2020-07-24: The Locked Door: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 22:00, 26 July 2020

  • Log: The Locked Door
  • Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Lily Keil, Elhaym van Houten, Fei Fong Wong
  • Where: Kasutho Island
  • Date: July 24, 2020
  • Summary: Josie, after some searching, has found what apparently all the tiles she's been collecting are connected to. However, she suspects she will need some help getting inside...

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    When she enters the room, Josie does so with force.

    She looks intent, perhaps, as if she had set her sights on something and found it.

    The room is by all measure a galley aboard the ship -- once it had been used thus, and with some work from its new crew (likely largely spearheaded by Lily), it has become so again. While limited by the culinary expertise of their membership (which really just means that they only get top-notch food when Lunata's aboard, most likely) it is a capable workhorse galley--

    Which might be why it's here that Josie has come, with fire in her eyes.

    "Hey, where's Lion?" she says, glancing about. Though he's far from the only one of note missing. But she shakes her head and shrugs, then almost absently tosses a set of photographs to Lily.

    The site in them is ancient. Lily can tell that because the site in the photographs is clearly of Zeboim origin. Though slowly crumbling under the weight of the ages, it seems to be in relatively good condition, which may be because the site appears to still have some power source, if the overexposed sections across the photos suggesting lights are any indication.

    There is a photo of an entrance.
    A hallway.
    A chamber.
    And a large closed door.

    The door has four slots next to it. They're familiarly-sized slots.

    "So, 'Rose-of-Sharon'. Gella coin for your thoughts?" Josie asks her, looking like the cat that stole the cream.

    She glances, after a moment, at the other two present: Fei and Elly.

    "...I know I ain't been, lately, but I reckon I've finally hit pay dirt."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily indeed did a lot of work on this part of the ship, too. ...Not that she's a particularly standout cook, given her rather loose standards for what qualifies as edible, but she's not the worst. That isn't why she worked on it, anyway.

Just now she's seated there, and she lifts an eyebrow at Josie before she starts looking over the photographs. She narrows her eyes to focus on them thoughtfully, going through the photos one, then the one behind, then another.

Four slots in the doors. What are her thoughts? Well.

"Looks like you found it," Lily says, extending the photo stack next to Fei so that he can also have a look at them. "Clearly Zeboim-era, has the spaces for it... Stll seems to have power. So it finally paid off."

Lily is surprised--and impressed, and pleased, for that matter. It's a good sign.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly looks up and says, with a guilty expression, "Mmf."

This is because JUST as Josie came in, and spoke up, she had put a big slice of roast fowl into her mouth. What fowl might it be, you ask? Well, the bird had a certain ovoid character, and a certain tender yet pale quality to the flesh... But don't tell anybody.

"You have?" Elly asks Josie.

Then she smiles.

"That's wonderful. How did you get to it? I'm guessing that from these photos, you weren't able to breach this... door."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei's mouth is also full, as if often is, when food is arounnd. He tries to talk with his mouth full, fails, and then grimaces as he swallows. He reaches for another slice before remembering--right!--friendship! Fei sometimees gets a little lost when food is around.

He's a hungry guy!

"...Well that's..."

A final boss door if I've ever seen one

"...really ominous." Fei admits. "Is that where we're going next?"

He smiles a bit at Josie. "Oh--uh--it's okay. I know you've got your own stuff going on. Just know we've always got your back, alright?"

He smiles brightly.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie won't tell a soul about Elly's poultry-based crimes.

    "Sure did," Josie remarks, her smile a lopsided one. "Took some doing, mind -- I've been crawling about damn near every library I could find in the region, hoping I was right. I've had a hunch, see-- not counting the tile we found in Spira, most of 'em have been more northerly. Two in Ignas, one here, yeah? So it stands to reason whatever they're connected to probably ain't that far away. And if I got real lucky?"

    She gestures at the stack of photographs.

    "But here's the kicker: I didn't go. They ain't my photos."

    Pulling back a chair, she drops into it, crossing her legs as she leans back.

    "Someone else found it a while back. Maybe a half-decade or so at best. I'll spare you the details on deals I had to cut to get those photos," she says, gazing up at the ceiling. "But long story short: they couldn't get in without the keys, and forcing it risks wrecking what's behind the door. So they let it be."

    Josie straightens, glancing at the lot of them.

    "I've got the keys. But here's where you and your boy come in, Tiger: I can't read the script. Apparently the door's lousy with Zeboim text. Probably warnings, they reckoned." She grins, baring her teeth. "Maybe nothing happens if you put 'em in wrong. Or maybe it sets off some death hell-trap. I don't plan on finding out myself! And after that..."

    She stretches out her arms, shrugging widely. "Who knows?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily also will not tell about fowl deeds.

Ominous though is right--but for some reason that doesn't bug Lily much. Instead, she looks to Josie and nods thoughtfully. "Moere northerly... Yes, I see.--Oh, they're not?"

Lily watches Josie as she mentions how it was found, surprised but not shocked. People ahve been looking into FIlgaia's ruins for a very, very long time.

"...Naturally," Lily asks. "If there's that much Zeboim script in there I'm interested in whatever it says anyway, even if it turns out just to be warnings to keep out. ...Besides, obviously I'm going to help with this."

It's very silly, Lily's tone says, to imagine otherwise.

"And there might be more of it inside, too."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, cucco.

Elly blinks a couple of times, and then says, "Five years...?"

Elly thinks back to herself five years ago. It seems longer, somehow. She looks at her hands for a moment, as if remembering the weight of a squat firearm, remembering a hot line on her left pinky, remembering the first itme she touched...

Back up again. "So you think there might be security," Elly muses. "Do you have any reports on what it might be? Usually there's not a drastic change in a site, right? So if you think it's mostly old robots, then that's what would likely be there, behind that door."

Elly looks at Fei. "Do you think it'd be safer if we put the 'key' on one of those wheel toys and rolled it over there, so we could stand clear? ... I suppose a lot of ARMs need biodynamic connection to function..."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"...Guess you've been hanging around the right crew then." Fei admits, thinking that the person who first visited and didn't risk breaking the door must've been a real bad archaeologist since in his experience, and in his talks with Josie, you generally just blow those doors up.

He loks to Lily, smiles at her and adds, "Well--even if we get through the door...if I've learned anything about the Zeboim era, is that it really wants to kill us. So--even if we do it properly...we might still get into a lot of trouble there. We should be careful."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    People have been looking into Filgaia's ruins for a long, long time, and it stands to reckon that not all of them are lost secrets. Some are known. Some are very known.
    And some are kept under wraps by a select few. Until that day -- that day the door can be flung open wide.

    "Figured you would," Josie says, a smile on her lips as she shakes her head. Just for a moment she glances away from Lily. "And if you and your boy wouldn't, guess I'd just have to try--"

    Elly makes her own suggestion.

    "See, now there's a thought. Now just get me the funding I'll need for that one," she quips, shaking her head. She sighs. "Trust me, after all I went through for the photos and the coordinates, I'm flat broke. But once I've gotten inside there -- it'll be the discovery of a lifetime, eh?"

    As for what's behind the door--

    "Absolutely no idea. Maybe it's dead, maybe it's just waiting for someone to stroll on in. Guess we'll be the ones finding out, right? ...So you'd best come prepared," Josie says, watching Elly, then Fei for a moment as she straightens in her seat and unfolds her legs. "Way I figure, the door's gonna be the least of your problems when all's said and done."

    She's silent for a moment, her gaze on none of them.

    "...So what's been going on? I miss anything fun while I was out and about?"
Elhaym van Houten (Elly) pages Josephine Lovelace and Fei Fong Wong: check me that i'm not hallucinating but josie was there for setanta right

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly slices off a little more roast fowl. "Do you want to tell her about Setanta or should I?" she asks Fei, interstitially.

Fei Fong Wong (Fei) pages Elhaym van Houten and Josephine Lovelace: i don't remember!

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily would prefer not to think back to five years ago just this moment, thanks. Conveniently, she doesn't have to! No, she considers the matter of security, and...

"Probably it'll need a more delicate touch than that," Lily says of the wheel toys. "But we should be fine--we can actually read the instructions."

Lily considers what Fei has to say, and finds, "I can't argue there. It'd be surprising if there weren't some kind of traps inside to make things worse."

"Heh. Of course we would." But hm--broke... "Yeah, it will be. It's going to be interesting."

Lily as she said assumes much the same as Josie. But there--that question? "Setanta," Lily says with a shake of her head.

"Nothing much with me. I was stuck in Kattlelox for a couple of weeks recovering after all that business. It got worse, and then I got better. Now I'm basically good as new. I guess it's just like that sometimes." She is quieter in some ways, though--as if still thoughtful about it.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei looks to Elly. He rubs his neck as if he's not even really sure where to begin on Setanta.

"Um. So, there was this fire...elemental....person. Who seemed a lot more like a person than Rahab, to be honest. And uh. They were really mad. And I think they were friends with Luisa. And uh. We ha to ... fight them. And uh. It went away. I think it still exists just sort of...gone, I guess?"

He looks to Elly. "How'd I do?"

Hooboy.

To Josie he adds, "I'll--uh--try to be as ready as I can be?"

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

("Wonderful," Elly answers Fei.)

"Right, they were sort of like - you could compare them to fire, as Rahab was to water," Elly explains. "There was an old Hyadaen survivor who was trying to find her... She was connected to Ida's martial art stuff! I actually can't remember some of the details, it was *incredibly* hot and I think she was spraying, um - evil," Elly says, "around, and frankly I think I only got off by luck..."

"But yes," Elly says with a nod. "We'll be ready. I think it actually helped me get past some of my limits... and she wasn't able to do her evil ambitions - Setanta I mean - though..."

"I'm not sure what those were," Elly admits as her head slumps forwards. "But she was trying to kill everybody, without so much as a how-are-you-doing."

After a moment, Elly asks, "Do you want some of this? I'm not sure I can finish off the whole bird, even with Fei helping..." This may be a challenge.

Back to Lily, she says, "Do you think most of these ruins have honest instructions? I suppose in most cases they weren't trying to make a trick or anything... I've heard about some ruins from um, Nimrod? From the Day of Collapse, that are kind of built to be full of lies."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Well, let's hope the keys are enough," Josie says, shifting in her seat. "Maybe it'll assume we're supposed to be coming in and Bob's your uncle, yeah?"

    It's not going to be that easy. It's never that easy. But a woman can dream.

    "Guess we'll have to see. Far as I could figure out, they weren't sure what was in it," she says, before setting the matters of an upcoming expedition aside for--

    Well, recent news.

    "Setanta? Huh," Josie says, out and out nonplussed. "Rahab was the," and she gestures vaguely with her left hand, having not really gotten involved in that business either, "the... thing under Wayside. Right?" She glances between the three of them. "Looks like I sure picked the right couple of weeks to skip town," she sighs, as Fei -- and Elly -- do their best to synopsize. "So it's dead, or ambiently around, or what?"

    Josie considers the poultry on offer for a moment.

    Then she shrugs. It's obviously not squab. "Sure," she says, rising from her seat. And she'll even take a bite of it before she invariably asks, "What is it?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Setanta! Lily doesn't answer a question meant for Elly, but she does nod along about the whole Primarch thing. "Yeah," Lily confirms. "The one under Wayside."

Lily shakes her head though. "I mean, maybe, but if it aumes we're suppose to be there I'm not sure what that would mean. More likely the usual."

Not sure what was in it... That's fine, though. Lily moves pat towards the Setanta topic and, "They're discorporated, so they might be back? I'm not really sure. I was pretty out of it by the end, and I didn't get to pay a lot of attention to Rahab."

On account of mind control bullshit.

"I think a lot of them did--they were just facilities meant to be used, after all." Pause. "...But I can't be surprised that those exist. Some of the ones I've been in definitely feel like they were meant to be annoying."

She puts perhaps a paltry priority on the poultry. Maybe she already ate.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei gives Elly a big bright smile.

He kind of frowns a bit when Astrid is brought up. He wonders how many more concussions and wounds he'll have to endure before Astrid stops fighting everybody.

"Built full of lies?" Fei asks.

...

"Also what's Nimrod?" Fei also asks. Fei is really bad at history somehow sometimes.

He kind of eases baack in his chair and lets out a long happy little sigh. This is the life. Chicken and friends and family. What else could he ask for? Not much! He's too much of a chicken to ask for more ho ho ho!

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Like... there will be signs on the wall, and they'll be inaccurate," Elly says. "Like imagine if there was a path and there was a sign saying 'Exit to the left,' except -"

Elly leans forwards. "The real exit was to the RIGHT. And that was just all the way throughout the entire place!"

Then there's another question. "Oh, that's a country that used to exist. It was... Nisan, and part of Aveh? It was nicer then, of course. There were a lot of stoneworkers in what's now the Nisan capital, so there are Nimrod design elements here and there. Usually it's just decorative."

Usually.

"Oh - it's cucco," Elly tells Josie, just as there is a faint distant 'fump' somewhere along the Karlsefni's hull.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Thought it seemed familiar-like," Josie sighs. "Well, now that's a headache and three-quarters! Glad I went off and got some actual work done for a spell."

    Elly speaks on the nature of lies that run thick in ancient ruins. Josie cannot help but smile wryly. "Sometimes I wonder if some joker just swapped the signs around," the archaeologist in the room remarks, leaning back in her seat a moment. "You know, the way some places get sometimes?"

    That, or it's because of slimes. Always blame slimes.

    "I've heard a thing or two about Nimrod," Josie says, turning a glance over Elly's way. "Not a lot -- wasn't my area of expertise. But some. See... my mother's kin descend from the desert folk, and some of 'em claim descent from Nimrod -- so maybe I've got Nimrod blood in me, too, eh?" She cracks a grin. "Well, probably thin as all-get-out after five hundred years. I dare say them in Bledavik and elsewhere'd be able to make similar claims. When a country falls, the people scatter, after all..."

    Josie pauses for a moment, as if waiting. "I won't tell her if you don't tell her," she quips, then spears another piece.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Always, always blame slimes.

"Can you imagine the sheer spite necessary for something like that?" Lily wonders of Elly. She isn't sure even she can. It... could of course be that someone swapped signs around too. But then, maybe slimes.

Nimrod, though. "Ah, yeah," Lily says, recalling her history--of course she knows a little about it because of Nisan in particular. "...True enough," she says of people scattering to Josie, and wonders how many in Bledavik would make that claim. For that matter, though, talk of Bledavik reminds her of other things, and she just shakes her head after a moment.

...Cucco.

"Well I'm certainly not going to tell her," Lily says, crossing her arms.

....Maybe it's not so bad, Fei. It is kind of nice.