Recovering from her spill with a haughty look on her face, Pepper stomps over just in time to see you move the mouse towards the ‘<span class="mu-i">BIRTHDAY</span>’ FILE!
“Birthday, huh?” She remarks as her anger quickly fades, “Good thinking, sandcrab–maybe it’ll shed some light on who’s running this circus!”
Right, you reply nodding slowly, that’s… that’s <span class="mu-i">exactly</span> why you were gonna click it! Waiting for your friends to lean in closer, you double-click the file and brace yourself as the system freezes for a moment!
… before plunging the whole room into utter <span class="mu-s">DARKNESS!</span>
Letting out a synchronized yelp, you freeze up like a puddle in a snowstorm while not one, not two, but all <span class="mu-i">THREE</span> of your dumbass friends–well, two friends and one <span class="mu-s">RODNEY</span>, jump and cling to you for safety!
Before you can chokeslam the latter for breathing garlic breath into your ear, the lab explodes with a rainbow of seizure-inducing lights as <span class="mu-s">PARTY HATS</span> fall from the ceiling along with showers of shiny confetti!
Paralyzed in complete and utter confusion, you become even more gobsmacked when a window on the computer opens revealing ASCII art of a blue cat dancing to a familiar song:
https://youtu.be/qePeg9kmiNE“Woah, cool!” Raj remarks, letting go of you as you shake Rodney and Pepper off, “Who’s birthday is it?!”
The answer appears on-screen before you can make a snarky response. You and the others read it as you boogie down to the music:
<span class="mu-b">HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR ‘R’!
YOU KNOW YOU’RE A STAR!
YOU’RE COOL! YOU’RE CUTE! THE SMARTEST BY FAR!
SOON THE WHOLE WORLD WILL KNOW JUST HOW FANTASTIC YOU ARE!</span>
You’re not sure how long you danced for, but eventually the confetti runs out and the lights return to their usual cool blue hue!
“Phew!” Pants the redhead as she straightens out her skirt, “That was fun!”
“<span class="mu-i">I’LL</span> say!” Nods Rodney as he wipes his shades on his sleeve! “You know how to dance, Red…”
“Never heard of anyone named ‘<span class="mu-i">R</span>’ before!” Adds Raj as he wipes the sweat off of his brow! “All the people I know usually have longer names, but I’ve never really been abroad or anything…” The mirth in the skater’s face slowly fades into worry!
“Bros…I just realized how unworldly I am… I think we need to plan, like, a road trip… but, like, around the <span class="mu-s">WORLD!</span> Think of all the cool stuff and culture we’d learn abou-”
We can talk about trips <span class="mu-i">after</span> we survive tonight, okay? For now let’s just focus on the <span class="mu-s">COMPUTER!</span>
What’s NEXT?
>CHECK OUT THE SECURITY CAMERAS!>RUN THE DOOR FILE!>RUN THE RUN FILE!>READ THE LOGS!>CHECK OUT THE BIOGRAPHY FILE–HUH… IT LAGGED A BIT HOVERING OVER IT!>CLICK THE COMPUTER ICON!>LEAVE TO EXPLORE A LITTLE MORE–THE COMPUTER WILL STILL BE ON WHEN YOU RETURN!>WRITE-IN!Also,
WHO WEARS PARTY HATS?
>EVERYONE!>RAJ!>DIESEL!>PEPPER!>RODNEY!>NO ONE! 