Lt. Borax After the youma! Maybe he can see something better in here? (2 + 1 (recon)) = 3)
Was that a... drop? The way the room was oriented took him by surprise, and he both wanted to get a closer look to take a better assessment of it and stay as far away as possible. He had no interest in losing his life to whatever this chamber was.
He did, though, squat down and squint over at the brown symbol.
When he had read up on the fact that their White Moon enemies consisted of Senshi and Knights, and Knights appeared to have Planetary Alignments for some bizarre reason, he took care to look deeper into that. It was important to the documentation task that Faustite had given him, which was in turn important to his own promotion. Combining that with the colors of the symbolism and the strange nonexistent conveyer belt, the conclusion was starting to come together, and he should probably tell the bosses.
He straightened out and turned so he could better project toward the eternal, speaking in the voice only a manager at the front of an office would be using.
"This room seems to be oriented differently, up and down. The cranes are in here. And I see a conveyer belt--," his brows knit, "perhaps, there's a ripple of something, at least. Might be wind? There is a sandy brown symbol on an obsidian panel on the ground. Color seems Uranian, which would track with what Haymitch said."
Satisfied with his report, he pondered if he should enter, but also knew that Jadarite had trusted him to have a good head on his shoulders. What was happening in this place? Sanitization, conveyer belts, cranes... "Was this place used to assemble something? I can't tell what it would have been with these contraptions. I'd need to take a closer look."
He spotted the scorpion youma skitter by.
Oh. Perhaps that was a sign he should attempt to get a better look? And Albite was encouraging him on, and he was eternal, though the impression he had received thus far from others--
Though he was generally considered dependable. And Jadarite had suggested the same. Borax was always one to show initiative.
He turned his attention to Jadarite, shimmied his shoulders, and responded with a, "I'll follow first."
Borax shifted to side scoot through the doorway after the youma, hoping to get a better look at the machinery after.
stari_magax
reporting to Jadarite!
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reporting to Albite!
Strickenizedx
he's following the youma and trying to get a better look at the cranes/symbol!
A long suffering sigh answered the General King's question, along with the shake of his head. "I seem to be the target of this all, I'm simply glad I'm still capable of continuing this mission. Not to say I'm pleased with this, I'm not, whoever is behind this needs to meet me in a dark alley." So he could show them just how thankful he was for all of this. "I smell like a hospital." And he really didn't like that.
"At least it isn't acid or something worse." Which it easily could have been, alot was possible when it came to spraying liquids at people. Though he did wonder why this chose to spray cleaning product at him, though didn't he hear something about antibacterial?
His attention soon return to the symbol and the stars it seemed to be growing around it. "It's changing - the symbol." And he was already reaching out to touch it, despite how stupid that might just be. It seemed to want someone to touch it...or do something. Pressing his finger tips to it he slowly pressed his whole hand onto the symbol and the stars.[/sizeu]
Guine
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5+2=7 Touching the symbol that's glowing.
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:53 pm
As Jadarite [5] peered at the door, she would notice that it lacked any gouges or lacerations like one would expect from cutting tools. Despite appearances, it wasn't burned open either – no hints of melted metal remained, and obsidian would seldom yield to heat. It looked as though the doors had been diligently pried apart by a blunt object from the room that they had yet to access. Perhaps a spear or a staff with a great deal of strength or torque. And given that the shattered shards of the door's two panels had been blown to the other side of the hallway, the door certainly had a story to tell.
Nearby, the symbol with a P twinkled tauntingly. It was positioned nearest to that door of all the vents in the hallway.
As Borax peered into the room further, he would find that the vertical area stretched for quite an age in both directions. If he looked up, he would find the hallway ended in rubble that appeared melted together. If he looked down, he would see that the hallway ended and turned away from him, obscuring anything that was beyond. At the bottom was also a collection of what must've been what rode on the conveyor, though they were too far away to make out. The drop was at least fifty feet – not a sustainable venture, even for the powers they commanded.
When Miyamoto touched the Pluto symbol, the latter half of the hallway with the broken-open double doors went temporarily monochromatic. In the strange, sparkling other version of the hallway, the doors looked pristine – until a wooden haft struck squarely between the double doors and had begun to pry this way and that. A forceful wind soon accompanied it, blowing hard enough that the doors had begun to bend. More jabs by the haft, followed by heavy thunking noises, and the sound of a woman's exertion could be heard. Finally the doors groaned and gave way while their two panels shattered across the floor. Wind carried the fragments a great distance.
Out crawled a knight bedecked in Uranus symbols, who caught her breath as soon as she was on the other side. She managed a few steps forward, passing through Jet, before she stopped and turned around. "We've got this place on lockdown," she called to the doors – or whomever was beyond the doors. "They won't be using it anymore. Come on, let's catch up with the others."
Then, harmlessly, the monochrome and speckled stars dissipated. There was no more Uranus knight and no more wind. The doors were just as they discovered them – broken open and nonfunctional.
It seemed that the groups in the hallway had just witnessed something that happened in the past.
The series of Uranus symbols spotted by Haymitch had begun to glow once more, this time more fiercely than the last, and the hallway in which the teams resided had begun to slowly turn. As time went on, it would pick up speed, certain to approach levels of centripetal force that would pin agents where they stood if they lingered in the area.
In the vertical hallway with its sandy brown Uranus symbol, the cranes had begun to groan. Each of them wavered, and the sounds of a gust echoed through the chamber. Dead ahead of them, at a distance too far to jump, was a forcefield bearing the same symbol as the one matching the ground. Beyond it, though faint and difficult to see, was another symbol that looked like a P.
Quote:
For the rest of the exploration, please keep track of your character's HP. If your character's HP falls to 0, they will be knocked out for that turn. On the next turn, the character may either withdraw from the premises or continue the exploration with 50% of their max HP. All characters were supplied with three med kits – these may be used at any time and recover 10 HP to any character, not to exceed their max HP.
MAX HP BY RANK:
First stage characters and Mauvians: 50 HP. Second stage characters and Mauvians in their Senshi Form: 75 HP. Third stage characters: 100 HP. Fourth stage characters: 125 HP.
The hallway has begun to turn! All team members in the hallway roll 1d6 (+ combat roll) to escape unscathed. If 3 or below, your character loses 5 HP but manages to make it through. If your character rolls 4 or above, they escape the hallway without taking any damage.
Once your character escapes, they may roll to investigate again.
The next story post will occur on 12/26/22 at 10PM EST or later. (( I work 28 hours over the weekend, so I won't have time to post on the 48 hour schedule! ))
Lt. Andesine HP: 50/50. Turning and turning in the widening gyre—or at least, in the really messed up hallway. Pushing through and getting out. (6 + 1 (combat) = 7.)
Keeping up with the rest of the group. Trying to keep moving forward. Trying to stay ahead, so someone could have a guard out. Watching for more youma—if no one had felt the signature of the scorpion youma, then who knew what others might have been lurking around? Maybe they wouldn’t react as well as the scorpion youma had. Maybe even a General Sovereign wouldn’t be able to control them (unlikely, Andesine thought……hoped……chose to believe because the alternative—youma that even a General Sovereign couldn’t command—was frankly too horrifying to think about).
None of it was, per se, simple? Simple words, simple-seeming orders, but they needed to be because this building had decided to end up being so very complicated. Keeping the orders simple made them more adaptable, made it easier to adjust and improvise as necessary.
Andesine kept telling herself such, but it didn’t really make this place’s continued curveballs any less curvy (derogatory). At least “the unexpected” had been part of this mission from the jump.
Like the hallway flashing to monochrome and showing them how the doors had come to be broken. Some brute of a Uranus Knight had done the deed.…… A handsome brute of a Uranus Knight—truly, where were the women like this out in the world and why had the only Knight Andesine had personally tangled with been no more than 17 or 18?—but with how she’d battered the doors with her axe, with the apparent intention of trapping someone on the other side—“We’ve got this place on lockdown!… They won’t be using it anymore” hardly sounded like anything else? Well, truly, the word “brute” felt more than appropriate for her, in light of that.
Just as “unexpected curveball” felt like the most apt description of the vision itself.
Then, the hallway started spinning.
As unexpected as it was, Andesine didn’t stop to think. The hallway had shifted once already. Without a clear idea how to stop it, the only choice was to press ahead.… Get to the broken doors. Follow the other team’s Lieutenant (Borax) through.… Andesine could think things over once she had stable ground beneath her feet. For the moment, the only thing to do was grit her teeth and carry on. Failure was not an option.
Nor, frankly, was looking at how the vertical hallway was arranged until she’d gotten there.
Fortunately, as much as the up-and-down layout made her head spin harder than MC Escher’s worst nightmares, it was solid ground beneath her feet—and another piece of that ******** magical, Knightly graffiti (as the Eternal Senshi—Albite—had put it) on the obsidian panel.
“Those idiots really did a number on this place, didn’t they,” Andesine said as she looked at the symbol, more thinking aloud than anything. It only occurred to her once she’d spoken that the other Lieutenant had gotten out beforeMiyamoto had touched the Plutonian symbol, and before the hallway had started turning. “There’s a Pluto Knight’s symbol back in the hallway. Someone touched it, triggered some sort of—magical security cam footage? But with full sound. Got to watch a Uranus Knight breaking the doors with her axe, yelling about putting this place on lockdown.…”
Knights were aligned with planets (unless they were Cosmos Knights), had spheres of magical power associated with said planets. Frowning, Andesine squinted ahead at the forcefield—marked off with yet another Uranus symbol—and the Plutonian symbol, faint but discernible, lying just beyond it.
“They must’ve wanted to keep us out of there quite terribly.… How unfortunate for them.”
Of course, she couldn’t move too far ahead without waiting for their superior officers—not to mention Niter or the Mauvian (Haymitch, was it? that sounded right in Andesine’s head) to argue with the forcefield—but surely, they would want to take down the forcefield and find out what the Knights had tried so hard to lock away? If it was a boon to the Negaverse, they needed to secure and return with it. If it posed a danger to them, they surely needed to destroy it. Either way, they would need to get there.…
Seiana_ZI
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Shiningamisgirl
strickenized
Andesine is escaping the hallway unscathed (6 + 1 (combat) = 7).
General King Jet Communicating with Faustite. Making it through the hall. HP: 125 - 5
“It’s not too far from the Hall of Shadows,” Jet responded back to Faustite regarding the old Knight Academy. “I’ve only seen it in passing. It’s off limits, but already picked clean from my understanding. But I’m not sure I would consider this place friendly just yet.”
Sure, they hadn’t run into too much trouble. Yet. A strangely rotating room, a lost youma, some disinfectant.
Jet wasn’t sure he would have disabled the spray that Jadarite told Niter to turn off, but he didn’t tell Niter to leave it on. Yet.
“What do you think this place was made to decontaminate, if not people?” he asked Jadarite, curious about her conclusion. He wasn’t sure why there would be decontamination sprays in a hallway if it was not made for people, but wanted to hear her thoughts.
He kept his eyes on the youma as it scurried off, making note of where it reached the broken double doors.
What Jet wasn’t expecting was the apparition of a Knight passing through him.
He stared ahead for a moment, but glanced over his shoulder to watch the rest of the short… memory…? Play out.
“Be careful!” he warned the others, and cautiously moved forward through the rotating hallway. He slid down the side as he waited for the others, wanting to make sure they got out as well. A scrape was nothing to him, but that didn’t mean he wanted anyone else hurt.
As some sort of recording played out in black and white Miyamoto stood there watching, curious and wanting to see if it gave clues about what was going on. "So this place is on lock down...it's why all these security measures." At least he was assuming as much. So, if he was right, they were trying to enter a place that was in a lockdown mode. No wonder it was trying to make them leave, via various means. Sniffing at himself, wrinkling his nose right afterwards, the dark haired corrupt took the time to look around them.
"I wonder what they were locking this place down against - us? Or something else, assumign this might have been a long time ago?" He wondered just how long ago this had all happened.
Deciding to crawl his way out of the place, ratehr than walk through a rotating hallway, the dark eyed male followed after others.
"More memories might be nice, to understand things better, but I doubt we'll get such information."
Strickenized
3+2=5, following the others (Jet, to get someplace safe.)
Niter had finally touched through all the menus until he could disable the decontamination sprays. It had taken him a moment, owing to the fact that it wanted higher clearance than his to disable the spray, but when he ran into a glitch that omitted that clearance checkpoint, Niter didn't complain. He was just glad he was able to do something without having to ask Jet for help.
That excitement didn't last, however. Once he finished with the terminal, he opened the double doors to find the hallway rotating and everyone else getting out of it. "Oh heck," he muttered to himself, sounding doomed.
He didn't know of any other way to catch up. Niter got down onto the floor, which became a wall, which became a ceiling in the time it took for him to get halfway through the hallway. While he was tumbled a few times in crossing, he managed to land unscathed each time, until he finally made it to the other side. That wall wasn't rotating, so Niter clung to it for dear life as he spidered his way through the broken door.
As he emerged on the other side, the youth breathed a heavy sigh. He never wanted to do that again.
As Jadarite had said, she was watching. First, she peeked through the door, but as the hologram, or the magic, or the memory was triggered, she turned and put her full attention on that.
It was a metallic creak that tore her attention away from that, and then the stumbling movement as gravity tugged her sideways. Despite all the care that Jada was taking, the hallway was turning, and it was turning faster than she'd thought.
"Forget all that," she was gasping as everything shifted, because it wasn't safe to stay in here. "Move!"
She was already throwing herself through the opening in the broken door, and reaching for her communicator again as she wriggled her way through. "There were knights here," she told Faustite. "Unless what we just saw was false, but it matches with the physical evidence of the building. They didn't build this place, but they were the ones who sabotaged it. The cranes. The door."
She turned back to check up on the others.
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3Total: 3 (1-6)
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Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2022 5:00 pm
Lt. Borax Glad he left that damn hallway... does he see anything handy on his approach? (3 + 1 (recon) = 4)
So there was a massive drop, with some interesting things down below that he really couldn't see from here. The problem was, six and a half feet was not nearly enough to stretch across a 50-ft distance, even considering the fact that he could hop up buildings now. He would probably need the rappel gear that they had to use earlier. Did he want to use that though, or did he want to wait until the others had joined him to suggest it.
Borax turned around just in time to see something happen to the hall behind him. Well. Glad he advanced before the others did...
Maybe that would give him more brownie points for being the smartest person in the room too.
When another lieutenant arrived by his side to snark on those idiots, his brow corked my newly and he couldn't help wondering which of the idiots back there had caused it. When she clarified that the apparent source was an actual Pluto symbol that someone had touched, he found himself looking around the room to see if there were any others in this room that might give them some more context for what happened. He heard his captain nearby, too, projecting a comment of, "They built something in here! Don't know what, but it is down this drop over here!" before turning back to Andesine.
"Evidently, it worked for quite a long time. Not forever, though. Wonder what they were hiding."
His eyes scanned the room as he spoke.
"You said the Pluto symbol, right? Looks like there's another one beyond that force field up there."
Now how did they get to it, though? He stepped cautiously, careful to not get too close to the drop without gear.
"Course I will J'bird," and he'd meant to, he really had, the batting eyelashes had him swooning. His himbo-sized heart all apitter-patter as he got a checkin from his bestest, bravest, kippn fare~ The fact that he could hear his Haykitten's shouts back from where he'd sat plopped near Jet was only a good sign.
Even if the topics of the echoy bits of too many conversations that he was catching simultaneously sounded weird.
Everyone talking abut Pee and Urinals, and okay, yeah? Maybe? It all kinda made sense in a way. The place was a dump, all beatup, n tore up, n scrawled on. Albite wondered -- as Borax explored cautiously -- as the others got more encouraging -- if the whole of the place'd been a hidden locker for ancient janitorial service providers. An entire school for em! Either that? Or this was the Rifts most ancient Laundramat! It explained everything
Then of course Jada said the magic words --- Something did a lot of damage here -- Of course as she said it, it was echoed by Lt. Andesine -- and then they got to see what'd done all the damage. What Waru thought'd been tryn'a get out, had instead gotten in. Some magical shimmery ghost-visage showing times long before.
Then everything came alive and Jada was giving Orders.
"Well s**t ---" Albite moved to make room, knowing if he sat in the hall he'd be nothing but a barrier; squeezed through the broken open door, but didn't go much father then that.
"Hayboy, Leif, let's go!"
And Jet, thankfully, stayed in the hall to keep eyes on the stragglers n push them through. Albite positioned himself on the cracked open other end of those doors, ready to pull.
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Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2022 6:52 pm
As Borax [4] searched for a way to cross, he would find one – not a conventional one, anyway. It would be terribly difficult, but if they could climb the bundles of light on their side up to one of the cranes above them, they could potentially drop the twenty-odd feet to the other side if they'd gotten enough of a running start for the jump. The cranes didn't afford a lot of space to do so, though. They looked sturdy enough to support the weight of an agent or two, however.
When the group entered the next area, the cranes had begun to move. It was a slow sway at first, like palm trees in a breeze – the heavier parts groaned on occasion while the lighter parts were blustered about. Then the cranes themselves seemed to wake, and they began turning and reaching for parts that no longer lingered on the absent conveyor belt. As the arms of the crane grew close to where the belt should have been, a blue glow surfaced in the area. Something was there, able to carry weight and drive items down a line, but it was unlike anything seen today.
The cranes pantomimed their work, down to their internal devices used for welding or modifying parts. Sparks rolled down the right wall, providing extra luminosity down below where their presumed creations lay.
If any team members peered over the ledge on which they stood, they would find an answering gust blowing up into their faces. The wind was terribly strong – strong enough that any thrown object would float on the winds, or even be thrown back upward and into one of the cranes. It seemed that the winds might even carry agents.
As most of the cranes diligently worked at creating nothing, a couple looked destroyed beyond repair. One smoldered below them, with its arm broken in such a way that it extended across the entire hallway like a bridge. Some kind of symbol smoldered on the side of it. One further up had been completely electrified, and seemed stuck in a loop of beginning to turn, stopping, resetting its position, and beginning to turn again. The one furthest up was entrapped in a monochrome bubble, where only the raw materials for a crane had floated.
The scorpion youma crawled to the very edge of their entryway, then chittered angrily at the offending forcefield across the gap. It was too far to jump on their own.
The sandy brown symbol glowed nearby the youma, as if waiting for someone to touch it. Perhaps there was more to this seemingly impassable area.
Quote:
We're into the home stretch! The last story post will occur on 12/28/22 around 9PM EST or later.
General King Jet Communicating with Aquamarine. Touching the sandy brown symbol. HP: 120 Roll: 4
With everyone across the rotating room, and only a small gash on his arm, Jet quickly answered the call on his communicator when he heard Aquamarine’s voice.
“Hey,” he answered back, looking over to make sure there weren’t any of the others who needed help. “Not really trouble. There’s symbols of Uranus here…” he said, and then paused to reflect on his words for a moment and tried very hard not to grin immaturely to himself. “And Pluto. We found a youma. The whole room apparently rotates. We’ve got ghost knights, or something… Nothing to be worried about. I’m with a good group. Albite says hi,” he added, still grinning because he could only assume that Albite would want to say hello.
“How’s everything on your end?” Jet asked as he made his way after the scorpion youma, and when he was close enough he knelt down and offered his arm for it to crawl back up onto his shoulder again if it wanted.
“You don’t like that forcefield, huh?” he asked the youma once he temporarily ended communication with Aquamarine. “You think we should get over there, don’t you?” It certainly seemed like it was wanting to jump, if it wasn’t such a long distance.
The sandy brown symbol caught Jet’s attention, and unable to resist, he reached out to touch the glowing surface.
Looking over things, slowly and taking his time, wasn't something he'd typically do Miyamoto finally figured he might as well take a bit of a risk. He wasn't sure that it was much of a risk though, that breeze was rather strong. Stepping close to the ledge, toeing the edge, he finally took the chance and before anyone might stop him he stepped off - into the winds. He was hoping they were as strong as they seemed, that they'd carry him as he hoped they would.
"This better work." He mumbled to himself, he was fairlyh certain in this though. This was magic and the wind was strong.
Strickenized
3+2=5, stepping off the ledge and into the breeze/wind.
There his Hayby was, the rest, Albites relief as the rest came through and Jet came on after. No one seemed overly injured from the slow spinning washing-hall of doom, a nick, a scratch. At least they were all nice n disinfected from playing in it!! That was a whole thought—
“Hey Firebrand, they taking care of you out there?” and he wanted to know that Faustite wasn’t overly fatigued, as he checked in over the coms briefly, his boys well-being as much a concern as the rest of the teams. “Chitter’s leading the way so far — the youma — snappish little thing, it looks like this place is slowly coming back to life around us. It’s—uh—it’s kinda freaky actually? Like, was it ours — theirs — were we fighting over resources or some s**t?” he wondered if his aimless shrug could’ve been heard over the line, knew it was possible, the same way he could feel Faustites frown, or the very endearing way he knew his boy rolled his eyes whenever he made a terrible joke.
Albite didn’t ask about what they’d been making that the knights had wanted to seal up, that agents had maybe broken back into on their own? Heard Jadas voice over the cons and gave her a gentle whistle - smooth moves and yeah - she didn’t seem any worse the ware for it. Fiercely in command as always.
“Whatever, I just wanna make sure you’re good— I bet the others’ll check in with better bits when we get ‘em,” and then Albite’s conversation ended abruptly, where his gaze had drifted towards the bridge and then snapped back to the unfurling form of Miyamoto taking a leap of faith— <********!! Could you godamn warn someone!!” he shouted after the Senshi, his heart in his throat, because even if he could feel the winds licking the edge of the ledge they stood on? All he could remember was that they couldn’t godamned teleport in the Rift, they had to be careful!!
His magic roiled for the sight of it. Counting feet and crossing his fingers - Ready to unleash an attack if the Senshi fell too far—
Lt. Andesine HP: 50/50. Soz, Albite, she’s trying to stick close to Miyamoto so he won’t go alone. Also, she’s jumping after him with no grace whatsoever (3 + 1 = 4).
There were risks in the world and then there was stupidity. As far as Andesine saw it, in this universe, “wisdom” meant having the brains, patience, and general good sense to tell the latter from the former. Especially in a situation like this, where some kind of nefarious Order magic had thrown the normal rule-book out the window while driving 200 miles per hour in the wrong lane. Now that the group had gotten back together, with the others filtering in from the other hallway, the best thing to do was stick together and wait to see what happened when General King Jet stepped on the glowing Uranus symbol. They needed to get past the forcefield somehow, or up to the cranes. One of them had another realm that looked monochrome, like the other hallway had gone during the memory replay.
………And then there was Miyamoto, jumping off a ledge. “What the—” Andesine cut the curse short, rushing after him, then stopping at the edge to take in the words from the Eternal senshi (Albite). Looking from him to the captain from Team Question Mark (Jadarite), to her own team’s captain, Andesine said, “Captain Leifite, declaration of intent to stick with Miyamoto.”
The rule book was out the window. Uranus knights had wind-related powers or something, didn’t they? Wouldn’t be out of the question for Uranus Knights to leave behind a wind current strong enough to carry someone up to the cranes. Andesine took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and leaped after Miyamoto, into the gale.
stari_maga_
Sleet Tempest Snape_
Shiningamisgirl_
strickenized_
Andesine is following Miyamoto off the ledge and into the winds (3 + 1 (recon) = 4).
