The Enigma Complex Pt 3-3 - 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

27/5/2023

Log

(Syntax) When we last left our hapless adventuring party, they had just left the ever so spooky clinic and met up with Booker. They had settled on a clear goal: find the nanite server and, if nothing else, get it under control. However, with no clear idea as to where it could be, they settled on starting with Hydroponics. Based on the basic map Syntax gave Ysadora, it wouldn't take too long to at least give the area a quick sweep. The four now find themselves walking down a long hallway towards the unknown!

(Booker) Booker waved everyone on as he started to his right toward the Hydroponics bay. He glanced behind him. "So what have you guys found so far?" He looked over the walls as he walked, wondering if there was anything hung up on the wall, or painted on it.

(Booker) Booker also tugs on the leash as he headed down the hall, directing Junes to follow

(Junes) Junes was looking back at the group but hearing booker call attention they felt the leather lifting and got a move on before they could be dragged along, a bit downtrodden still remembering the clinic screams "i hope there's still some plants alive in hydroponics, maybe since stuff is still active they might have a good chance of still being here, or even find some seeds if anything"

(Ysadora) Ysadora lurks in Booker's shadow as they move forward. "Oh! Oh! You're not going to believe this, Booker, but this place is capital-H Haunted. We saw some real paranormal activity in the clinic, and Junes saw something similar in the stairwell. Something about radiation." She pauses, excitement tempering slightly. "The thing is, it's all nanomagic based. The sounds, the visions, everything. But! It did still interact with my ouijia board. It spelled out 'DREAMER' there and on a piece of paper Junes slipped under the door. That mean anything to you?" Although allowing Booker and Umeko to proceed a few steps ahead of her, Ysadora does keep an eye on their surroundings as she prattles on.

(Umeko) After ensuring her Awareness Nanomagic was properly running to detect any mysterious ghostly shenanigans, Umeko continued on as well with the group, scanning the hallways with her enhanced vision that could easily see through the darkness. "Yeah, there's something very strange going on in this place... It could very well be some sort of actual ghost honestly. Nanomagic has been occuring without any sort of apparent source, even when using nanomagic to detect it. It's as if it's coming from the server itself, so it could be anything from paranormal to some sort of advanced hacker, or god forbid, the server itself going rogue... Be real careful of illusions and other strangeness..." she added to Booker. "Also, who knows what's in hydroponics, but if I had to guess, the fungus is probably having a great time in there."

(Syntax) As the group walks forward, pretty much everyone but Ysadora starts to notice more mushrooms in this hallway than there were farther back. They're pretty hardy little things and have just outright taken root in the concrete floors and stained walls. It's Junes and Umeko, however, that realize the significance of these mushrooms. They're one of cumrot's most frequent competitor: cockblock! Based on what the termites said earlier, these don't just halt the spread of cumrot but even hamper the spread of its spores.

(Booker) Booker continued down the hallway, looking over the little mushrooms. "Weird... These aren't dangerous are they?" He purposely dragged a foot to dislodge one growing on the floor. "Next thing you know people will be putting them on pizza or something." He smirked, turning his head back toward the group. only to get half-blinded by June's flashlight before turning back around and extending a hand forward to make sure he didnt run into anything.

(Junes) Junes nodded with ysadora before pulling two things out, a paper with ( DREAMER? ) on it along with a flashlight, shining forth and adding as they showed the paper to whoever wanted to see "yeah i was the only one in the stairwell and wrote something completely different in my own handwriting, spooky but cool but for the source im not sure, whichever it may be i have the feeling their not an enemy considering the illusions have been less than harmful even if definitely unnerving but hopefully we're even capable of asking if this is a ghost or one in the machine" walking with the leash in mind and glancing down answering booker "they'll make you.... something....but it wasn't good for other fungi but i think it'll be okay for us" thinking a bit, unsure about the information looked back to double check with umeko

(Ysadora) Ysadora shuffles a bit inside her sleeves as she tries to send just one hand down to pick up a mushroom. Eventually she accepts the limitations of the suit and bends down to uproot one of the things. Bringing it up to her visor, she studies its odd shape. "This is a pretty big deal, right? I mean, this stuff's our best bet against Cumrot that we know of. I wonder how Pteryx is getting on with researching how to make it even more effective." Pulling a jar from her bag, she drops the shroom in and screws the lid back on. Ysadora looks up, then, and realizes Booker's been pushing ahead blindly. She scurries over hurriedly to catch up.

(Umeko) Umeko looked down at the mushrooms, "It's a good sign that these are growing, eventually the spores should be taken care of hopefully with the holes sealed up and no more cumrot infested water coming in... I wouldn't recommend eating either of these, nor taking off your hazmat suits though. Eventually we'll have to clear out this fungus too and you can eat the anti-horny mushrooms then if you -really- want to." She looked around at the rest of the damage to the halls as well, "It'll be a lot of work fixing this place up, but I'm looking forward to seeing it for sure."

(Syntax) As the party approaches hydroponics, readings indicate a massive drop in the amount of cumrot contaminants. Those cockblock mushrooms are really working their magic, it seems. As the four enter the the room proper, though, they discover that calling it a room is inaccurate. Before you is a massive amount of overgrowth of plant life with the roots of a tree snaking along the walls. The tree itself stands at the center of the circular area which seems to be growing from a lower floor which can be accessed via a stairway which must exist somewhere in this mess. It continues upwards up to the sky and--wait, that doesn't make sense. Looking up, it almost feels as if you are looking through a fish eye lens as the tree extends up into a lovely blue sky. Oddly, there appears to be a condensation trail from what can only be a jet which is streaking far beyond what you can perceive.

(Booker) Booker takes a few steps into the room, taking a glance around and looking up. "Thats... odd?" He then glanced down as he tugged the leash leading to junes. "Shine the flashlight down there... How far does it go?" He turned back to the group. "Well its seems like things are.. infact growing..." He continued to survey the area. "This is wild... literally..."

(Junes) Junes looked inside and immediately the large tree caught their notice, looking up and up...then...up and "wow, that doesn't make sense but can't deny it's beauty" staring and watching before feeling that tug and looking at booker, a little glad about it for a second before following "right! but you have to admit this is one snazzy illusion!" holding their flashlight towards the bottom

(Ysadora) Ysadora clasps her hands together as she enters the room. "Ooh, pretty! You're right about the roof, though. Maybe that's an illusion too? I don't know if we can get high enough to check, unless..." Ysadora looks between Junes and Booker for a moment, then shakes her head. "Nah." Bending down, she rifles through some of the plant life, checking for any signs of Cockblock or Cumrot lurking amid the undergrowth.

(Syntax) Umeko peers up to the distant jet. While she can just barely make out the jet, its logo is pretty much nonsense. Like you told an AI to generate an airline logo including an eagle. It seems to change ever so slightly every few seconds. After looking around, it's clear that the only visible way of looking down would be by looking through the gap between the platform and the tree. However, when checking for a gap, all he finds is a lip around the tree where the wood has grown over the hole in the platform it was once intended to easily sneak through. Thankfully, he does manage to catch sight of a stairway heavily concealed amongst the overgrowth. Ysadora finds no cumrot or cockblock. Instead, she finds a pitch black and highly reflective flower.

(Umeko) Umeko glanced around the immediate area for a bit, before looking up and enjoyed the sight. "It is most definitely illusion nanomagic, but it sure is pretty. I suppose we can entertain it for now, but Junes can activate the field if things get a little too crazy. I feel like there's probably some purpose to this mysterious force showing us all of this after all... Still, that jet up there, this has to be a vision of the past..."

(Syntax) As the party looks over everything, Ysadora notices that something doesn't quite feel right about the plants up here. Looking at the flower, it would be best suited to a place with a ton of access to sunlight. Considering how black it is, she can only imagine it would also like to exist at high temperatures as well. As she shines her light over it, the reflective surface seems perfect for only taking in however much light it needs. Frankly it doesn't make too much sense here. However, this upper area seems almost temperate. After pointing this out to the others, Umeko and Junes take a closer look at the plants on this floor. Sure enough, all would be far better suited to a more barren environment. All of the overgrowth and more temperate plants are growing up from cracks and holes in the platform from a lower level. It's then that there's a massively bright flash from above and Umeko realizes what's going on. These plants would be perfectly well suited for a barren post-nuclear disaster environment. Considering she's detecting no illusion nanomagic from these plants, the environment in here is about to very rapidly change and either fleeing hydroponics or moving to a lower level is the safest option.

(Umeko) After a moment, Umeko's admiration of the sky quickly turned into a concerned frown as she continued to use awareness nanomagic to monitor the situation as it quickly became apocalyptic. "We need to get out of here now, keep going down or risk turning back! Thermal nanomagic might roast us and even the field won't stop it if it turns our surroundings into an oven!" She quickly made her way over to way out, waving the others over to what is hopefully safety.

(Junes) Junes was looking intently at the flower but with the lights they jumped, tails inside the suit puffing up and looking around, following the leash with eyes and seeing booker near the stairs rushing over "this is so cool but so horrifying!" arms pumping back and forth running to the way down and yelling a little

(Ysadora) Ysadora looks up in alarm at Umeko's proclamation. She takes only enough time to snatch up the reflective black flower before scrambling to her feet and running for the stairs down. Wordlessly, Ysadora glances at Junes and Booker. They're both experienced, her body language seems to say, they'll be fine, right?

(Booker) Booker heard Umeko's callout, already taking steps toward the stairs. Only a step or two behind junes atleast. He glanced backwards as he started down the steps, making sure everyone else was down and into safety.

(Umeko) Umeko was fairly familiar with dealing with tense situations, and was ready to pick up and drag any stragglers as she held off and waved them to go further down, before moving further down into the bunker complex herself. "We'll ride it out down here, the nanomagic's up there. If this thing wants to roast us, I feel like it can do it no matter where we are... Hell, if this thing pulls a Las Vegas and the server tells everything to become grey goo, there wouldn't be a single safe spot in all of Eureka. We might as well do what it seems to want at this point and continue on, away from the simulated apocalypse above..." she said as she kept on moving.

(Syntax) Once everyone is down below, there is a violent shaking...above you. While you barely feel it, there is definitely something happening above. Some of the plants around you wilt slightly, but only the ones that were advancing to the upper floor. This lower level is almost like a temperate forest, just with a single tree's roots growing up to make up the trees. Hydroponics of many kinds surround you. For the moment, it seems you have time for a breather.

(Junes) Junes nearly tripped on the leash running down and once there was some even terrain and heard the shaking above, looking up and huffing trying to relax before looking at the plant ysadora snagged "hey mind if i take a closer look?" slow as their breathing going into their bag and looking for a holed jar along with a few others while two were recognized as ones you would use for spices as the rest were more proper before closing the bag and reaching to touch the plant, looking as well curious about the sun blasted plant and nodding, reaching down to scoop some soil but getting a bit of moss that was nearby and stuffing it into the ventilated jar and handing it to ysadora "this should make sure it'll stay healthy" rubbing their suits hand on the visor and groaning, shoving an arm back to wipe their face and filling the suits space once more "some water once in a long while should be okay, oh and dont water even if it looks unhealthy just once in like a few weeks, may wanna go by the soil or leaves" glancing to umeko asking "by the way how did you see that coming?"

(Ysadora) Ysadora takes the jar with a big smile, turning it to admire the flower's reflective surface in the false light. "Wow, thanks Junes! It's nice to have someone who knows these kinds of things around. What's the flower's name, do you know?" She looks over at her friend questioningly, but Ysadora's eyes don't stay fixed there for long. They slide off Junes, taking in the group's new surroundings. "Come to think of it, we didn't get much of a chance to check this place out thanks to, uh, you know, that." She motions upwards. "At least there's not obvious Cumrot here. Not even Cockblock like we saw outside. ...Is that weird?"

(Booker) Booker glanced around the surroundings, taking a second to glance back up the stairs. "That was weird... Appreciate the heads up" He glanced at the exchange between Ysa and Junes. "Oh.. a plant?" He tilted his head. "Wonder if any of these would be invasive..." He pondered for a moment, strolling cautiously onward, but stopping when the leash was almost tight.

(Umeko) Umeko looked over to Junes, "Awareness nanomagic, same way I found out there wasn't a source to the stuff from earlier as well. It is connected to the server somehow but usually I can detect who caused it as well. I've been keeping it up so that we can have a heads up on things before something like that exact sitution occured. For awhile I thought we were just going to be dealing with illusions, though that proves we are in a much, much more dangerous situation now, since it can manifest potentially deadly nanomagic seemingly anywhere it wants..."

(Syntax) Suddenly, with little warning, a crab with the same level of maneuverability with a spider makes itself visible as it adjusts its position on a tree root. It oddly has its long pincer arms positioned mid-way along its body and might have eyes on both side of it. 360 crab coverage.

(Junes) Junes was about to answer ysadora before noticing a color off in the distance, looking a little more their focus shifted "oh hold on just a sec!" heading closer to see a crab! curiously walking like a spider would, slowly walking closer and bending down but once outstretching their hand and seeing the crab gently touched to get a bit of information as it was nudged lightly, when reaching a finger up the crab looked a bit defensive so they decided not to pet the crab and nodded "cute little guy!" waving a hand over to show the others

(Ysadora) Ysadora stares at the crustacean, nonplussed. "Is that a crab? What's a crab doing here?" She sidles over and carefully tucks the flower jar into her bag before crouching down next to Junes. "Is it...native? Native like the flower? And if so, is it alright to be here?" Ysadora realizes she's just rattling off questions so shuts her mouth and scoots over, making room for the other two.

(Booker) Booker followed after Junes, taking a moment to notice the crab. He extended a hand petting the crab as if it were a dog. "Crab." He smirked, looking over at the others. "Crab" He gestured with a thumb at the crab, before standing up and looking around, and more notably, glancing upward to make sure there were no other creatures looming above.

(Umeko) Umeko tilted her head as she looked at the crab, carefully inspecting it and checking her nanomagic for the presence of illusions. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tasty looking little oatmeal cookie ration wrapped in paper, made with culinary nanomagic and enriched with Everything The Body Needs(tm). She slowly carefully picked up the crab while it was distracted from... behind? She minded its back eyes as she held it and pet it gently to make sure it was real, for science, and for fun. "Huh, looks like this little guy's not an illusion, but probably some local wildlife that got in with the water... We should take him with us when we leave, would probably die down here otherwise now that it's sealed off. Unless it can live off the mushrooms alone..."

(Syntax) As Umeko says that, something occurs to her. Nothing down here is an illusion. The only illusion was the sky above. The tree, the plants, even a spider you catch out of the corner of your eye. It's like a miniature biome in here that was spared getting overwhelmed by the cumrot thanks to the cockblock.

(Umeko) Umeko set the crab down as she spent a moment looking around the area, inspecting the plants and knocking on the wood of the tree. "Or maybe not... If my senses and nanomagic aren't failing me and this is all real, it looks like stuff's been living in here for awhile now. The crab's still different than anything I ever saw before P-Day, but it looks like this place has more to it than I thought."

(Junes) Junes responded to ysadora "i don't think it has a name, if you'd like you can name it!" with a small smile through the visor nd

(Junes) Junes continued "oh and yeah, these are both definitely alive, in fact apparently he doesn't seem to have pathogens and some mention of a soapy substance" sitting up to add "yeah seems like a brand new species! or well, new to us although i imagine whoever is with us has more info, and speaking of if capable of ending us anytime that means there's a clear reason for letting us inside so im definitely curious about having a talk if we're capable but" holding the paper up said "maybe i can find a way to get more messages than dreamer?" thinking aloud "but i was sort of unaware so how do we get soke friendlier attention..."

(Ysadora) Ysadora stares after the crab for a moment longer, as though deciding whether to try and jar that one up too. Seeming to decide against it, she turns her attention away. "Crab," she jokes, nudging booker's ribs through the suit. "If this is all real, why aren't we seeing like...some pristine hydroponics bay from when the bunker was in use? Maybe the Presence doesn't have anything it wants to show us here? Or maybe I'm thinking too hard about it." She gives a shrug made complicated by the number of hands stuffed up her sleeves. "Either way, it's good to see there's no Cumrot in here. And I'll think about a name for the flower, too! How about... Craig? No, that's silly. Flora Junes-ium? Hmm..."

(Booker) Booker walked around the tree, examining it, and looking up to see if there was anything noteworthy. "Man.. this place must be ancient for a tree this big to just grow here..." He tapped on the side of the tree. "Aye uhh.. any of you big brainy boys know what kind it is?" He circled the tree completely, walking back up to the group by Craig-The-Crab.

(Umeko) Umeko looked over to Ysadora, rubbing the lower visor of her hazmat suit since her chin was inacessible. "Considering the apocalyptic visions from up above, my best guess is that if this was some sort of doomsday bunker, they might have had a bunch of different species down here in reserve to sort of regrow the world with... Different plants that can survive harsh conditions, some sort of possibly genetically modified hardy scavenger crab, different plants and seeds... They may have escaped containment and reclaimed this place a bit as well over the years. Aquaponics are a thing as well, so there might be a tank with even more of these guys somewhere, a self contained sustainable ecosystem where you can grow both plants and meat, though usually it's fish."

(Syntax) For the moment, the party is safe. As the heat storm rages above, the ultimate quest lies in this: Do they sit among the crabs until it's safe to leave...or do they find out what else is further down?

(Syntax) TO BE CONTINUED