EVENT ★ LABYRINTH III: THE ESCAPE

[futurologists]

LABYRINTH III The correct passageway to the inner ring of the maze is hidden behind a thick wall of vines. After cutting through the plants, the structure of the maze is noticeably different: the overgrown plants continue creeping up the walls, but the walls are no longer brick and stone, composed instead of some sort of blue metal with holes and divots carved elaborately into the surface. From some holes gush forth pure, clean water; from others, acidic liquid. The air is cool and crisp, the plants creating a lush, dim environment lit by eerie blue lights spread throughout this section. The lizards, rats, and other monstrous creatures seem to be absent from this area of the maze, replaced instead by rhinoceros-sized beetles. The beetles each have a single horn protruding from the head, and their hard carapaces make them difficult to kill -- a better method might be to simply climb somewhere high and wait for the beetle to get bored. But unlike the other monsters encountered in the maze, the beetles seem to have something else on their mind beyond wanton violence: they can sometimes be found rolling massive balls of dung throughout the corridors of the labyrinth. (This might explain why the plants are so lush closer to the center.) There is little time to explore this section of the labyrinth before there's a flicker of light all around and more ALASTAIR recruits suddenly appear, most dressed in a freshly pressed uniform and carrying extra food and supplies. They have been told that the cloaking surrounding Asterion Labyrinth is so strong and complex that Oska was only able to send in a handful of recruits at once for a relief effort. In order to leave, they'll have to locate the escape mechanism that lies deep within the labyrinth; the remaining Asterion Prison correctional officers know its general location, but not precisely what it entails. All they know is that it will require technological cunning to operate and that it's heavily guarded. After five days, the portal room is found. THE PORTAL ROOM The center of the labyrinth is a large, circular room with a raised platform in the middle. On this platform rests a circle of computer consoles surrounding another platform, on which sits an empty circular frame 2.5m (8') in diameter. This is the dormant portal, and it is now Audentes's task to turn it on and find their way back to Oska. Because the portal is not made for interdimensional travel, it must be overclocked, which will cause it to burn out and explode once it is used. In order to override the safety protocols in place to prevent such dangerous tampering, the control panels must be unlocked -- and unfortunately, the locks are all complicated puzzles, ranging from the numerical to sliding pieces into place to complete a pattern. There are many of these puzzled scattered around the portal room, and once they are all unlocked, it's a simple matter of flipping the power override switches. Ignore the dangerous humming sound and the way the frame suddenly fills with violent purple energy. That's probably normal. The new recruits have the correct coordinates to locate Oska, which has temporarily lowered its cloaking shield to allow Audentes to return. So there is a bit of a time crunch. Adding more to the difficulty of the situation is the presence of a monster lumbering around the circular portal room. Six meters (20') high, the beast is best described as a minotaur, but perhaps not in the traditional sense: while it resembles a bipedal bull, it is an amalgamation of flesh and machine with its body covered in pistons and glowing lights. One of its hands is an enormous axe and it belches fire and acid. Despite its head resembling an herbivore, the piles of desiccated bones scattered throughout the portal room tell a different story. Upon seeing the group, the minotaur charges. Mavahari, the Zymandis recruit, rushes to meet it with her sword drawn. Inmates and correctional officers do their best to fight it as well, but something becomes quickly apparent: it cannot be harmed by projectile weapons. The machinery of the beast keeps it protected from most attacks, though electricity will stun it and acid will corrode its metal. But in order to injure the minotaur, it must be stabbed between the metal plates where its vulnerable flesh remains. During the battle, the minotaur fights viciously and without regard for its own safety. The first casualty comes early: the minotaur swings its axe toward Mavahari, who is pushed out of the way by George. The axe connects with him solidly, sending him flying into the wall with a shuddering impact. George lies there still, but there's no time to mourn. The beast continues its rampage. Once the minotaur is defeated, you'll have to quickly decide what to do with the correctional officers and inmates who have followed Audentes through the Asterion Labyrinth. The overclocked portal won't hold forever, and the longer Oska leaves its cloak down, the better chance they have of being found by their enemies. OOC NOTES This log will last for six IC days: five days for exploration and one day at the center of the maze. We have also recently altered the calendar this month, so make sure you review it! IMPORTANT: Participation in the solution poll is mandatory for August AC. Failure to participate will result in an automatic strike. The only exception is for those who are exempt from August AC. The poll will close on 11 August 23:59 UTC. If you have any questions about the labyrinth 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

[sadgay]

[The searing heat of battle brings out the best in some and the worst in others, and Connor falls toward the latter end. He adheres to no strategy or plan. The only thing he can do to abet the situation in any way is to stay out of the way. The only coherent thought his brain can hold onto is that he does not want to die.

When Hayame comes hurtling over the mound of desiccated bones behind which he has barricaded himself, he chokes out a scream and shields himself with his arms. A second later he realizes that this is the centaur lady he had seen bathing in the hot springs. And in the next second, he answers her orders. His body has difficulty complying with his brain, however, and he ends up stumbling in spectacular fashion as he scrambles aside.

This is how he dies, right? Without a shred of dignity?]

[kisha]

[She doesn't even realize who he is- not yet. He is just a man, one who is in her way, and one who thankfully at least has the sense to get out of her way. Hayame has no "magic", no "technology", but despite the insane nature of this place and this beast, it can still be wounded by the only thing she can do.

She takes his place at the point just where the putrid shield dips downward, offering a view of the beast engaged with others. If you were a centaur brooking seven feet tall, anyway. Trembling with nerves barely held back by focus, biting on her lip, she hauls up the large wooden bow, taller than Connor himself, notching an equally sized arrow and drawing it back in a single motion, muscles along her shoulders bulging with the effort of holding the tension on such a weapon.

Waiting. The beast roars.

Waiting. The beast turns to avoid someone's attack and faces their direction.

Firing, and the arrow flies through the air only to splinter against the bull creature's armor. With a curse, Hayame notches another arrow quickly, reaiming and firing again... and this time, it flies true and sinks into the narrow line of exposed flesh between the armor plates.

Unfortunately... this draws the creature's attention.]

[sadgay]

[That's ok, Hayame...he's just a generic white boy, and that horse hiney is hard to forget.

He really wishes he could clamp his eyes shut and just ignore the battle that is crashing around him, as if that might make it pass more quickly - but terror keeps his eyes wide open, constantly seeking where he might hide. Fortunately, the pile of carcasses is large enough that even when he scurries out of Hayame's way, there is still room enough for him to duck down again a safe ways away. (Fortunate for him, but maybe not so fortunate for whoever those carcasses used to be.)

When Hayame curses, Connor rises up just enough to peer over his desiccated barrier - and just in time to see the minotaur throw its glowing gaze their way.]

Oh, shit.

[His heart is in his throat and loud in his ears, and at once he is scrambling away from his hiding place to seek greener pastures. Pastures in which he might not get gored by a robo-bull.]

[kisha]

["Oh, shit" was quite accurate.

Hayame feels a jolt of fear run down her spine(s), tail raising and legs stiffening a moment when the beast's eyes seem to meet hers, identify her as the source of the pain it was feeling as it swipes roughly at the injury and breaks the shaft of the arrow sticking out of its chest. Joltingly she pulls another arrow from the quiver attached to her withers, draws and fires again, landing this time on the minotaur's more exposed head...

But that just makes it angrier, and with a lumber and a bellow it begins heading their way.

So she turns to flee, hooves kicking up shit and putrid offal, spotting the human scrambling as she easily begins to outpace him.]

Faster!

[Or else, Connor.]

[sadgay]

[As she overtakes him, so too does his fast rising panic. He is a decent runner, but he cannot compare to a woman with powerful horse legs - not to mention a battery-powered bull. Even as his breath falls harder, he manages to yell after her:] Why'd you have to...follow me, you psychopath? If I get killed...it's your fault! [Then he decides it would be wise to conserve his energy to put it all toward escaping the enraged cyborg beast. He will stand by his conviction, however, that she's the one who pissed it off, so she's the one it wants to kill - and therefore, if he ends up being collateral damage, it will be on her conscience. He makes the mistake of looking behind him as he dashes, and sees the minotaur rapidly devouring the distance between them. With a shriek, he veers off course to throw himself behind another mound of reeking carcasses in their final stage of decay.]

[kisha]

[As if hiding would save him, after the Minotaur had already sighted them both? Hayame is tempted to leave him. It is his own fault, to be so weak, to seem to not even possess a single weapon, to shriek in terror like a woman. He could not be the sort of warrior ALASTAIR required, surely- and they had sent him. His death would be on their hands, if anyone's.

But he accuses her and the anger wells up in her throat despite the dire situation, and though she could outpace the heavier and two-legged beast with ease unburdened, ought to just keep going...

She turns around with another bit-back expletive, hurtling towards his new and soon to be endangered hiding place... and not even bothering to stop or speak, merely briefly slowing to a trot, human waist bending as she passes by to simply grab him beneath his arms and by the clothing, sling him over her equine back not as a human rider would sit, with both legs on either side, but on his belly, slung across her withers like a sack of grain.]

Do not put that curse upon me, cur!

[And he might want to hold on, (there's a harness she wears buckled between waist and under her wider lower belly that will serve), because with the Minotaur a mere stone's throw away she heaves herself back into a full blown gallop.]

i am so sorry

[sadgay]

[Why does he keep getting dragged into shit that has nothing to do with him? How come everyone else's disasters always become his own disasters? Why is he always in the wrong damn place at the wrong damn time? These are the thoughts rattling through his head as he flails about, first in her grip, kicking his legs in frantic protest because with her is the last place he wants to be, aside from on the blade of the minotaur's ax - and then on her withers, his hands scrambling for purchase as she gallops. It is nothing short of a miracle that he manages to locate the harness before he slides off and crashes to the ground.] What the hell are you doing? You're the one he's pissed at! [Oh god, he's gonna die, he's gonna die, he is so gonna die...! Perhaps more imminent than his death, however, is the chance of him throwing up. His stomach churns with anxiety, and the stench of the minotaur's table scraps along with all this jarring and jouncing is not helping.]

DONT U PUT THAT THROW UP ON ME RICKY BOBBY

[kisha]

[He isn't the heaviest thing she's ever carried, but he's no feather weight. The quick pace she fell into so easily before is ruined by the way he barely clings on, how heavy her forelegs slam into the floor, and though there'd been no question she would outrun the Minotaur before... it's not seeming too clear any longer.]

Shut your mouth and hand me an arrow, or I shall gut you myself!

[And he'd deserve it. His body is blocking easy access to her quiver, but it's near his head, and she can't risk taking her eyes off the treacherous terrain with its risks of falls or slips, snarling back at him over the whip of wind and roar of beast.]

i'm crying

[sadgay]

[Lucky for her, avoiding the gaping jaws of death is his primary motivation right now. So she threatens, so he complies. He grasps at an arrow but in his frantic haste fumbles it, and he watches it clatter uselessly to the ground and then out of sight as Hayame gallops onward. Hoping that she did not hear this spectacular flub of his, he reaches for a second arrow and manages to pass this one to her. As soon as the shaft leaves his grasp, he snatches his hand back before he can topple from her. Connor holds on with all his might, but nothing will ease his violent swaying on her back, nor the violent heaving in his gut. He feels the bile rise, burning at the back of his throat, and he gags, clamps his mouth shut, bites his lip by accident. The sudden shock of pain causes his mouth to ricochet open once more, and that's when he empties the contents of his stomach down the side of her leg.]

dead

[kisha]

[Oh, she hears it. It makes her grit her teeth so hard she's sure the grinding noise would be audible over the thundering approach of the Minotaur but she doesn't waste her breath on words. She just snatches the large arrow from his hand and notches it, her gait slowing even further when she straightens her more human portion of her spine, cranes her head to ascertain the beast's position-

And then he vomits onto her.

She almost goes down then and there, a flash of disgust overtaking her features, eclipsing for a moment the barely held back fear as she nearly trips over her own hooves in instinctual recoil from the hot purge of liquid dripping down her leg and sticking to her blood and dirt-stained dun coat.

Hayame knows in that moment she should have let this weakling die- conveniently forgetting her own experiences in such matters.

But the Minotaur is almost upon them and she can't scream or yell at him, berate him, dump him from her back, she can only wait, twisting at the human waist to aim her bow as she runs, one eye on the creature and one on the road before her, waiting in horror as it grows closer and closer, as it closes the distance between them and leans forward to grab-

Before she looses an arrow into its eye.]

no i think he's the dead one

[sadgay]

[Then the acrid stench of vomit is all about him, dribbling down his chin and spattered on his sleeve so that he has nowhere to wipe off his mouth. He does not have time to feel sorry for the mess he has made of her, however, being that he's far more concerned with clinging to her and trying not to gag from the lingering taste in his mouth.

Connor hears the heavy footfall of the minotaur thudding closer and he recoils, trying to make himself as small as possible, to sink against Hayame and disappear. His shoulders shudder up tight and his eyes pinch shut as if preparing for something violent and ugly.

There is too much that he regrets.

And then nothing. The moment of impact never comes. The hard disciplined snap of her bowstring resounds, and the beast lets loose a groan, and to him it is the sound of surviving. He cautiously tosses a look sideways over his shoulder to see that several more recruits have surrounded the bull, cutting short his pursuit.]

Oh my god, we're not dead.

[The words come weakly, with equal amounts of relief and confusion propping them up.]

basically

[kisha]

[They're not dead, but Hayame doesn't stop running just because others of their so-called team have engaged the beast. She lowers her bow and her head, the slope of her human spine to align with the angle a horse's neck usually sat in, and resumes the speedier pace she was capable of when not trying to sight down an arrow at the same time.

She doesn't respond to his brilliant observation, either, (yet, she wants to add), kicking up filth and blood beneath her hooves until she throws herself up a shallow slope with a grunt, hooves scrambling for purchase before she finds it, human hands reaching out in tandem to steady herself before she manages to haul them most of the way up out of the Minotaur's sunken territory.

It's here that she finally stops, flanks heaving with exertion and lathered with sweat, his vomit now a paste serving to stick dirt and dust to her leg.]

Get off.

[He has about three seconds before she sees about expediting his dismount with a shake of her withers. She's nice enough to at least do it in the direction that would land him on his ass rather than his head.]

[sadgay]

[His arms feel limp from the effort of clinging so fiercely, and when he lets go of her harness he simply slides off her withers in the way that birdshit dribbles down a statue. His legs too are weaker than he remembers: he doesn't stop there, instead crumpling to the ground with the force of her "aid" and flattening himself onto his back with his arms forming a sad little tent over his face.]

Oww...

[He hurts all over. In his wild sprinting he had torn open the giant scab that had taken over the side of his thigh, and the rough ride slung over Hayame had banged up his hips and groin. His dignity is in pieces. He wipes his clean sleeve over his mouth and with a hard grimace rolls onto his side to spit, trying to purge the vile taste from his mouth.]

[kisha]

[Pathetic.

Hayame glowers down at Connor, even more towering at seven feet tall than when he crouched behind that pile of rotting meat refuse. Her sides heave with exertion, and though she wants to kick or flick her tail in futile attempt to get the cloying feel of his vomit and sweat off of her, she resists, expression slowly twisting into an angry sneer.

In an irruption of movement, she suddenly slams her two front hooves down right by his legs, (one dangerously close to his crotch), bending down to get closer to his eye level, fist a hand in his shirt and haul him half up effortlessly to impress the words she snarls at him.]

I shall not take your cowardice on as my burden, and if you hold a grudge in death hold it against ALASTAIR who brought you here, not me.

[She releases him just as quickly as she's grabbed him, ready to choke down her fear and return to the fray.]

If you die here it will be in shame and weakness. Because you are too afraid to hold a weapon and die honorably, and instead run from battle and shame your clan and your lord. Know this.

[All things she's done, all things she despises so deeply in herself that the words come out with venom.]

[sadgay]

[His entire body seizes in terror as her hooves cleave downward like tiny guillotines, his eyes wrinkling shut and his chin knifing into his chest while his arms curl to cover his head. Then she is grabbing him by the front of his shirt, and he squirms like the worm she assumes him to be.

Up close she will see that his eyes are damp with tears and gleaming with fear. He does nothing to wrench away from her. His hands fall to his sides, his legs lie limp on the ground, and when she lets go, he simply crumples as if his muscles have forgotten their purpose.]

Nobody gives a shit about any of that anymore where I'm from, all right? If I die here, nobody will be too cut up about it. Trust me.

[His words come as a weak croak, the edge to them all but lost. His eyes are pinned not to her but to the darkened sky far above.]

I don't care about proving my honor or whatever it is you're so obsessed with...I just want to make it through this hellhole. And if that means I have to turn tail and run, then that's exactly what I'll do.

[kisha]

[What a disgusting picture he makes- so close to how she must have looked that night that she wants to grind his nose into the dirt beneath her hoof. The stench of his vomit is a nostalgic reminder of bile in her own throat, and for a moment she can smell it again- that room where Mikuni, that black yearling barely out of foalhood, had smiled his twisted smile and held out the human liver in offering, his other hand clutching still the blade that had cut it from the bloody corpse.

But nobody cared about that- and not about him, or her, or anything. Why would they? Why should they, in this shit hole?]

Then die, or live on to mourn those who are true warriors.

[Should she say it enough, it will become so.

Her white knuckles clutch her bow, and she pulls another arrow from her rapidly dwindling quiver supply, turning her back to him and leaving him where she'd placed him, first trotting, then breaking into a canter right back towards the minotaur beast, black hair and tail streaming out behind her towards potential death in battle.

If things would only be so simple.]