-Missing- IC Thread: RP Cast Filled

[Aykorn]

"So uhm, we're going this way, right?" Wade said, pointing down the untaken path. "...'Cover new ground' and all that?"

He sincerely hoped that Max was still down with the quote unquote "plan".

Max nodded, trance-like as if he were fixed onto something down the last path. "Mhm..." he said, absently. The sound of his own voice seemed to break him from his daze, and he blinked, wiped his gaze with a pinch and repeated more sternly, "Yeah, that was supposed to be the plan. You wrote those down, right? The symbols?"

Wade blinked. "The ones... we already have written down?" he asked.

Max blinked to Wade's blinked. "They're not-... or, I guess we-" He glanced out of his stupor and turned to other path again. "These are different than when we saw them before." He explained, "They're activated. If there's any changes to them, we need that-"

He cut himself off and reached for the journal on Wade's person. "Look, just give me the book. I'll do it myself."

"O...Kay?" Wade said, relinquishing the journal and pen. What symbols though? He thought, slightly annoyed. What are you talking about?! Had he missed something on the walk here?

And yet Max was recording something right where they stood, looking into the dimness of the path they took last night. What was he even writing...?

Having glanced up a moment, where the journal once rested in Wade's hand was a familiar silver mirror, conveniently teleported.

Wade sighed. Oh, it's you again, he thought.

Well, this day was already weird enough. If Max couldn't notice the mirror, maybe he was noticing something else, and Wade just couldn't see it, lost in the limbo of 'what was real or not.' Or something.

He looked down into the tunnel from yesterday. Was there actually anything down there?

Examine (Glance into the mirror): Other path

 

[ReedRGale]

Wade ==> Examine through Mirror: Other path

The silver mirror gleamed, reflecting the torch light in its pristine polish. Wade had to adjust the angle of the mirror a few times to really understand what he was seeing.

The hallway cut off into impossible blackness, as it had the day before, but this time, it had encroached all the way to the branch in the path. He could almost feel it growing, just looking at it, tendrils of darkness misting out and infecting reality.

As Max had implied, piercing through the darkness were more runes, glowing a foreboding indigo.

Wade stopped focusing on the mirror, feeling its presence fade away. He turned to stare at the normal hallway. Why was Max seeing… well... whatever this was?

 

[Banshee]

Alga took a look at the bathroom mirror in front of her and stepped forward to come face to face with the Word, glancing over the visage that was a reflection of her own and yet so different at the same time. Furrowing her brow, she focused and brought to mind the doors sitting within the hall before redirecting her mind to the idea of the rooms that lay behind them, willing them into view in front of her.

She had no idea what she was going to find, and really she wasn't even certain if this would turn out to be beneficial. The rooms were just...rooms. They couldn't possibly have some sort of long pathway to circumvent the hallway outside, right? That was ridiculous.

Alga just really hoped she would be onto something...

See the Rooms

 

[ReedRGale]

Alga ==> See...

Alga focused herself on what was behind the doors... and four top-down views of open rooms--much like looking at a dollhouse--appeared before her. They were all in a line though... not in order, but she figured it would have to do for now.

Before she lost the thought, she focused on one that looked to have something in it: Brutus. he was on his bed, crying and... well no need to focus on that too much.

She moved to the next room before she got fixated, and saw it empty, but for the decor. There were a number of children's books in a pile next to the neatly-made bed. A number of weapons littered the floor, though the kind was peculiar: Inkswords. Each one was arguably a better weapon thank her grandpa's shooter but...

The next room was empty... save for her gun. One of these rooms was her room. Had she forgotten? Or... had they moved her stuff to a similar room since? Either way, it didn't matter. What mattered was that if she wanted her gun, it was here.

The final room... was empty. Like the guest room had been before she and... well before she had been there.

But which was which?

 

[ReedRGale]

Jax ==> Begrudgingly Do Nothing

Jax was not a patient person. When he told people that, most didn't seem to believe him. That it didn't fit the cool and collected idea. People weren't good at understanding that just because someone didn't act on how they felt didn't mean that they didn't feel it.

And right now, he was bored. And bored was bad. Bored mean thinking about fatigue. Bored meant creeping fears. Bored meant overthinking. Bored meant a lack of vigilance. Bored was bad.

> Jax: Examine Surroundings

He took a deep breath, pushing aside thoughts of the couch he'd willingly abandoned and shook the haze from his eyes. He needed them to see what was here.

Scanning his flashlight beam around, it didn't take long to find the drill that Cato had been working on. Rigged to blow... how true had that been? And if they didn't know where these were coming from, where had he gotten one?

Jax moved closer to the device to stare at the cogs and the wheels. This side looked familiar, and less like some monstrous horror. He was about to reach out and touch a cog when he remembered his hand and stopped. Focusing, he chose not to destroy this on touch, and he traced the rough outline of one of the smaller gears.

Who had cleared this tunnel? The thought was as interesting as it was intrusive. Surely, all this dirt couldn't be removed through the bathroom hole. It was too small and, further, the military base was spick and span even if it was closed.

The drill could have bored down here, but it would leave a trail of ground dirt behind it. Jax was sitting in a rather cavernous opening.

Where had all this dirt gone? He knew that, when he answered that question, he'd know where his contact would be coming from and, when he knew that, he would be able to be ready to retaliate if things went poorly.

This was Felix and the Orphans, Jax reminded himself. You don't need to be so worried.

And then he remembered some of his interviewed subjects. Their memories lost. Their personalities slightly off. A chunk of their life wrenched from them. And he gripped his gun tighter.

He would find that entrance.

> Jax: Search For Entrance

> Reaction (Savvy + Academics)
> Power Usage +2
> Base Pool: 12 ==> Dice Pool 14
> Successes: 8

There was no way that it was obvious. The entrance would be well-covered... but in the end, it would have to be easy to seal again. That meant there was a door, or a cap somewhere blended into the wall.

Jax looked back to the offshoot tunnel he had to squirm through in squid-form to pass. There must have been an alternate boring device. How else would they have made that tunnel to and from the military base?

So, whatever led here likely was made the same way, but bigger so that dirt could be carried through. That meant that the door was going to lead to a rough tunnel like the one he'd used to enter, but big enough to cart loads of dirt quickly.

It was likely in a wall, somewhere, but obfuscated. So he got an idea.

Jax put his finger into the wall beside him, inserting it nearly halfway in. Then, walking to his right, he began to burn away a deep layer of dirt, stone and the like. If the cover, or door, was made of a different material, but just had a thick layer of dirt over it, then it would become obvious quickly enough.

Sure enough, a curved door revealed itself quickly. Jax pulled it open. He was still thirty minutes early and likely had time to explore before the Orphans arrived. The better he knew the area, the more he'd have to work with so he pulled open the steel door, closed it behind him, and began to explore further.

Jax: Go Through Secret Exit

 

[Banshee]

She perked up visibly at the appearance of her gun and felt herself grinning before she knew it. That was it! And...awfully convenient, too, although she stll needed to figure out whch room it was in.

Alga narrowed her focus of thought and leaned in a hair closer to the mirror, bringing to her mind the door closest to her and the room behind it. She had only focused on all four rooms before. If she could focus on one at a time...

See the First Room

 

[ReedRGale]

Seer ==> See...

Focus... one room at a time. The room closest to her... across the hall. Right if she opened the door...

Brutus. She saw Brutus's room.

 

[Banshee]

Okay. Not that one. Perhaps the next...?

Alga thought a minute, shifting her focus just marginally from one to the next.

See the Next Room

 

[ReedRGale]

Seer ==> See...

One more... Alga's focus moved to the room directly to the left of her.

The room of weapons.

 

[Banshee]

Weapons... Not that one, then. How about the room just to the right of her, then...?

Keep Seeing

 

[ReedRGale]

Seer ==> See...

One more... Alga's focus moved to the room directly to the right of her.

Empty.

 

[Banshee]

Alga couldn't resist rolling her eyes. She was terrible at this.

Okay, last one. The last room before the camera, beyond the one to her right...

Keep Seeing

 

[Aykorn]

After looking into the mirror for a moment, Wade stared into the hallway, looking utterly perplexed. He remembered this darkness and indigo runes from yesterday, but he also remembered.... seeing them? But not through the mirror.

"Maybe you should hold onto that notebook and be the person to write these symbols down...?" Wade suggested to Max.

Max met his gaze with a severe glare. "Tch. Yeah, and maybe I should shoot your own gun for you, too. Just do your job, kid." He forced the journal into Wade's hands and stomped away in one motion. "C'mon. We're burning out our flashlights."

Wade held onto the journal, at a loss for words.

He was a bit stunned by this small revelation.
The fact that this darkness was only showing up in the mirror... What did that mean? What the mirror showed him was reality so... the darkness was real?

He paused to look down the dark, but otherwise completely normal tunnel. He just couldn't see the "corruption" or whatever this was without the aid mirror. He also still needed to record and try to pretend he didn't get some weird power last night.

After a long pause, Wade gave a frustrated sigh.

"I'm so screwed," he mouthed to himself, before quickly catching up to Max.

Go To: Fork Un-Taken
Follow: Max

 

[ReedRGale]

Seer ==> See...

Alga pushed her sight to beyond the door of the far right door, half expecting to see her weapon beyond. But what she saw came as a mild shock. A hallway spanned out, longer than this one, leading... she couldn't remember. Or maybe she didn't know?

A camera dotted the middle of this hallway, the door she could come from not in its sight. And... there were five more doors available to her.

What did that mean? There were four doors before in her vision but... wait...

She remembered a fifth door outside. When her vision had shown her four, she had forgotten. Had her sight failed her? She hadn't seen this hallway until she had focused. What happened?

... Alga shook her head and the vision dissipated. Biting her lip, she figured the last room, across the hall and to her right probably had her gun by process of elimination, but... there was another hallway.

To see more, or to get straight to business?

 

[ReedRGale]

"...We're going to alert people we don't want to if we stay," Mag said nervously. "But I don't know what to do..."

"Two options," Beth stated, plainly. "Leave or push on. If we evac now, we could avoid detection and come back later, but that cuts out now as an option. Push on and we have to face the Suitless before the police arrive."

Magabelle sharply inhaled. She did not want another encounter with the police, especially with One around.

She paused, then looked back to Beth. Her leg still stung slightly. "...Leave. I think leaving is best."

The slightest hint of a smile played at Beth's lips as she said, "One, dear, we need to go."

"O-o-o-oh... okay!"

> Stealth (Savvy + Dexterity)
> +2 Decisive Action
> Base Pool: 8 ==> Dice Pool: 10
> 3 Successes

The three snuck off, filing out through a hole that had opened up in the fence. The earthquake had done plenty of bad, but this destruction was something that Mag welcomed.

In seconds, they were out of sight of the house, and were just in time to see the first stragglers starting to come out of their houses to inspect the racket. Some held cell phones on their hands and were recording, or dialing numbers.

...good they got out quickly.

They moved on, back to the house and, without much fanfare, the three were back at the dining table, where Mag and Canchi had had tea together a million years ago.

“You made a good decision, in my opinion,” Beth allowed, “but what do we do now?”

 

[Banshee]

It would be tempting, admittedly, to see further, glancing through the hallway for no other reason than sheer curiosity. Being able to peer through into places you previously weren't allowed into could open up a lot of possibilities, something she was only just now beginning to find out. She could learn a lot.

But that wasn't what she was here for. She hated being stuck in a limbo, at risk of being caught any second, and besides, the Word had said there wasn't much time, right...? She had to get going.

Alga focused her attention to the last room she hadn't yet checked, drawing back from the hallway and letting its image fade from her mind.

Keep Seeing

 

[ReedRGale]

Seer ==> See...

As expected, the last room contained her weapon. Now just to get there.

As Alga pulled away from the vision, satisfied, she felt tired. Like she had just been forced to run laps until her breath had left her. She realized she was panting. Putting her hand to her forehead, she half-expected it to sizzle. Instead, it was cold, chilling to the touch.

Fatigued, she stumbled to the door to prepare to do... what?

 

[ReedRGale]

Wade and Max ==> Go Down The Fork Untaken

Trying not to think about what might be awaiting them, the two pressed forward down the path.

The worst part was the emptiness. For what could have been an hour or ten--neither could say for certain--they pressed forward, the tension growing with the suspicion that they were being watched.

Though the branch they walked was nearly identical, the feeling of newness evoked a fresh sense of dread. Every uneven drip and irregular clack sent their hearts to beating erratically. Neither would admit it to the other. Neither admitted it to themselves.

And yet they flitted their lights here then there. Once at a sudden sound. Now at shadow. Now at the others’ breathing. They walked on and on, fearing the worst. Nothing happened.

And all at once, they saw the exit. The one they’d left from just last night was right there. They could leave. Surely they’d been down here long enough. And then Wade noticed an offshoot.

Paved and lit by construction lights wired up to its ceiling, there was an open path. They were hesitant. This was a serious shift. The tunnel was clean-cut, but despite that, still simple, made of packed dirt. This was a true path.

They glanced at each other, exchanging a nervous dare. They walked forward.

Inside the narrower pathway, their footsteps echoed louder. No matter how gently they tried, their shoes screamed in protest. They tensed and the noise got worse. But neither balked.

The path shifted to stairs that walked them down and down and down. The lights above them hummed and flickered as they descended, providing a tense tenor to accompany their tenuous footsteps.

It didn’t take longer than a few minutes before they were at the bottom. Two doorways lay before them. Max spied unnatural darkness down one path, even though the lights were laced through the room. Wade, however, saw that it was a room filled with shelves and shelves of books which all looked new. A musty scent of paper wafted through archway.

The other room looked to be much more expansive and filled with machinery. There were a few desks littered with paper and even an old-looking computer terminal. It looked to contain a lot more, but the small doorway only revealed a fraction of the room.

What now?

 

[Banshee]

The weapon. Above everything else, she needed to get her grandpa's weapon.

It was a mantra running through Alga's head as she reached a hand out to grasp at the door's handle, limb feeling like lead attached to her body. It was difficult to hold her head up, difficult to even stand in her exhaustion, and she could feel herself trembling just barely. Had seeing really done all of that? It seemed her powers did have some drawbacks after all...

Taking a breath, Alga gathered what strength the could and opened the door before taking slow steps out into the hallway, turning the direction of her destination. She hoped the Word didn't get mad if she asked for a little break when she returned home...

Go To the Gun's Room

 

[Aykorn]

Who could have thought that after so much empty tunnel, they'd still find another passage?

Granted, no one had been searching for more 'avenues of exploration' last night. Even if Wade saw the path then, he probably would have refused to go anywhere besides the subway exit, using whatever mopey protesting methods he could muster.

That wasn't the case for today. This path wasn't for a drill to smooth over; not with the paved steps and lights. Something made for people was a far cry from cryptic runes and empty stretches. Something was down here. Something different.

When they reached the bottom of the staircase, Wade's eyes widened as he and Max peeked through the first doorway. His jaw almost dropped. Actual Shelves of actual words and information.

After spending plenty of afternoons in his hometown's city library, books were almost a comforting sight. Even if was just for hanging with friends, or hiding in rows of shelves to finish a good story, pouring through texts was something Wade could make sense of.

"This room is full of books," Wade whispered, barely hiding his eagerness.

Carefully creeping into the room, Wade immediately headed for the nearest book shelf he could reach.

Examine: Room of books
Pick up: A single random book