THE FINAL CONFRONTATION

[steampunkborgia]

[It's time.

Once everything has gathered, perhaps they feel as prepared as they can be under these circumstances. Behind that door lays the place where things will end. The door opens easily, giving them access to the most important place underneath Krakow.

It's a rather large chamber, carved in the rock, but on the far end it feels like someone decorated the place to give it a very mystical vibe. A polished stone staircase leads to what seems to be a very large, glowing gate. It's being assaulted by an uninterrupted beam of volatile energy. Its origin is visible: a large, imposing laser machine, where all the tubes and wires are connected to. Right beside it, there's a coffin-shaped machine, the antenna blinking intermittently. Looks like it's on! But is it doing anything right now?

And, standing there with your backs to you, are the two people who have caused you so much grief and pain during the last month and a half. They're standing some distance away from the gate. Throughout the room are a few rocks that could serve as cover, as well as a pillar or two, but do you intend to hide? Regardless, looks like your intrusion didn't go unnoticed]

You all are so noisy.

[The door opening seems to have alerted her of your presence, yup. The Lady turns around. She doesn't have her half-mask anymore. The eye that's usually under it has a summoning circle carved onto it, shining so noticeably it can be seen even from the other side of the chamber. To her hip there's a sword, and her hand goes to a weapon a couple people may be familiar with: the marshmallow gun...with modifications. That sure is the fire-spewing trombone attached onto it. It's all pretty dangerous-looking yet still ridiculous. ]

Welcome, everyone, to the secret of this world. In here--why are there cats here?

[She blinks, puzzled. A good sign! Looks like, despite everything she has done and worked on, there's still room to catch her off guard in many ways!

The Lady shakes her head]

If you're down here it means you have been snooping around, haven't you? I'm sure this isn't the only place you sneaked into. My, darlings, that's naughty of you. All you had to do was stay on the surface and do nothing, and you could have the happy ending you wanted. Now, since you have seen more than I intended, I have no more option but to kill you. You can only blame yourselves, darlings.

[The Lady glances back at the gate, pensive, for just a moment before slapping a grin on her face]

My followers call me their Lady. My priestesses their Goddess. Everyone else calls me...the Other, for...some reason. [She doesn't seem terribly fond of that moniker.] But you all can just call me Lucrezia. And this here is my servant, Rembrandt as you well know by now. [She turns to him to add:] Oh, feel free to strike fear into their hearts by undoing your current form. The charade is over.

Now, have you all grasped the truth of this project?

Comments

[psychophant]

[Sometimes, the only reaction you can have to something is just "HAHAHA WOW" and that sure is a reaction Iago is having right now. After everything this past week and today in particular has been, this might as well happen. Sure, why not, we may all die down here, but he has no plans of going easily.

This past week Iago's done nothing but embrace his goth aesthetic by wearing all black, but today's a bit different. While he's still wearing mostly black, he swapped out the usual black suit jacket for one with a subtle floral pattern. No points for guessing who he's thinking of. His tie and makeup are in purple today and after he takes a moment to steel himself, he looks prepared for whatever nonsense happens next.

So he's just going to turn to the Survivors and blatantly ignore the mastermind duo.]

Don't do anything stupid. They want us to work out what's going on; we'll be safe for now. [Well, at least until they decide they're bored of us or until we stumble on the right answers, but there's no point in saying that.] Let's share what we've found and see what we can work out.

[He isn't going to say it, but he looks at his fellow Survivors like "please just play along for now" because there is no way in hell we are going to be able to take whatever the fuck Rembrandt's true form is at this current moment.]

[reanbeans]

[ Yeah, that sure was a thing. Rean was already on nerves, and this didn't help at all.

However, Iago's words got him to focus, to tear his gaze away from the demon's form revealed. ]

I understand, so...

[ He'll take a breath, because boy. This was going to be a lot. ]

I think I'll start us off with how the subway investigation went in great detail, so please listen closely.

[ ... ]

As we were walking through the subway, I couldn't help but notice that there were quite a lot of tubes and wiring running along the ceiling, coming from the concrete. They were attached to parts of the ceiling and walls; it was definitely hard to miss for sure.

It looked made from awfully strong materials, so I doubt I could've caused damage to them easily. And to top it off, they were running with energy.

After the three of us managed to get passed a moderately difficult part in the subway, we made our way forward. But, I think it's worth mentioning that whenever the three of us had to use our powers, there was a surge of energy, causing the wires and tubes to become more active and shake some more. There was this humming noise that came as well, and seemingly electrical sparks formed on the wires too - this all stopped after a little bit of time, so we proceeded as normal.

We came to a place that seemed to be some sort of crypt underneath Krakow, with coffins and such.

It looked like the ground once had heavy machinery that passed through it, and we did find a few excavating and mining machinery as we headed further.

I took one of the tunnels, with Raven, and Dazai accompanying me for a little while.

I noticed on a table that there were pieces of paper, and some tools - mostly electrical and welding ones.

The papers seemed to be schematics of some kind - definitely finished plans.

The first one looked like an advanced toy gun of some sort. [ Laser. It's a laser. ] There's a good amount of cables and pipes connected to the back, with a slot that had the word 'Skala'. Though I couldn't read the rest.

There also seems to be a beam coming out of this gun, though no target.

The second showed a lamppost, and they seem to show what's attached to it going into the pavement.

[ He'll then hold out this and was prepared to pass it along. Along with the other schematics. ]

And as you can see, she's talking about Kyousuke, Lysithea, Suzaku, Shin, Zangetsu, Ulquiorra, Ignis, Ango, and Shiro exceeding her expectations. I'm guessing about their participation in all of this...and that mostly everyone else fit within what she anticipated.

The last schematic showed some kind of electrical grid.

[ He's grimacing here, though. ]

There seem to be a number of components here - batteries, circuitry, piping, and other things. The center of it all seemed to go all the way into the crypt. This grid also looked like it covered all of Krakow.

That's all I've got from my side. Raven can probably fill in any gaps if I missed anything, and Dazai had been looking at other things of interest.

[raventhaw]

I've been wondering about the lamppost.

[ she looks at it again and reads the words on the schematic. ]

Everyone on that list was a culprit except Zangetsu, Shiro and Lysithea. Shiro also isn't dead like the rest of them are. Furthermore, it's mentioned here that a couple of people had underperformed.

[ she turns to look at lucrezia. ] I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell us the names of those who underperformed, would you?

[steampunkborgia]

I wonder...

[She puts a finger to her chin, before finally shrugging]

Mako and Elliot, I'd say.

[reanbeans]

The lamppost is probably connected to the electrical grid.

[ That's his guess, anyway. ]

We know that Zangetsu and Shiro had taken the hint, so maybe that could be why.

[deadlygoals]

Maybe it has to do with their power use?

[psychophant]

[That's so much, damn Rean. You put in so much work, good job.]

It seems like all of the uses of our powers have been providing energy. That would explain why it was necessary for us to gain these powers, I suppose.

[But he's also got some information to share, so might as well put some of it here!]

Teru Mikami, Cumore, and I explored the castle; in the basement I found a good amount of skala and a blender. [can you see where he's going with this, because he looks so done now.] Among the skala there was a note in the Lady's handwriting. It said that making sustenance for Ulquiorra was a challenge, but they found something that would work, with skala as the main ingredient. "This should have all the spiritual qualities he requires."

[And in case you want to look at the note, he has it here to pass around! You know. If we can focus on this instead of whatever the fuck the masterminds are doing.]

[inordertobelieve]

Additionally, there was a gauge that measures something inherent to Skala labeled 'V'. I have brought it with me. Normally I would assume that V stands for Volt and electricity has certainly been a large part of what we've been dealing with.... but the part about spiritual energy throws me off.

I brought the gauge, should we require further testing.

[ He still looks white as a sheet and afraid of Rembrandt, but he's giving his best. ]

[reanbeans]

[ Rean did his best, absolutely.

He'll nod at that. But, it made sense...though it wasn't a good thing, considering. ]

That sounds like it could be true, given the amount of energy that suddenly flowed through the wires at the time it was used.

[ He's listening closely to what the other was saying, and... hm. ]

...Spiritual qualities? As in...a spirit or soul?

[ He...would hope not, but... ]

[deadlygoals]

[ His attention is keenly on the mess of goop that is Rembrandt because that's pretty fascinating, but he is going to add on to what Rean has said. ]

The mining equipment looked like it was used extensively. They were entrusted in bones and dirt.

The tunnel I went down was a dead end, but I found a schematic that's interesting and the last two files of her plan from the Hotel. [ A look over to Rideaux. He does pull out the folder, which contains all three things. ]

The schematic is interesting. It depicts a coffin-shaped machine with an antenna. Beside the machine, there's an outline of a blank, doll-like mannequin and how it fits into the machine. I do have thoughts about this, but I'll get to those in a moment.

[ After the info dump. ]

The third report is about Rembrandt confirming that the core of the Night holds unfathomable power. Then the usual villain plot to funnel the power to become unstoppable. The fourth page is just her declaring she's already won. [ He wags a a finger in a chiding method. ] It's a little early to celebrate that.

I found four brass boxes under the table with names on it. They all were cold, and there was a sloshing sound in it. I think these four names are the ones she intends on sending to her younger self.

And the last thing we found was the arch. It took us a bit to reach it, and it was hard looking at anything else in the room. There was an inscription on it that reads, “Those who are insatiable for knowledge peer into the abyss. Foolhardy, reckless ones who would risk their vessel to be reborn as a God. The beast inside you will be unleashed, and devour your self.”

[ And then he'll look over at Raven and Rean to make sure he's not missing anything. ]

[psychophant]

Her younger self... Well, that would certainly explain this other note I found. [Here it is! There are so many notes, and all in black ink!!!!] It was in the back of this book. [Holding up "The War on Europa: Chronicle of a Monster"!! Here's the text!] This simply confirms that the Lady was quite the threat to her own world and that we're very lucky her insects didn't grow the way she wanted them to.

[raventhaw]

[ she's just gonna come out and say it: ]

The four names, by the way, are Shin, Ango, Noelle, and Dist.

[reanbeans]

[ He'll almost quirk a smile at Dazai's words at the 'usual villain plot' portion, because he was amused. He appreciated the other's efforts, nonetheless. ]

...It sounds like she was clearly trying to obtain the power of a God, here.

[ Or he supposed, what she assumed to be one. ]

[pr159]

[ Definitely going to look at all of these... hm. ]

There was a large antenna in the workshop in the mines as well, which didn't seem to fit onto the door machine there. Maybe it was from an earlier iteration of this one.

[ And as for the reports... yes, that does indeed sound like a cliche villain declaration. That aside, is that person helping on the Twilight side one of the "guardians of this world" mentioned here? ]

Interesting that half of the file ended up that far from the hotel.

[bawcock]

[ Yeah, he's... not sure how to deal with all of that besides staring at it with the biggest "yikes" he can manage. Which is a pretty big yikes!

He's completely on board with the "ignore the duo, let's talk amongst ourselves" plan when he recovers so he pulls out two papers from his pocket for everyone to read. ]

This is what I found. There is a little more, there were some books about demons, how to summon them, how to deal with them, but given what's on these pages I think we might not want to try any banishing rituals.

Mostly because, I bet that's exactly what the Lady wants us to do. We take all of the danger, she gets out of her contract, and then she decides to kill us anyway.

[steampunkborgia]

I'd rather you don't do a thing to Rembrandt. He and I have a working relationship going on, getting in the way of that would be just so uncouth.

[bawcock]

[ He thinks about saying something.

Then he quite obviously turns his back to her so he's facing the group. Plz c urself out of this conversation!!! ]

[reanbeans]

...I think you have a good point there, Erik.

[ It wouldn't be wise to jump into all of that, considering. ]

[psychophant]

Given what I've seen of her plans, I'm not surprised she was attempting to work out how to remove Rembrandt should he get in the way. It looks as though she's attempted to plan for everything.

[Hopefully Mikami didn't just. drop that machine he was tasked with carrying!! If we broke it then we have to rely on Iago's notes, and no one wants that. So anyway, here's the machine, here's a massive book getting inserted into that slot in the machine and Iago gestures to it. Come look at this plot info, guys!!!]

This book is full of the Lady's [yes he's still calling her that!!] notes, written in code. This machine allows us to read it anyway, however. [how convenient...] It looks as though she was scouring other worlds for technology she could use - I recognize a few things in here from Dist's world [he knows what a fonon is now!!] but there may be things the rest of you recognize as well.

The most pressing, however, is the ending section and her plans for victory. The Lady and Rembrandt don't appear for very long in these plans. It sounds as though they don't expect to see this through to the end. [Rembrandt because his contract will be up, but the Lady...] I must admit, her plans are detailed and there's clearly been a lot of care put into this, but she also makes quite a few assumptions, such as Cumore, Dist, and I serving her. It doesn't sound as though she planned to have us killed.

[inordertobelieve]

[ He did not drop anything but removing it from his iron grip might take a minimal moment of coaxing because god, he's still freaking out. Sorry. There you go. ]

[pr159]

[ lmao good luck getting those guys to stop sucking each other's dicks long enough to do anything for you, lady ]

[baitless]

That seems quite the assumption to me, even when taking your potential ambitions into account. She did effectively force you into some sort of murder game, and even if she theoretically could resurrect you, there’s nothing to account for, say, spite.

[deadlygoals]

We did hear before that she's interested in brains. That may not have entirely been inaccurate. What if she has a way to influence people's thoughts or control them?

[pr159]

Our investigation of the mines also turned up some sort of large, metal door frame hooked up with wires to a control panel, though there weren't any clear labels on it to indicate what anything was for.

And there were some sculptures and reliefs in one of the halls that included those blob things we've all encountered by now, along with a few human figures -- notably, humans with halos, and humans being attacked by the blobs and other monsters.

[ He'll pass around his GHS if anyone wants to look at pictures -- the door and the blob art. ]

No one had better drop that, by the way.

[baitless]

[he kind of mumbles at that...]

I am also still unsure how to say anything in the actual banishing chant...