Breach III: Expedition Log

[genpcs]

JOURNEY TO THE MAW'S CRYSTAL CAVES

At this point, news had been spreading about the flowers- the ones that only grew near crystals in the Maw, that they were what Seek had used on Nova City back in January, even though they were Fayren-native. Those who have made it this far to The Maw and searched for some time will finally find themselves at a cave, deep within. The only light there is whatever they brought with them and the bioluminescent glow of some crystals and fungus within the cave- certainly not enough to guide the way without your own source.

Once the expedition party is deep enough into the caves, they'll likely notice that the crystals have shifted behind them and cut off the way that they've come in. They have to go somewhat deep into the crystals to get to the patch of flowers they’re looking for, a veritable field of them. Most of the crystals are white or a pale lavender in color, and once in deeply enough it will become clear that the crystals have been enchanted as they rapidly spike up from their spots on the walls and cut off the entrance, regrowing just as rapidly if broken. A character may be able to get out if they have teleportation or phasing abilities, but they will not be able to bring other characters with them.

The only choice is to go deeper, and some who do will begin to find crystals that look a little different- refined, not bound to the enchanted white and lavender ones, and they’re a vibrant green in color. Careful though- spirits still lurk around certain corners, and with the low light and the Maw's nature.. well, you may want to stick close to someone else. Those aren't the only monsters down there.

DIRECTIONS:
-If you were RNG'd to receive a green crystal, you received a notification last night. Reply with a top-level to this post to receive the content of that crystal. If you do not post a top level by the 17th, your memory crystal will get rerolled to go to someone else who has already posted a top level. The mod NPC account will reply to your post with the memory crystal contents so you will not have any way to receive them unless you reply to the main post. Crystal finders: Cassian Andor, Koishi Komeiji, Link, Kamille "Mobius" Rainer, Belle, and Major Lilywhite.

-Regardless of whether you were RNG'd, anyone who replies with at least 5 comments by July 4th will receive a Fayren charm.

-If you are one of the four people who get to participate in capture, feel free to assume that your person got separated from their group and ended up finding the other three who did as well. That way you can still have main threads with whatever group your character came in if you'd like while we can limit the thread to a semi-reasonable amount of people for a single thread because 5 people in a single thread is already a lot and we do want to make sure that this thread is completed. A specific thread for this will be posted in reply to this post for each of those who joined in to participate. Once again, if you do not reply by the 17th, you will just have your character dropped from the discovery so that we can move on. Because this is an active thread and not just an info drop, the role will not be replaced unless all four characters do not participate.

-Just replying may also give you a chance encounter for other neat stuff in the Maw. A mod may reply with something fun to interact with if it looks like your thread is active based on a daily RNG through the 17th.

-Please feel free to assume that characters eventually find a second way out. They can also take samples of anything they want with them- flowers, crystals, rocks, whatever they may find. If your character wants to do something with something they took, please ask a mod what they'll find out and include the method they are trying to analyze it with. (If you just say 'analyze it' that's not going to tell us whether you'll find something out- if your character says they're looking at something under a microscope or that they're running a test for something specific, however, the mods are more than happy to answer if there's relevant information that your character can discover.)

Comments

[unhappy]

Just of mine. They're the same sickles I just used, you know. They're also kusarigama. With really long chains.

[ She doesn't have a name for it- that's something people who get attached to things do. It would probably help to describe it better though. Oh well. ]

Just don't get stuck, I'll be pissed if I die stuck behind a robot in a cave.

[k2so]

Where I come from, a kusarigama is the name of a class Frigate, a ship. Very dangerous too, so it fits.

[Her description is more than okay with Kay, and he's satisfied that she bothered to actually answer him instead of shrugging off the question.]

Are you saying you don't enjoy my wonderful company? now I am offended. [Kay hunches forward, trying to make himself smaller so he can move around easily.] You could walk next to me instead.

[unhappy]

If the cave ever opens up you can turn around and I'll show you.

[ Just bc he called her weapon and therefore by extension her dangerous that was such a compliment. ]

You're getting stuck in a single-file line, how am I supposed to walk next to you?

[k2so]

I'd like that. [It had been a compliment of sorts. Kay always liked dangerous things.]

I'm getting stuck because of the roots and stalactites but I can see that the end of the tunnel is wider. And you are tiny, you should have all that many problems.

[unhappy]

Do you want me to go ahead of you and cut them out of the way?

[ She's rolling her eyes. ]

I'll do it, but you have to do something for me.

[k2so]

That's not what I said. [There's a pause.] But that couldn't hurt.

[He tilts his head to give Emerald a proper look.]

And what do you want me to do?

[unhappy]

I know you didn't, I'm offering. Please feel free to inform Cassian that I've done my good deed for the decade.

[ She's going to start trying to get around him now to go ahead. ]

You're a robot so if you bump into me, I'm not going to have a problem. [ That's her assumption anyway. Kay may need to convince her that robots can be more than nuts and bolts at some point, but as it stands she doesn't think as much. ]

Just do me a favor and make sure no one gets near me. [ That's the whole reason she's here- she doesn't care of the guy does whatever he wants. Break the barriers, that's fine. But she could handle it before when it was just the promise of feeling empty- this whole sharing emotions thing is a nightmare, especially for someone who makes half of their income picking pockets. She'll happily let the guy go if he fixes her, or beat the living hell out of him until he does.

Emerald shines her flashlight up at the ceiling and starts working on cutting down any lower-hanging roots that would get in K2SO's way. ]

[k2so]

It's funny how you two interact. And by funny I mean strange.

[But, in a good way too. Kay stays still as she moves, not quite getting what Emerald meant by 'not having a problem'.] There will be no issues unless I fall over you, I'm really heavy. But that won't happen, don't worry.

[At her request, Kay is silent for a second, then nods. Cassian likes her well enough, or at least he didn't try to kill her again, and they do talk often. To Kay that almost sounds as if Cassian has made a friend of sorts. Truly a miracle.]

I'll take care of you, Emerald. Do you get attacked often?

[unhappy]

He's the strange one. I gave him an out and I constantly harass him.

[ She shrugs. ] I'm stronger than I look, and I can always cut through you if you can't get up. [ Though Cassian might be mad if she did. Not that she's ever had a problem making Cassian mad, but when it comes to Kay he's like, murdery mad. Which she gets, sort of. ]

Not like that, you bucket. I was asleep when those things started attacking so one of those flowered freaks got me. Every time I touch someone it's a bunch of feedback crap.

[k2so]

That means he likes you. Cassian is a bit weird when it comes to this sort of things. [And Kay is a blunt about it, as well as a hell lot of weirder than Cassian. The joys of being a droid with no brain to mouth filter.]

I'd like to see you try. [There's a pause before he adds.] Actually, no, I wouldn't like that. And trust me, neither would you. There's a lot of cables and the core battery...actually, let's not talk about my entrails.

[He already died once in his world, he rather no have a repeat here.]

Define 'feedback crap'.

[unhappy]

He's really weird, not "a bit." I terrorize him and he's like "let me make you steak."

[ And like. Open up to him and then pretend she didn't. But this is part of that pretending. ]

I know what the inside of a robot looks like already, don't worry. Wouldn't be the first time I've seen one in pieces. She was cut up here, here, here... [ She just goes pointing out all the places Penny got chopped up into. Largely.. because of her. She seems like she's having fun trying to tease him about it though, and the attitude she has makes it seem like she's probably not telling the truth, even if she is. ]

If I touch someone I end up feeling their emotions for a little bit until I can get mine back in control. Feedback crap.

[k2so]

Cassian's food could be considered a biological weapon, I'd still be careful if I were you.

[Jokes aside, Kay store the knowledge about how Cassian behave around Em for further study once things calm down. It's interesting that Cassian behaves like that.

And is not terribly concerned about her graphic explanation, he's fought other droids plenty of time, droids that look exactly like himself. But he does make him curious.] Why was she destroyed?

[He cares more about the why than the who, to be honest.]

It an one-way transfer? or the other person also feels how you usually do?

[unhappy]

Weren't you the one arguing with me that it didn't suck before?

[ She may be leaving out some details of their interactions to make her own narrative about it. Oh well.

She almost looks a little disappointed that he's not upset. Oh well. ]

We arranged it so Beacon's star pupil and the peoples' hero garroted her with her own weapons in front of the world to cause a panic. Panic brings creatures of Grimm in my world. Between them, the White Fang, and Atlas's entire robotic army under our command, the city of Vale and Beacon Academy fell. Which is what we were trying to do.

[ And she's not going into her role beyond which side she was on. ]

I've avoided it more than once, but the other time it happened someone bumped into me and I basically could feel everything they did until I shook it out of my system. They didn't know anything even happened.

[k2so]

Yes...but that was different.

[He called dibs on insulting Cassian's cooking, regardless of any solid basis behind the complain. It's a joke between them. other people insulting Cassian's skills gets an earful.]

I don't know what you were trying to accomplish but all that sounds terrible. [He doesn't sounds very judgy, just pointing out a fact.] Droids have free will in your world?

[Feeling other people's emotions must be awful, Kay thinks. He can't barely deal with his own.]

I'm sorry you had to deal with that. On the bright side, now you know better.

[unhappy]

I'm still going to insult him pretty much no matter what.

[ Sorry Kay. It's fun. She's encroaching. ]

Terrible, horrific, mass casualties, screaming and terror. I've heard it before. [ Whatever you want to call it, K-2SO. ] Not really. This one was a specially made one that had a simulated aura, which is something that comes from a soul. I'm not sure how they did it or if it was all artificial or if they did something really screwed up like bound someone's soul to a robot. I didn't really read the file, Cinder did. Either way, nowhere near as messy as killing an actual person and way more effective since it set the precedent that Atlas was shifty. Which they were, it's not like we planted the robot there. They did that all on their own.

[ Look, Penny was probably something they shouldn't have been messing with. Atlas has been known to research things they really should not be. And Emerald definitely didn't make the world's leaders a bunch of liars who kept the truth from the world. All they did was set the board and peel the veil back a tiny bit and ask if that's the kind of leader the people want to trust. And then violence, but you know. ]

I know better than to touch people? I already knew that. Accidents happen, though.

[k2so]

Do your worst. He gives as bad as he gets, you won't be bored.

[Kay is sure not to tell them to stop, considering how bickering with Cassian is one of his favorite activities.]

Bound someone's soul....? What kind of technology could do that? [It makes no sense to him and it's rather upsetting. Kay might not be the most expressive droids but he still somehow manages to give Emerald a hard look. His voice is close to a sneer when he speaks again.] Right, she wasn't 'an actual person' by your standards. Of course she wasn't.

[Unfortunately, Kay doesn't know anything about Emerald world and the things he learns about it cause more questions to pop up rather than answers.]

I'm sure. We probably end having one too if we don't get moving. I don't trust the crystals around us.

[The crystals are too strange for his liking and they grew unexpectedly. Like the one that's close to Emerald's ankle.]

[unhappy]

I'd hate to be bored.

No idea. Apparently they were trying to do it with the girl Cinder killed after she stopped it from happening. They say we're the villains but I don't think either side's exactly heroic. [ She says "heroes" dryly whenever she says it. The "good guys" have so many issues too it's just honestly a matter of who wins to her. "Good" people are the ones who never helped her when she was barely surviving, just because she was a filthy street rat. Theft was the only way she could afford food. Gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat, tell you all about it when she's got the time. "Bad" people are the only ones who have ever offered to help her find a way to be more than that, so her idea of who's winning morally is a little skewed- part of why she hates pretty much everyone. Kay so far hasn't gotten on her bad side much, and Mercury and Cassian are pretty much the only ones here otherwise who she doesn't occasionally want to maim. ] I mean, she isn't. Droids in our world don't normally even talk, so anything she said was just in her programming, which is a bunch of electrowhatevers made by humans. [ Look she's not a scientist. ]

[ Alright though, he's right. She's going to move ahead of him and start cutting down anything that's low hanging enough that it might get caught on K2SO. ]

[k2so]

I hate that too. [And when Kay gets bored, he disobey orders, which is frankly very often during missions.]

No side is ever perfect. When you are aiming to win, you end doing some questionable things. [Surviving is surviving, Kay wouldn't judge for that. But now that he has his own personality, he has issues with people murdering others for power.] Hm. Okay, you know more about that than mew that for sure.

[He appreciates the gesture and will make sure she's safe too, looking out for inconvenient crystals r possible attacking ghosts.]