking's B.H. radiation theory to the test and push out (I hope) to Preston Road.
Ramping up the LV away from the centre and charging through to Swiss Cottage St. John's Wood. Oh, crikey! Even though I had anough LV, I got pulled back! I'm beginning to see how potentially dangerous this game could turn out to be....
East Broadway, but still simultaneously on the Victoria Line - quantum is still flaring, but I'm hoping a jump to the A line might solve that. LV dangerously high at 103, 963.4 recurring (I blame the mince pies).
SRB's jettisoned approaching Chalk Farm. LV 3,552 and rising more quickly than expected, but still within nominal limits. Mission Control, your communications are suffering interference but I will wave at the border of Zone 5 as instructed.
Oy! Whose been playing with the anti-particle controls? I'm suddenly at Finchley Road.
They've also addled my niarb. 'Who's' might be better.
AaaaaaaaaaarghghghghgoshitoshitoshitPullhasgoneoffscalethewholesystemhascollapsedandwereallgoingtodiiiiiieeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!
No, wait! Don't do anything! That wasn't us - at least it was us, but we didn't just post that bulletin. Pull has been measured at -1,498.34. A quantum singularity appears to have opened up over Finchley Road. Could it be that the message came from........the future? Today's special is Pork Chops. That is.....all, we think.
aaaaarrgh! Back out from Finchley Road, LV a stunning 0, and ready to roll!
*whispers* We've kept very, very still for ten days. Do you think the Black Hole has gone away?
Nice to see that Mission Control got my message and passed on the warning. Naturally I've now moved on to Heathrow (1) nudging a white dwarf podume towards the B.H. as I did so, in the fond hope that it will keep it busy for a while.
Errr...it this thing on? Ah! Hi, everyone, sorry for the lack of communication. Unfortunatly, we were held in a temporal stasis field due to a flux capacitor overload. We're back now. Pull has been measured at -4,096 exactly, making both Zones 5 and 6 unplayable. Today's special is Turkey Frickassee.
Oh dear. It seems that my next move is forced to 3044.02, and my LV is *gulp* Alperton...
Now arriving at Cockfosters. Aiiiieee! Zone 5 - this station is unplayable. LV is now 256,000. Houston, we have a problem...
Well, Canal Street, so I'm still going in the wrong direction, but I'm sure there's a wormhole on the A line somewhere. LV now down to 88,263, though, and at least I'm avoiding the turkey.
Euston Square, holding on with my fingernails. LV now 127,365.9 and still climbing
(sorry it has been since my last move) wandering aorund dollis hill has fiven me an idea, i toss a rare venezualand pistachio podume into the air, the speed i am traveling is so great thatafter two complete revolutions i am at the exact same spot and get hit in the head with said podume. i can only move to dollis hill, i cannot move to dollis hill. the resulting reciprivesexclusion puts my LV at some number outside the scope of real or unreal numbers, the absolute value of my LV is less than 10. i am now somewhere and declare insufficient losing chances. call the judge i believe the game now ends in a tie. if not you get two minits added onto your clock.
O my, it seems tat the stray mission control transmission was from the future, this future!! what have i done!!
LV struggling to keep up. Tower Hill, with crampons attached.
.lla si tahT .yrF ritS kcuD si laicepS s‘yadoT .notgniddaP dnuora pu denepo evah seitiralgniS mutnauQ elbatsnU .39.400,21 ta lluP gnitamitse era ew - sseug tseb a eb ot sah lluP fo tnemerusaem ruo os ,enil-ffo yliraropmet si dlofinaM ecnaudiseR laropmeT ehT .gninrom dooG
Hello?......Is there anybody out there?.....
Well, my LV is infinite now, so I'm either disqaulified or at MC. Or possibly both. Can I *quantu-farkle*?
And I'm back at Walthamstow Central, with an LV of 21,004.93, so utterly stable. Except that the date appears to be 1962, so I'm still waiting for the Victoria Line to be built. And Hugh Gaitskell is Prime Minister, so this may be a parallel universe, and I might need to get the overground.
Good morning. We apologise for the quantum subspace gravimetrion fluctuations in temporal stability that have caused MC5 time to effectively stand still for the past few seconds. Pull has been measured at -43,394.27 closing off all borders at Zone 2. Crypto-straddles into Zone 3 are still theoretically possible but should not be attempted without an LV terminal capacitor. Today's special is..err...Tang. That is all.
Well it would appear I'm stuck at Bond Street where my LV has shot up to 7.327 recurring. Although I'm not sure if my meter's been calibrated in hundreds, tens or units, or even base 8. Hang on, that's not a 3, it's a capital E. Someone's set me in hexadecimal again...
-5-
-4-
3 is where I am, LV Euston. If my LV gets to MC, what happens?
Oddly, I'm at Euston, LV 3, but I can't see you anywhere. LV*XX = MC, surely?
Good morning. Pull has been measured at -100,000.000000001, making only a small area around MC and environs playable. Quantum tetrion inversion magnitute has virtually disappeard, the end is in sight. Today's special is Consommé. That is all.
-2-
Consommé is waaay too runny and insubstantial to be any help in slowing down the vortex that is gradually drawing me in. Last time I looked out through the broth I was swirling under Camden Market... I surfaced at Mornington Crescent with my hair full of noodles and a perfectly final LV of -1-. How did that happen?
*shouts, screams, generally goes wild for penelope*
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