bravenewworld | The Heart of the Forest

Entry tags:

!plot

The Heart of the Forest

Who: Ceilto, Lux Crownguard, Yukiko Amagi, Eiji Hino, Estelle Bright, Sinbad, Haruka Tenou, Rise Kujikawa, Domri Rade, Right Suzuki
Where: The West Wildwoods Ruins
When: Two days after this announcement.
What: Adventure calls! The Seekers and friends respond.

The path to the ruins itself had already proven difficult. Stopping off at Refuge along the way for a chat with the natives, the intrepid explorers had delved deep into the underground passageways to seek their destination, the route above ground proving to be impassable due to the thick, gnarled trees and overgrown brambles. A few lanterns and liberal usage of Flash had helped guide their way, and eventually, several hours and a half-dozen stray Rock- and Ground-types later, they had finally emerged into an enormous cavern...

Ceilto increases the power of his Flash as he whistles.

"Look at that."

A hulking edifice of collapsed metal and rock stretches out before them... It appears to have once been a tower of some sort, though the upper layers are no longer visible.

"Alright, folks. Here's where we split. Lux and Estelle, you guys are the senior Seekers here, so I'm putting you in charge. Yukiko, Sinbad, you're with Lux. Rise, Eiji, Right, go with Estelle. Domri and Haruka, you're with me. There are entrances on three sides: Lux, take the center, Estelle, you go right."

Which, of course, leaves him with left. With a wave, Ceilto beckons his group forward.

"Anything happens, blow the whistle."

[Tags will come per the once every 24 hours rule! Also, please list your party when you respond.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Eiji will wait patiently for whatever it is Rise picks up.]

Good news?

[Eiji's team is Talonflame, Glaceon, Pumpkaboo, Aerodactyl, Mamoswine.]

[Right's also waiting...though not as patiently, if the rocking back and forth is any indication.]

So...can we open it yet?

Not gonna lie, I totally kinda wanna open it.

Yeah, there's nothing back there.

[Which is itself a little suspicious, but...]

Just be careful. That door looks pretty heavy.

Got it!

[Right takes a deep breath, working himself up via Work-Up, and immediately heads over to the door itself in order to start tugging it open.]

[It opens quite easily! In fact, Right's strength is boosted so high that the terribly rusted hinges screech and snap, leaving him holding a heavy iron door in his hands.

Probably wasn't worth all that trouble, but at least they've got a nice souvenir to take home.

Behind the door is a vast space filled with... oddities. Long tables line the room, covered with glassware in strange shapes and designs and bottles with illegible labels - a few lie shattered, their contents long absorbed into the earth.

Unknown technology is scattered about the room as well - some lie in pieces, the machinery defunct or the monitors shattered. Others are more or less intact, though corroded or otherwise unable to function properly any longer. Yellowed notebooks lie on desks, the ink faded, almost entirely gone.

At the far end of the room is a glass chamber surrounded by terminals, the opaque glass still uncompromised by the passage of the years.]

[Rise opens her eyes and looks around, stepping forward cautiously. Kaneda, meanwhile, makes sure Right doesn't need a psychic hand with that door.]

Wow. It's a...I don't even know what this is, but it looks like really sophisticated pre-War stuff.

[She stares. She knows what this might be, but--she doesn't know where to start.]

...Suddenly, I wish we had Lucca here. Okay, um.

[She glances at one of those almost totally faded notebooks. That seems less likely to explode.]

Err...ooops? [Right definitely wasn't expecting those hinges to be that weak. So, he just carefully set the door against the nearby wall before following the others in.]

...so do I, actually. This looks like stuff that the more academic Engineers would fiddle with. Wonder if we would've asked Takeshi to come with us...

[Right's Herdier, Wagon, is delicately sniffing around the area, using Odor Sleuth to pick up anything other than dust, dirt, and old lab equipment.]

[The notebooks is extremely fragile, so much so that it seems like it might crumble in Estelle's hands. The script is probably impossible to read - not only is it in an ancient language, but the ink has faded dramatically over time. ...And the handwriting isn't the greatest, either.

What might be of interest, though, is the fact that the owner of this notebook seems to have been a doodler.

Here and there, large drawings cover the pages of the book. It is in color, and the colors have not faded as easily over time. Something that looks like a stylized Audino with extra large ears can be seen chasing after a ball. A swarm of what are obviously Beedrill chases a hapless stick figure - they seem to be shooting dozens of stingers and sprouting more all over. A girl with a cap rides on the back of a snakey, dark-colored serpent.

Odor Sleuth will pick up all sorts of trace scents, actually, unsurprising due to the jars of chemicals in the room. Wagon probably won't be able to identify any of them unless he's around laboratories often.

There's an odd smell coming from that glass chamber. Nothing alive, but... well, it's a bit concerning if Wagon has ever smelled anything decomposing.]

[It's all beautifully preserved nonsense, at least to Rise's untrained eye. They'll definitely have to bring a scientist in later.]

It looks like that big jar is the only thing that's still in one piece, except for the journals.

[She pauses.]

Ssssomeone want to go check it out closer? I'm afraid if something doesn't jump out and grab me, I'll break it.

[Eiji smiles lightly and nods, heading over to the glass chamber. The room was setting him a little on edge, but that's because it did look like pre-war stuff and his experience with that particular time was not something he remembered fondly- still. They'd come here to learn.]

[That's why he wanted to join the Seekers, anyway. To learn more about that time, to better understand it.]

[He peers over to the glass, seeing if anything can be made out.]

[Estelle knows how this can go. She's behind Eiji, hand on her staff, ready. Just in case something jumps out.]

Right behind ya, Eiji.

[Good thing that humans were coming over to look at the glass chamber. Wagon's starting to whine her complaint about the smell from it.

Right, helpfully, translates with a wince on his face.] Careful, guys... Whatever's in there, Wagon's saying that it smells really horrible.

[The opaque glass appears to be a shield for the inner chamber and slides away fairly easily, revealing a transparent plastic composition underneath.

Inside is a male human corpse. The sealed chamber seems to have preserved it to some extent, and the smell and decay are fairly minimal due to the lack of oxygen and microorganisms.

It is wearing shorts that have similarly survived; there is a mass of electrodes attached all over the body in various areas. Most of them have snapped although a few snake up to the top of the chamber.]

Edited 2015-07-12 02:36 (UTC)

Yah!

[Rise recoils on seeing the sight. Dead bodies are way outside her day to day comfort zone no matter how well-preserved.]

Wh...what? Were they experimenting on humans here?

Wh--what did they do to him!?

[Estelle's backing away, slowly, and very frightened.]

[Oh Savior.]

[Eiji's reaction is a little more subdued than the others. He frowns deeply and steps away.]

As much as I hate to say it, that's definitely what it looks like. Though, it isn't like that's a crime we're not still struggling with. [Thanks Gigas. Thanks Sanctuary.]

[Eiji meanwhile, is going to look at see if there's a way for him to get to the body. No matter how old, this poor person deserves some kind of rightful burial or something.]

[Indeed there is! There is a latch, but... upon closer inspection, it appears to be badly damaged, probably by the same force that shattered the glass bottles and destroyed the unknown technology.

They'll probably have to smash their way in.

Given the inability to escape, it seems possible that this person died from being unwittingly trapped.]

I can probably break through that. If... if we gotta.

[They probably do.]

[...That sure is what it looks like. Eiji sees the state of the latch and compares it with the rest of the room, frowning more and more.]

[He nods.]

You don't have to get close if you don't want, but I think the two of us can probably get this open.

[If they attack the chamber, they'll find that it doesn't break very easily. Piercing it, however, will do just fine.]

This is terrible. I guess...we owe it to whoever that is to find out what happened, though...

((OOC: sorry for missing a couple of rounds, guys!))

[Right, once he gets over his his disgust over the idea of seeing human experiments, eyes the glass surrounding the chamber as he thinks this over.]

...yeah. This guys deserves a proper burial, at least. I think we might be able to break it - if not with our fists, then with our weapons. [He hand rests upon the hilt of his blade.]

All right... lemme see what I can do.

[She can't smash it open, though. She ends up trying to pry the hatch open, using her staff as a lever.]

(no subject)

bravenewmods - 2015-07-15 03:34 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

lunchleader - 2015-07-18 03:46 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only