EVENT ★ LABYRINTH

[futurologists]

ASTERION PRISON Following Anakin's successful breakout, there are no new inmates added to the cells in Asterion Prison. There are no stops and, though speed is difficult to track in space, it seems as though the ship is now moving more purposely toward its final destination: the trial, the correctional officers say, is coming soon. THE ESCAPE The morning of Audentes’s last day on the prison barge began like any other day aboard so far. Throughout the day there were restless murmurs, though; plans were tentatively talked over and laid out in quiet, conspirator groups. A few more eyes than usual watched the progress of the correctional officers through the hallways. As evening drew in and prisoners prepared to return to their cells to sleep, things quietly began to set in motion. Ninurrta, Urahara, and Lance compiled what they’d learned today and on days previous of correctional officer schedules, and Nami and Fugo were pulled aside and told where and when to be ready. Seasoned thieves that they are, it was almost no trouble to make the keycards of a few officers disappear. The officers would have much larger problems to deal with before they ever noticed the absence. And those problems started right about… now. It’s hard to say exactly who started it, but the safe bet is on a staged performance by Asher and Stiles. As prisoners were shuffling into their cells, tempers suddenly flared, voices suddenly raised, and fists began to fly. It was contagious, especially with Undyne and Giorno’s well-timed encouragements and a few hard shoves at the right inmate’s backs. To the officers’ great exasperation and irritation, the third riot since this rowdy new batch of prisoners was added flared to life. This one didn’t stop at the prisoners, though. Twisted Fate gifted the recreation room with an especially smokey explosion and the fire safety sprinklers reacted instantly, showering down to soak Audentes, fellow prisoners, and correctional officers alike. The officers quickly found it was a little more water than usual -- far too much water than it should be, actually. That was Sai’s subtle assistance, adding transformed water to that already raining down. Those officers not involved in trying to break up the growing confusion pushed into the recreation area to go and put out that new more-than-metaphorical fire, and that was Daenerys and Fiona’s cue to start giving orders. Any Audentes members in the area were rounded up, told to leave now, and no sooner than the last of them was out than Mettaton took center stage. Specifically, the center stage was taken with a searing blast of electricity. It wasn’t quite enough to kill prisoners, but the robotic guards never really stood a chance. They, and all the rest of the robotic crew on their shared circuit, were shorted out and down for the count. The keycards, not forgotten, were passed on to those subtle enough to make use of them. Noctis, Loki, and Widowmaker in particular were entrusted with opening the cells of what inmates had been locked away, and then unlocking the cellblock doors. Audentes would not be turning in for the night as scheduled, and any other prisoners were welcome to come along for their ride. That, however, was when things went a little off the rails. Separated and cornered, Emma flared up and managed what even Mettaton’s electricity hadn’t: an enormous power outage. Ship-wide, in fact. Darkness fell. Keycards were rendered instantly useless in the face of stony, inert doors, and artificial gravity went out with it all. But Audentes is nothing if not up to a little challenge. The doors could still open, it was quickly discovered, with a little brute force. Koltira, Ramir, and Hayame kept up the speed of the now-floating (and no less lively for it) riot, prying open any doors encountered, freeing still-trapped prisoners as they were found. And what was planned as just one team suddenly became two: working on Sieglinde’s careful navigational direction, Peridot, Peter, and Damian were sent toward the locked-down main power grid for a hard reboot of the system, while Prompto, Keith, and Odinson headed toward the navigation room. The timing was perfect. Gravity slammed back on as light flooded the prison once more, just as the second group reached the navigation room. Odinson stood guard as Prompto broke them into the room, and Keith slid into the pilot’s chair to take control of the entire ship… ...which is when things really got started.

THE LABYRINTH Audentes gains control over the prison ship quickly and perilously, freeing fellow inmates to help them keep the correctional officers busy. The intent is to pilot the ship and land it somewhere -- but even that vague plan never really comes to fruition. Something goes wrong, and the ship plummets out of the sky, burning through the atmosphere. Alarms blare and the ship shakes and red warning lights blink in every corner. All you can really do is hold on. The ship crashes into a planet. It's completely trashed; no longer capable of flight. Pieces have torn off in the descent and even more pieces have melted together in the still-burning fires as the wreckage lies between impossibly tall walls. The holes in the hull reveals where personal items -- including weapons -- were being held, so it's probably a good idea to reclaim what's yours before someone else does. There are injuries and casualties all around, including correctional officers and inmates; luckily, no fatalities have struck Audentes, and George is still alive as well, though he's broken an arm in the crash. After scavenging the wreckage for supplies and survivors, the next step is figuring out where the hell this is. A surviving correctional officer has the answer: this is the Asterion Labyrinth, the place where all prisoners must undergo their trial. It seems it's more of a trial by ordeal than anything else, as further exploration makes it clear that all survivors of the crash -- criminals, ALASTAIR, and correctional officers -- are now prisoners inside a maze. OOC NOTES Welcome to Asterion Labyrinth! There is a plotting write-up here, which includes search requests for the first ring of the maze. If you have any questions about the prison that aren't answered here, please direct them to the Leramzen dossier. Questions about the game in general should be directed to the FAQ and you may submit mission ideas or player plots at any time.

Comments

[trueborn]

[ He aches.

Inexplicably, he had escaped the crash without grievous injury, counting himself among the lucky who had done the same. There was pain in his legs, in his head, in his belly, but no open wound, no bleeding rends in his flesh. But, he is tired, and so, he remains alongside Hayame. As close as he dares, relying a little more on her than he'd actively like to. The pain does not run deep, nor does his exhaustion - he is made of sterner stuff than the average human, after all. The Noah are beloved by dragons, the last remnants of their ancient ancestor's power and grace.

He is the only living representative, in this place. His pride has never allowed him to falter.

Perhaps that was why, in the end, he had begged Hayame to live alongside him. This place was strange, alien. Dangerous. The problems that faced him felt far more vast than what lay behind him. If he were to focus on that past... he would be lost.

He is lost, now. In thought, that is - and collides with Hayame's side as she bids him to stop. He misses the sound she's heard, but sees her ready her bow and puts his hand to the hilt of his reclaimed sword. The beautiful thing, crafted by Koltira and treasured by him immediately. ]

What is it-- ? Hayame.

[ He steps to the side, prepared to assist her in flanking, if there is a threat. ]

[kisha]

[She had thought the crash was the end. Jinba were strong, capable of great feats possible only thanks to the combination of human intelligence combined with bestial power, but they had a weakness- and that weakness was the devastating nature of leg wounds to creatures who weighed upwards of a ton, supported by bones made light for speed. The despair that had overcome her in that moment, when she'd awakened from unconsciousness to see blood and bone jutting from her shattered foreleg, had been too much to even process.

How unfair it seemed, that she would promise to live, swear to cast aside her designs to slit open her stomach in a last ditch attempt for honor and peace, that she would allow her vulnerability, her fear be seen by this man she swore to serve... only for that to happen. For a wound like that, one that had very little possibility of healing well even with rest and care, let alone in the conditions they found themselves in now.

But these people... some of them had "magic". Horrible, invasive, make her skin crawl spells that could affect her body and change it to the will of the caster- a horror very few others seemed to understand. Yet despite her revulsion, that magic had saved her life. Spared her from ache, now, in the aftermath. Allowed her to stand strong beside and slightly protectively in front of Ninurrta. (Hints of his own injuries had not escaped her gaze.)]

Something large approaches.

[She raises her head, her face, waiting for a scent on the pale wind that occasionally blew through the labyrinth, but all she smells is dust and stone and- wait.]

Something that carries with it the scent of old blood.

[It's enough to have her raise her bow, the weapon slightly longer than Ninurrta was tall, muscles in her arms and shoulders bulging as she draws back an arrow and sights along the shaft towards the place ahead of them where the path turns sharply right.

And soon, the sound that had been audible to her ears becomes loud enough to be heard by others.

A dragging, heaving whisper of scales on stone.]

[trueborn]

[ He'd spent much of his energy and effort defending his cellmate, while his mind had wandered to Hayame - wishing he had been able to reach her in time. Were he to find out that, even while she was hale and whole now, she had suffered such a frightful injury, there would be no limit to his guilt.

If this scaled beast did not eat him first.

( A laughable thought, at best. Between himself and Hayame, he was confident that they would be able to handle anything thrown at them. )

He remains at her side, peering forward into the long stretch of maze before them. It would be dangerous to allow themselves to be funneled anywhere, and the conscious mnemonics he was using to ensure they did not get dangerously turned around in this place were taking up much of his focus. ]

I smell it.

[ He does; and with a silken rasp, he draws his own weapon, and steps forward - moving to one side so that Hayame will not have to sight around him. And he draws the tip of the blade across the material of the maze's wall. There is no injury done to the wall, but the shrill of metal on foreign structure is enough to either draw the beast's attention, or to force it to react defensively. ]

-- we could lure it.

[ Trap it, perhaps. Defeat it with tactics, rather than rushing blindly in. ]

[kisha]

[If her bow is drawn, she can disguise any tremor of anxiety or encroaching fear in the natural strain of muscle and sinew, confronted yet again with the unknown and unnatural. What sort of beast was around the curve? What sort of creature made a sound that echoed so loudly as to indicate a massive size, had scales that whispered on the stone floor?

A dragon? A serpent? Her mind fills in the blanks with possibilities, none of them good, none of them something she has actual experience fighting-

But she cannot give that away. Cannot show him any more of the devastating weakness lurking just below the surface he has already seen.]

I do not believe we will have the time, unless-

[There was nowhere to truly hide in a maze, with smooth walls and a combination of gently curving routes with the occasional sharp corner... but the last true corner they'd passed was a ways back, and could they make it in time to conceal themselves before this... thing came into view?

There was only one way she could imagine making it. Another beat, and she forces herself to swallow her pride, lower her bow, and take a sudden knee, offering her free hand for the support he may need.]

My lord, please mount, and quickly.

[She could not throw him over her shoulder or under her arm, like she would a person she viewed differently, and even if she would... she would run far faster with her arms free and the weight evenly distributed.]

[trueborn]

[ This is

a lot, coming from her.

As Hayame sinks to her knee, he's stricken by her. Again, and again. That she is willing to set her own pride aside, for someone such as him. It's an endearing thought, but he comprehends the practicality in her gesture as well. He's ridden true horses before, and while he was of a bloodline blessed by the last dragons, she was definitely faster than he was - and for greater distances. He takes her hand, when she offers it, after putting his own weapon away ( unfortunate, unblooded ) and cautiously approaches her side.

It's different than mounting a horse, as she wears no saddle and is possessed of the unique ability to scold him, if he sits wrong and she is disturbed by it. ]

I'm... in your care, then.

[ Aaaand up he goes, carefully and quickly climbing onto her back --!! She told him what this means, so he's feeling really self-conscious right now........... ]

[kisha]

[He isn't the only one- though Hayame knows this is no place for a treacherous and womanly sense of embarrassment or shame. Though she'd striven from filly-hood to be recognized as a good horse, successfully managed to avoid the fate of amputation and consignment to use as broodmare or mount (for now), it doesn't mean she has never been ridden- though she'd never felt the pull of the reins that could be fastened to the shoulder stumps, or the metal bite of a bit in her mouth.]

Hold on to me.

[Thankfully she has her own clothing back, which provides a convenient handhold in the sash she wears tight around her deer hide-wrapped waist. But though her withers jump and twitch beneath him, and though the muscles in her back are taut with discomfort as well as the nerves of incoming threat, she pushes it aside to straighten back up to her full height- and then she's off.

She was not as fast as some jinba, not as fast as the feather light Hibari she had been called to hunt down, but she's still fast, hooves tearing up the floor of the maze as she throws herself into a canter, lowering her human half to align her spine in mimicry of how a true horse's neck might arch, hands groping behind her for the strips of her orange prison uniform she has wrapped around the barrel of her chest as a makeshift harness. By curling her fingers around the straps she streamlines her body to the wind and more easily switches into a full gallop, rounding the curve of the maze just before a reptilian snout comes into view.

Not until they've reached the more defensible hard left turn in the maze construction does she stop, both sets of lungs still expanding evenly with little proof of strain before she drops to a knee once more to assist in dismounting, one hand on her foreleg knee and the other already redrawing her bow as she looks to Ninurrta.

By the sounds of things... bought time or no, it would be there soon enough.]

[trueborn]

[ As she bids, he obeys. She is the one who knows her form best, and the only thing that his hesitations will breed between them is inefficiency and danger. Their situation is precarious enough, without adding sentiment and emotion to the matter - so, he does as he's told. Part of him cannot abide the thought of wrapping his arms around her waist, the way he had wrapped his arms around her shoulders in that prison, so he finds purchase in the pelts around her ribs, tucking his forearms into the angle provided by hers, as she reaches back to hold the straps.

He flattens himself against her back, and quickly seizes hold of the length of silvery-blue hair between his teeth. Best not leave that to whip around, though he is more than capable of battle with hair as long as his - it is a mark of his own pride, his own status among the peerage. That his hair rivals his mothers for length, and has never been cut, is proof of his princehood. Here, he'd like it to remain out of the way while she runs. He looks, briefly, over his shoulder - as best as he can, as she puts an incredible amount of distance between them and the rasp-hiss of scales and the scent of old meat.

When she comes to a halt, and bows herself once more, he is swift to dismount. Agile, as he slips from her back and lands at her shoulder. One hand finds its place there, on the width of her forearm, before she draws her bow. ]

Let us ambush this beast.

[ He points - up, up. A space along the wall that nestles between corner and crook. ]

We are both best at a distance, but I could divide it from you entirely, if I have the chance.

[ They must be swift, and it seems he has already made up his mind, as he strides towards the wall and presses his hands to it, letting his fingertips drift towards the ground. ]

[kisha]

There is no need to concern yourself with such things. If it cannot be killed with arrows, there remain blades.

[It was her duty to protect him, first and foremost.

And the two of them, courtesy that man who smelled of ice and death, possessed fine blades, with hilts that matched. (A thing that spoke so obviously of a bond between master and servant that she would have salivated at the very thought once.) Still, she reached first for the bow, not only for the distance but because of all the weapons she had trained in, it was her best.

From the quiver she has tied to the orange jumpsuit harness she draws an arrow, equally large to match the near six foot tall bow she wields, notches- but her hearing remains focused on the sound of their approaching enemy while her eyes remain on Ninurrta, confused slightly by the motions he makes. He points up, but... did he need a leg up?

Something about his expression, though, keeps her silent instead of offering to assist him up, staring in expectation of... something.]

[trueborn]

I am always concerned by those I care for. I cannot betray my heart.

[ He says it, bluntly and directly. To him, she is everything in this place. A warrior who will have his back and a companion he would stand beside to the bitter end. They are reaching for something in one another, even now. An understanding? A stable place?

She speaks of blades, and he touches his hand to his own. It matches hers, and such a thing is infinitely pleasing. Even here, in this unsure place, there is stability in such a thoughtful gesture. He has every intention of putting such a fine blade to use, and soon - but first: he ascends. A few quick motions of his hands, and ice snaps before him. Clinging to the surface of the wall, spreading thin as webbing into the crook, anchored not by brutalizing the surface of the wall ( impossible, he had found ) but by meticulously weaving a structure held up by -- well, there's a lot of physics involved, to say the least.

It's into this ambush point that he goes, high above Hayame, braced and ready for the scale-hide beast to come into the killbox they are trying to set up. Like this, he speaks to her in hushed tones, through the magitek bracelet on his wrist: ]

With you at my side, I do not fear this beast.

[ which is, you know, COMING -- ]

[kisha]

[For a moment, despite the danger and the seriousness of their situation, Hayame is frozen in something like shock at the way he words such a thing. Those he cared for and his heart. To the reserved and subtle society from which she hails, it is a blatant declaration of emotion the likes of which she nearly never hears, and it makes her feel...

Things.

But she cannot even begin to think of how to reply to such a statement, and so instead she forces herself to tear away from watching his movements with morbid fascination and a touch of the fear that always came to Hayame at the sight of magic, a sight that made her left foreleg throb and feel like any moment her bone might resnap and skin might retear and blood might restain. He has made a good position for himself, and she had the duty to do the same.

So she does, puts the distance between the corner and her bow that would buy her time to fire even if the creature barreled for her, tail held stiffly in alert, calloused fingers taut on the bowstring, drawing back the giant weapon and sighting along the arrow, heart pounding in her own ears in the combination of nerves, fear, and excitement that battle bred.]

I shall not disappoint you.

[How can she, when he is the only anchor in this place that allows her to feel any semblance of rightness, any wisps of a life she had once dreamed of having and put her entire efforts into achieving? When he-

The reptilian beast rounds the bend, large eyes shock yellow and slit like a snake's, sighting it's prey with a loud roar that exposes rows of sharp teeth- and with a shudder, a ripple, Hayame's still form looses an arrow that embeds itself right in the back of that open maw.]