2021-09-05: The Hollow Orphanage
- Log: The Hollow Orphanage
- Cast: Yulie Ahtreide, Riesenlied, Lily Keil, Ida Everstead-Rey, Ashley Winchester, Ruth Pauling, Noeline
- Where: White Orphanage
- Date: September 05, 2021
- Summary: Following Scythe's abduction attempt, Yulie gathers her friends together to venture into the ruin of the orphanage - secretly containing an underground medical facility where horrible experiments were performed - she grew up in, to share with them her past and to search for answers for the future. Terrible memories rise to the surface in the process, but the support of her friends carries her through...
============================<* White Orphanage *>============================= The White Orphanage is just one stop along the Grand Stairway--a sheltered stone path running through the hinterlands east of Port Rosalia. From the outside, it looks like it could be an abandoned mansion, or a derelict hospital, but inside, the facade falls away with alarming speed. The White Orphanage is nothing more than a shell built around an ancient laboratory facility. The first floor contains living quarters, offices, and security checkpoints, while the sub-levels are devoted to research and testing. Its ancient generators are still half-functional, powering lights, doors, and dangerously-advanced security systems. Nevertheless, a sinister aura lingers in the stale air, and the red marks on its walls could be either rust or bloodstains. Few know the place exists, and fewer still know its secrets. What happened here? BGM: Wild Arms 4 - In the Cold Iron Box
DG: A party led by Yulie Ahtreide is now entering The White Orphanage. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* The White Orphanage *>===========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Jammed Security Door *>====================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
From the outside, the building containing the White Orphanage looks like a
ruined country estate. The grass has died, leaving only hardy weeds. The
main door is unlocked, and creaks eerily in the wind. Inside are a handful
of dilapidated rooms--just enough to maintain the facility's thin
facade--and an elevator of much more advanced design. It leads downwards.
Unfortunately, the security systems are as neglected as the rest of the
place. The door leading to the elevator is made of advanced alloy plating,
and it's jammed. Time to get prying!
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Weaken==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
The settlement that they had aided the other day, as it turns out, was not far from the Grand Stairway. And alongside the Grand Stairway lies a place that Yulie would rather never revisit, if she could help it. But...
But.
After getting everyone drawn into her mess, she feels they deserve to know more about her situation. But... the scars run deep, and it's difficult for her to talk about it even to this day. However... if they go there, to that facility... then maybe they'll be able to find the answers she wants to give them, if anything still remains. And maybe she'll find some of the answers to her own questions, too.
And so, a few days later, everyone is gathered together to ascend the Grand Stairway, Yulie leading the way to what eventually brings them to the outside of a ruined country estate. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but from the way she seizes up and her breath catches in her throat... this must be the place.
"...This it it. The White Orphanage. The place I... grew up." If you can even call it that. "...Let's go. The main facility is further in - hidden underground..."
Yulie leads the way inside, very carefully pusing open the creaking main door. She's very quiet as she makes her way through the interior - picking her way past trashed furniture and through empty, dilapidated rooms. After all this time, she still remembers exactly where to go - but she stays close to everyone as she does, doing her best to not stray too far. Eventually, though, she speaks.
"This is... where we lived. I guess... if they kept us up here, they could make it look more like a normal orphanage from outside..." Yulie murmurs. And soon enough, she comes to a stop. In this room, there's an elevator of distinctly different make than the rest - made of a clean, advanced metal alloy. Yulie frowns as she approaches it.
"Um... let's see... what did they always enter...?" She murmurs to herself, pressing a few buttons on the keypad next to the door. It sparks and releases smoke in reaction, and she shakes her head. "...I guess... it's broken."
And in response to that Yulie rummages through her coat, draws out a gem glowing with orange light, and uses it to hurl a huge chunk of sorcerous rock at the elevator doors. She should probably use a little more restraint, but she doesn't.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Magic Gem toward her party's challenge, Jammed Security Door.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied had to retreat from the battle with the so-called Crimson Noble, in part because of undue exertions of the Ley defending herself from his unreal magics, the nature of which she still doesn't comprehend... and there is the topic of Malevolence too, though she doesn't blame Ruth. Some things, she's just sensitive to, and she won't blame herself for knowing her limits.
She's here again now, a few days later, looking more hale; she's helped patch people up as best she can in the meantime. Now, she can support Yulie to her fullest...
The estate she brings them to doesn't look like much, but -- Riesenlied can spot the signs. The way something looks... too plain, too normal. "... take your time... okay? And let us know if it ever becomes too much," the Hyadean whispers to Yulie, reaching for her hand encouragingly.
They proceed inside, and Riesenlied does her best with her wheelchair, manuevering past debris and scanning their surroundings. A pause, as the rather out-of-place elevator presents itself. But... it's broken.
"Mmm, hmm..." Riesenlied tilts her head. "Did the power fail? I assume this place is abandoned now, so it may make sense that the power is out..."
She's not going to be of much help with the elevator door, so she mostly shields herself from the magic gem and takes her time to observe the so-called 'normal' orphanage. Some details may come in handy later...
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Jammed Security Door.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil is not going to pressure Yulie to say anything, either way; sure, she's interested in hearing, but not at the cost of Yulie's own mental state. But when she offers to lead them to a relevant place, and seek answers... Well, she's for it.
A ruined estate, and Yulie with those feelings--yes, it's clear that this place has an effect. "We're with you," Lily says to her simply, and walks along the place carefully, looking to Riesenlied to ensure she's having a time getting in, and then looks back to Yulie as she speaks.
"Broken, is it?" Lily wonders. "Well, if you aren't worried about breaking it a little further..." Lily too pulls out a gem, but this one is a bit different; it is a black crystal, glowing with an inner light, and she siphons out some of that power to boost her own magic as she extends her hand. Yulie isn't using restraint, so Lily just directs a blast of undifferentiated dark force at the wall, planning to destroy it outright to get it out of their way.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Power Crystal toward her party's challenge, Jammed Security Door.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
A certain settlement needed an emergency Malevolence cleanup team the other day. Fortunately, Ida was only an Empathite-call away, and willing to risk driving into the wastes for others' sake. She brought one of the big all-terain motor-coaches Everstead-Rey uses to transport personnel in the Badlands; it's parked some distance down the Stairway, and hidden behind a stable rock outcropping.
Ida walks across the decrepit lot, her duster blowing in the wind. She looks out at the building, her face pulled tight. "It looks so much like a little mountain villa," she says. "Or an actual orphanage. You'd never guess what it really was." Yulie leads them inside. Ida steps quietly, as if worried about disturbing the dead. "Good God," she breathes, as she passes a doorway, and sees a room full of cots. They're in disarray; there's rust on the metal frames, and the blankets are covered in mildew and filth. "You lived here?" Ida whispers. "With other children?" Her voice trembles. Her eyes glimmer with tears.
Riesenlied has the right idea. "Agreed," Ida says. She reaches out and--if Yulie will allow--she sets a gloved hand on the young woman's shoulder. "You're not alone. And the moment you start to feel overwhelmed, I want you to tell me five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can touch, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste."
They come to the door. "I'm not sure," Ida says, glancing into the darkness beyond the jammed doors. "I think I see a light below, but... I'm not sure." She gives the doors a few solid kicks--the BANG BANG BANG of her foot echoes through the hall. Dust falls from the ceiling, and the wooden frame rattles. Then she steps back, and lets Yulie vent her feelings. She has every right to.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Jammed Security Door.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Ashley has a new shirt! That's about the only piece of good news in his life in the past couple of days. He's needed quite a bit of patching up after a vampire shanked him multiple times in several places that are dreadfully close to major arteries and veins. It's a miracle he didn't bleed out! Or maybe... There's a more sinister reason for it...?
But perhaps it's best to not dwell on such things. There's a homecoming to be had. At the top of the Grand Stairway there is a house on a hill, a place that Yulie once lived, a place...
That grows more ominous by every passing moment and every word's implication. "Main facility...?" Ashley repeats in a muted whisper as he follows Yulie's tour through the home. It looks inoccuous from here. Quite nice, even. Or it was, once upon a time. Now it's just an old, dilapidated house.
...One that hides a terrible, awful secret.
There's a door here, and Ashley steps up to throw his weight into it--
And then Lily hits it with a gigantic blast of dark magic, and Yulie chucks a boulder at it, and maybe, the thinks, he should wait for them to finish before doing the push-work. That'd... probably be safer.
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Jammed Security Door.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth is able to pull herself together away from the company of others, such as anyone like her can pull themselves in a direction that can be considered 'together.' (There was an undefined but assuredly large quantity of brooding on a nearby cliffside involved after being the cause of why Ida needed to be present at a settlement.) She has a lot to think about with Scythe's revelations that he isn't just some young punk appropriating a once defunct military unit's symbols... but when the young Paladienne needs others to come along somewhere, she keeps in touch and close. Even if there is notable conflict between her and certain others, this matter feels like it supercedes just about anything else. So far, not a whiff of her Malevolence leaves her.
She doesn't draw too close to the Hyadean in the wheelchair when she offers to be Yulie's emotional support, as she looks upon the shoddy shell of innocence - and follows inside in short order. She has problems hearing Yulie when she murmurs, but a part of her doesn't really need to know the words to feel the emotional weight of them. Both her gloved hands clasp tighter to her chest.
She normally can't tell when it's hot or cold, but there is a pressure in this place that feels... uncomfortable. Even as heavier duty means are deployed, Ruth is invoking a Crest Graph marked with Muse and Fray - a calming mist against the stale air of a long abandoned place.
Everyone else seems sure what to say to reassure the young Paladienne. A part of Ruth fears all she can really do is just be there and linger in the wake of pain and tragedy, as she pushes down some more difficult thoughts while Yulie shows uncharacteristic contempt for the present obstruction leading onward.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Mistcrest toward her party's challenge, Jammed Security Door.
==========================<* The White Orphanage *>===========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Jammed Security Door *>====================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
From the outside, the building containing the White Orphanage looks like a
ruined country estate. The grass has died, leaving only hardy weeds. The
main door is unlocked, and creaks eerily in the wind. Inside are a handful
of dilapidated rooms--just enough to maintain the facility's thin
facade--and an elevator of much more advanced design. It leads downwards.
Unfortunately, the security systems are as neglected as the rest of the
place. The door leading to the elevator is made of advanced alloy plating,
and it's jammed. Time to get prying!
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Weaken==========================================
=====================<* The White Orphanage - Round 1 *>====================== ======================< Results - Jammed Security Door >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 0 --(16)--> 16 Fail Magic Gem 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ruth Pauling 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Mistcrest 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Power Crystal 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ashley Winchester 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(16)--> 16 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Yulie Ahtreide 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Yulie Ahtreide has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie nods quietly as Ida considers the building's exterior, and what it means. And then, she asks that question, and Yulie nods.
"Yes... My brother, myself, and all of the other children... in between experiments and treatments, we lived here." Yulie replies with a quiet nod. Riesenlied reaches for her hand and offers words of reassurance and Yulie takes it gratefully, holding on. Neither does she reject Ida when she rests a hand on her shoulder and offers her own advice. "...Okay. I'll try."
She nods to Lily, then, at her assurance that they're with her before moving on.
The elevator takes some work. In doesn't quite budge at Yulie's boulder - it seems this place was built with the possibility of an attack in mind to withstand even artillery barrages. Fortunately they have Lily with them who's like an artillery barrage in her own right, whose blast of dark force, empowered by that black crystal, punches a whole right through the door.
This will make it much easier for Ida and Ashley to pry the door open, and all the while Ruth provides a calming mist that helps chase away the stale air.
Riesenlied, meanwhile, studies the area. It's altogether unassuming, but... as someone who's taken care of orphans herself, it's easy to tell that care wasn't really taken with the set-up.
The elevator doors creak open... but before they enter, Yulie stops and turns to face everyone.
"...Um. Before we go, I... I want to warn everyone. This isn't a... nice, or good place. I'm... not sure what we'll see down there. A lot of terrible things happened... So... if you want to stay up here, that's okay." She says, before carefully stepping in.
Even after all this time, the elevator still works. It carries them down, deep into the facility, until eventually the damaged doors open with a 'ding'.
The room it opens up into what looks much more like a medical facility than the floor up above - with walls of white metal and an abandoned security checkpoint, with some worn documents still resting on the desk.
"...The power's on..." Yulie notes, taking a quick look around.
DG: Ruth Pauling has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The White Orphanage *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Collapsed Catwalk *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The trail through the Orphanage takes you through a storage facility--a room
the size of a small warehouse, piled high with stacks of wooden crates. A
catwalk once bridged the gap, allowing staff to cross through without
weaving through the stacks, but something tore it free from its moorings.
Two-thirds of it lies on the floor, about forty feet below.
You'll need to climb down in order to reach the exit, but the only way down
is a pile of crates wedged beneath the remaining catwalk. These are made of
plastic, and the labeling is in Zeboim--they look sturdy enough to bear
weight, at least. Hopefully.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Slow=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth can't bring herself to say anything as Yulie finds her courage to say that what's beyond here must be terrible, nothing nice. There's a bit of scorn and fear in the air, and a part of her holds onto that as her emotional anchor when it's Yulie of all people who needs one the most.
Abruptly, she goes forward first when the elevator dings, a hiss escaping her as she draws her revolver and points it ahead at the facility - this white metal construction, the true face of the hollow orphanage above. This... white orphanage.
"It's clear." Ruth says, and the path moves along almost uneventfully beyond the quiet dread of what might be horrible things beyond that do not yet materialize. The path goes along through a storage facility beneath - huge stacks of wooden crates, with a catwalk that allows one to pass the other side.
...Not anymore. Something tore the catwalk free from its moorings, and two-thirds of it are now collapsed on the ground after a forty foot drop. All that's left are scattered piles of crates wedged beneath the remaining catwalk, plastic and with Zeboim text.
There's a few more piles on the other side of the catwalk, which are more or less useless until Ruth invokes a Crest Graph of Muse and Wing to summon a river-like wave of water to push some down and add a few more potential 'steps' to the descent, as if she's already caught what needs to be done. (Some of it neatly forms ramps, by chance.)
She still can't find it in herself to say anything reassuring to Yulie, or to the others - she can only start to attempt her own descent, which is tough when you wear a pair of shoddy mismatched boots and have a heavy skirt on.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Rivercrest toward her party's challenge, Collapsed Catwalk.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Lily helps Riesenlied have an easier time of it! She's always really appreciative when her good friend helps out; there's a quiet nod as she backs away from the dark blast, and looks to Ida in turn. "... I suppose emergency power below might still be active, yes..."
She's glad Ashley has a nice shirt, and... she knows Ruth is here for Yulie, first and foremost. And as a close confidant to K.K., of all people, she knows how hypocritical she'd be if she blamed her -- and she doesn't know Ruth's circumstance with Malevolence.
The air gets fresher thanks to her Mistcrest, and Riesenlied notes...
"... compared to our orphanage... this orphanage is made to look like one, but misses many of the actual marks of a healthy one -- you cannot find very many signs of 'play', from children able to actually do the things children do..." Riesenlied frowns quietly.
But hers is just a second hand account, an observation compared to Yulie's own lived experience. Yulie mentions a brother. Where is he now, she wonders?
Then... she warns people -- this isn't a nice or good place. A lot of terrible things happened...
"... ... you-- should not have to face these things alone, Yulie. We are with you," Riesenlied encourages, even as her heart sinks a little. Another facet of cruelty... just how many more will she see in her lifetime?
White metal... the true face of the orphanage. Then--
Ruth observes that it's clear, scanning the area ahead of them for enemies. A large stack of wooden crates, with a catwalk that allows one to pass... once upon a time. Mmm.
But Ruth also forms waves of water to push some of the crates down! She looks appreciative, nodding to the Hellion. "Thank you, Miss Pauling... Lily, Ida, would you mind guiding me? There are no railings here, so it is a little precarious still."
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool My Dear Friends toward her party's challenge, Collapsed Catwalk.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily is quiet, though she is usually quiet. She could have been at a place like this, when she was young, she's aware, but for being found instead by the Colonel. It's a sobering kind of thought, as if she needed to be more sober over all of this. But for now at least, Lily keeps her attention on the now.
Dog is outside, guarding the entrance; Lily elected not to bring her into this place.
As they enter a small warehouse, Lily notes the difficulty. She considers, and looks over Ruth thoughtfully as she pulls her Crest Graph. "That should help," Lily answers, and then narrows her eyes. The crates...
"These are... medical supplies," Lily notes. "Labelled in Zeboim. I recognize some of the company names from my research..."
"These are useful for... genetics work," she says, not entirely certain how she knows it but used to that by now. When RIesenlied asks for help, Lily moves beside her.
"Sure," Lily answers. "I'll move down with you. If we fall, I'll count on Ida to catch you." She'll be fine.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Collapsed Catwalk.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
This is not a good place, Yulie says. It's absolutely going to be a place soaked in the worst kind of scientific excess and misery. It's the kind of place that would give That Guy a delicious feast, a delectable treat for the tastebuds the likes of which are woefully too common on Filgaia. The trouble with the way the past has stuck around is that it's so... so hard to forget all the awful things that have happened.
Though perhaps that's not quite right. After all, the horrors committed here were done quite recently, weren't they? He can stay up here if he likes. Avert his eyes from what is underneath. But if he did that, how could he ever confront That Guy if the time should come? And besides--
He can't just leave Yulie alone down here, can he?
The Musketeer presses onward, pushing deeper alongside the rest of the party until...
Ah. That's a terribly mundane obstacle, isn't it? Except for the crates of medical supplies. Ashley thinks for a moment, then hucks a certain boomerang up into the rafters... To knock down even more boxes for the party to platform with. "They didn't exactly leave this place in very good repair. Is this all because nobody was around to maintain it...?" Or... did something else happen?
Is it a question that should even be asked...?
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Magic Boomerang toward his party's challenge, Collapsed Catwalk.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"My God," Ida says, as Yulie explains further. A brother. She at least has enough tact not to ask if he's alive. But he's just one person. "Do you know how many children lived here?"
But the old house doesn't take gracefully to being beaten on. Yulie's gem detonates, and the explosion ripples through the floor and ceiling. There's a creak from above, and a plate-sized chunk of plaster breaks loose and falls. Ida steps to the side, whirling out of the way just in time to avoid being brained. The plaster breaks on the floor with a heavy thwock. Ida presses a hand to her chest, and breathes. Ruth's mist helps.
The doors open. Ida steps forward, but stops as Yulie does. "...I understand," Ida says. She closes her eyes, and nods. "But that makes it all the more important that we face it together. I've... I've seen things." Her heart beats a little faster as she remembers Timotheus' 'experiment', the poor, tortured monster with too many arms. She can still remember how it tore at her, like the Reapers did. "But you and the other children deserve justice. The world needs to know what happened here." And she steps into the elevator after Yulie.
They move downward. The 'ding' of the elevator is a moment of dissonant mundanity amid the decay. Ruth says it's clear, and Ida steps out. "This looks older," she says, glancing about the checkpoint. There are still chairs in there, places where people would've done paperwork and checked visitors in. "It's not anything Celesti could have made." And that's not Galadian snobbery talking--this really does look like an advanced facility.
They move on. There are red stains on the walls, and it's impossible to tell if they're rust or blood. Ida feels something creeping down her spine, and staying there. What's that? It's the sensation of cold, terrible dread--the certainty that she will witness or experience something horrible. But as they come to the catwalk, she gains something else to focus on. "I should be able to cl--" Ruth's power rushes through the room, sweeping things into place. "Oh. Thank you, Ruth, that looks much easier."
"...from Zeboim?" But Lily's right. Ida's seen enough of the script to recognize it on sight, regardless of font choice. "Were they brought in from elsewhere, or is this place that old?" But Riesenlied asks for a hand, and Ida steps up to help her. She grips the back of her wheelchair with steady hands, and presses her heels together. A soft wind begins to blow, providing the three of them with a little extra lift as they move down the improvised ramp. Ida, for her part, takes every step with grace and caution. She's ready to scoop Riesenlied up the moment she needs it.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Collapsed Catwalk.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Ida asks a question. Does she know how many children lived here? Yulie freezes up a little, her eyes finding the ground. She can't really look Ida in the face.
"I, um. I. I don't know the number specifically, but I...have an idea. But... are you...sure you want to know the answer to that question...?" Yulie asks quietly.
Riesenlied points out that it's lacking many of the things a proper, healthy orphanage would have. Yulie nods.
"Yes. They... they didn't really think of us as people. We were just... future weapons, and the identification number they gave us. They only gave us what we needed to fulfill that purpose." She replies.
But, everyone agrees - despite everything that happened, despite the fact that it's terrible, they need to see it. She shouldn't face it alone. She nods quietly, buoyed by Riesenlied and everyone's encouragement.
They proceed further, into what appears to be some manner of storeroom. Unfortunately, it's in disrepair, and the only way down is to climb down a series of crates. Yulie proceeds carefully, using Ruth's wave to help push her forward.
"Thank you, Miss Ruth..." Yulie asides, as she carefully climbs down. She looks toward Ashley, then, shaking her head.
"...I don't know. I thought they shut the facility down a few years ago, which would explain the condition, but... I don't know what truly happened after I left." She says. She looks toward Lily, then. Yulie can't read the crates herself... but Lily can. Genetics work... Yulie nods. "That makes sense. That's... what they were after. I remember the adults in the white coats always saying... 'our task is to evolve the form life takes'. Things like that..."
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Collapsed Catwalk.
===========================<* The White Orphanage *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Collapsed Catwalk *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The trail through the Orphanage takes you through a storage facility--a room
the size of a small warehouse, piled high with stacks of wooden crates. A
catwalk once bridged the gap, allowing staff to cross through without
weaving through the stacks, but something tore it free from its moorings.
Two-thirds of it lies on the floor, about forty feet below.
You'll need to climb down in order to reach the exit, but the only way down
is a pile of crates wedged beneath the remaining catwalk. These are made of
plastic, and the labeling is in Zeboim--they look sturdy enough to bear
weight, at least. Hopefully.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Slow=============================================
======================<* The White Orphanage - Round 2 *>======================= ========================< Results - Collapsed Catwalk >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 16 --(5)--> 21 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rivercrest 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass My Dear Friends 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Magic Boomerang 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 16 --(5)--> 21 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yulie Ahtreide 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yulie Ahtreide has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
The descent itself is without incident, harrowing as it is without handrails or other safeguards beyond trusting the crates and boxes to be able to hold stable and support their weight. It seems almost mundane, by the standards of Drifter life... but it is alongside the narration of just how horrible and dehumanizing this place was to Yulie. To everyone, who lived here.
It's not the first time some of them have encountered, or even directly experienced, such callous cruelty and disregard for the agency of living beings to live and be themselves. Somehow, the threat of falling just cannot register under the weight of such a topic, as everyone makes the forty foot descent without slip or incident in spite of the unconventional methods that sometimes have to be employed for accommodating purposes.
"Don't thank me," Ruth's voice takes a darker edge to everyone's recognition of what she just did, meeting none of them in the eyes as she descends last. It adds another unwelcome layer of tension, but the worst case scenario doesn't manifest - as if just denying gratitude for what was, in the moment, a good and thoughtful deed helps stave off the edge.
She comments long belatedly after all of them successfully make it to the ground, "I've never seen anything like this constructed," as if to verify Ida's thoughts about how none of Celesti's factions could have ever made this. Beyond that, she doesn't speak over Yulie's commentary.
She rubs at her left shoulder idly, as the way ahead takes whatever form it will.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The White Orphanage *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Reconfigurable Space *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
At first glance, this room looks like a dead end. A series of long,
rough-textured panels stretch from one wall to another, blocking the way.
The first clue to their nature is a touchscreen panel on the wall. The text
is in Zeboim, but someone has left an incomplete translation in a set of
dusty papers on the wall next to it.
When activated, the touchscreen interface reveals its purpose--it allows a
user to reconfigure the arrangement of the panels, partitioning one large
room into multiple smaller chambers. The mechanisms aren't in the best of
shape, though, so it will take trial and error--as well as deductive
reasoning--to make a path through.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida focuses on helping Riesenlied down the ramp, slow and steady. When they get to the bottom, she turns to Yulie, having meditated on her words. Ida won't to like the answer. It's going to make her angry, and it's going to make her despair. She asks anyway, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears. "How many?"
The storeroom's exit is unblocked. The path takes them down a short hallway, through a door, and into what looks, at first, like a dead-end hallway. Ida reaches out and knocks on one of the panels experimentally. "It sounds like there's space behind here. We could break it down, but..." Her gaze falls on the active panel on the wall, displaying Zeboim text. "Lily, can you make heads or tails of this?" Ida asks, as she moves to investigate the papers. "...Oh, how thoughtful. This controls those panels--" Ida's hand has slipped into a pocket, and come up with her multitool. She gestures at the panels with it as she thumbs through the notes. "And all we have to do is make a path to the other side."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool ARMS Meister's Field Kit toward her party's challenge, Reconfigurable Space.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There's a soft breath of relief as Lily and Ida assist Riesenlied down the ramp, and it all happens without incident. She's quite used to this by now, but there's always the errant thought that something might tip over without her knowing. She should really keep trying with the leg braces again, but it's difficult right now...
"Medical supplies... in Zeboim?" Riesenlied sounds just a bit surprised. Genetics work... the true facet of that they're for start to become clear.
Ashley ponders about the state of the place, and Ida wonders if they brought it from somewhere, or if the place is this old. "... in truth... this all reminds me a little of the Ethos Cathedral," she is reminded. "Perhaps they repurposed an ancient Zeboim facility and built an orphanage as a facade ontop."
Yulie says she doesn't know -- she thought they shut the facility down years ago, but... there certainly are signs of power left here. A quiet pause, as she says words that...
For a moment, she is taken away -- she thinks of a frightening visage in a golden mask and a white cloaked sheet. The way he speaks about evolution and life and its purpose...
She's not even aware she's frozen up, shivering for a moment as she realises they're somewhere else -- a dead end?
He's gone now. It's all right... it's all right...
"Noeline... a-are you there?" Riesenlied quietly whispers, not really calling out for her physically but through the empathic link in their rings.
A hesitant pause. "... Lily, do you know what this kind of facility feature might imply this place was once made for...?" It's a long shot, but if anyone can guess...
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Reconfigurable Space.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily's expression is dark, at the talk of these children. She doesn't speak up to insist on an answer; no, she listens about weapons... "I see," Lily says. "...When the people caring for you want a weapon..." She shakes her head. It gets a little personal, here. Riesenlied can feel the dark cloud over Lily at the moment, probably.
But she doesn't insist on thanking Ruth, anyway. Instead, she moves on, and Ida moves to investigate the papers, and Lily looks to the interface.
"Yeah," Lily answers. "I can read this. It looks like it's in poor condition, though, so I can't guarantee it'll work. Worth a shot, though." Lily pulls her knife idly and holds onto it with her off-hand, tossing it up and down as she works as something to keep her other hand busy in the meantime.
"It looks like a variable-wall room--you could use it for testing a variety of things, or as a holding cell potentially. Meeting space... It's sufficiently flexible that I couldn't say, except for guessing."
"...But talking about 'evolving the form life takes'..." She shakes her head. "Nothing good if it wasn't just meeting space."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, Reconfigurable Space.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
They weren't thought of as people...? But they were only children! How raisin-hearted does someone have to be to treat children as disposible resources...? Were they only being used for their genetic material? That's...
Ashley struggles to keep his stomach from turning as the party makes its way deeper. "I don't know what these people were planning to do, but... This isn't how they should have done it. To make the 'next form of life' is-- if you want to do that, there are better ways! Ways that-- that don't hurt anyone."
Except the mother. The mother will often hurt quite a bit.
...They find a distinctly dead-end-like wall. But it's not one, is it? Ida identifies a mechanism, the only question is how they're going to know which is the right configuration? Ashley retrieves a little bakelite box from his pack and presses a button on its face. The screen lights up, scanning the area for... anything that might qualify as a 'treasure,' though Ashley is loathe to think of what the people who ran this facility thought of as worth 'treasuring.'
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Booty Call toward his party's challenge, Reconfigurable Space.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
There is a note of answer along Riesenlied's link - and accompanying it, a resounding crash of metal on metal from somewhere in the party's wake, similar to the sound of a metal door being pried harshly open by using a gigantic sword as the crowbar. It isn't long - really, isn't long, given how fast Noeline can be - before she's primly stepping through to meet the group as if being fashionably late for dinner.
"I am here," she says, a lot more corporeally this time, as she rests a hand on Riesenlied's shoulder and nods with gratitude towards both Ida and Lily. What light is in her eyes at the sight of her partner safe and sound immediately starts to fall at the sight of the mechanism, and the partitioned-off rooms that it controls.
"'Cells' are certainly what are brought to mind," she mutters softly, distaste clear in her voice at having to bring that word anywhere near to 'orphanage'. "But I am not sure that holding cells would need so elaborate a set up. The way that I see it, these are for-- deliberately exposing the contents of one cell to another, or else withholding any contact between them. Control spaces for an experiment," she decides, her hand squeezing Riesenlied's shoulder in support.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth trails behind the rest as they forge onward. Ida asks a difficult question, and while Ruth isn't facing her, the heiress can likely assume the same - eyes just ready to let loose with tears. With a whole lot of associated feelings, but... she holds onto keeping all of herself.
It becomes a little too easy to try and twist every thought and stimuli into being about yourself, in her circumstances.
"Why," Ruth asks aloud, out of the way of the attempts to manipulate the walls and panels as she continues to hug her shoulder, "was it that all Zeboim left behind was... how to hurt people?"
DG: Ruth Pauling has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Reconfigurable Space.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie flinches a little at Ruth's tense response, as she tells them not to thank her. She nods quietly, a bit timid. She looks instead toward Riesenlied, as she ponders the connection between this place and the Ethos Cathedral - a Zeboim facility, converted into... this.
"...You're right. Maybe..." Yulie replies, consideringly.
'How many?' Ida asks again. Yulie goes quiet for a moment, eyes fixated firmly on the floor below.
"...I said before that they gave us indentification numbers, right...? My brother's was... WG919F, and mine was WG920B+." She doesn't elaborate further - she lets those words, those numbers, serve as her answer. "I made a lot of friends here... but one by one, they all disappeared eventually..."
She looks at Ashley, briefly.
"If they thought like you do... then maybe this place would have been okay. ...But that's what they wanted. They wanted to hurt people." Yulie repllies quietly. "To create tools of destruction, no matter the cost..."
As for Ruth's question... why was it that all Zeboim left behind was how to hurt...? She doesn't have that answer herself.
Eventually, they come across a chamber full of long, rough-textured panels, configurable by a touchscreen on the wall. She approaches it, though pauses for a moment at Noeline's arrival. She offers her a brief, polite nod before looking back at the panel. She reaches into her coat, drawing out the Wonder Staff... but doesn't use it for any particular purpose. She holds onto it tightly, splintering a little in her grip. A part of her wants to just bring this whole room down... but she doesn't, instead reaching deep into her memory before very carefully inputting the first sequence she remembers that might be useful.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Wonder Staff toward her party's challenge, Reconfigurable Space.
===========================<* The White Orphanage *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Reconfigurable Space *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
At first glance, this room looks like a dead end. A series of long,
rough-textured panels stretch from one wall to another, blocking the way.
The first clue to their nature is a touchscreen panel on the wall. The text
is in Zeboim, but someone has left an incomplete translation in a set of
dusty papers on the wall next to it.
When activated, the touchscreen interface reveals its purpose--it allows a
user to reconfigure the arrangement of the panels, partitioning one large
room into multiple smaller chambers. The mechanisms aren't in the best of
shape, though, so it will take trial and error--as well as deductive
reasoning--to make a path through.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
======================<* The White Orphanage - Round 3 *>======================= =======================< Results - Reconfigurable Space >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 21 --(0)--> 21 Pass Wonder Staff 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 5 --(5)--> 10 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Lily's Knife 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Booty Call 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 21 --(0)--> 21 Pass ARMS Meister's Field Kit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yulie Ahtreide 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yulie Ahtreide has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"It seems more and more likely," Ida says. "It would certainly save them work, and give them access to facilities unheard-of in the modern era." Then, complete silence, as Yulie gives her answer. Numbers. Children who disappeared. For a moment, Ida is not looking at Yulie, but through her. Her hands clench into fists at her sides. "Monsters," Ida breathes.
But then Noeline makes her entrance, and Ida blinks once, drawn out of her reverie. "No one up top, I take it?" Which is either very good or very bad, depending. Ida lets out a breath.
The panel proves cooperative, with a little nudging from Lily--the only one here who can read Zeboim fluently. She manages to get the terminal to troubleshoot the panels, and it spits out a list of ones that are damaged or immobilized. Yulie's code still works, and a low hum echoes throughout the room as the panels rearrange themselves into a series of smaller rooms. Ashley manages to locate the door controls on the other end, and from there, it's just a few small adjustments. The way is clear.
DG: Ashley Winchester has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The White Orphanage *>===========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - A Pile of Crates *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The laboratory's storage areas are a mixed bag. Some of them are empty,
while others are strewn with bits of wood, packing material, and half-opened
crates. This one looks relatively untouched, and there's something odd about
its contents. Most of them are wooden crates and metal barrels of recent
manufacture, but there's a large pile of boxes made of some sort of plastic
in the corner. The pile has fallen over, and most of the boxes on the
surface are open, but...
The labels are written in Zeboim. If any of the boxes are still intact,
there could be useful things inside, like medical supplies or power cells.
The problem, then, is clearing away the giant pile of empty crates without
damaging them.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Tire, Treasure==============================
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"...Those numbers..." Ashley's expression darkens, "...B+? F? It almost sounds like they were assigning you a grade. Then... Yulie, how did you get out? Was it because you were..." Ice floods down the Musketeer's spine, he feels his hands tightening, unbidden, into fists. "...Not 'weapons-grade...?'"
Too many scenarios play out in his mind. Too many thoughts race by. It's fortunate, then, that the next obstacle in this terrible trek has nothing at all to do with thinking. To get from where they are to where they're going, the team will need to pass through a laboratory storage closet that has absolutely seen better days. The place is strewn with crates of all kinds, but the ones that are specifically in their way are more of those Zeboim-era plastic cases that the party encountered a few minutes ago. They seem... unopened, and potentially full of valuable salvage.
Medical supplies.
Refined refractor-based power cells.
Things that, on any other day, would have been a valuable find in and of themselves, but right now Ashley just wants to keep himself focused on moving the boxes out of the way. Getting the muscles working will help clear his head, at least for a little while...
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Pile of Crates.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There's an excruciated look from Riesenlied as Yulie explains that they were given identification numbers. That's just... that's just not... and the way she says she made friends, but they all-- they all disappeared.
She doesn't have to ask what happened to them.
Ruth has a salient question. Why is it that the only things the Zeboim left behind are the things that hurt people?
Noeline arrives in short order, however; she's in a state of trembling by the time her partner arrives, and she takes a moment to practice some square breathing -- the better to control herself with. She grimaces, feeling that erratic beat of her heart...
"Y-you are right... it is difficult to tell just from this alone," Riesenlied murmurs to Lily. Ida seems to share her same thoughts about the missing children... monsters. Yes, monsters...
There's a hesitant pause, before she says, "... it is... not unlike the Hyadeans. The most fortified of inventions tend to be those involved in war... in any given era, there is a mind to keep the ability to hurt alive... and sometimes--" She has a guilty look at Ida for a moment.
"Sometimes, even inventions that were not meant for hurting others have an end as a weapon in another era..."
Her expression falls apart for a moment, but she shakes her head. "Noeline, can I borrow Trouble? Trouble, try knocking those crates over... there," she points out.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Pile of Crates.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"That's what I think too," Lily says to Noeline. But... Lily pauses, when Ruth asks a question. All Zeboim left behind... was how to hurt people. She looks down, at that, at her gloved hand, turning it over in her thoughts. She shakes her head after a moment. "...Not all of it was," Lily says. "That's just what people most want out of the past. It's harder to learn from our mistakes and our triumphs and move forward... than it is to just go on taking the parts of the past we're comfortable with."
Identification numbers... "I'm sorry," she says to Yulie. But just to Yulie.
"...There are a lot of ways to create new things. It's the idea behind it as much as the method--you can hurt even machines, if you don't care about what happens to them after you make them. ...But is it not caring? Or can we just not predict what will happen...?"
She doesn't know. But as the representative in the room of the ancients, she feels a heavy weight on her shoulders just now. "...And it's as Riesenlied says, I think." She steps forward, though. To the cases again...
"There might be something useful in here," Lily points out. "Medical supplies--bandages, medicine, first aid stuff that we could use right now." And, "Hm. I recognize these companies, too--major battery manufacturers. So this stuff wasn't necessarily custom built for them or anything."
"...I'll feel out for the ones that are empty and the ones that have things in them, so we can know what's best to focus our energy on." Lily pulls the black crystal again, but this time it burns more brightly when it shines, and the magical effect is a strange red aura settling over everything in the room, as if Lily is... scanning, somehow. "These crates, here."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Power Crystal toward her party's challenge, A Pile of Crates.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
'It's almost like they were assigning you a grade.' A chill runs down Ida's spine as she says that. She glances to Riesenlied, sees the fear in the woman's eyes. "Breathe," she says, to everyone--including herself, because the dread keeps mounting with every moment. She takes several deep, steady breaths, feels her capital-B Breath as it flows through her. She's here. She's alive. She can still protect Yulie, and her friends.
"...Riesenlied?" Ida says, softly. She saw that guilty look. And she can only imagine how Lily must feel--at least, until Lily makes those feelings known. Ida bows her head in respect.
"We'll need to clear them out carefully," the heiress says, once the group's attention turns back to the crates. She steps forwards, and starts moving them, once at a time, focusing on her muscles and how her body moves.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Pile of Crates.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Nine hundred and nineteen. Nine hundred and twenty. Her right hand moves from her shoulder to her heart. How many? How many of these orphans?
How many of these orphans did the heartless monster make, she keeps asking herself. Some of it drains into her chest, leaving a heavy feeling there. She takes in a breath that never leaves, but that's the sensation that helps allow her to be willing to be the shape of who she once was, to whatever end or reason she seems to do so. By Ida's observations - and possibly others - she's in the guise of her old self a lot more than might be 'healthy' for someone who has gone on record to utterly despising who she was prior to... this.
Answers are given to her query as they come across the pile of crates. It's just what people most want out of the past, Lily says. Sometimes, even things not meant for hurting others have an end as a weapon elsewhere... and, a poignant statement about learning from one's mistakes and triumphs, to move forward.
Rather than taking the parts of the past they're comfortable with, as the blanket-wrapped rifle on Ruth's back, heavy as it is, feels like it shifts. The little jingle of her straps cast an ominous echo, stopped short of what that may suggest when she rolls her right shoulder and takes her right hand to pull at the straps that go back in front of her.
She grabs a Crest Graph just to give her hands something to fiddle with after holstering her revolver. Somewhere, as they start figuring out how to deal with the pile of crates, she sets it down somewhere. It's the same one from when they were fussing with the obstruction to the elevator down, the Muse and Frey one, releasing that calming mist as she casts her shadow over a troubled Yulie getting everything off her chest.
"You were never allowed to define yourself, were you?" She asks of the Paladienne. Her own eyes are closed. She can't look her in the eyes right now, but eye contact has been problematic for her for as the Drifter community has carefully tiptoed around, and occasionally stood tall against, her true nature.
Unlike Yulie, she can't get the rest of the words to what she wants to say out, and lets those feelings continue to roll about.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Mistcrest toward her party's challenge, A Pile of Crates.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
'Monsters'. Yulie doesn't deny that. They are monsters. Ashley makes an observation, then - how it sounds like they were assigning a grade. Yulie nods.
"...That's right. They graded us on our compatibility with ARMs. I was graded as 'B+', and everyone else I knew was F or lower." She shakes her head, gaze falling to the ground. "But no matter how hard I tried... I couldn't achieve the results they were after. Even B+ wasn't good enough for them. The overall experiment was considered a success... but despite everything, everything they did to us... they still declared us 'defective', and threw us out in the end."
She goes quiet for a moment, and shakes her head.
"...It... hurt, but... maybe it was for the best, I suppose. If they hadn't..." She murmurs. Where would she be now, if she hadn't...? Who or what would she be...? But then again, despite that there's now people chasing after her, for the power that was previously declared 'defective'...
She goes quiet, feeling a little spent as she enters the next room - another storage room, this one largely full of empty and half-opened crates. ...But it sounds like there might be some useful ones, too. She brings out another one of those gems as Lily identifies which crates are empty and which ones still have potentially useful contents. She might be venting her frustrations a little as she harnesses the power of the gem to send blasts of raw sorcerous energy smashing into the empty crates, but at this point who would blame her?
During this, she considers Ruth's words, and breaks her silence only briefly.
"...No. Not really..." She replies.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Magic Gem toward her party's challenge, A Pile of Crates.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"It is... thankfully quiet," Noeline admits with a nod to Ida. "To be honest, I was expecting a bit more in the way of pursuit." She hesitates, not wanting to call a confirmation just yet. Part of her thinks back to Mt. Gagazet, and her quiet hope that things wouldn't go wrong getting terribly dashed. "Still, be cautious nonetheless."
She watches Yulie work the mechanism, and sees the tension in her frame. "... once we are done finding our way down, I would happily come and be a gigantic vandal to the place," is her somewhat oblique note of support. Maybe she's just trying to get Lily on board with the plan.
She doesn't say anything more about the nature of the experiments, or the remnants of Zeboim technology. There is little more to say that others have not already covered, and she certainly does not want to pile even more stress on top of Yulie as she navigates her memories. Instead, she carefully grips the handlebars of Riesenlied's wheelchair, and nods her assent.
"Of course," is all she can get out before there is a fulrry of synthesized birdsong, and a round cucco bashes through one of the larger piles of boxes, clearly enjoying its work as it rolls up towards the foot of the wheelchair. On second glimpse, it is rather more metallic-coloured than your average cucco - and it turns out to be a badly but lovingly camouflaged ARM pod, rising up off the ground in another flurry of movement to roost in the other Hyadean's lap.
==========================<* The White Orphanage *>===========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - A Pile of Crates *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The laboratory's storage areas are a mixed bag. Some of them are empty,
while others are strewn with bits of wood, packing material, and half-opened
crates. This one looks relatively untouched, and there's something odd about
its contents. Most of them are wooden crates and metal barrels of recent
manufacture, but there's a large pile of boxes made of some sort of plastic
in the corner. The pile has fallen over, and most of the boxes on the
surface are open, but...
The labels are written in Zeboim. If any of the boxes are still intact,
there could be useful things inside, like medical supplies or power cells.
The problem, then, is clearing away the giant pile of empty crates without
damaging them.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Tire, Treasure==============================
=====================<* The White Orphanage - Round 4 *>====================== ========================< Results - A Pile of Crates >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 21 --(8)--> 29 Fail Magic Gem 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ruth Pauling 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Mistcrest 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 5 --(8)--> 13 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Power Crystal 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ashley Winchester 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 21 --(8)--> 29 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Yulie Ahtreide 60 --(25)--> 85 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Stupify(1)|Tire(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Yulie Ahtreide has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Even 'B+' wasn't good enough? What would have been good enough? "What kind of ARM were they even trying to activate...?" The deeper the questions go, the worse it gets. Ashley has to pause and take a step back from block pushing, as even a good old fashioned work-out can't keep those terrible thoughts at bay. At least, according to Lily, some of this stuff will be useful for something.
Identifying what's good to take is more helpful than it seems. Everything else, after all, is fine for being blown to smithereens by Yulie's entirely justified rage. At least the mist settling over the room seems to help... calm things, even slightly. The edge is worn away from the razor-sharp fury that had been carving away at more rational thoughts.
Though there's still absolutely nothing rational about what was done here.
Quite frankly, it's a madhouse. A prison where only the truly coo-coo could thrive. How right, then, that a cucco makes such short work of what boxes are left unbroken. Ida and Ashley can handle moving the rest, leaving the way ahead clear. But once the job's done, the Musketeer turns and regards Yulie with worry and sympathy clear on his face. "Do... Do you want a hug? This... Granas, this is just so much. I can't even imagine..."
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The White Orphanage *>============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Elemental Security Core *>====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
After a long, winding descent into the White Orphanage, you've finally
reached one of its data centers. Like many of the facility's high-security
sectors, it's protected by a lock attuned to very specific Ley aspects. This
lock, however, is far more complex than the others; there are no less than
four separate synthetic crystals, each designed to harmonize with the
others. Ley energy hums through a series of conduits leading to the
crystalline receivers. Touchpads allow a user to manipulate filters along
the conduits, and to summon and dispel ancient glyphs.
This time, there's no guide. You'll have to figure out the proper
combination through trial and error, though sorcerous knowledge will also
come in handy--as well as a keen ear. The lock is damaged, and emits a
high-pitched humming that grows more intense as certain Ley frequencies are
reached. Is that good or bad?
=Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Stupify========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It's a little distracting, being around Ruth with her feelings all over the place. But Lily has gotten used to that--it is never as bad as it was, when she dealt with so much Malevolence herself. ...But she has a point. Defining oneself...
How much do they do that?
"It's never good enough," Lily answers Yulie. "It's not your fault. It's theirs. ...What they think... they gave up the right to an opinion, with how they threw you out, if nothing else."
Noeline's suggestion... Lily isn't sure that smashing it up is wise until they find the answers Yulie is seeking--but she's willing to think about it.
She takes some parts, though. Some supplies, some power cells--she can find uses for these things, give them new life instead of having them rot in a place like this.
...She lets Ashley handle the sympathy; she moves forward, and finally they are down in a data center. It is protected by a complex lock, with four synthetic crystals touched through with Ley energy. "...The touchpads let you manipulat the system," Lily says. "This is Fray, Wing, Muse, Geo."
She explains the filters, but how to make it work is less obvious. She isn't a Crest Sorceress herself; she isn't adept at using the Ley. But she pulls her knife anyway, uses it to take some thought.
"...If we can't figure it out," Lily says, "I'll just overwhelm it." Pause. "It's already humming pretty hard. But I think I can..."
Hm. "Riese, you can feel it too, can't you? The different aspects..."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, Elemental Security Core.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Lily..." Riesenlied whispers, looking to the black-haired woman. She is from the Zeboim era, in many ways; it must -- no,she knows it feels heavy upon her. But... at the same time...
"... it is not-- only always the things that hurt. Emeralda, for instance," Riesenlied tries to reassure. But she hesitates, because she did briefly think of how the bones of her ancestors were used to create weapons...
She shakes her head to Ida. "Sorry... these are not helpful thoughts at the moment."
Ruth has been quite quiet thorughout this journey, but the question she asks Yulie feels pertinent to her. Not being allowed to define oneself... there's just the most quiet pause from Riesenlied.
"... I am glad... you are here with us," Riesenlied speaks to Yulie, though she knows it may still be cold comfort. Her attention is on Noeline as Trouble sets itself to work, and she rests against her partner for a moment. A quiet shudder. She doesn't even balk around vandalising the place. It would be nice to shut it down. Really ensure it can't be used anymore...
Then, they arrive at a data center, and it's protected by a complex lock. She senses it before she sees it. "I can feel the Ley flowing in this room... I see, it moves from these crystals to the... computer? Mmm..."
She nods to Lily when she asks if she can feel it, and... "Noeline, Ida, could you help me position... yes, around here..." She closes her eyes, and focuses as she places both of her palms in a cupped position, the Dragon's Tear shining as the starts to channel the Ley as she has so many times.
The crystalline receivers begin to thrum, and through her body as a conduit, she's hoping to be able to 'sense' the right frequency in a way not akin to how a thief might 'feel' the right height for the tumblers on a lock with their lockpick.
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Heritor's Regalia toward her party's challenge, Elemental Security Core.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
"I... don't know an Emeralda." Ruth's mind races to the possibility this 'Emeralda' might be like Yulie in some form. When they move along, for a moment, Ruth has it in her to do something other than hover near Yulie and instead between the Etheric Witch, and the wheelchair-bound Hyadean and her lover, as if shadowing their own distresses and insecurities like perhaps she should. Did she hurt them, she wonders. (She should say 'sorry' and some permutation of 'I didn't mean so and so,' but the ideas are at cross odds with some other feelings, some other less kind words she has to choke down.)
She retrieves her Crest when they move along. She isn't much help moving things directly, but she does (in her old shell) have a bad shoulder. As they come into the data center, there is an overwhelming amount of colors and lights and things that gets Ruth a bit on edge. A different kind of edge than the previous edge she was on. At the same time. (She holds.)
Lily talks about how the lock works. Fray. Wing. Muse. Geo. Ruth looks up at the third word, as if it were a significant part of the morass of who she once was. For all her faults and problems - or maybe even because of them - she's one of the extremely lucky few who have managed to retain the majority of themselves after becoming a Hellion.
She draws another Crest Graph again by habit, but it's one that doesn't have much relevance to the issue at hand. It's the Muse and Geo one, seen in combat ambushes - but it's part of an overall trend. All her travel use crests prominently feature Muse. She is a Crest Sorceress of some persuasion, but it remains quaint - all here know her true capabilities.
"I can't hear the humming," Ruth says. This tracks with what's been observed and that's not uncommon for soldiers dealing with very loud ARMs (like her rifle, loudest damn sniper rifle of its time and maybe this one too). She's known to be deaf in her left ear, and it's something of a miracle she can consistently hold most conversations as well as she does.
All Crest Sorceresses are trained, specifically, to know all four Crests and their combinations - but she gets to work sepcifically on the Muse one. Hyper-fixated. A Primarch isn't involved, going by her former Domain. It speaks broadly of one of two possibilities: an incomplete education, or simply not having the potential to be a full-fledged Crest Sorceress.
"Let me... let me help with Muse." It almost sounds like pleading, though Riesenlied is far better equipped for it due to her nature. Indirectly, it may remind Yulie of a similar circumstance - feeling the need to perform something to the satisfaction of others, to whatever end, but not quite... getting there.
DG: Ruth Pauling has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Elemental Security Core.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Don't apologize for how you feel," Ida says, to Riesenlied. She can't help but smile at the sight of the disguised Trouble, though, and as the drone moves in to help, she gives them a pat on the casing. Ida's arms are faintly sore by the time they uncover the unlooted remains, but she's quick to pop open the box and fill her pockets with packets of sterile gauze and sealed, Symbologically-preserved water bottles. Those can definitely go to a worthy cause in Guild Galad. Once Ida's picked a battery case clean, she feels sufficiently loaded down to call this an unqualified success.
When they come to the security system, Ida stops, and holds out a gloved hand before the upper-right crystal. "It's sorcerous?" Ida's eyebrows rise, but if Lily says that's how it works, then that's how it almost certainly works. "This one feels... warm." Ida's eyes go unfocused for a moment. Flame ignites in the palm of her hand, a tiny spark of Moor Gault's power--too weak to do anything but help in calibrating the system. Ida holds her hand there, and leans in, pulls a magnifier out of another pocket. She might as well check the system for damage, since that humming noise is... unnerving.
"Is it working?" Ida asks, after a moment. She has no sorcery aside from her powers as a Seer, and that only applies in the loosest possible way.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool ARMS Meister's Field Kit toward her party's challenge, Elemental Security Core.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
The smoke clears. Yulie is a little exhausted after all that. She lets her arms fall to her sides, the gem fall apart into dust in her hand. She stands there for a moment, at least until Ashley asks... if she wants a hug.
"Oh, um..." She hesitates for a moment. ...It does sound nice. A part of her does really want one. But... if she got one right now, she's not really sure when she'd be ready to get moving again... "...Not right now. But... thank you. Maybe when we get out of here...?"
She manages a weak smile for him... and for Riesenlied, too, as she says that she's glad she's here with them.
"Thank you..." She murmurs in reply. It does mean a lot to her - the knowledge that there are people who are happy for her presence. For her, and not just for what she's capable of... Bringing them here was a good thing, she's certain of that now. She doesn't know if she'd be able to make it through this without their support. And Noeline's suggestion actually get a small laugh out of her.
"...That would be nice." Yulie replies.
They move on, then, into one of the White Orphanage's data centers. Yulie frowns, studying the complex elemental system before them. She shakes her head.
"I... I've never seen this before. They never let me into these sections of the facility..." She considers, shaking her head.
It looks like they need to figure out the proper elements to cause the crystals to harmonize...
Yulie brings out the Wonder Staff. It's designed, after all, to take in and direct elements. Maybe it'll be of use here.
"If you can sense it for us, Miss Riesenlied, we can direct it..." Yulie says. Ruth can handle the Muse side. Yulie wouldn't want to take that away from her, perhaps it's a desire she can sympathise with.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Wonder Staff toward her party's challenge, Elemental Security Core.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
A hug is refused, but for good reason. "Later, then," the musketeer nods. Emotions are difficult things; it can be so hard to... bottle them up again, once they start to flow.
And there are sure a whole lot of feelings here.
"I think," Ashley says, as the sundry relics of the ancient age are tucked away and stored for safe-keeping, "It's... not that the only things that the Zeboim left behind are weapons, it's just that so much of everything 'good' they gave us is... Stuff like this. Medical kits and batteries, power sources and technology that we just kind of take for granted because they're things people study and make into the familiar and ordinary. But everything they made was so amazing, so much more than we can manage, so when we find a weapon that they made, something truly terrible, it sticks in the mind."
"I think," he says, as they make their way into the reactor chamber, "...That we owe a lot more to the ancients than we give them credit for, even if we are still cleaning up a lot of their mistakes. But that's just how things are, right...? We keep moving forward, and part of that is making good with what got left unfinished."
Of course, all this philosophising doesn't actually help solve anything. Ashley is not attuned well to the Ley, something about having a horrible world-devourer trapped in one's head makes that kind of hard, as it turns out. What he does have, though, is the BOOTY CALL which, as it happens, has a Ley Tracker function. With a few twists of a couple knobs, the device's screen soon begins to display color-coded ribbons of energy that lace through the room.
At least this way they can see what they're doing...!
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Booty Call toward his party's challenge, Elemental Security Core.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... what was in your past may have helped shape you into the person you are today, but do not think for even a moment you need to offer it your thanks. Nor let it rule you," Noeline suggests quietly and solemnly to Yulie, letting out a breath after she does so before flashing a brilliant smile. "Well, then. We shall pen in a time to carefully and methodically dismantle the place, then donate the materials towards a proper shelter."
Rather than say more, she lets out a second sigh as she offers Riesenlied the support of her presence, and then focuses as she wheels Riesenlied forwards towards the elemental plates. She's not good enough at sorcery to pick out the differing elements, but thanks to her link with Riesenlied she can at least see the skeleton of the control system. Her assistance is to offer a little more fine tuned control to Riesenlied's Ley.
"... plus, you must remember that some technologies are going to be made to last longer than others," she adds in to the discussion. "And that we will see them through the lens of their discoverers. It is not so much a reflection of what Zeboim has left us - it is a reflection of what the White Orphanage's masters found most important."
===========================<* The White Orphanage *>============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Elemental Security Core *>====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
After a long, winding descent into the White Orphanage, you've finally
reached one of its data centers. Like many of the facility's high-security
sectors, it's protected by a lock attuned to very specific Ley aspects. This
lock, however, is far more complex than the others; there are no less than
four separate synthetic crystals, each designed to harmonize with the
others. Ley energy hums through a series of conduits leading to the
crystalline receivers. Touchpads allow a user to manipulate filters along
the conduits, and to summon and dispel ancient glyphs.
This time, there's no guide. You'll have to figure out the proper
combination through trial and error, though sorcerous knowledge will also
come in handy--as well as a keen ear. The lock is damaged, and emits a
high-pitched humming that grows more intense as certain Ley frequencies are
reached. Is that good or bad?
=Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Stupify========================================
======================<* The White Orphanage - Round 5 *>======================= =====================< Results - Elemental Security Core >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Wonder Staff 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 10 --(13)--> 23 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 13 --(5)--> 18 Pass Heritor's Regalia 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Lily's Knife 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Booty Call 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass ARMS Meister's Field Kit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yulie Ahtreide 85 --(35)--> 120 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Reckless(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Yulie Ahtreide has successfully explored The White Orphanage!
===========================<* The White Orphanage *>============================
================<* CHALLENGE - Audio Log - The Divine Weapon *>=================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The facility's data center is intact and functional, full of glowing screens
and humming mainframes. One of the consoles has been accessed more recently
than the others. Someone has activated the facility's radio transceiver, and
used it to broadcast a message--and, perhaps unwittingly, they've left a
record of that conversation behind. The first speaker is a younger-sounding
man, and he is not in a good mood.
"I'm telling you, it's not in the system. There's no fucking trace of it.
Just some old Zeboim black ops project--which wasn't even viable, by the
way--so thanks for wasting my time."
A second voice--an older, calmer man--speaks.
"That just means Kasim hid it somewhere else. Did you retrieve the files, at
least?"
"/Yes, sir/." Sarcasm drips from the young man's voice. "That brat's name
isn't on the list. But we know what he can do--we saw it. He's a Gene
Driver, he just wasn't cooked up in a lab like all the others.
"Correct, Lieutenant. He's worth keeping an eye on. But remember--only our
person of interest has the strength necessary to control the Divine Weapon.
We need her alive. The others are expendable."
"Sure, Colonel. /Sure/. I'm getting the fuck out of here. Place gives me the
fuckin' creeps--"
The recording ends.
=Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"It's all right," Lily says to Riesenlied, understanding what she's trying to do--feeling her feelings, too, in a way that they have done before. She notices the difficulty.. "There's always Emeralda," she agrees, and that is a bright spot. But she doesn't explain what this means to Ruth for now; neither does she demand an apology. She just looks to her again for a moment.
And to her surprise, there Ashley is chiming in, and Lily looks at him for a few moments. "...Yeah," she says. "Thanks, Ashley."
Thanks? It might seem like an odd reaction.
But the group works on the device. Riesenlied 'hears' the frequency with Lily, and Ashley provides a visual aid. Ruth works specifically, focused on Muse, and is able to corner that particular one with precision. Ida helps with a little flame. Yulie is able to work any element's energy with her staff, and thus can deal with the rest. ...Lily herself can only really contribute Fray energy, to counterbalance Ruth's Muse. And Noeline can offer fine control and precision where they need it.
And soon, they reach the data center. One console has been accessed recently, as Lily notes when she steps inside. She plays the recording. Notably, they can understand its words.
"Kasim?" Lily wonders. "Kim Kasim? They were using his work?" She wonders. "Nanomachines...?"
This is her only commentary to start. The rest makes her listen more quietly. The talk of their person of interest--of the Divine Weapon--makes her look to Yulie.
"...Do you recognize either of these voices?" she wonders, and moves to save the recording, pulling a notebook to take notes.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... true. Thank you," Riesenlied nods to Ida, on not apologising for her feelings. And there's a quiet pause to Ruth, and she explains, "She is a wonderful daughter, one from the distant past of Zeboim. I am sure she would be happy to see you, some time." She can only hope it can help... and, when Ruth offers to help, she's only happy to; she can't do all the heavy lifting on her own, after all. And Lily has Fray in turn... it's a great match.
A hug sounds nice, but... not right now. Well, Riesenlied is getting a hug from Noeline, sort of, because Dig Hugs are a big part of how she functions.
"... the Fray frequency is okay... a bit more Muse, Miss Pauling-- there," Riesenlied whispers, with some effort. Noeline helps her fine-tune, and Ashley helps those generating energies... and the Wonder Staff helps become another channeling facet. "...52... no, 53-- ah!"
She looks a bit exhausted, leaning back against Noeline again as she rests in her chair. That really was precarious work, but--
The recording plays.
"... Kasim..." Riesenlied nods quietly to Lily, as she catches on who it is. The name Kasim certainly has been on the forefront of the mind for reasons, such as New Kasim City, after all. The 'person of interst'...
"... Lieutenant. Colonel," Riesenlied murmurs, and instead looks to Ruth, since Lily's looking to Yulie. "By any chance... former members of the Congressional Knights, or...?"
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Noeline offers some valuable advice - the past may have helped shape her into who she is, but she doesn't have to offer it thanks or let it rule her... Yulie dwells on that before nodding.
"...Thank you. That's... a good way to look at it." She replies. And working together, they're all able to attune the crystals properly. It's not something any one of them could have done alone. Maybe it wasn't just the crystals that needed to harmonize. And in doing so, the data center becomes open to them... and most immediately obvious is the audio log that plays out.
"That voice...!" She says with a gasp of surprise, before looking toward Lily with a nod.
"Yes... I don't recognize the older voice, but the younger one... his name is Jeremy, I think. He's attacked my friends and I before... I think he's with Odessa... or, maybe with Brionac..." She replies. The distinction seems important, at least in this case. She looks toward Lily, then.
"Kasim? Like, um... New Kasim City...? Did he work with nanomachines too?" She asks. She frowns, though, as the recording continues.
"...Don't talk about Jude like that." She mutters to the recording, as the younger voice mentions a 'brat' who happens to be a Gene Driver. ...It does confirm something she was wondering about, though.
But then the older voice mentions something... concerning.
"...Divine... Weapon. That's what they're after? ...That's what they want me for...?" She murmurs, shaking her head in disbelief. ...Of course. Of course it would be something like that. She doesn't know what the Divine Weapon is... but it seems a weapon is the only thing people like that want out of her these days...
"...I don't want to listen to this anymore..." She decides. Fortunately the recording ends, right there. If it didn't she probably would have shut it off herself.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth needs a bit more directing for her part, and does have problems hearing Riesenlied when she's whispering, but soon enough they get it to work. A recording plays, one that's recent. Yulie is familiar with it, and Ruth snaps to attention. When Riese looks to Ruth...
There's tension, her head bowed and allowing her dull copper hair to spill before her eyes. Her lips are pressed together in tension. Emotionally, there's a halt in her feelings hearing the two men speak. Scythe was a younger man - that's not his voice - and the brash voice barreling out there talking like he's already known what's going on down there. She fixates on that younger voice, above all, even as her right hand clenches tighter every so often at the older one speaking.
Yulie lets her feelings out. She can't hide them, her fear, her surprise, her anger.
Ruth's hand goes to her head. Her breathing gets all funny (it's not funny). This should be cause for alarm, rightfully so, for her nature.
"...What do you tell these young men?" She asks of the recording. "Why do you want them to fight like... like... again?" She can't complete the sentence, as emotions start to boil to the surface. The usual chromatic aberrations start to surface - the paler skin, the odd hair color as she brings that gloved hand down upon the console with impotent force. The glove squeezes just a bit tighter...
Yulie talks about how she doesn't want to listen to this any more, and Ruth hangs onto those feelings - to let guilt rein it in. It's borrowed time. She breathes a few more times.
"Brionac." Ruth gets the word out to Riesenlied, and everyone. "...The elite unit of the Congressional Knights, during... the Civil War. They've... they've reformed under Odessa." Her old enemies, to put it succinctly. "Back then... each member, a match for an entire platoon, at least." That's high 'praise.'
"You don't deserve to suffer." She says to Yulie without looking at her. "You... you deserve to be safe from all this. From... people who don't have any idea what they're doing... other than just... making more suffering." There's a smile creeping onto her face. It's not a good one, but somehow, she reads calmer. Just calmer, like she knows what she's talking about.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"How long ago would this recording have been?" Noeline wonders, half to herself and half to Lily with a wholly present frown. "Or-- well, both aspects of it, I suppose - the present commentators, and their ancient report. Still, I think this proves my point about the past being viewed through a lens, given their charming disposition," she grumbles out a sigh, rubbing at her forehead for a moment.
There is a light bonk, and she's supporting Riesenlied's head against her side, resting a hand on top of her partner's hair. "It is a fair enough guess, I would think. It would be nice if we could prove that, but... perhaps that is just my curiosity talking," she mutters uncertainly as she looks up around them at the rest of their environs. Is it really a question that needs answering? Perhaps it's something best left in the past, like so much around the Congressional Knights.
She ruminates on that for a moment with a glance towards Ruth as she confirms those suspicions, and then back to the mainframe; it finishes before Noeline can turn it off herself, which is perhaps for the best given Yulie's complaint and the rather large club-like sword that suddenly hangs in her hand as she makes her threat to tear the complex apart a little bit more tangible than it was previously.
Her gaze is drawn back to Ruth for a second, quieter moment - and then she tilts her head slightly to one side in a mix between a nod and a shrug. "Quite so," she decides after a beat. "Fortunately, Yulie has no end of support to help with that. And I think very few of us would let them hurt a hair on her head at this point."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida lets Lily take point. There's enough evidence to conclude that this was a Zeboim-era facility, and that means she's best-equipped to handle it. As the recording begins to play, Ida takes out a notepad and paper and transcribes as best as she can. Her lips tighten at the mention of 'Kasim', and she glances at Lily. "...Like Emeralda?" she murmurs. "I heard her call Fei by that name, but I..." She doesn't know any more. Maybe if they know more, they can stop these people.
Ida keeps transcribing, adding notes. Brionac--Ida heard of them as a child, but doesn't nearly have the experience Ruth does. A Lieutenant named Jeremy, and a nameless Colonel, his superior officer. "Gene Driver". When she'd done transcribing, Ida slips the pad back into its pouch, next to three sani-packs of ancient, viable medical supplies. She looks at Ruth, then at Noeline's sword, hanging over the terminal. Ida would be lying if she said there wasn't a part of her that agreed with the Crimson Noble's sentiment. "God, Yulie," Ida says. "Ruth. I'm sorry. I'm--" Pause. Breathe. Try and keep focused. "Lily, you know the most about that era. Who was Kim Kasim, and what did he do? Do you have any idea what this 'Divine Weapon' might be?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"You don't have to listen any more," Lily confirms for Yulie. She writes down what was said, remembering it well enough, but doesn't replay the recording. Instead she notes, "Jeremy--I see. Brionac, Odessa, and the Congressional Knights..."
Along with 'Jude', it would seem.
"Odessa loves to make weapons of children," Lily says with some bitterness, shaking her head. "But ah, you asked--" Pause. Ida also asks. "Kim Kasim--if that's the same Kasim--was a scientist and engineer who worked with nanomachines, back in the Zeboim era. He was brilliant, to all accounts."
A look to Noeline. "...I think we can get some more that would help her out of the database itself," she admits. "I'd be reluctant to destroy that. But the rest of this place..." She shakes her head.
"Well. Ruth. We have people worth platoons, too. We'll just have to take the fight to them if we have to. ...To be honest..."
She turns to Yulie. "I don't think you'll be free until someone does. It doesn't have to be you--We can protect you from all of this, if you'd rather. Keep you out of it. ...But someone will have to deal with Brionac, one way or another."
"Otherwise they will look to this 'Divine Weapon' and not stop until they get it, I imagine. I know how Odessa works." She doesn't explain why she knows. But she knows.
"As for the age of the recording... I could try to figure that out. But we should let Yulie see the light of day before we go much further, I think."
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie appreciates that Noeline's instinct is to try and silence the machine for her. She glances briefly between her and Ruth, then. Ruth says that she doesn't deserve to suffer. That she deserves to be safe from all of this, all of these people. But Lily points out to her that she won't be safe until someone takes the fight to them.
Yulie doesn't quite answer that directly. She goes quiet, her eyes finding the ground. Taking the fight to them... It's true that nothing she's tried seems to help.
How do you escape a force that is determined to track you down no matter wherever you go - even another planet entirely...? Running away won't help. Nowhere is safe for her.
She doesn't answer right away. It's... a lot to consider. It's probably best that she doesn't decide right now.