tushanshu_logs | open | event | Thanks to the Rolling Sea

Entry tags:

open | event | Thanks to the Rolling Sea

Characters: Team Echo, Foxtrot; also, everyone!
Date: February 24th (through 28th)
Location: Underwater; beneath the turtle
Situation: The barrier that has kept Foreigners from diving directly beneath the turtle have shifted and something there awaits discovery.
Warnings/Rating: Squids; to be updated as needed.

OOC Note: This is the third and final phase the three phase February metaplot event! What Team Echo finds beneath the turtle will have far-reaching impact on the game, therefore it is recommended that everyone read the write-up under the below cut!

Underwater | Beneath Tu Vishan

Overview
The repair work on the surface of the turtle is completed and all major wounds have been tended by the kedan. Each shell break has been patched up with the strongest materials they have access to, with many buildings in the Metal Sector having been scavanged fo provide the resources necessary to complete this work. Whole sections of shell have been stabilised with metal support structures and there are teams of kedan drafting long-term plans to monitor the natural healing of Tu Vishan.

Each worksite has been shut down, cleaned up, and the police presence dismissed as life appears to return to normal in Keeliai. All prisoners rounded up and held on trespassing chargers will be released over the course of the day.

Meanwhile, as routine takes hold once more, three teams of kedan are moving quietly to the edge of the shell and lowering large parcels of equipment and supplies into the water. They are then taking on aquatic forms and moving the work to damage beneath Tu Vishan's shell unmentioned by Eshai on the grounds of out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Questions asked of these teams as they depart Keeliai are answered as heading out to routine surveying and one applying too much pressure is apt to draw the attention of an officer for obstructing a workorder -- a grave offence in the city's legal code.

Characters that can survive in water are welcome to explore beneath the turtle, discovering that the barrier that usually "disables" their bodies in the area directly beneath where Keeliai stands surfaceside has faded and they can freely roam the area. Be warned, though! Many, many kedan are patrolling the area in a variety of aquartic forms, from hybrids to replication of natural seafaring creatures. These kedan will not ask questions or arrest, but are ordered to outright attack any that enter this perimeter. They may appear initially shocked at a Foreigner accessing this supposedly protected space, but that will not detract them for long.

Team Echo:
This team will be discovering a cloning facility established beneath the turtle and it is here that their bodies are created and prepared for the arrival of their souls via Eshai's magic. Depending on the actions of Team Echo, this facility may be destroyed. An OOC post on the community will be forthcoming in the next week to explain the impacts, if any, of this find and the changes it may bring to the game..

Additionally: Until this information ICly hits the network, these details are ICly limited to Team Echo and anyone they subsequently mention it to in a thread. It will likely be a Team Echo member that posts about it and it likely will not be long before this information is spread, just please keep that detail in mind.

Team Foxtrot:
The details of this team's findings are outlined in the thread header provided in this post. However, how does everyone feel about calamari? 8D

OOC: As with all previous logs, headers have been provided for questions, the two teams, and any random divers that wish to explore! And a reminder: An OOC post on the community will be forthcoming in the next week to explain the impacts, if any, of this find and the changes it may bring to the game

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Noh blinked - curiosity taking over as the air bubble, along with Kara and Percy's words hit his ears. He undid the straps on his rebreather, once he was sure of the air, and removed it from his mouth. What was this about was a lab underneath the turtle? Brow furrowing, his mind went to work - the most obvious, at least to his soldier's mind was: ]

It's something people cannot be trusted with. [ And he also remembered to give the young man a nod of thanks for the air. Noh swam around a little, just moving a few feet closer, as if that would make a difference. ]

Us? [ He glanced over to the party, stating the most obvious once more. ]

It's the best place to stick something you don't want found. Who'd even think to come down here but water-breathers and a few others?

[She waves a hand at Noh.]

It could be totally innocent [she does not believe that for a second] but there's one real quick way to find out.

[Looking at Percy, Nita presses her lips together.]

There might be a fight, depending on just what the Emperor's trying to hide. You okay with that?

[She knows Kara can handle herself, Noh's Kree, and she's Atlantean. Percy, on the other hand, is an unknown quantity.]

If we're quick and quiet there doesn't have to be. I can use my x-ray vision to avoid any guards.

[ But she looks to Percy as well. Safe or not, he may not be interested enough to take the chance. ]

[He blinks. It's been a long time since someone's asked him if he can handle a fight. And then he grins, rolling his shoulder a little] This is my home ground. If there's a fight here, it's a kedan who have to worry.

[He glances at Kara.] Uh, but it's probably better if try to avoid it if we can. I already annoyed one group of them this week. ['Annoyed' is putting it mildly]

[ Noh turned to fully face them again. ]

I should be able to hear people a little better around corners, and I can make my way along the ceiling, to avoid being seen. [ Those were a few of the benefits off being spliced with insect DNA, but the only issue would be communicating with everyone. ]

[She wouldn't have to ask if you'd mentioned the whole "son of ~~Neptune~~Poseidon" thing, Percy, gosh.

Nita looks at Noh and raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything. She's pretty sure that's not normal for Kree.]

I don't want to have a fight, but we're probably walking into one, so we should at least be prepared.

[Nita thinks everyone here is either her age or younger, so without really consciously being aware of it, she's decided she's in charge. Though her skills aren't equal to Noh's, Atlantean nobles all get military training, and now that there's something that needs to be done, the royal upbringing is starting to show through Nita's cheerful exterior. Her demeanor's as nice as ever, but there's something new about her that suggests she's used to having orders obeyed when she chooses to give them.]

We don't know if the place has air or water on the inside, unless Kara can tell from this distance. When we do find out, if it's water, Percy should take the lead with Kara. If it's air, Noh-Varr and Kara.

[Kara and her x-ray eyes need to be in front, and even without having Percy's powers explained to her in detail, Nita knows that anyone who can manipulate water is good to have on your side if you're fighting in the ocean. And of course a Kree is going to know how to be an advance scout.]

It looks like water, but it's hard to see in this darkness. [ And x-ray vision doesn't help much with discerning water from air. ]

I don't hear anyone talking. Maybe they can't, underwater.

[Percy raises his eyebrows a little when Nita starts to take charge. She hasn't said anything he disagrees with, though, so he gives her a grin and a lazy salute.]

There's definitely water over there, I can feel it. But there's pockets of air, too [He frowns, trying to discern the shapes in the water before givings up] We'd need to get closer. [He looks over at Kara] You wanna lead us in?

[ Taking on the role of leader had never fallen to Noh til recently in his life, so he wasn't adverse to letting Nita take that position. He nodded to her suggestion. ]

If this gets too ugly, though, we leave.

[Nita nods in agreement with Noh.]

No argument there.

[She's suddenly very serious.]

Kara and I left a message for Arthur--he's another Atlantean--but that won't do much good if Evandau locks the place down. No matter how far south this goes, at least one of us has to make it back to the city to tell people whatever we find. If we get caught, the Emperor might wipe our memories, or not let us come back from the dead.

[On that cheerful note, Nita turns to Kara.]

You're in the lead.

[ So no pressure then. Kara doesn't say as much, but she's pretty sure she's the fastest one in their group. So if things get dire, she's supposed to run away and make sure the message gets out. Well what if she doesn't want to be that person? They'll get there when they get there, she guesses. ]

Alright. This way, there's less of them guarding the underside.

[ She leads the way quickly, but slow enough that they don't attract unwanted attention. She's not the best at moving in the water, but if she just moves like she's flying it works out fine. ]

[Percy's attitude has been pretty easy going so far, but when Noh and Nita bring up leaving - and the potential consequences of getting caught, something in his expression sets. He hesitates for a second, not out of fear, but because there's someone waiting from him back on the turtle that thinks he's just down here to get his head on straight] Hey, if it comes to that? Someone make sure Annabeth Chase knows, okay.

[He swims after Kara with minimal effort, keeping his eyes trained on their destination. He doesn't have x-ray vision, but he can see just as well underwater as on land.. He frowns as they get closer] Uh. Is it just me, or are those lightbulbs?

[ Noh saw what seemed to be- hesitation in the eyes of both the ones called Kara and Percy? He could have been wrong, but then there was Percy mentioning this "Annabeth." Well - if there were people here they had to return to, Noh would do what he could. Even if he wasn't Protector anymore, he could still try to live up to that name in a good spirit.

He followed along in silence, his gait a little awkward as he was still hauling about that rebreather of his. He couldn't be sure he'd have the air bubble always, and who knew if having the spare parts might be useful for something once they were in that lab there? And speaking of, he had wonder aloud... ]

The incident before I arrived here- the zombies that came from the water... It could be possible they came from here, no?

[Nita silently offers Noh a hand. Towing him won't slow her down at all.

She's squinting at the facility, trying to make sense of what her sea-adapted eyes are showing her.]

They're shaped like light bulbs, but they'd have to be huge, and whatever's in them doesn't look like filaments.

[She's starting to have a (pardon the expression) sinking feeling about this.]

If this place is what I think it is, Noh-Varr, you might be right.

[ Kara squints, but she can't make it out until they're a little bit closer. Now she sees the light bulb shapes. And she can see the skeletons of what's in them. ]

It's people. There are people inside. What is this?

[ Genetics are starting to look more promising. ]

Did they create those zombies on purpose?

[ She moves just a little bit faster. The rest of them can see just fine in the darkness. She has to get closer. ]

The zombies came from the mainland. [The words are out before he remembers that that information wasn't exactly widely known, but he's too busy swimming closer to one of the lightbulbs to focus on that. He doesn't recognise the person inside, but he taps on the glass anyway to see if he can get a reaction.]

Is it us? [He turns around to face the others, moving as easily in the water as if he'd been on land] I mean, not us, obviously, we're right here. But is this where they store Foreigners or something before they decide it's time to let us float on up? [That's freaking creepy]

Edited 2013-02-28 19:41 (UTC)

[ Noh accepted Nita's help without a second thought and listened as they went on. His vision was- average, at best, under the water, and he had no special abilities for seeing through to the inside of that facility. He tensed as he heard there were people in those tubes, though. More possibilities racing through his mind, things he had seen back home and across a multitude of universes. ]

Prisons are possibilities as well. Keeping them sedated. Docile. [ He'd done as much to humans when he took over a prison, once. ]

Hospital. Gene Splicing. Cloning. Torture. All of the above? [ Noh gave a small shrug with that small catalog of the myriad possibilities. ] We won't know til we can examine them.

See if we can find anyone we know, I guess. There's already a prison under the palace, so it's probably not tha--wait, Percy, how do you know where the zombies came from?

[Nita's thinking aloud as she lets herself drift to a stop in front of one of the bulbous tanks, this one empty of a body, but still containing some kind of liquid that's not water and refracts the scenery behind it into even greater strangeness.]

[ Kara feels a sense of dread rise up from the pit of her stomach as she moves between tanks. The nearest guard is a ways off and they've been talking quietly, but it's not the fear of discovery that makes her feel cold. Cloning? Torture? What if this is where they arrive from? What are they doing here?

And then she spots a familiar face. No. There's no way. ]

Oh Gods...

[ She moves faster now, flitting between the tanks with almost no attention to where the guards are. That they don't spot her before she finds what she's looking for is sheer luck. ]

Rao, no.

[ Face to face with... her own face, Kara's thoughts are replaced by a high pitched hum. Her first thought is laser vision. She has to destroy them. She has to kill them all before they wake up and kill her and her friends. But that's her face. And if she's here now, what about the others? Are... are they clones?

Something burns inside her, something a lot like terror or maybe despair. It's neither. The burning is the solar energy inside of her, building up and lighting her skin like the sun itself. A scream starts to tear itself from her throat. ]

[Percy is moving from lightbulb to lightbulb. He doesn't say anything, but he's looking for people he knows from home. Grover, Frank, Hazel - anyone. He's not entirely sure what he'll do if he finds them] Uh. It's a long story. [He's distracted when he responds to Nita, mostly because he's just found Annabeth's face staring back at his] What--?

[And then he hears that screaming. And he's pretty sure her skin isn't supposed to be that colour] Oh man, not cool, not cool! [He does the firs thing that comes to mind, reaching for the ocean around him and hardening a part of it until he and the other two who aren't currently glowing are surrounding by solid ocean.

That tank in front of him, with Annabeth's body in it, just so happens to be included in that bubble. The rational part of him knows that his girlfriend is up on the turtle, but that doesn't mean he's okay with seeing her hurt here. Even if this is weird as hell] Kara, it's okay! We'll figure it out! Please don't explode!

[ Noh began looking about as well, trying to see if he could get a better grasp on the situation, since it did seem like Nita was right about this not being a prison. At least not a conventional one. He recognized a few faces here and there, ones he had seen around the network and around the turtle; he couldn't put names to them, but he knew they weren't supposed to be here. He saw multiple copies of some and that just sealed it for him. Then came the scream.

He turned around, eyes scanning for the source of it. It was hard to miss that glow. What the- ]

Has she never seen a cloning facility before? [ He, of course, asked this as if seeing them were an every day thing. They were at least nothing strange to him. People used clones for all sorts of purposes he saw as potentially valid. The fact that it was hidden, though- that didn't sit right with him. ]

[Nita's long since made her peace with being a clone, and isn't bothering to look for a copy of herself. That implication of the facility isn't the one that unsettles her, but they have more immediate concerns.]

Oh, Neptune. It's not that. Let me out.

[Nita slaps the barrier Percy's made with the water, and when he opens a gap for her, she darts out and up to Kara's side, heedless of the danger.]

Kara. Kara. Listen to me. You're not on Krypton anymore. These clones can't hurt you. You're safe.

[She doesn't know Kara well enough to be certain that's the right way to reassure her, but thank Proteus Kara had mentioned the Kryptonian clone revolt so Nita at least has some idea what's going on. If it doesn't work, if Kara's too far gone in bad memories and panic...who knows if Percy's powers will be enough to protect him and Noh? And there are the entirely unshielded kedan workers to consider, and the clones themselves. And even, may all the gods preserve them, Tu Vishan himself, with all his passengers. The thought of not trying, of fleeing and trusting distance and the waters to save her never crosses Nita's mind.]

Kara, please listen to me.

[ All of her senses are on fire. Her screams stop before they become strong enough to shatter the tanks around her, although her initial explosion was enough to do that. She squeezes her eyes shut, but she can hear everything. She can hear the kedan panicking, and her friends calling her name and the turtle's giant heartbeat and voices above the turtle, completely unaware of the scene playing out below.

And there's Nita, and Kara curls up into a ball trying to hold in the burning and the heat. She can't hurt her friends. She has to focus. She opens her mouth to say that she's okay, but what comes out is something entirely different. ]

It's us, Nita, they're us. Oh Rao, am I even me?

[ The heat lessens slightly, although she still shines like a tiny sun. Tears sting at her eyes, and she shakes with the effort to hold in the fire. Focus. Focus on the task at hand. ]

I have to... I have to stop them.

[Percy lets Nita out, but keeps a careful, worried eye on Kara. The whole talking thing doesn't seem to be working, so he drags the Atlantean back behind the shield at the last instant before Kara blows. The only thing he can really compare it to is fighting Hyperion; he keeps his eyes squeezed shut, just in case.

The danger passes - for them, at least, it doesn't look like the clones fared as well - and Percy drops the shield. That explosion can't have gone unnoticed, though, and he's only half paying attention to what Kara's saying. The ocean water is re-invigorating him, but he's still not at full strength after that explosion and maintaining the air bubbles] Hey, can we stop them later? I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinking this is one crime we don't want to be caught at the scene of by the Emperor and her goons.

[ Despite the strength of the explosion, Noh managed to catch a small glimpses of the Kedan fleeing from the corner of his eye. What exactly would they do now? Either this place was sanctioned by the leaders here, or someone with enough influence to supersede them, or it wasn't, they couldn't exactly be punished by the laws of this world. Secret cloning lab, in either case, though, didn't sit well, especially if these clones had full access to their abilities.

Taking a great risk, Noh dropped his rebreather and broke away from Percy; just in case the bubble might break, he took a deep breath and went off after one of the fleeing Kedan. Assuming this wouldn't leave him gasping for air, he could at least stop a few of them. Noh wasn't planning on being incarcerated; not again. Since he wasn't encumbered by that device of his, he grabbed for one and manhandled the Kedan enough to incapacitate it. He tossed the Kedan to the side and went after another, but the first one may have ended up crashing into an occupied tank. ]

open | event | Thanks to the Rolling Sea

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