antumbrac | WEEK 6

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Five weeks. It's been five weeks, and twenty-seven has now dwindled down to eleven. And while only two passed this week, this trial may have been the most devastating in its own way, as threads of patience frayed and fragments of trust fractured. Nevertheless, if The Lady is to be believed, that may very well have been the final set of sacrifices that she was waiting for, so perhaps the end is in sight.

Of course, the fact that everyone is still stuck in Krakow means that it's not over yet, and who even knows what's happening over in the Twilight?

And so, some more changes are in store for this week, even if it may not be the same ones that you've gotten used to. For one thing, the fog stays put and no new areas of the city are revealed under the light of the lampposts. Secondly, The Lady is nowhere to be found in the city, with her bookstore office vacated and abandoned with nary a trace as to where she went. And third, the clock tower will no longer operate, which-- well. Actually that's not new at all, but it certainly may make it difficult to keep up with the facade of passing days. At least the moon still serves as a reminder of that, gibbous phase waxing into something fuller over the course of the week even if the color looks a bit off.

It may not be a fresh new start, but it's not time to give up yet, is it? After all, you are all Survivors.

[[Welcome to Week 6! Note that there are no new locations this week, but feel free to make top levels at your discretion, and remember to note it in your header if you plan on investigating any locations. As alluded above, The Lady will be unavailable, while Rembrandt will still be around on Monday and Tuesday before disappearing for the rest of the week.]]

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[You guys have no idea how many BDSM jokes about the masterminds have been said, let me tell you.

Be careful, Rideaux, this room is real full of traps. From the red-tinted light outside, the very, very faint outline of tripwires can be seen on a very small section of the floor. There have to be a lot more in the darkness -- looks like the person who set this stuff engineered it so the tripwires would be invisible in the dark.

Stepping inside is unwise, really.

Not too far from the door there's a clipboard stuck to the wall. It's reachable from the doorway, but...you're going to have to extend your arm so much there's a risk of losing your balance. Careful if you want to retrieve that, guys]

[ If he opens up that cut again, can he just like... extend a blood tendril around the door frame and hook it through that hole in the clip part of the clipboard... ]

Whoa~ Looks like she really didn't want anyone coming through the windows.

[ If he uses a glow stick, can he see a way to even disconnect any of the traps? Not that he's going in there further. Just sticking to the door to let Rideaux do his thing . ]

[Totally! Who'd have thought blood was so useful?

Ah, looks like it's a report. Seems like it was written by someone with a lot of biology knowledge, with a lot of detail. The descriptions of tissues, things growing, and changes on this subject's body are...grisly. Augh.

The first page has what may be considered a summary about the content, and thankfully it's easily understood!

Hey, Dazai, the map you have would mention the floor you're on right now covers #72-150. The number on the door and the number on the summary match, by the way!

Also, about the traps, looks like they extend towards some dangerous-looking contraptions not only on the windows, but on the corners of the room too. The cables even go into the adjacent room -- like the contraptions in each room form a wide, wide net of danger. Geez]

[ Blood is great. And thankfully he can understand the complicated stuff too. Clearly he was the right man for this job!!

Holding it over so Dazai can check out the summary, and using his GHS flashlight to light things up better than a glow light. ]

Hm... I wonder if this is the one who carved that message into the tram.

Might help if we find the first room on this floor... seems a bit overkill.

[ Musing out loud as he sees the wire goes through the wall. ]

Let's grab all the reports on this floor. There should be about seventy seven rooms to check.

[ How many reports can two people hold? Dazai is scanning the page to get it memorized. ]

This one of any of them really. That was probably their dumping ground.

[The reports on the floor seem to show a progression: the #72 starts with a musing on possibly using copper and zinc framing on bones to strengthen the body in preparation for powers. A few reports later, a different modification is done. All in all, there's a series of wild procedures that seem to be directed towards increasing the odds of survival, with varying results.

Oh! Now this is fun! Looks like there are a few familiar names here, most of them close to the #150 number! Sorely lacking with useful information, sadly -- it lists information they already know, such as powers and anything about skills and theories about how the new powers impact them -- but they're there. Teru Mikami, Dist, Shin, Raven Branwen...

...there's one that may be of interest, though, because it marks the start of you all's plight by showing the first subject. Thankfully this report says there were no physical modifications on anyone to increase the odds of survival, so at least everyone in Antumbra can rest easy on that regard.

Report #089]

Edited 2020-02-11 03:35 (UTC)

[ ...Well. Dazai can hold onto that one.

It's not at all surprising at this point that they were among the subjects here -- the 300 rooms match up with their estimate of what their original group size must have been, even -- but it's still unnerving.

And he's definitely frowning at those modifications, even if those particular things weren't done to him. There's not any question that she knows about him, and it's not out of the realm of possibility to think that she could have figured out the codes just like that grunt at Spirius had managed to.

...So. Moving on. ]

[ Lol. That's... funny. It's funny he's the first success considering everything. He's reading through it and he'll just laugh as he folds it up and puts it into his pocket. WOW. ]

Wonder how long we've been here then?

[ Also she wasn't nice enough to patch up any of his wounds. Rude.

Okay time to hit up the next floor then. Fourth Floor next. ]

Edited 2020-02-11 03:50 (UTC)

[Welcome to the fourth floor. According to Dazai's map, this floor is full of...very, very, very small rooms and most likely inexpensive rooms, meant only for sleeping instead of a long stay. Not that this would stop the masterminds from shunting people in there for weeks or months!

The numbers go from #151 to #300. Let's see what there is to find!

Looks like the rest of the names of the group are here. Hey, Rideaux, your report is here! #209! The report shows a lot of...well this is a lot of information about internal stuff you may want to keep away from prying eyes, really.

Most of the reports seem to be partial failures, product of the Lady experimenting in order to understand the creatures' effects better. It's almost excessive, and far beyond uncaring towards life.

From this floor there's one of some interest: #294. You may move on to another!]

Edited 2020-02-11 04:05 (UTC)

Longer than we'd thought, apparently.

[ Did she just dump them all out on the lawn when it was time for them to wake up then...

Also, wow, thanks for the comparatively crappy room?? And yes, he's just. Going to keep his to himself.

This is definitely interesting, though. A clearer confirmation that the powers are derived from the creatures here, and... ]

I wonder why this was the one she decided to stop on. That girl was an outlier in several ways, it seems.

[ Reading through the report twice. ]

There was probably enough of us for her to get what she wants. Ulquiorra suspects she needs us for something more than just batteries.

[ Tapping the paper before he puts it with the rest. Where is Rean's because he might just stash that one, too. ]

If Rembrandt is right, it means we do have a way to beat her with our original powers.

[ Okay okay. Since we're done here... time to go up to Fifth floor? ]

[Welcome to the fifth floor!

Let's see...map says this is a very luxurious floor, with really large rooms. There's barely a dozen, and the biggest is marked as a suite. There doesn't seem to be anything of interest in the hotel rooms' reports, but...the suite, hm?

There's no clipboard on the wall here! But it's far better furnished than everything else. A teapot, a very orderly pile of scrap pieces, and what seems to be a toolbox that hasn't been touched in quite some time are pretty good indications of who stayed here once. Welcome! Come in, no traps anywhere!]

Edited 2020-02-11 04:19 (UTC)

For those of us who can get those back, anyway.

[ He feels like his watch is probably in the lottery, but there's no guarantee of that, and no guarantee that he'll actually get it even if it is. Though to be fair, he has mixed feelings about getting his powers back in the first place. He's not as bad as Julius, but he definitely has a limited number of uses remaining.

But yes, arriving at the suite... STILL GOING TO BE VERY CAUTIOUS because he does not have the luxury of reading these brackets and being reassured about the absence of traps.

Are there more papers in here? Going to check the nightstands if those are a thing, and the desk... ]

Or those of us with determination.

[ Sounds like something Rean or Shiro can do.

Also he's just going to carefully check for drawers and stuff. TIME TO LOOT is there anything interesting besides the tools? What kind of tools do we have anyways? ]

[Checking the nightstand seems to have been a good idea, Rideaux! There's one report there. Perhaps the Lady had read it again before she decided to leave the hotel? It's the report #001.

The toolbox seems to have a lot of surgical tools. They all look heavily used. Well that sure doesn't say anything good about the two hundred seventy something unknown people, huh.

In a drawer there's a folder, and inside the folder...hm, you may want to sit down with this to take a look alongside Rideaux, Dazai. The title on the cover of the folder is quite promising: This World Has a Secret and I'm About to Plunder It!'.

Subtle.]

[ Eyes narrow a bit at that... He is absolutely not lacking in determination, thank you. It's not his damn fault his power literally requires him to be holding a specific watch to use it. ]

Looks like this is the very first one. Not every day you see someone get this excited by failure.

[ Yes, that's part of the scientific process and all, but this is particularly "Hm." ]

Did you find something?

[ Time to just sit on the edge of the bed and get cozy then. ]

The World Has a Secret and I'm About to Plunder It!

[ Tilting it towards him so he can see.

Then he's going to open it up. What do we have inside this folder. ]

[It's a saucy romance novel featuring Seteth and the Lady.

Okay, no, it isn't.

Once the folder is open something heavy falls from it: a tablet. It's turned off right now -- but it can be turned on! Give it a try, yup.

There are also two pages inside this folder. The first one has 1/4 in a corner, and seems to be an empty report repurposed for writing these things down. Give it a read!]

Edited 2020-02-11 05:02 (UTC)

...I don't know why I'm even surprised.

[ Just... sitting down next to him on the bed to read along, I guess, why is this happening.

And he'll catch the tablet and turn it on, assuming it's still got a charge. ]

It's almost cute if it wasn't for it being Lady.

[ He means the title.

The contents are... interesting. Since Rideaux is checking the tablet, Dazai is going to flip to the second page to read it. ]

Edited 2020-02-11 05:07 (UTC)

[The page is marked 2/4 on the upper corner. The folder doesn't have anything else in it -- the last two pages are missing. Welp!

Still, the second page has this!]

[ Keeps reading in the meantime while waiting for the tablet to boot up... ]

Hm. I'm curious as to exactly what "extending it indefinitely" is supposed to mean when it's an alternate world rather than a time.

[ Unless the clock had something to do with it... ]

And theoretically, wouldn't that just make the electricity problem worse, if going back and forth between Day and Night was what allowed her to keep operating in the Night before?

(no subject)

deadlygoals - 2020-02-11 05:57 (UTC) - Expand

[Yup, it has charge! The tablet turns on, looks like it stillhas half of its battery available. No signs of the charger anywhere, though.

There are two files. One is a text file, interrupted like the person writing for fed up with the clumsiness of writing with a device. The note says:]

"I once asked Rembrandt if the energy looks delicious. It turns out this, not being souls, is of no interest to him, despite coming from living human beings. That's one problem less for me! I think I"

[There's also a video file. The video is...well, it's quite something.]

[ Oh. Well.

Hm. Yes, that is something. ]

...Well, I suppose that answers some questions.

[ And raises one or two.

...Might as well take this tablet with them too, he guesses. ]