[IC] TFW Chapter 2: Wrath

[Shamitako]

Wendy

 

Wendy seemed rather concerned by what Anemone was saying. "No, my Spark, it shouldn't do this." But it was hard to deny what was in front of her. If it wasn't an illusion or a figment of her imagination then there was a high probability it had come from her Spark somehow. "I didn't create this intentionally. It spawned while I was sleeping." She looked to Anemone for answers. Wendy had never had trouble controlling her Spark before now. Although it had been only a short while that she had possessed magic, she had thought she had achieved mastery over what little she knew. Clearly she was mistaken. Outwardly she remained calm but her thoughts were in turmoil.

[Empiricist]

Exile

 

An illusion? That could make sense, it'd be awfully hard to evac through an entire maze after all, not without shortcuts. But with long hallways like that, all it'd take was another cannon, another trap, and they'd all be dead~

 

"If it is, what should prob~ably check t path we came in on, see if there's any passages or traps~!"

[Shamitako]

Genie

 

Genie handed Ice a clipboard with two sheets of paper on it as well as a pencil to write wuth. They seemed to be a number of questions, which made sense considering Ice's assigned task. It seemed Genie was well prepared for this situation, as the questions were clearly prepared for someone other than the doctor to ask them. "The first sheet is a general set of questions that you'll use for everyone while the second one is patient specific. In this case that patient will be P011, I'm told she's going by the name Loki. It fits her well." Genie explained. She began listing off information. "P011: No Alias. Age nine. Female. One outsider parent. No major health issues. Eyes show signs of degradation, may require correction. Subject of magic installation: Failure. No other experiments on record. Displays strong problem solving skills, particularly good at finding unusual solutions. Unruly and hard to control due to mischievous attitude. Correction: Unnecessary, within acceptable bounds. Staff nomination: Denied. High genetic prospects, harvesting to begin immediately upon maturation. Breeding nomination: Processing. Record end. Personal addendum (A095): Subject did not outright reject magic installation. Magic may manifest after further experimentation. Personal addendum (C1111): Possible growth irregularities. Further observation required."

 

"Did you get all of that?" Genie asked, "I can write it down if you need." She was only just realizing how much information she'd just shared. And that Ice probably wouldn't be able to take it all in at once.

 

Generic questions:

Spoiler

1. Ask if they've experienced any of the following:

Extreme sadness or depression

Loss of interest in activities

Loss of appetite

Craving blood

Nyctophobia or claustrophobia

Panic attacks

 

2. Have them elaborate if they said yes to any of the above.

 

3. Or any of these:

Blackouts or other lapses in memory

Fainting

Chills when trying to sleep

Sudden vomiting

Drowsiness or insomnia

Dizzy spells, especially after eating

Chest pains of any kind

 

4. Have them describe the sensation of eating a nutrient bar. Take particular note of the texture. If they mention how it sounds, get help immediately.

 

5. If at any point they look directly up for more than thirty seconds, immediately ask what they're looking at. If the answer is anything even vaguely related to the color green, get help immediately.

 

6. Ask if they have any of their own concerns (do this after their specialized questions)

Loki specific:

Spoiler

1. Ask how she feels about her name

 

2. Ask if she's noticed any changes in her body at all

 

3. Ask if she's exhibited any signs of magic ability since her last check

 

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone

 

Anemone was sure that this came from a spark. it's signature was too unique to not be one. Wendy seemed quite distraught over this as far as Anemone could tell. She was certainly trying to hide it and for her credit was doing a good job at it. Anemone thought to herself a moment.

"l'm not lying. The signature of this magic is much to unique to be anything other than a spark. l wish you could see what l do, but... l don't think it'd set much at ease. Anyway, you said this isn't what it should do. What was your prior understanding of your spark?"

[Shamitako]

Beza

 

The area of the facility dedicated to researching magic was largely empty, housing only a very few rooms. Originally, before Carls knew of magic at all, it was little more than the child bank and some storage rooms. Plans were in place to expand further, but Merlin's group had shown up before much could come of that. Since Caliber avoided the child bank at all costs, it was unlikely she'd be found there or the connected installation room. And there wasn't much reason for her to be in the computer storage room either. That left Tallow's room, which seemed very likely. Although family ties and even genetics were rather insignificant to most science groups, it was common practice for those created from the exact same pair of parents to consider themselves siblings. Such was the case with Tallow and Caliber.

 

Considering all of this, it was hard for Beza to contain her surprise when Caliber was nowhere to be found in Tallow's room. It was possible she'd managed to leave already, but Cheryn and Beza hadn't taken that long to get here. "Where'd she go?" Beza wondered aloud.

[Chevaleresse]

Ice

 

"I believe I understand; I do have the clipboard." She prided herself on her ability to process information; and besides, she wasn't certain she needed to know about whether the girl was considered a good candidate for. . . breeding. She almost wanted to ask the woman how she'd become involved in something that treated people as objects like this. But, the woman was on their side, and helping care for the children. That was enough. . . for now. She would trust Merlin's judgement. "I may ask later about the purpose behind some of these questions, but I believe I am ready."

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

"Don't know...." Cheryn muttered. She honestly wondered the exact thing herself; the place, just like most of the other living quarters, was pretty sparse. A Bed, a desk, chair... nowhere to really hide except under the bed, but from what she'd come to know of Calliber over the last few days, she sincerely doubted the rebel would go to the trouble of giving her the slip, make her way into the least used section of the facility... and then simply hide under a bed like some child playing hide and seek.

 

Then again... she did have a... fixation on Tallow. Cheryn couldn't completely put it out of her mind that she may be trying to lay in wait for whenever he came back, for whatever reason.

 

"Ya know maybe we were wrong about the computer banks, maybe she might be there trying to look for something about the dudes who ran this place... We can check there next, but for right now, stand back..."

 

With that said Cheryn honed her concentration, preparing herself to fling up a barrier at short notice, before reaching down beneath the covers to peer beneath the bed, just encase one of her hunches proved correct.

 

If there was nothing of note under the bed and Calliber wasn't there though, she would take Beza and check out the Computer Storage next.

 

 

[Shamitako]

Wendy

 

Wendy decided a demonstration would be much quicker than an explanation. She unbuttoned the top of her blouse and slid it over her right shoulder, exposing the black strap of her bra and the soft redness of her skin. She touched her hand to the exposed skin. As she slowly pulled it away, the flesh and skin of her shoulder stayed attached to her fingers, stretching and mangling into a grotesque monster. It snapped free of Wendy, forming into its final shape: A fleshy mouth full of sharp teeth propelled through the air by wriggling tendrils. It slowly orbited around Wendy and Anemone, shifting up and down as it went.

 

"I make those. It's easiest from my shoulder and chest, but anywhere works." Wendy fixed her blouse before continuing. "They fly around me and my friends, intercepting any attacks they can until they're destroyed. I've attempted to control them. The best I've done is to use what I can only describe as an umbilical cord to restrain how far they could move from me."

 

Genie

 

Genie nodded. "Alright great." She headed towards the door. "I need to grab some things, but I doubt Loki will give you any real trouble so I'm going to send her in." Genie exited the room and told the girl waiting outside to go on in.

 

Loki

 

Shortly afer Genie left, Merlin walked into the infirmary. Or rather a very tiny version of Merlin wearing a hooded cape. Since Genie's information made no mention of the girl's appearance, Ice had no way to prepare for Loki's striking similarity to her... mentor. "Hello." Loki said, somehow turning the simple word into a source of concern with the sly smirk on her lips and the mischievous look in her eyes. She sat down on the bed next to Ice's and lowered her hood to let her hair spill out. "Genie said you had questions to ask me?"

 

Beza

 

"I dunno. She doesn't seem like she'd want any more to do with the family than absolutely necessary." Beza said. Still, it couldn't hurt to check since it was just next door. Unfortunately, much like the space under Tallow's bed, the computer storage room was devoid of Caliber's presence. Beza was going to suggest that Caliber had moved on to another sector when the sound of explosions began sounding nearby, from one of the two rooms just beyond. Beza's eyes went wide with fear, she covered her ears, and collapsed to her knees. It was likely that this was Caliber's doing, but Beza was no longer in a state where she could help chase the delinquent.

[Chevaleresse]

Ice

 

"Mer. . .?" Ice couldn't help the slightly startled syllable upon sighting Loki. It was uncanny, the girl's resemblance to Merlin. She cleared her throat in a halfhearted attempt to cover her brief laps."Yes. Please pull up a seat." She prepared her notepad as she waited for the girl to follow the direction. 

 

"For the first question, I am to ask if you've felt any of the following things: Extreme sadness, a loss of interest in things you usually enjoy, a loss of appetite, a . . . craving for blood, a fear of the dark, a fear of small spaces, or a panic attack." She put a slight pause at the end of each condition, stumbling a bit at the question about craving blood. It seemed out of place in a set of questions aimed at emotional states, but perhaps it was there to keep the patient honest?

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone

Any other normal person would probably find what just happened to be quite disgusting or to some degree unsettling. Wasn't everyday someone spawned a little flesh creature from their body. However, this was Anemone. She followed the little creature with her eyes as it floated around, quite interested in it. lt was quite puzzling. Perhaps due to this being a spark... it was able to be made of a biological substance? She figured that was the case.

"Summoned entities aren't truly living beings. They don't really have anything that could be called intelligence, even on an animal level. At most you could give them simple instructions. But it seems to me, least from how you spoke of their past actions, these little guys already have a prime directive. Which is to protect you or your allies. Perhaps they can be manipulated or given other simple orders? l'm not entirely certain." Anemone walked up to the little creature and poked it, mostly to make absolutely sure she could physically touch it. That would prove it wasn't an illusion 100% for Wendy if someone else could interact with it. The other part was she thought it was kinda cute in it's own ugly way, kinda similar to how one would find Pug Dogs cute.

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

She looked once in the direction of the explosion, once back at Beza, cowering there on the floor, before sighing. She held out an arm, gathered her focus, and a shield of crackling, red light quickly expanded there, hovering parallel to her forearm much in the same manner a traditional shield would. It may have looked small, yes, but it honestly didn't matter, with a mere impulse the thing could easily expand into a full size barrier, should the need arise. Which she was fairly certain it would.

 

"Stay here," was all she said to Beza before heading off to investigate. She doubted the girl would leave the room in her current state, but hey, why not be sure? No reason to risk any more people getting hurt in this upcoming exchange than was absolutely needed.

 

She kept her arm- and the shield anchoring itself to it at the moment -up and at at ready as she proceeded to next room, immediately scanning the area for any sign of Calliber...

[Shamitako]

(OOC: Apologies, still not feelin' the Merpost. I'll force it Mondat if it doesn't come to me sooner)

 

Loki

 

"Nah, I haven't felt any of that." Loki answered, "But could you put down that blood thing anyways? I bet it'll give Genie a scare." She snickered at the thought of it. She did realize the importance of all this medical mumbo-jumbo, but she couldn't help cracking some jokes. It wasn't like her examiner would actually do it, so it was fine.

 

Wendy

 

Wendigo nodded, "Yes. I've attempted many times to alter their directive. But if it is possible, I am not yet capable of it." The creature bounced off of Anemone's finger, almost like a balloon, and quickly returned to its course. "There is more. Come." Wendy went over to the bed, getting down on her hand and knees to look under it. The strand of flesh that had wormed its way down to the floor had also spread out underneath the bed. The area beneath was coated almost entirely in a fleshy mass, almost like a mouth. And in the back of that mouth was a single eye staring out.

[Chevaleresse]

Ice looked at her for a moment with an unreadable expression as she wrote down Loki's answer. "I see. The second question is another list of symptoms. Have you experienced any gaps in your memory, fainting, chills when trying to sleep, vomiting without feeling sick beforehand, drowsiness, insommnia, dizziness - especially after eating, or any chest pain?" She watched the girl for any reactions to her questions; she did know that people weren't always completely forthcoming about their health. Ice found herself unconsciously looking for the tics Merlin exhibited, before reminding herself mentally that this was not some sort of magically miniaturized Merlin before her.

[Shamitako]

Merlin

 

Merlin looked back around the corner. If she was wrong, then they could backtrack to the last intersection and try to find a way around. Unfortunately, she was right. Occupying the space they had shortly before was another wall. Well that was a pain. "The maze changes shape." She said, "It's like Labyrinth... Which you wouldn't know. I wonder if I have a copy, we should play it once we get back." She pointed at Tallow, who jumped nervously in response. "You, take Forge and go find whatever control center they have." She added instructions for Forge, "Give me a metal sphere. Heat it up when you get there, cool it if you run into trouble."

 

Once the two were gone she added instructions for the rest. They were rather simple. "Everyone else, try to smash the nearest wall." She followed this by placing her hand on the wall next to her and blasting it with a sustained stream of fire that began to rapidly melt through it.

 

Tallow

 

Tallow, or maybe Selene, (Frankly he wasn't sure how this whole "person name," "experiment name" thing worked. Caliber said a person name was important, but nobody ever called her Ballista.) jumped in surprise when Merlin pointed him out. He recovered from the shock as quickly as possible and tried to understand his new assignment. Since the maze was able to change, Merlin wanted him to use his Spark to move freely and search for the device that controlled those changes.

 

Once Forge had done her part, he took her hand and shifted them into a wisp. Their bodies and all the sensations that came with vanished in an instant. They were replaced with a feeling of lightness. Tallow and Forge could still see and hear, but their vision was distorted like seeing through an orb. Without bodies they couldn't speak, but their minds were intertwined through the wisp, allowing instantaneous transmission of thoughts and ideas. If they focused hard enough, these transmissions could be forced into the form of words.

 

Loki

 

Much to Ice's surprise, she found Loki precisely mimicking one of Merlin's more obvious tics by chewing on her right pinky nail while considering what was apparently a tough question. Even the tilt of Loki's head matched Merlin's. "Well, I've been having trouble sleeping, yeah." She seemed like she wanted to make another joke, but instead continued, "And there are chills sometimes. Also sometimes a weird knotting feeling in my chest." She seemed embarrassed or even slightly scared when bringing up these symptoms.

[Twinwolf]

Forge

 

Forge did what she was asked, quickly conjuring a light metal orb and handing it to Merlin. She hadn't quite known what to expect when Tallow took her hand. Whatever she had, what happened was not it - for a few moments loosely connected images and thoughts passed through the link as Forge sorted through the surprise and calmed down a bit. It was... odd, not to be able to feel anything. And the way the wisp worked was odd too - she couldn't quite tell where Laura/Forge ended and Selene/Tallow began. 

 

After she got... not used to it, but at least comprehending what was happening, she forced her thoughts into words. "...How do we move?" That was a question - no feet to push off the ground, so no walking. Although, this was magic - maybe they just had to... go? 

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone

lt was quite the amount to take in all at once but Anemone couldn't help but be fascinated at all of this. lt just kept getting more and more interesting. The rabbit hole kept getting deeper. "So, they grow independently as well? Or... have you just been at this awhile?" Anemone didn't really wait for an answer. She was already grabbing something from her hoodie pocket. She shifted around in there for a time, all sorts of strange sounds coming from that pouch. Soon enough she produced her focus. She didn't bother flicking it open. She'd not need to for this.  She dangled it in front of the creature seeing if it's eye would follow the yellow object being lazily swung like a pendulum in front of it. She wondered how it'd react to certain stimulus, if at all.

"l'm going to test a few things. They may or may not get messy later on... We'll see l suppose. For now simple things. lf they react to outside stimulus at all. Perhaps it will help us understand how they function on some basic level..." she said rubbing her chin. Wendy would notice all the while she was doing this Anemone's ponytail was swaying with the same rhythm as the focus in her hand. 

[Shamitako]

Cheryn

 

Cheryn had been to the child bank many times over the last couple of days. It was empty of children now, although several empty stasis pods remained. Nothing seemed to have exploded here. But there was a suspicious flicker of orange light coming from the door to the installation room.

 

Wendy

 

"I think you misunderstand." Wendy said as they eye followed along with the swinging. "I didn't do this, or at least not intentionally. Whatever this is, it's beyond my control." And considering that Wendigo's creations never had eyes, it was more advanced than what she could do as well.

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

Cheryn kept her shield at the ready as she walked towards the door. Whatever lay beyond it, it probably wouldn't be good, but she was honestly used to it at this point. Edging a bit closer once she was finally near, she stopped just outside, listening for any sounds of movement or occupancy on the other side. She made sure to keep her own steps light in contrast, and the miniaturized barrier between her body and the entryway at all times...

[Shamitako]

Cheryn

 

As Cheryn neared the door she was able to more clearly see that the room was on fire. She tried to look inside, but just as she did there was another explosion and fire blasted out through the crack to obscure her vision.

[Chevaleresse]

Ice

 

"I see." Ice quickly scribbled down the girl's answer. "Thank you for letting me know," she told the girl. She still wasn't quite sure how to feel about the girl's striking resemblance to Merlin. Loki had to have been studying the woman somehow, doing it intentionally. A prospect Ice wasn't particularly fond of, but she was concerned with helping the girl out. She tried to avoid making a big deal of Loki's answer as she moved onto the next question - she wasn't certain of the significance of the symptoms, though chest pain in children likely wasn't a good sign.

 

"The next question asks you to describe the sensation of eating a nutrient bar." Some sort of psychological evaluation? Perhaps a way to trick an individual into admitting any eating disorders they might possess? Ice wasn't quite sure of the purpose of the question. 

[Shamitako]

Loki

 

"Bleargh." Loki stuck out her tongue and wrinkled her nose. "Nutrient bars are nasty. Super dry and mostly tasteless outside a very little sweetness that really just makes them taste worse since you know they could taste better but they don't." Loki seemed to have rebounded quickly from her concerns over her previous symptoms, although Ice was unsure of whether she'd had any influence in the matter.

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

The shield she sustained instantly expanded as the gout of flame burst from the gap, causing the entirety of the small blast to rebound right back into the room. Cheryn stepped away from the door, scowling deeply as the orange glow continued to flicker from beyond. She knew Caliber had a thing against the scientists, rightfully so in many regards, but... fucking hell.

     "If she did this... then she's a lot fucking crazier than I ever thought" She muttered to herself "Fuck me, there's no way i'm ever gonna be able to explain this to merlin... where the hell could the chick be though? From what I've seen, she's got nothing that would let her survive in a fire like that for very long... she must've set this and run off somewhere else. Gods damn it..."

 

In all honesty though, she was surprised that this place apparently had no sprinkler or other automated fire suppression system to speak of. You'd think the Carls would've been smart enough to have foreseen potential fire hazards in a lab environment and plan accordingly to prevent undo damages to the facility, but you'd apparently be wrong. 

 

Still, she needed to see how bad the damage was inside, and figure out a way to put the kibosh on this fucking disaster before it spread to the rest of the facility. To think, she'd been given one job, one job, and now the the place was literally burning down... fabulous.

 

Just... fabulous.

 

She concentrated for a moment, and transferred the shield she carried to expand over the doorway itself, before muttering a quick warding charm- one of the earliest one's she'd come up with, intended to prevent harmful gases and vapors from seeping into the area it protected, a filtering charm basically. She manipulated a point in the middle of the door-barrier to project a miniature spike of solid radiation- spiked shields had always been an interest of hers in the past, but given the nature of her spark she'd always found the practical applications of their deterrence rather redundant, sure impaling those who slammed into them would be cool and all, but it was simpler, easier, and just as relatively effective to just stick to a basic shape and let the enemy die on the backlash from their own attacks.

    Nevertheless, old habits might have some use yet, as she extended the single spiked projection it until it made contact with the door, and proceeded to slowly nudge it open, hopefully creating a better glimpse of the destruction beyond without creating a backdraft, considering her shield in tandem with the ward should've effectively sealed off the burning room from this one...

 

[Chevaleresse]

The corner of Ice's mouth twitched in what might have been the beginnings of a smile. "Perhaps we can find a way to mix them with something else later." Ice carefully played Loki's statement over in her head, though. No mention of a sound. She wrote a small note stating thusly before moving on. "That's half the questions. Loki, how do you feel about your name?" From what Ice recalled, the children were a bit frightened of Chernobyl, who had suggested the name. A bit unfairly, as the woman did not seem to be particularly difficult to approach - she was certainly easier to talk to than Ice herself - unless one was a hostile combatant, but her glowing red eyes may have been an issue. An intimidating color, and one that seemed to be more or less permanent as opposed to the soft blue backlighting that occurred when Ice herself cast spells. 

[Komodojoe]

Dreaming Guardian

 

"Smash the wall, huh?" DG said to herself as she looked at the wall that blocked the wall they just came from. "If only I could do such a thing... Oh, well." She thought. Problem was, she lacked the ability to smash any wall let alone the ones that moved to block their paths. Not as is, at least. "...But the faster we get a move on, the faster we can get out of here. Merlin's gonna want me to try something anyway." 

 

Kat faced the wall that blocked their way here and concentrated, using her abilities to try to pull any and every material from the moving wall in an attempt to not only unblock a path, but to also make an automaton of her own creation to make things easier. This probably wouldn't work with a normal wall (she never really tried), but she hoped that, because this one was movable, she might have an easier time in this specific case. It's better than doing nothing.

Edited September 13, 2017 by Komodojoe

[Shamitako]

Cheryn

 

Cheryn's tactic worked quite effectively, safely guarding her from the flames as she opened the door. The sight before her was about what she expected. Smashed and burning machinery scattered across the room, tables and cabinets toppled into the flames, and Caliber standing in the center of it all. Caliber didn't seem to be destroying anything at the moment, she just stood there as the flames licked at her feet and legs. It was almost a sad sight, or would have been in Cheryn didn't have to clean up the mess it was making. Caliber glanced over towards Cheryn, but made no move to run or attack. She just stared, her delinquent eye glowing fiery red as the fire consumed the room around her.