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Edwin watched the mechanical device intently as it climbed the side of the building. He remarked, "That mechanical thing reminds me of a worker ant. It must be a repair drone; the city can repair itself!"
He looked carefully at the nearby buildings, hoping to spot a door partially open. Maybe one of the locking mechanics had malfunctioned, or one of the past occupants had left their front entrance open.
Zendara is dazzled by everything, and starts following the mechanical quadraped, hoping to see more farther into the city.
Yukarii didn't expect her warning to work and as they proceeded she saw the door and found herself very concerned about what ever could do that to a door like this one. As they proceeded it became obvious to her that the others were being manipulated somehow but she wasn't sure of the exact cause. She was fairly sure she was not being manipulated...or was she?!
The lights were far too bright for Yukarii's sensitive eyes and she found herself more and more wishing they hadn't come down here. Still, if this led to whatever was keeping the souls trapped on this island she had to continue on. When she had a moment Yukarii pulled Yukaari forth from her mind in spectral form, if the others were compromised it might be up to her to keep them safe.. Between the two of them they kept a close eye out for whatever might have caused the damage to the door or any other threats that might appear.
"A self repairing city, that's amazing!
But...if -we- ended up here....who's to say others haven't already, or will after us? Are we even alone at all right now, fixer bugs not included."
The thought process is interrupted by seeing Zendara hurry along.
"I can hardly wait to see what other marvels are in here."
Edwin didn't notice any open doors at first so he scampered after Zendara, Yukarii and the others who where following the mechanical quadruped with great interest.
The little machine moved ahead rapidly but stopped several times, apparently to allow you to catch up before rushing off again. It turned down an alley, waited and then vanished into another flap. Try as you might, there seemed to be no way of opening the flap nor could you tell precisely where it was so perfect was the fit.
Still however, Edwin noticed something strange with the door mechanism for the building on the opposite side of the road. While the door was closed, the locking mechanism looked like it had burned out long ago. The door was a double glass affair with a slight gap between the sections, perhaps a crowbar could be used to force it open?
Edwin followed the mechanical quadruped commenting, "It's almost as if it's waiting for us to catch up!"
He examined the flap and reported, "It looks like there could be electromechanical actuators inside to open the door. Like the ones on airships except much more compact. Beats me how to trigger them through.
"Does anyone have a crowbar? We might be able to force the doors open."
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"No crowbar itself, but something more useful.", Xindyra says, as she takes something from her pack.
"The traveler's any-tool. It can change into many things. Including a crowbar."
I have one of those too.
Zendara configures her any tool into a crowbar and attempts to help Xindyra get the doors open.
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Edwin tried his best to help with opening the small door.
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Yukarii could try as well, but she also has a -1.
"Here let me have a go, there's a knack for doing this sort of thing..." said Dr Munroe. One of you passed him the any tool and he took it, inspected it for a second before inserting the tip in as far as it would go. He then heaved with all his might, the corded muscles on his neck straining.
With an ominous creaking, the door opened a crack before suddenly the mechanism inside activated and door cycled open with the hiss of compressed air.
Catching his breath Dr Munroe muttered, "Crikey that was heavy, wouldn't want to try that in a hurry..." Nobody really this much attention for you where inside a genuine pre-sundering dwelling! The building interior shared more with the nautilus space ship than with the sturdy brick buildings you were familiar with.
What was squat and solid in modern architecture had been light and incredibly spacious with the barest minimum of materiel. Ahead of you was a foyer with a reception desk and a dark service room behind it. To the left is a strange looking metal double door that seems to retract rather than opening inwards or outwards. There's a strange display above the metal doors with six glyphs and a glowing arrow pointing to the middle one. To the right is an ordinary door with what looks like a stairwell behind.
"Looks like we have a choice." said the Dr, "Up the stairs, through the service room door or investigate those funny metal doors. There's a bunch of buttons next to them, I wonder what they do?"
(pass)
(fail)
Marvelling at the ancient's building techniques, Zendara, still with traces of her insufficiently cautious exuberance, say
Mmm... let's try the metal doors. Random buttons sound fun.
She goes over and pushes one next to the doors.
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Edwin looked carefully at the Reception Desk and declared, "There are some drawers here, cleverly hidden!"
He opened them up and showed the group the five silver disks of slightly different shapes and markings,"These have got to be useful for something!"
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"Imagine if we could get to know how they did all this. It makes our architecture seem crude."
Zendara presses a button and to her surprise there was a disembodied chime followed by the sound of movement from above. A few moments later a louder chime sounded and the doors slid open to reveal a clinically clean looking metal box with the most perfect mirrors you've seen on the walls.
Marvelling at this, Marek asked "Do you think we should go in?"
Definitely. says Zendara, going in.
Perhaps a portal that someone has sent us, or a disinfection chamber, or a safe place to sleep... I'm not sure yet, but it opened for us, so let's see what is inside.
Another thought occurs to her and she says
It's too big to be an oven, right? I hope it isn't that.
She steps inside, looking around.
Edwin peered nervously into the metal box and said, "All sorts of dangers could lurk inside>" He mustered up his courage and stepped inside. "But we'll be forever wondering if we stay out here."
He looked for clues as to the metal room's purpose.
Yukarii was still not sure abou this place. She knew something wierd was going on and something very strong was down here with them somewhere. Everyone seemed far too obsessed with their explorations, even tearing apart small doors and talking of pushing random buttons to see what would happen.
"I think we need to calm down and not deface the building with breaking small doors. We also do not know what those buttons might do to you." Yukarii sighed and added, "I would hope our time in the derelict and the fate of it's passengers would insipre cuation in us, praticualrly when something forced open that steel door and might still be down here with us."
Zendara, vaguely trying to justify her strange optimism, responds
Hmm... it couldn't be this far in, or we would see the traces of further destruction, right?
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Sounding more confident than he should have done, Dr Munroe said "I'm sure we're fine Zendara, whatever happened here was long ago".
As the group discussed what the strange room could be, the doors suddenly closed. There was a collective intake of breath and then there was a disembodied chime and suddenly you all felt very heavy accompanied by a sense of motion.
"What in the world?" cried Dr Munroe but before he could say anymore there was another chime and the doors opened to reveal a different room, more of a long gloomy corridor with a great many doors on one side.
You step out and with a buzzing sound a light pops on the far end of the corridor, revealing a single door that's ajar...
"Hmm. Seem we're invited." remarked Dr Munroe.
"I see something moving. Someone or something is definitely there."
"I think we're moving!", Edwin remarked with nervous excitement. When the door opened, he stepped out, cautiously surveying the corridor
"I see it too!", Edwin whispered to Xindyra. "I'll take a look." His heart in his mouth, he crept forward to the far door and looked inside.
Zendara neither sees nor feels what Xindyra and Edwin claim... she is too focused on moving forward and seeing the next cool thing.
However, when they warn her that something is ahead, she slows down and tries to scout ahead like a sane person... overconfident in her ability, she sneaks right past Edwin to take a look.
Followed by the other redhead.
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Quieter than mice, Zendara and Xindara cautiously approach and gaze at the room within. Your eyes are assaulted by a riot of neon colors illuminating what could only be a bachelor pad. A faint smell of sweat and unwashed clothing lingers on to reinforce this image. The floor appears to be poured builder's stone, polished smooth in places and flaking in others.
To the left behind gauzy curtains on a rail is a bed with the picture of an exotic dancer on the duvet. There is a small bookcase in front of the bed with many odd looking books in it.
To the back of the room is complicated looking equipment surrounding a large moving image which is currently depicting a strangely dressed couple who appear to be arguing. There are several large box like objects either side of image with wires connecting them to a box. In front of these are battered leather sofas which have clearly seen better days.
To the right is a small table cluttered with bits of paper and strange thin boxes emblazoned with pictures of food. There is a room beyond that which you can't see into from this angle.
Following the right edge of the room, there's a pile of boxes which obscure another door, next to which is some shelving. At the far end of the room there's a wall with a closed door in the middle.
In front of that is a something obviously mechanical yet horrible, a hulking spider! One of its legs twitches every so often accompanied by faint sounds of straining clockwork.
Edwin looked around the room cautiously, nervous about the mechanical spider. After staring at the images on the screen, he suggested, "I don't think they are aware of us. It must be some sort of programmed illusion!"
Examining the room some more he observed, 'There's some stains on the bed. I wonder what happened to the occupant of this room?"
After inspecting the construct, he started gathering up the books and storing them in his backpack, "The team will their work cut out for them, looking through all these!"
Zendara keeps back from the mechanical spider, not sure what role it played in the ancient lives of the inhabitants, but hopes that it is broken and doesn't go into security mode trying to kill them or something.
She cautiously and quietly moves over to the boxes and starts looking through them.
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Yukarii's concerns were shrugged off easily and this made her even more concerned that something was wrong here. Still the others pressed forward and she had little choice but to follow them. When they found the bachelor pad with it's books and boxes and bed Yukarii looked around curiously.
When she saw the duvet with the exotic dancer on it Yukaari whispered in her mind, [ib]We should take this for our own enjoyment. We may learn new things to try from them.[/b] Yukarii just rolled her eyes at the lust filled words from her other self and focused on the bed itself. Once the stains were pointed out by Edwin Yukarii thought for a moment and then said, "Let's find out if the bed can tell me anything." With that she reached out to touch the stain with her right pinky finger to avoid touching t any more than she had to and tried to read what the object had experienced.
Something is terribly wrong, you feel a sudden tearing pain in your belly. You wake up to scream but blood vomits out of your mouth. The priests must have found out! Something profane is looming over you, you try to struggle but already you are fading...
Zendara glides in utter silence over to the boxes and starts inspecting them, all of them seem to be made of a strange from of paper that's unusually strong with a ridged almost crinkly texture. They are sealed with a strip of some kind that is stuck annoyingly well, you'll have to cut your way in.
Before anyone can do anything else, with a whine of straining motors the giant spider suddenly lurches into motion and scuttles towards the sofas. One limb quivers and suddenly it strikes, impaling and mostly flattening a mouse! As suddenly as it started it falls silent and immobile once more.
There is pregnant pause and then Dr Munroe says in a loud whisper, "That's uh quite something. I'm glad it doesn't appear to be after us!"
Zendara starts removing the sealing strips carefully, and slowly, in case the spider thing is triggered by movement. She doesn't want to end up like that mouse.
They are sealed with a strip of some kind that is stuck annoyingly well, you'll have to cut your way in.
Xindyra puts a finger before her lips as she looks at Dr. Munroe.
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Yukarii felt the story of the stains tear through her body, the pleasure of the act, the hope for the future, the fear of being caught, and the terror of feeling hope die. She came back to herself with a gasp and a sob before she turned to Marek and clung to him as she calmed herself.
Once she got control of herself once more Yukarii said, "The stain was caused by the death of a man, he and his lover had recently conceived a child the 'dirty way' and he was happy but afraid the priests would find out what they had done. They lie together when he felt something being done to him, I do not know if it was the priest's magic or poison, or something else but he died badly in this bed."
Yukarii looked at the others and said, "I do not think they made babies like we do, there was something about a 'grow tank' and the priests being involved. I think..." Yukarii hesitated and then continued, "I think they could concieve as we do but they no longer did, that it was illegal to do so, and that it was somehow done outside of themselves and the new life grown inside of a tank of some kind."
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As quietly as she can, Zendara uses a knife to carefully part the sealing strip of one of the boxes. The spider thing doesn't seem to pay her any attention although it does twitch suddenly and occasionally lashes out at something unseen.
The strange ridged paper like box turns out to have something very peculiar inside, a couple of hundred copies of some sort of flimsy pamphlet. The paper, if that's what it is, is glossy unlike any you have seen before. It bears a picture of a semi naked lady holding a strange bracelet like device you don't recognize. The pamphlet is covered in glyphs,none of which make a lot of sense. There are more pages with similar contents each with a lady showing off a gadget of some sort.
[Ooc]There are more boxes to open if you wish.[/,ooc]
(fail)
Zendara keeps two of each pamphlet (for the articles, not the pictures), so she has some historical pictures of gadgetry, as well as an extra copy for herself when someone confiscates the other for historical displays or whatnot. She hopes to be able to learn this language as well, so all of the examples of it she can gather will help.
She starts carefully opening another box (and will continue through all the boxes until/unless the mousekiller robot turns on her).
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Edwin commented, "The spider construct's actions reminds me of the behavious of old people with dementia. I wonder if it's damaged somehow." He kept an eye on the mechanical thing and kept his distance.
"That's kind of alarming, how can a killing machine get dementia? And what if it goes nuts?" asked Marek in a loud whisper as he eyed the towering spider robot with concern.
"Relax, I'm sure if it was going to attack it would have done so by now..." laughed Dr Munroe is he hadn't a care in the world. He was still looking at everything with childlike delight.
Zendara slices open the next box and finds perhaps two hundred glossy pamphlets this time selling what appears to be vast selection of exotic food. While there are some scantily clad ladies with neon blue hair on the cover offering up bowls, the rest of the pamphlet is rather more subdued.
She cuts into a third box and find something very strange. Firstly to her surprise lots of puffy white things shaped a little like crisps poured out. Whatever they where, they were very light and crinkled between thumb and finger. Inside the mound of white things was a peculiar dark metal cylinder, with a series of very complex looking dials and knobs on the top. The side of it had some sort of glass window and horribly inside was floating what appeared to be a pickled human brain!
The moment you pick the cylinder up the giant spider bot flips out. It approaches men menacingly and a strange tinny voice blares out speaking in a language none of you understand. A series of glyphs appear in the air around it.
Yukarii began to look through the pamphlets they were finding and found that, oddly, some of it was at least a little bit familiar, like maybe an ancient version of her native tongue! She recognized symbols that she thought were for shielding something, and one set that seemed to say money back guarantee. Then there was something she was sure was an address!
Yukarii said nothing about this for the moment as the others spoke of the construct. Then someone picked up a strange cylinder and the construct flipped out. It started displaying symbols, two of which she recognized. Yukarii's eyes widened as she said, "Put the cylinder down now! Two of those glyphs it shows mean contraband and surrender!".
Zendara takes some of the food pamphlets too, and she tastes one of the white crisps before realizing they must be packaging material... or they were just really bad. She wasn't altogether sure.
She sees the brain, and while it is gross, another part of her brain starts to cheer... an ancient BRAIN to study? Why, her name would be in all the research journals now!
When Yukarii voices her concern, she understands, but doesn't want to give up her prize, so she backs off a couple of steps, still holding the cylinder.
Then she sees the glyph that is changing... with a sudden insight she realizes that this is a countdown of some sort. Was the robot spider going to self-destruct?
That glyph is a countdown she yells, GET CLEAR!
She tucks the cylinder under her arm and starts running away.
"Countdown....?"
Xindyra grabs Edwin by the wrist and starts running.
Yukarii's eyes widened at what Zendara realized and quickly ran from the construct. She could only hope this didn't go an provoke it.
With his short legs, Edwin struggled to keep up with Xindyra until he activated the power of his boots, giving him a burst of speed.