azume | TEST 7.

TEST 7.

TIME.

Seeing as it's probably not the best idea to kick down the front doors and immediately announce your presence to the entire base as a whole, a more delicate touch is probably what's needed here when it comes to infiltrating the base; the warehouses near the main building, then, seem to be an acceptable place to start looking for another entrance. It isn't difficult to find - the buildings are largely unlocked for the time being (possibly for ease of access, possibly because no one is capable of caring if they aren't locked right now) and enough exploration and shuffling boxes around will grant you access to a door at the back, leading to an underground passage seeming to lead you in the general direction of the main base.

At the very least it's well-lit, the corridor leading to what seems to be a large basement that's both spacious and completely, unsettlingly devoid of people; there's no security posted down here, though it seems as though there really should be, and at the far side of the basement there's a staircase waiting for you, leading to a set of metal doors at the top that seem designed to slide open as soon as you approach them.

Before you can do so, there's another one of those odd pulses, signaling that another temporal disturbance has occurred; nothing looks different down here, however...

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[Michael steps automatically aside, watching quietly as this whole scene takes place.]

...it's Dawn.

[...Holy shit, she's even younger than Elise. It feels wrong seeing someone like her taking these guys on.]

...Gods, I don't know whether to applaud her tenacity or worry for her...

And she came to save the Guardians all by herself?

It certainly looks like it.

Don't bother. She's been gone for a long time.

...Yes, of course.

[She doesn't like it, but it's true. What's in the past is in the past.]

[Sena scoots up to Camilla, looking vaguely apologetic. He'd forgotten about his own safety, after all, and she'd sounded concerned.]

Um...are you sure you're gonna be fine?

[she sounded like she was trying tho convince herself back there.]

[...]

I will, dear; it's simply a bit jarring to see one so young in such a position. You have my thanks for your concern, but I will be fine.

[Camilla at the very least gives him a smile, though it's soft. There's not much else of a choice, after all.]

[Well, either way, it doesn't look like Camilla will have to worry about Dawn for too much longer; another one of those temporal shockwaves hits this side of the building, causing the time inside the room to distort violently. The people before your eyes are no longer where you remember them being - Charon is still in the room, though he seems listless, staring idly into one of the machines containing the Lake Guardians in the way that the affected tend to; Saturn is still present again, though he's in front of that large central machine, and he isn't alone there.

Cyrus is with him.

Saturn is talking to him, his voice even but slightly odd, as though he's not particularly thrilled about what he's saying; he's also far more businesslike than he's ever been with the lot of you.

"...So if we could modify the Red Chain technology to shackle not only those we're after, but beings with spirit as a whole, I think the effects will be more permanent."

Cyrus seems to consider for a moment before gesturing vaguely, though not dismissively. "Do as you see fit. If it can be done as you claim... I have no doubt you can manage to carry it out."

[...Well, it's good she doesn't have to worry about the kid anymore but this? This is kind of yikes.]

...So this "Chain" is what he's using, is it? Perhaps that's something we'll need to find a way to break.

[She's pointedly not acknowledging Saturn's tone, though she's definitely not ignoring it if the less than thrilled look on her own face is any indication.]

How utterly ghastly.

[It seems that whatever's in charge of the disturbances doesn't like it much, either.

There's another shock that hits, spaced out noticeably closer to the last than they have been; the final thing you're going to see in here is that the machines containing the Lake Guardians are gone, replaced instead with things that are far larger and more elaborate. They're like nothing else in this base, really - it's difficult to say what they're used for at first glance, but it's incredibly obvious from their size that they could easily be used on people, and there are a lot of them.

...Given the previous conversation and things Saturn has discussed with you guys before, it's likely not difficult to work out what these likely are.]

[Captain Stick His Hands In The Phenomenon is here to touch something for a resistance test!]

[WHAT ARE YOU STICKING YOUR HANDS IN NOW-

(no really go for it)]

[Gonna touch one of these hell machines! Just get his dirty mitts all up on it! He's gonna leave fingerprint smudges all on that nice shiny metal!]

[Actually?

Yes, you are. Because you can actually touch the things without it feeling weird!

Presumably we're now again.]

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eudaimonikos - 2018-09-28 23:55 (UTC) - Expand

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azumods - 2018-09-29 00:00 (UTC) - Expand

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eudaimonikos - 2018-09-29 00:01 (UTC) - Expand

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anythingforyou - 2018-09-29 00:03 (UTC) - Expand

[...oh.

Oh dear fucking gods, that certainly explains a lot, now doesn't it.

...Camilla's going to try to take a closer look at these--are there like, actually people in here right now? Are we just looking at the incubation of a million soulless freaks?]

[There are no people in there right now.]

[...Small mercies, she supposes. It doesn't look like anyone else is in there.

...Was in there.

...Gods this is a mess.

Camilla is actually going to try to get a closer look at what's going on here--she's utterly technologically inept, really, but she's kind of just looking to see where shit's connected, and in really simple terms, if the chain is incorporated into this...thing, somehow.

...Let's be honest she's rolling a nat 1 on perception because this shit is weird, but she's. Trying.]

[...I mean, it could be worse. She could be rolling nat-1 to perception as soon as she walked in, which would literally just be "YOU THINK YOU'RE IN A ROOM, BUT YOU'RE NOT SURE."

Anyway.

There doesn't seem to be anything of particular note like that around here, though you can get a good look at the veritable cable spaghetti that likely doesn't mean much to you. Um. God, I'm sorry.]

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anythingforyou - 2018-09-29 00:02 (UTC) - Expand

The effects will be more permanent...

[Michael trails off, cocking his head.]

Lucian. And the others like him. Test subjects, maybe...

Oh, very likely. It would certainly help them get a firmer hold on the region once they were out of the picture.

[Fuck this shit? Fuck this shit.]

It worked. He's going to try to expand it.

Then breaking this for good needs to be a priority, so he can't.

[...gods this entire time thing is just screwing around with everything--]

[Michael just nods, hands in his pockets. For all that he was pretty comfortable with the time shifts, the flesh blobs, and even the spiritless past versions of the group, something seems to have unsettled him.]

[it's ok Camilla he's fine. just very very surprised. how did someone get past him?]

The one who...

[The one who disappeared.]

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