The Enigma Complex Pt 3-2 - Ghost in the Machine - RPLOG

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.1, Part 3.2, Part 3.3, Part 3.4, Part 3.5

Participants

• Booker
• Junes
• Syntax
• Umeko
• Ysadora

Date

20/5/2023

Log

(Syntax) When we last left our hapless explorers in the lower levels of the Enigma Complex, they came to the realization that what they were encountering was no ordinary haunting. The oddities were nanomagic and the source was a server located...somewhere. As they discussed what to do next, Umeko hit on an important concern. The wall builders. If something went wrong with them, someone would need to be nearby to fix them. Oswynd, confident he could take care of himself, volunteered to be that person. Since they would clearly need backup, the party radioed back up to ask for reinforcements to which Syntax said she had someone available. They just had to wait a few minutes for them to get prepped. Now, back in the present, the remaining three stand in a central corridor. There are two long passages to the east and west, a stairwell and ramp access point being tended to by Oswald to the north and south, and a clinic who's door has not yet been opened that appears to have its lights on.

(Junes) Junes watched ysadora and had a sigh of relief, testing the leashes strength with a tug and keeping the condom in a hand "alright so whatever its trying to tell us, hopefully i can watch for it with whatever it might be using for illusions or messages they're trying to say" looking at the two passages and the ominous clinic asked "i have a feeling about that clinic but what do you two think?"

(Ysadora) Ysadora briefly bends double as the nanotubules connecting her legs, head, and many hands stiffen up with nanites putting their all into just keeping her together. "Ugh, Junes, what did you do...?" Her face is even paler than usual through the moisted glass of her visor and she appears to be putting a lot of focus into just standing up. "Not that I don't trust you, but this is awful... Is this what it's like outside the bubble for everyone?" Despite the nausea, she keeps a firm hand on the leash and manages to twist her stiff neck around to see if she can spot anything different after Junes' abjuring.

(Umeko) Umeko was quite used to being out of the nanite bubbles after taking many long excursions outside of the cities and having a body well suited to it, so she wasn't particularly phased by the change. She looked over at Ysadora with concern however, "Your form isn't exactly well suited to these conditions I have to say... If it gets to be too much to bear, we can always have Junes turn it off. Honestly I'm a bit concerned that a bubble of apparently 'nothing' might draw even more attention to us from whatever is the source of all this, but hypothetically we should be safe unless it somehow manages to overwhelm what Junes is doing... If you suddenly feel normal again, let us know about that too." She offered some support or even being carried to Ysadora if she needed it in her weakened state as well.

(Syntax) While Umeko has every reason to be concerned, Ysadora's discomfort fades at least somewhat. The main issue for her is the feeling of weightlessness that she has gone for so long experiencing was gone. She feels the full weight of gravity pressing down on her with her now attached limbs for the first time in a long time having to fight against it. While the nanites did a great job of making temporary limbs for her to stand on, the fact she is standing at all is likely relatively uncomfortable compared to floating around.

(Junes) Junes walked forward and started to pat ysadora on the back "sorry, i know its not easy but if it ever gets too bad just say the word and i can take it off, it must be like being born in space honestly..." they felt bad about the pain they were actively inflicting on their friend but hoped it wasn't as bad as they imagined "hopefully no mutants are around besides the one mysterious presence but i wonder if the dreamer is a nickname, us or something else, either way lets carefully check that clinic out and see if we can find some information?" slowly heading to the door and glancing back before preparing to open the door

(Ysadora) Ysadora frowns but straightens up. The worst of the transition seems to be over by now, although she's still a little shaky on her legs. "I'm fine, mostly. It's been a while since I had, you know, proper legs. I don't even want to think about what's going on inside my sleeves right now." She sidles up next to Junes. Despite the discomfort of walking, her eyes are starting to glimmer with excitement once again within her helmet. "I'll admit, I've been curious about what might be in here ever since we arrived. That light's like, super suspicious, right? Right?" Reaching out to take the handle, Ysadora pauses. She turns and looks up, then further up at Umeko. "Maybe, uh, just in case, Umeko should go in first?"

(Umeko) Umeko nodded to Junes, "I remember reading something about that... Still, I guess we can whatever this thing is 'the dreamer' for now until we get more information on it." She walked up to the clinic door and prepared to open it, keeping her right hand free and ready to use her ace in the hole if needed. "Give me some space in case things go wrong, we'll head in after I give the all clear." With that, she went to open up the clinic, ready to peek around the door and hide behind it and slam it shut if need be.

(Syntax) The clinic...is a clinic. It's perhaps a little disconcerting that it's in such pristine condition despite all of the time that has passed. There is a small It has a gray and white checkered floor, eggshell white walls, art pulled straight out of the 70's, and a small waiting room nearby with furniture similarly styled for an older age. The air even has that overly sanitary smell of a hospital. Or, at least, you think it would. Despite appearances, Umeko just picks up on the same musky stale air the rest of this lower level has had.

(Syntax) Taking a moment to examine the room, it appears to be safe to Umeko. As safe as it could be in these circumstances, anyway. Looking over her shoulder, Junes sees much of the same. In addition, however, with her extremely good vision, Umeko notices something. Some of the slight movement in the room just seems off. Opening the door should have changed the air pressure enough to shift some of the hanging cloth in the room, but it hasn't moved an inch. More accurately, however, it appears to be trapped in a short replay just before a recording starts. It's unclear how much of the room is an illusion, but the entirety of the room appears to be at least covered in a layer of deceit.

(Umeko) Umeko let out an audible sigh as she looked around, "Something's definitely off with this room... Once again, I don't fully understand all of the forces at play here with whatever's messing with us, but this room isn't what it seems... Still, I don't see any immediate danger, so let's head in carefully." She cautiously stepped inside, still keeping an eye out as she got closer to the equipment, wanting to either get a better look at this illusion or at least an appraisal of its real condition.

(Junes) Junes looked under umeko and around, something still seeming off but...not quite in a bad way, like a false sense of comfort for yourself but stepping closer inside remembering about another adventure they had and the consequences of a deities realm "hmm just in case try not to destroy or move much, although i wonder if tidying a bit would help...we dont know how we're being seen but i can't help thinking of those eyes when i vanished and the stairwell dreamer writing..." giving sigh before heading closer to some curtains holding beds and seeing the oddly pristine condition, grazing a hand and nodding "this is pretty neat..." making sure they hadn't made wrinkles and walking around

(Ysadora) Ysadora would normally enter the room and pat down the walls with her many inquisitive hands, but her current circumstances forbid this. Instead, there's a soft rustling inside her sleeves as the nanite-starved limbs in there jostle about. "It's not what it seems, huh? I mean, it seems like a pretty normal clinic to me. I guess it is weird that it seems so...pristine. How long has this been buried down here again?" She sticks to Junes' side as they approached the beds, as much for companionship as for the leash tying them together.

(Syntax) After several moments of just existing in the room, the anti-nanomagic kicks in. While most of the room remains as it was, a small sphere around the three reveals the room for its true state. Water damage, mold, warped floors, rotting cloth. The bed that Junes approached goes from spotless to a mostly rotted out mattress supported by a rusted wheeled bedframe. There's the sound of a door slamming behind you, but Ysadora is close enough to it that it just kind of slowly opens again as its locking mechanism likely rusted over years ago. Were it not for your anti-nanomagic, you'd likely believe yourself trapped.

(Junes) Junes was surprised about not seeing anything yet and looked at the curtains, they felt the leash as ysadora came closer looking at them and realizing something was wrong when half of the bed clearly rotted and held a hand up stating calmly "woah stop there?" seeing the clear division between a pristine mattress and the true nature of its sadly decrepit state and showing a hand to it "hopefully we can fix this up but...i guess my hunch wasn't far off" a sad hand slowly touching the bed and letting go "yeah try to keep a good distance so i can look at how...either this was in the past or maybe easing us for some reason but just the clinic and not the outside i wonder why? but then again those screams in the stairwell" they silently shivered thinking about that

(Ysadora) Ysadora nods and steps back, head swiveling from side to side as she takes in the contrast between decrepit and pristine. "What could do this, and why? I know it's nanomagic, but...it's almost like we're in a dream of how this bunker used to be. Do you think that's what the whole 'Dreamer' thing is about?" While keeping close enough to Junes that she doesn't have to release the leash, Ysadora wanders over toward the waiting room to see what's revealed there.

(Umeko) Umeko felt strangely relieved as all of the terrible state of the room revealed itself as she laughed a bit. "Aha, there it is! The old familiar rot and rust of the old world! This is great news actually if we're able to dispel the illusions in this place." She walked over closer to the others, carefully inspecting the room for any potential hazards that came from its ruined state before nodding to Ysadora. "The 'why' is definitely the biggest mystery to me though... Whatever is doing this had some sort of tie to this bunker that was probably hardly known to anyone but the military even before P-Day... I haven't really discounted the 'actual real supernatural ghost' theory if it's somehow able to manipulate the nanites. Honestly I feel like I'd -almost- rather have that than to find something actually living down here in the dark capable of such nanomagic... Still, it might be something far away too if the server's issuing the commands, at which point there's tons of possibilities..."

(Syntax) Suddenly, an old wood paneled speaker on the wall begins to play some old orchestral diddy. Outside of the anti-nano magic bubbles, the room seems to shake. Silhouettes begin to move about the room in a panic and furniture moves on its own as if in response to people needing more space or to make makeshift beds. The sound of crying, one of which feels familiar to Junes, echoes about the room as an indicator on the wall flips on. The warning: radiation above ground. All the while, the chaos almost seems to flow past them as the shapes of people move to their bubbles, vanish, then reappear on the other side as panicked as ever. The waiting room becomes just another part of the clinic as blood and vomit stains the area. The voice of doctors discussing triage is just barely audible through the chaos. There's the sound of people crying and panicking outside, though there is no one knocking. Perhaps they are glad to not be among the wounded.

(Junes) Junes nodded to ysadora "maybe that would be a good nickname for now since i dont think their going to give us one yet" about to sit on the bed before remembering the state its in and stepping back listening to umeko now "there was one concern i had while checking the area, us and well I think the cloud of spores blocked anything that may have been there so if somehow something had access to sight of us alongside nanomagic it could very well be hiding...i sure hope its goals aren't fungal..." looking to the ceiling before those illusory alarms set off and heard familiar crying once more...and radiation alarms now starting to fit together more as they focus and try to pinpoint anything between the screams and...knocking? "the radiation alarm...i don't think it was a bomb, probably when the nanites hit? or something else...?" looking a bit down adding "poor souls though..."

(Ysadora) Ysadora jumps with an audible "Eep!" as a shadow rushes past the wall just outside her anti bubble. After recovering her wits, she digs around in her messenger bag and produces the small, hand-held spirit box. "Uh, hello? Do you want to communicate? Er..." she speaks into the thing before flipping the switch to set it scanning between frequencies. "...I think that's right..." Her pallid cheeks flushed with a mix of fear and excitement, Ysadora suddenly seems to notice the leash in her hand once again. "Oh, J-junes! Junes! Are you alright?"

(Syntax) Ysadora, in her excitement, almost forgot a major issue with using the spirit box right now. She's in an anti-nanomagic bubble and whatever this is clearly interacts with the world through nanomagic. If she wants to use her spirit box, she'd need to leave the bubble's protection.

(Ysadora) Ysadora frowns inside her suit and turns the spirit box off, stashing it in her bag as she hurries over to Junes instead, but tarries just outside of the anti's range so as not to envelop them in it just yet.

(Umeko) Umeko instantly went on guard as she looked around at the chaos, and noticed Ysadora messing with the spirit box as well. "Whatever this thing is, I wonder if it's just trying to show us something or if it really doesn't want us here. I'm not sure if these are -just- illusions since it did influence the Ouija board earlier... If you want to gamble with letting it in, we can drop the field and bring back up if things go south. I can't monitor the nanomagic properly when this is up anyway, though it could be dangerous..."

(Syntax) The music over the speaker begins to malfunction as the room rapidly seems to deteriorate into what it has become. Albeit with skeletons which are, in fact, not really there. There's an odd sense of failure about this room now. Like it wasn't prepared for what ended up coming. Almost on queue, the sound of the elevator to the upper level splits the air as their reinforcement arrives. Booker arrives on the derelict section of the bunker to the sound of malfunctioning orchestral music playing over a shoddy speaker. Very spooky.

(Booker) Booker stepped off the platform, looking around the room before growing a confused look on his face. "Man this music sucks." He gave half a chuckle, taking a few more steps away from the elevator. He adjusted the suit for a brief moment, clearly not used to 100% coverage. "Hello?" He spoke out making his way to the door. "I hope they aren't tucked into a corner of this place."

(Syntax) The moment Booker speaks up, the speaker seems to go quiet. The medbay, decayed and rusted out, is finally silent.

(Junes) Junes was watching the spectres and paying attention to nothing else before hearing ysadora "oh! i know it isn't well, happening now!" shouting a bit not being able to hear themselves talk and forgetting they may have heard just fine seeing umeko was talking but hadn't heard until hearing the last bit about dropping the field and so they nodded, deactivating the fields but shortly after the music starts and then.... silence... until something is heard and going closer to the door and once again it was a person before they popped out of the clinic and looked a bit shocked but confused and glad "is that...booker? glad to see you?" they made their way over with a careful but quick jog!

(Ysadora) Ysadora turns her grimace of discomfort into a grin of relief as Junes drops the anti field. "That sure was spooky. And the elevator came down too. I'd say it's some kind of monster but it's probably just whoever Syntax sent to- Oh, did you say Booker?" She glides lightly out of the room before throwing herself at Booker's fully-suited form. "Booker! It's been so frightening! Thank goodness you're here." As she swoons dramatically, Ysadora mugs it up from behind the frosted glass of her helmet.

(Umeko) Umeko immediately activated her Awareness Nanomagic after the field was down so that she could start monitoring what nanomagic was being used in the area and could prepare for it appropriately. She frowned as she noticed the new skeletons around the room as well. "I don't think those were there before..." As she noticed their backup coming in, she let out a little laugh, "I sure hope you're the real Booker, we've been seeing illusions nonstop in this room after all. Maybe we should ask a question that only the real you would know, juuuust to be sure..."

(Syntax) The team all gather up in the central access corridor and, once again four, now have another calm moment to discuss what to do next.

(Booker) Booker looked over the group. "So uhh.. Illusio-" He was interupted by someone hugging them. He patted their head as he looked to the visor of the hazmat suit. "I mean you can ask me a question.. go ahead." He laughed, looking over at Umeko. "I mean If I start melting and turn into a skeleton im probably an illusion." He gave a wave to the others as he glanced around.

(Junes) Junes looked back and and decided to ask something rather innocent "whats a food we had together for breakfast, any of them?" and soon realized the leash and condom, adding "okay i know how this looks but!" quickly saying "i disabled illusions from something but wanted to see them myself so i knew i might drift off or lose track so i used these to keep a tether" giving a sigh after quickly explaining that and slowly adding "anyone else have some questions?"

(Ysadora) Ysadora hands the leash to Booker. "Here. I know you'll enjoy having Junes on a leash." With her hand now free, she pops open her messenger bag and pulls out a tablet. "Now that we've got a connection again, let's check out this map. We've got Oswynd on that barricade, so maybe we should go find the next location while keeping an eye out for more clues on the way?' Ysadora looks around at the others for their reactions before checking the map in more detail, looking for any points of interest between here and their next objective.

(Umeko) Umeko titled her head at Junes, "Unless you had very strange breakfasts, or never ate breakfast together, that might be something this thing could easily guess... Still I think we're fine~ We can stop the illusions after all, and he isn't doing anything weird like telling us to go into some giant hole in the ground or anything." She looked around at the room again, her gaze lingering on the skeletons. "Still, I suppose we shouldn't linger too much down here if we can help it, and we still have one wall to go..."

(Booker) Booker nodded. "Oh Junes, thats easy." He looked over at her, "It was pancakes, Hashbrowns, and orange juice." He smirked. "Well You guys came from that way... so whattt abouuuut. The right? Cleared yet?" He gestured to the right with a thumb.

(Junes) Junes heard ysadora and watched her handing the leash to booker a hand raised slightly in confusion but hearing the question their attention turned "yeah just for fun mainly but you never know" looking to booker and nodded "yep! and some omeletts to-" seeing the leash but forgetting where it was they were briefly tugged in the direction as well "careful, besides i dont think we'll need this at the moment" poking at the leash into bookers eyes "oh! but i think thats a good direction too"

(Junes) Junes ( poking at the leash and looking into bookers eyes )

(Ysadora) Ysadora looks where Booker is pointing. "That should be the hydroponics area, according to the map. Sounds as good a place as any to check out next! We'll want to make sure there's no cumrot hanging around in there after we've blocked out the rest of it." She stashes the map and straightens out her suit, ready to move.

(Umeko) Umeko nodded to Ysadora, "Yeah, Hydroponics sounds good to me, even if it's probably the most forboding of the locations with this fungus infesting the place. Still, better to rip the bandage off fast and get it over with if we have a big problem in there. At least we'll be aware of it if we have to come back with more equipment or something to clear it all out."

(Syntax) As they leave, Booker checks his supplies and actually finds some rope they can use instead of condoms! While the condoms were kind of funny to use, rope is a far better option. Resupplied, restaffed, and ready once again to explore, the four walk down the hall leading to what should be hydroponics. Once out of sight, the door to the clinic slowly closes and, several seconds later, the light once again turns on. A cycle of horror ready to once again begin once a soul exists to witness it.

(Syntax) TO BE CONTINUED