"What the fuck am I looking at right now?" Val asked, and Nia had to say that she had practically the same reaction.
"...I have no idea," She stepped forward into the large, circular room. Val followed her, but the moment they were about three feet away from the door, they a slight click and turned to see that the door had closed behind them. Nia met her friend's eyes, "...That's not very promising."
Val shook their head, "No, it really isn't," They sighed as they put away their bow and arrow, "We might as well focus on what's in front of us then. So, some kind of puzzle, huh? That thing in the middle obviously some sort of scale."
Nia tapped them on the shoulder, "Gears," She said, pointing at the wall. It hadn't been obvious before but there were maybe three gears hung up on the wall. Seeing that there were a few more pegs here and there on the wall, it was safe to assume that there were more gears needed, "Are those constellations?" She pointed at the opposite wall.
"There's a pin next to the door," Val noted, walking over to the doorway and putting their hands against it. They frowned before dragging their fingertips over the door, "Hey, Nia, come here for a second? Can you feel this door for a minute?" The girl moved over and did as her friend asked but frowned.
"...Panels?"
Val crossed their arms, looking at the door, "That's what I thought too. But I can't move them or anything."
Nia sighed, "If we keep looking at everything, we're just going to keep jumping from one thing to another. Let's start with one thing at a time. It looks like there are some gears missing right? Let's try and find them. Then we'll try and figure out what the fuck this contraption is," She gestured to the balance in the middle.
The balance looked like a three-spoke windmill laid on the floor, except there were round large metal plates on the end of each spoke—With each plate having an open-lid glass container on it. Nia had literally no idea what to make of it yet.
"Where the hell could they possibly hide gears—Oh, is that one?" Val pointed to the center of the balance.
"What the—How the fuck did you even see that?" Nia asked as Val climbed up onto the balance. She quickly ran to grab Val by the arm to help them balance as the balance itself moved, "Careful! It's a balance, you idiot, it's going to tip if you walk on it!"
"I know, I know," Val said, taking a step forward, "I just didn't think it would be this sensitive. With how big it is, I thought it would take more to tip it," As they reached the center, they knelt down to pick up the gear, "Oh fuck, okay, it's kind of heavy. I'm going to need to hand it to you so that I can get down," Val picked up the metal gear, wobbling a bit
Nia looked at it, "It's not that big, how heavy could it—Woah!" Almost as instantly as it was placed into her hands, she almost dropped it on her foot.
"Careful!" Val called out, "I told you, it was heavy! Put it down for now, I'll carry it," They carefully climbed off the balance and picked up the gear.
"You didn't make it look that heavy!" Nia complained, "I thought it might be just a little bit heavy, not like two hundred pounds!"
Val rolled their eyes as they carried the gear to one of the pegs, "It's not two hundred pounds, maybe a hundred at most. Anyway, should I just put this on a peg for now? It seems like we need to find three more."
Nia nodded, "Yeah, I'm assuming we probably have to get the gears to all click right since that large gear has a handle to turn."
"Then, we should probably get looking for those other three gears."
They found the second gear underneath a floorboard that could had a slightly raised edge, which they only discovered when Nia tripped over it and almost fell face-first into the ground. It was a slightly smaller gear, but just as heavy as the first one.
"Hey, isn't that the third gear?" Nia asked, pointing at something hanging higher up on the wall.
Val squinted as they looked at it before frowning, "How do they expect us to get up there? That's impossible to reach."
Nia sighed, "Alright. Get down on your knees."
"Excuse me?"
"Well, you're obviously stronger than me. Carry me on your shoulders and I'll try and reach it."
Val paused, "Hey, if I do this, you absolutely cannot drop that gear on my head. If I get knocked out, you're screwed."
Nia rolled her eyes, "Obviously. Now, come on, let me climb on."
Reaching the gear wasn't much of a problem. But as Val had correctly predicted, getting it down was a much larger problem.
"So, uh…Val?" Nia called down, "I don't think I can lift it."
"Damn it. I knew it," Val muttered, "Alright, get down. You're going to carry me."
Nia blanched, "Do you really think I can lift you?"
"You can carry me for like two minutes, you dramatic baby," Val glared, "Now, come on. Let me climb on."
When Val climbed on, Nia had a bit of trouble keeping her balance, but managed to balance long enough for Val to unhook the gear from where it was hung on the wall, "Hurry your slow ass up, Val, I'm gonna drop you and second!"
"You're the one that has to let me down!"
They stared at the wall with the seven out of eight gears on it, "Hey, remind me, why did we decide to do this?"
Val glared at her, "You're the one that snuck out because you didn't want to be left behind so this is all your fault. If we had Risále, Chaewon, or Elliot, you know it would be much faster since they're like…Fucking geniuses."
"Honestly, any of those ex-scientists would have fared better than us—Holy shit, wait, how long have we been here?" Nia asked.
"...Twenty-five minutes," Val said, checking their watch.
They both stared at the ground in silence, "Val, are we idiots?"
"No, we're just fucking weak. Pretty sure Elliot could have bodied those gears like they were nothing. That monster can deadlift 450 pounds, no sweat."
"You've got to be joking."
"I am absolutely not."
"...We made a mistake coming here."
"Yeah, but we're trapped here now. We might as well keep going. However…" Val squinted before putting their hands on their hips, "Who the fuck designed this puzzle and why the fuck would they make the last gear absolutely fucking minuscule?!"
Nia snorted, "You're really pissed off, huh."
Val gave her a deadpan look, "Wow, how could you tell."
"Alright, time to look for a tiny gear then. Unless you think we could find some kind of replacement?"
"For a gear?"
"Forget I said anything."
They spent another (depressing) ten minutes searching before Nia heard Val mutter under their breath, "Oh, you son of a bitch," She turned to see Val standing at the door they had first entered through.
"What is it?"
Val moved away from the door, "Look at the doorknob."
"...Son of a bitch."
"That's what I said. Do we just—"
"Yank it out? Yeah, I assume so," Nia placed one hand on the door as the other curled around the doorknob before yanking her hand back. The gear came off pretty easy, barely the size of her palm, "What the hell were they thinking when they designed this?"
Val snorted, "Probably that no sane person would go through all this effort just to get through to whatever is behind that door. Now, come on. Let's go put this where it belongs."
As they placed the final gear, Nia stepped back, moving towards the first gear with the large handle to push, "Should we just—Oh dear God, it won't budge."
"Right, string bean arms," Val pushed her out of the way, towards the scale, "Let me handle this."
"String bean arms? Excuse you—Huh," She paused as she leaned in to look at the glass box at the end of a metal plate, "Hey, Val, look over here for a second—" Nia cut herself off with a mini scream as her head and upper body was completely drenched by a downpour of water.
At her scream, Val immediately stopped, "What the—Why were you leaning into there?!"
"I just told you to look here for a second!" Nia spluttered, wiping the water out of her face, "There's something written here."
Val leaned in to look at the box, "...When all is in balance, the key will be revealed," They read out loud.
Nia scoffed as she wrung out the water in her hair, "Well, anyone could have guessed that."
"Look closer, Madam Confidence," Val smiled, pointing to a line below the writing, "I think that's how much water we've got to get into this thing."
"Huh," Nia frowned, "Wait, but that's…That's a lot of water. What are we going to use as a counterweight?"
Val looked around, "Huh…Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. First, let's get the water in this thing. You're going to have to watch the water level and tell me when to stop pushing."
Nia nodded, and the older started pushing the handle. Water poured from an opening in the ceiling and Nia leaned down next to the box to watch the water level rising, "...Almost there," She called back, "Okay, stop now!"
As the water slowed to a stop, the balance was tipped toward the side of the glass container.
The two of them stared at it, "Alright, what now?" Val asked.
"How are we even supposed to figure out how much the water weighs? We can't even pick up the container?" Nia sighed, "Maybe we should just start putting gears on the weights-"
Suddenly, they heard the sound of a door opening, and both of them whirled around to look at the door they came through.
As it opened, they saw the silhouette of two familiar women.
"You two are in so much trouble," Chaewon said as she and Risále stepped inside.
Nia's eyes widened, "Wait, don't let the door—"
Of course, like every cliche, they weren't fast enough to stop the door from closing.
"—Close."
All four of them stood in silence for a moment before all hell broke loose.
"Why did you let the door close?!"
"You don't get to ask questions, young lady! What the fuck are both of you doing here?!"
"Oh, hey, Val. What the hell is this room?"
Nia made a sound of disbelief, "How come I get yelled at but Val just gets a casual 'hey'?!"
Chaewon scowled, crossing her arms, "Because if there was anyone who would have decided to sneak out first, it absolutely would have been you! Let me guess, you told Val that you would stay and then you decided to wait until they were asleep to sneak out so they wouldn't know and you could still come here, right?"
Val whistled lowly, "Wow, you got everything right."
"Val was also here when I got here!" Nia complained.
"Correction," Val held up their finger, "I got there maybe a few minutes before you started dancing. I only talked to Miss Yuna and danced with her for a while before I saw you-"
Risále's eyes sparkled, "Ooh, Miss Yuna, huh? Who might that be?"
Nia and Val both turned to glare at her, "Not important right now!" They both yelled simultaneously as Val rubbed their temple, "Anyway, we're all stuck in here now—" An idea seemed to strike them as they turned to look at Nia, "Hold on. Didn't we say earlier this would be faster if one of the ex-scientists was here? We've got not one but two ex-scientists here."
"...You're right. Holy shit," Nia turned to the older women, "Puzzles. Need solving. Please help. My brain is dying."
Risále and Chaewon looked at each other, "...Alright, what have you got so far?" Chaewon sighed.