nightlogs | BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR ❅ PART 1

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BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR ❅ PART 1

BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR

Finding the facility after they know to look was never going to be the problem. Not with the resources and Guardians at their disposal. It was always knowing to look at all. There were rumors of some mysterious entity capturing myths, possibly even human-related, but no specifics.

Now that they know for sure, the place is found through various magical and scientific means.

As they hide around the periphery of the facility, made to look like an unassuming office building on the top level, Jack talks to them all over the comms.

"I hate that we're going in blind when it comes to the underlevels but I don't think there's any way we can find out what's in there - and we don't have time to try. They could've been found out and for all we know, the people in charge will move locations make the facility disappear."

Or kill the three people they promised they'd help, including a kid.

"So just be ready to adapt. Be ready for a fight including against humans, probably with guns. If they can see other myths, they can see us. If we get split up and the comms don't work for whatever reason, instead of looking for each other, just free any imprisoned myths you can and incapacitate any resistance in whatever ways seem appropriate. Use all the spare snow globes to teleport myths out."

The yetis had gathered all of the very smallest snowglobes so that they can all carry more of them. The marble-sized micro-globes can take months to build. This will clean out a solid year's supply in one go.

"If you start facing some heat and get overwhelmed, hit your panic buttons. If it's too much, just portal out. We can only do what we can do."

The information the tech nerds to pull on the place means they know some important things: location, plans for the upper floors, locations of breaker boxes, location of where the building connects to the power grid.

Jack crowdsourced ideas on how to approach. Stacia's idea of tossing roadkill into the main breaker is unconventional but it works and the quick power outage means they'll be scrambling for a bit, giving them time before they realize the power station's guards were knocked out and bound.

Nightwing manages to clock where the cameras are and disable them.

Tim and Branch's ability to infiltrate the vents while tiny is a boon. It's easier to maneuver and avoid tripping traps, letting them dismantle them first. It takes some doing but they find their way past the boundary to the underlevels. The elevator down is a bit of a bottle neck but the both that and the largest vent shafts are a way down.

Disabling security sensors is easy. Thwarting some of the magical defense (how do they have magic to use for traps??) is more complicated.

The basic alarms and traps are one thing but the second they manage to slip in to a fairly large warehouse-sized room everything goes to hell. All of a sudden, there's the sound of clanking and and grinding gears. Walls shift, turn, and flip, floor panels rotate and tilt. The entire area shifts and reassembles itself ins short order, quickly separating everyone, as if the facility is one giant clockwork machine.

Now divided into pairs and trios, they all find themselves split up in dangerous trapped rooms meant to slow them down.

Don't worry, though, it's only forever that they might be in there, not long at all.

OOC DETAILS
❅ Format: The mod will be using prose because there will be a lot of description of traps and responses.

❅ NPCing: This part of the plot will have mod npcing. If you can, please try to tag at least about once a day to your respective threads so the mod can try to block out some semi-predictable time for npc tags. The mod will not comment in after every tag around, since characters may need to discuss things. Instead, the mod will comment in when IC actions are taken manipulating the environment.

❅ Environment: The entire point of this is to attempt to manipulate the environment to get around the traps. Players are encouraged to either have character ICly communicate with each other to figure out each course of action, or to communicate oocly to plan it. Questions to the mod can be asked in the question comment or to the mod plurk about the plot if you want more real-time communication. The mod will answer what questions they can, such as providing more description, or letting players know if a part of the environment can be manipulated, but will not reveal the consequence of a course of action until it is ICly taken.

❅ Status effects: The traps will be dangerous and potentially cause magical status effects or injury. This will be an unavoidable consequence and a requirement of participating in the plot. Before inflicting any effects, though, the mod will tell the players what's about to happen and make sure a slight variation isn't necessary for ooc comfort reasons.

❅ Long-term effects: Players who go with some kind of status effect for a character can optionally have long-term consequences from it if they like. A lot of this has magical and has the capacity to cause long-term damage and scarring.

❅ Resources: Elle will be their man in the chair acting as a coordinator for the mission on the games. Players can handwave that important information was conveyed to or from Elle.

Mini-globes: Mini snow globes the size of marbles will have been given to everyone to use to transport myths out as well as emergency transport to the Pole. For those who don't carry storage with their normal outfits, they'll have been given fanny packs to carry them.

Devices: Courtesy of Miguel, there are mini bombs; spy bots that can fly and scout ahead, transmitting video to their comms; and elemental handheld devices can use to cause localized effects of extreme freeze or extreme heat. The latter is hot enough to melt the door looks to the thick cell doors.

Magic crystals: These can float over the hand to guide the Guardians towards other myths, as well as provide the location of their home habitats so Guardians can tell the snowglobes to right location to transport them home.

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Stacia generally prefers to get off the ground in a fight she has to do in Homid, but she's more of a climber than a jumper. Getting her up there would take some doing in the first place, and then she'd be stuck on whatever chain she managed to hook onto. It's probably better that she stay on the ground, but that doesn't mean she has to like it.

She adds what propulsion she can to Dick's flight upwards (didn't completely whiff it, yay) and then drops into a roll away from the nearest arm because she doesn't like how close it's gotten while she was bracing herself.

Obviously, the direction to take is to go to the ruby in the middle. Though dealing with the light may necessitate being closer to the ceiling.

One thing at a time, though. Dick climbs up about the length of his body, giving him better control when he swings, as well as better grip. After all, these chains don't come with things that he can hold onto at the same time. Only then does he start working his way to the center of the room, so that he can see what's going on more easily.

There is a slight problem. The first chain that he swings on suddenly jerks downward as if there was some kind of spool of chain hidden in the ceiling that unravels.

He still has enough momentum to reach the next chain, but once his full weight tugs on it, that chain starts to unspool too, rapidly growing longer. It jerks to a stop before he hits the floor, but he's close to getting hurt by the beam of light from the ruby.

What does he do?

It's not the worst thing that Dick's ever experienced. It's not great, but falls from that kind of height would hurt but were unlikely to harm him. The lasers were the greater threat.

The moment the chain stops unwinding, though, Dick starts climbing again as quickly as possible. Now that he knows what to expect, he can adjust for it.

"This is going to take a bit longer than expected," he calls to Stacia. "Should have expected it to be harder than it looked."

Stacia had yipped in surprise when the chain started rattling down, but it turns out to be more of an inconvenience than a danger.

"Laser!" she calls back as a warning and a reminder. They still don't know what the light does, it could slice the chain just as easily as evaporate it or turn it red hot.

Or it could be a distraction for something else. Stacia takes her eyes off of the beams of light briefly to scan the floor around her, looking for cracks or seams

Continuing to climb was maybe not the best possible choice. The light suddenly jerks forward, too fast to react to, even for a bat, as if Sauron's all-seeing eye has noticed him trying to keep climbing and darted to hit Dick full on. The chains don't heat up, nor is he sliced in two, but he feels a sudden, blinding head ache as the light somehow pierces the protective lenses in his mask and gets him right in the eyeballs. Even closing his eyes won't do anything against it.

Afterward, the head ache stays. And...darkness. He's completely blind. At least for four or five minutes.

It does not like them actively climbing the chains so it begs the question of what they're for.

The lightest and thinnest of the chains withdraw into the ceiling after this, as if the more climbable ones were always meant to be a trap. The only ones left are the thickest ones with the largest, sturdiest rings.

The light at least pauses for a minute or two, while Stacia can reach Dick, and afterwards it'll start moving at the consistent steady pace from earlier.

"Noted!" Dick calls back to Stacia, trying his best to keep an eye on the lasers and on where he needs to go next. And trying to figure out how to even do that.

And then all that planning goes out the window as one of the lasers acts like that one scene in The Lord of the Rings movies. The cry is more of surprise than pain, though it does feel a lot like a shiv through his brain. Or, at least, what he imagines a shiv through his brain would feel like.

He at least has the presence of mind not to let go of the chain, instead loosening his grip so that he can hit the ground without more pain. He crouches, getting his bearings. By what he can feel, hear and taste. Because he sure as hell can't SEE anything.

"Well," he says, trying for cheerful and mostly sounding strained. "That plan backfired successfully."

Stacia doesn't scream when the light hits Dick, though she does swear under her breath. Oh boy, oh boy, is she not looking forward to explaining to Tim how his big brother got evaporated--

--And then he doesn't. Yay! He's not looking unharmed though, so she moves to his side and touches his arm to try and help him to his feet.

"Can you move?" she asks. He's talking, so that's also a positive. "All of your limbs are still attached, in case you're wondering."

"I can move," he says easily enough. "And I figured that, because they would probably hurt a lot less if they weren't."

Not that he's ever had a limb taken off, but that's what he imagines, at least.

He gets to his feet, though he doesn't take his hand from her arm. "We are still in trouble, though, because I can't see. And I have a banger of a headache, but that seems less pertinent at the moment." It probably would be because they still needed to escape. And only one of them had the training to pull at least some of that off. "We still need to get to that ruby."

"Headache and blindness," Stacia repeats, half to herself. "Not great, but better than it could be. They don't want us dead yet; that's good." She tugs on Dick's arm to lead him into a brisk walk. "My eyes still work, so I can tell you that you're gonna get zapped again if you keep sitting here. Also that the smaller chains got drawn up, so we just have the climbable-looking ones."

She surveys the room again as they begin to move, trying to see the trick to it.

"We need to get out of here," she counters. "All the ruby does is keep us moving, and hurt and disorient us when it hits us. Which is bad long-term, because we'll eventually tire out and won't be able to dodge. Other than that, it's a distraction. We might as well say that we need to stop the light from getting to the ruby in the first place." She presses her lips together. "Fuck. Under normal circumstances, I'd have a hand-mirror on me."

"I can do most everything blind I can do while seeing, so it's not the worst thing." Which he proves by keeping pace with Stacia.

She mentions a mirror and he pauses. "How much time do we have? Do I have five seconds to find something?"

"Then I'm glad I'm trapped in here with you rather than anyone less physically adept," Stacia says wryly. She considers the moving walls of light for a moment. "...If you're willing to break into a quick jog for a moment or two, we could get you that time."

"Lead on." And the wry grin she gets lets her know that, yes, he knows the joke implicit in that.

Once they have the distance they need, he puts a hand against the wall and brings up his right boot. A little bit of manipulation actually pops it open, revealing a few tools hidden in it. Though only after he takes off a thick square of glass that he hands to Stacia while he puts the heel back in place. The glass opens up into a larger square of mirror. "It's not the best mirror, but it's what I can access. However, I'm not sure how well it'll work, given that laser went right through my lenses."

Stacia gasps in delight when Dick opens up his boot, like a child who's just seen a magic trick. She's playing it up a little, but it is pretty cool. "When we get out of here, you must tell me about your cobbler," she says, taking the mirror. As soon as Dick's got his boot heel secured, she takes his arm and begins leading him forward again.

"Your lenses aren't this reflective," she says, "but I won't hold the mirror directly in front of me, either.

"Here's my plan: We get you comfortable moving at the same speed that the red light is moving at, then I sprint for the pedestal with the mirror. The pedestal looks not terribly difficult to climb, and it's what's being used to rotate the jewel, so I shouldn't get tagged. I climb it and slide your mirror between the light from the ceiling and the jewel, which will hopefully reflect enough of it that we won't have to deal with the red light. I'll let you know how that goes, and we can see about climbing out of the hole in the top. Sound reasonable?"

He doesn't need to be led this way, but it helps for the moment. Easier with pace.

"In this sort of business, you learn to do a lot of things yourself." Which means that the heel hidey-holes are his own design. Though the current design IS by Mister Terrific. "I can talk to the yetis about working something out, if you want."

Having places to hide things that aren't power based wouldn't be a bad idea, really. It won't hold a globe, but they could hold some lock picks or little things that could be useful.

He makes a face at the plan, but nods. "And if something happens, scream like anything and I'll find you." Even if he can't see the lasers. He'll manage.

"I'll take you up on that," Stacia says. She's wearing wedges most of the time anyway, may as well turn them into multi-tasker. She loves a multi-tasker piece. And what girl doesn't want more pockets in an outfit?

She snorts at his instruction. "I'll scream all right. You'll probably regret it if I have to though, I am extremely loud."

She releases his arm and tucks the folded mirror into her romper pocket, tagging along a few more seconds to make sure he's got the rhythm going. Then she turns and sprints for the pedestal. She prefers cross-country running, but she's sure-footed and can pour on the speed when she needs to. She leaps onto the pedestal, bracing herself for pain even as she curls her fingers into claws to minimize skin-contact with the surface of the thing.

She's going to swear at it if it's hiding some kind of sharpness, that's for sure.

It is not the way to solve this with absolute most minimal damage but it still is a way. She's able to put the mirror in place and it reflects the light back above. There is a bit of glare that catches her eyes though. It causes a head ache and leaves a mildly blinding after image that will definitely last for a while, given that it's the main beam of light she deflected.

However, she can still see through it. It's not as blinding as what happened to Dick.

But reflecting the light doesn't damage anything above, it just deflects the light. What does she do next with the entire ruby array?

"Ow, fuck," Stacia says, squinting against the headache and looking down into the ruby rather than into the light. Maybe there's something in there that can help? She raises her voice so Dick can hear her: "Okay, the pain and blind-y-ness comes from the main light. Not sure if I just didn't get the full blast or if the crystal amplifies it; but I can still sort of see. Trying to figure out if there's anything inside of this and/or whether I should shove it off the pedestal to make more room. Thoughts?"

"Wouldn't surprise me that it amplifies." Dick doesn't pause yet, though he is still listening to where Stacia's at. "So we're laserless now?"

Once he gets the affirmative, he changes direction and heads toward the pillar at the center. "I'm not opposed to shoving it, but can you see anything inside of it?"

"I'm checking real good before I do anything destructive," Stacia says. "Impulsive destruction leads to looking like an ass."

She's being as thorough as possible, looking at it from different angles. But there doesn't seem to be anything in there. She lets go of the mirror with one hand and gives it a shove.

The ruby topples off of the pedestal. If she removes the mirror it will harmlessly hit the pedestal and not reflect anything.

The pedestal stops turning. The doors to the room open. They've stopped the pedestal quickly enough that they aren't ambushed by Project soldiers yet.

Dick, however, will be a liability for the initial fight, and Stacia will struggle with her partial blindness. The effects will wear off but make things harder for them in the beginning.

"...Oh," Stacia says, a little nonplussed. She starts climbing down from the pedestal.

"Door's open," she reports to Dick as he gets close enough that she doesn't have to shout. "We've probably got people incoming though, to check the trap. Get your weapons handy."

She hops down to the floor and tries to shift to Crinos in the hopes that the door opening also broke whatever was keeping her in Homid. It doesn't work, but ducking through the door does, and she darts back in to retrieve the crystal from the floor. Someone's gonna get a rock to the face for all this!

Edited 2024-03-28 18:30 (UTC)

"Well, that was anti-climatic." It was good for them, of course, but still.

He reaches onto his back, taking the escrima sticks from where they'd been magnetized to his back. They hadn't been needed during the puzzle room, after all. "I'm right behind you. Just give me a heads up when we run into trouble. Though I'm pretty sure these guys aren't relying on stealth." Which meant he'd probably hear them, but still. Best to be certain.

Stacia growls an affirmative, as she's lacking the equipment to perform English at the moment. She still can't see very well herself, but Crinos gives her an advantage in the ears and sniffer -- it's not going to be fun, but it's better than Homid.

Dick's ears are very good. For a human. He's been trained to the peak of human ability, but it's not supernatural. Just very, very good.

For now, he'll just trot along behind her, listening as best he can.

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BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR ❅ PART 1

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