Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
Millium Argent      The Frontier

     The vast, unknown wilderness that pulls at the heartstrings of every Chaser worth their salt. And some not quite so. A lush, wild land reclaimed from man by nature over the long march of time, and it is here that those who chase the past journey in order to uncover the mysteries of the past.

     Deep in these lush, unexplored sea of trees, lies a lone mansion, hidden from the eyes of man for time long past. And one Chaser, by the name of Millium Argent, has discovered it. Staking her claim on the land as a ruin to be explored, she's prepared to run it all on her own, having set up a base camp right in the old, long overgrown courtyard of the mansion grounds.

     The gates are open and rusted, with moss and vines grown over them. And the mansion itself stands all, worn through the ages, yet maintaining its foundation nonetheless. Nothing has collapsed, nothing is in ruin. But clearly with the way nature has grown over it entirely, it hasn't seen use in a long, long time.

     And this time, Millium has decided to try something different. She brings a hand to her ear and speaks. "Hey hey! This is Millium Argent. Chaser of The Stars, and Paragon of Love and Peace~. I found an old ruin and I think I'm going to need some backup. Any takers? Coordinates are X, and X, at Tellus! Byebye~!" And her arm lowers, both crossing as she stares up at the premesis. "Hmmm..." She'll wait five minutes, then head on in.
Mordremoth     The strange *whutwhutwhut* noise that starts to sound from nearby resolves itself! Homing in on the coordinates is a helicopter! Sort of. It's not like a typical Earth-chopper, and instead looks ungainly and lumpy, with parts that appear scavenged from other craft and even vegetation. It works just fine though! It's also the arrival transport for several people, once it thuds to the ground. One advantage of its construction is it doesn't need much to land.
    Out of the chopper comes a woman. Ish. Her hair is up in two bob-tails, and is a bright red, and she wears sturdy leatherlike armor and has a large rifle swung over one shoulder. Her skin is also green. "Helloooo! Is this where the call for ruins is?" A closer look reveals her skin to be leaflike, and the hair is actually leaves bunched up into that position naturally.
Rebecca Chambers A mysterious mansion. Long abandoned, but most likely teeming with secrets. Just like in Raccoon City, right?

Well, Rebecca's hoping that's not the case. She's just hoping it's a random old mansion that's not hiding anything suspicious or anything like that. Especially since this is bringing back the memories of what she read in the reports Claire Redfield sent to her about some of her own adventures, including the residence of Alfred and Alexia Ashford in their private mansion on Rockfort Island. Creepy stuff.

Rebecca arrives in the area from seemingly out of nowhere, though in reality the warpgate she took was a bit off target and it took her a short run to get here. Once she arrives, she salutes and says, "Rebecca Chambers, reporting in. I'm here to assist in the investigation of this place."
Ashurel Cloudbank     What a radio transmission! It had been a long time since Ashurel's younger days as a dungeon diving academic mage, but they were ones she remembered wuite fondly! They had earned her noodly mage body both exercise and treasure during those younger times.

    It's fortunate for her (and her daily castsof spells) that she has a comrade within the Confederacy who was also coming out to this fine adventure. That meant she merely had to phone the third person she wished to attend with tonight and invite her along. That person shall be revealed in due time.

    Ashurel hops off the strange helicopter with a messenger bag over one shoulder and wearing some dark-colored robes as she looks around, "My. It certainly seems to be an appropriate place if it is!" She says to the red-headed woman who stepped off the helicopter, "I would presume we made it to the right locale."
Alexis Maaka     Not long after the message is sent, the Crimson Spectre, Maaka's personal ship, appears from orbit. Seems warp gates exist in SPACE. The vessel overs in the air a good few hundred feet, while her captain arrives by tele porter.

    Alexis Maaka, decked out in her STALKER armor, toting her trusty EM rifle.

    "Howdy." She calls, voice mildly filtered through a vocoder, and she throws a salute Millium's way. "What's the bounty we got going on today? Anything to know about this ruin before we get in?" Seems she's done this stuff before.
Lin It doesn't take too long for a certain young woman dressed in very eastern-style clothes to come barging through the trees. or rather... leaping, it seems. She's apparently quite capable of crossing great distances using fantastic horizontal leaps that send her sailing a good distance with each step...

    Karal Rei Lin lands at the campsite's outskirts, stretching her arms and legs the moment she's standing straight again. A hand drops to gently and casually grip the scabbard her weapon rests in, though she's clearly not of a mind to draw it. Just...

    ... uncertain of these surroundings. "Whew... almost thought there'd be nothing out here! But hey, old mansion... how's IT still standing in the middle of nowhere?!"

    This fact slightly worries her. She came out here for some adventure, with little idea of who's calling or what she was in for... but this is a bit too odd.

    So she focuses her spirit, sharpens her senses and listens carefully, trying to catch any sounds that might be from the mansion....
Kyra Hyral "Oh, we're here?" Kyra looks up from her seat in the helicopter only after Ashurel and the other red-haired girl has stepped out. She's till sitting there, but with her phone in her hand as she scrolls through her Wark feeds. "Whew, that ride went a lot faster than I was expecting!" She scrambles off the helicopter and joins the wizard and the green-skinned girl.

    Like the other redhead, she's also armed to the teeth, though she seems to trade solely in guns. "Oh that reminds me, Ashurel, I made a discovery. It seems that the chaotic warp energies from those hardcore space sorceror guys can trigger the condition. I've seen it happen twice now."

    Kyra pulls a hunting rifle from off her back and lets it settle in her hands, keeping the muzzle pointed at the ground.
Genji Shimada     The presence of Genji Shimada is not immediately apparent.

    Not until someone steps through the rusted gates into the abandoned mansion's courtyard. The first person to do so will be greeted by a sound from their right, a calm, laid-back voice offering a lazy, "Yo." There is a cyborg ninja, just leaning against the wall as if he belonged there.

    Or, well, he /was/ leaning. With the group proceeding, he'll shift away from the wall and follow along.
Millium Argent      People start arriving!

     Maybe Will was onto something, huh?

     Millium observes the chopper arriving and shields her face from the wind force of it all, and once it lands, she has a look over it. "Huuuuh...what a strange device. It doesn't look like it should fly, but somehow, it does! Wow!" And then someone comes out. Some sort of...plantlike person thing? Well, whatever, they were here to help, so Millium couldn't care less! She smiles and waves. "Hiiii! Yep! This is the right place!" She jerks a thumb back towards the old mansion. ...It's fairly unassuming, but the blonde girl knows not to underestimate ruins.

     And then comes Rebecca from through the trees. Another person! Millium looks her way and smiles. "Oh! Great! Welcome to the team then!" She salutes back and winks, much more comical about the whole thing than Rebecca is being.

     Millium leans aside a bit, spying Ashurel coming up from behind the approaching redhead, as well as Kyra after, and she waves again. "Oh hey! Didn't see you two there at first! You're in the right place!" But then something from the sky catches her attention. ...Is that a ship? Floating so high up? Did it come from...THE STARS!?

     As Alexis beams down, she immediately gets a face full of Millium all up in her grill looking all starry eyed. "Wow! Where'd you come from? Is that ship up there yours? Amazing! What's it like inside? Maybe- Oh. Oh whoops!" She catches herself and clears her throat, taking a good step back and coughing into her fist. "The ruin! Right, the ruin!" Stay on target, Millium.

     "We know absolutely nothing about this place. Nothing other than some old stories." The girl explains as she proceeds to lead the way up to the mansion's mossed over doors. At least before she spies a NINJA. She jumps in shock a bit. "WHOA! ...Uh! Hi! Here to help? Then...welcome!" She waves at Genji with a smile, and then proceeds onward. "They say that long ago, an old philosopher used to live in this region. They say that he knew all there was to know, and that he could answer any question." She stops in front of the door, reaching for the handle. "...But no one knew where he lived." A look left and right, and then Millium glances back and smiles. "But I've been scouring these forests for weeks, and I found this place. It was reaaaaaaally well hidden! I have a feeling it might be it, and I want to know what's inside!"

     That's basically it! Curiosity and chasing old stories!

     And then Karal bounds in from somewhere, and Millium starts. "Wha-! Oh, there's more people. Hi! Hello! Over here! We're going in, come on!" And then she turns the door handle. Click. It opens. "Huh, unlocked? Well okay." Creaaaaak. The door opens and the dark depts of the mansion are revealed... Along with an eerie clock tick that seems to echo through the inside, filtering out now that the door is open.

     Tick...tock...tick....tock....tick....tock....tick....tock.

     Nothing else appears to be apparent. The lobby contains multiple ways to go. There's a large spiral staircase leading to the upper floor, a back hallway that leads to a basement, and then west and eastern hallways that lead into other parts of the mansion...

     "Where to go...where to go... Should we split up? We've got enough people after all." Millium muses aloud, a hand to her chin.
Alexis Maaka     Maaka is about to request specifics, before she double takes. Genji appearing just like that is enough to take even HER by surprise.

    "Fuck, I can't even get that good with a cloak on!" She remarks, looking Genji up and down. Some sort of high tech battle suit, or at least heavy cybernetic armor, Maaka figures.

    As she heads into the house, the cyborg's EM rifle disappears in favor of a tactical pump action shotgun, with collapsing stock, micro-red dot, shell holder, and a smart-link device on the upper rail, just in front of the optic. "I got the back hallway." She says, immediately adopting a tactical stance with her shotgun raised. Her steps are steady in pace, and she goes down the hallway with mechanical, military precision.
Rebecca Chambers Rebecca narrows an eye at Millium's casual greeting, but brushes it off otherwise. "Thanks, I guess," She says with a slight smirk. She then draws her Beretta and loads a clip into it. The trusty S.T.A.R.S. issue model, which has carried her through many a mission and she never leaves home without it either. It's her signature weapon and a favorite when entering unknown territory. Of course even that can't keep her from jumping a little when Genji makes his surprise appearance.

Rebecca gasps a little while spinning in his direction with her Beretta drawn, before lowering it slightly. "Sorry," she says with a sigh. "Nothing personal, just can't take chances in places like this, you know." She rolls her neck around a little, feeling a bit on the embarrassed side as she makes her way into the house. Once she gets in there though, she pauses as she hears the sound of the ticking clock, and almost immediately, memories of the Arklay Mansion start flowing back into her.

At first, Rebecca seems a little awkward by this familiar thing, but then she tightens her grip on her Beretta and narrows her eyes a little, as if to say, 'I'm not scared of anything! Come on!' After that, she looks to Millium and nods a little. "This place seems rather large, and it might be easier if we spread out. That way we can cover more ground." A pause as Rebecca looks around, then she adds, "Maybe we should return after a period of time to regroup here? Or at least use this as our meeting place in case something happens?"
Genji Shimada     "I am," Genji confirms for Millium. "The call seemed interesting, and I'm trying to see the Multiverse." He falls in with the group smoothly, and listens to Millium's history curiously; at least, he /seems/ curious, to judge by the slight cant of his head and the way his body remains just barely angled in her direction while she walks. Interesting. "That kind of story is usually a little overblown... but at the same time, also usually not without /any/ truth. If this is the correct place, I expect you'll find something interesting, at least."

    He then turns his head to Maaka. There's no change in his faceplate's expression, but he sounds like he might be grinning. "It takes practice." Rebecca receives an added, "Don't worry. I'm used to it." It's all in good humor.

    As they step inside the dim manor, Genji looks around quietly. Even if the floorboards are particularly old, the planks under his feet don't so much as creak. On the other hand, the glow of his body's various lights stands out all the more for the lack of illumination. "I will take the back hallway as well," the shinobi declares, deploying a trio of shuriken to his hand and falling in behind Alexis. "Do you have low-light vision? If you do, I can switch off my lighting." If the basement is dark, going down there without light of their own would make them much less obvious targets.
William Pauwel     The William Pauwel Method for Ruin Exploration (patent pending) has yet to be proven wrong! Sure there was that one time with the horrifying, psychokinetic, parasitic coral monster from beyond the gate of nightmare and the human capacity for imagination, but that was just ONE TIME. And everyone got out alive. Maybe not exactly in one piece, mentally, but at least their bodies were okay!

Mostly. Will's wasn't. Will had to be given some serious medical attention, but he's fine now.

    SPEAKING OF WHICH, from the foyer just behind the mansion's gates, the TERRIBLY LOUD roar of a motorcycle engine is just barely audible. It stops right outside and immediately goes silent, but it, the broad-brimmed hat and the eager but kind of way-too-innocent grin that spreads beneath it can mean only ONE THING.

    WILLIAM PAUWEL HIMSELF HAS ARRIVED. He had to. It was a distinctly Will-like radio call. "Howdy Miss Millium! I hear y'all needed an explorer!" He says boldly into the dusty mansion interior. "Oh," he then says, upon seeing... everyone. "...Wow, I'm a bit late, huh? Sorry about that. The bike got stuck in uh... vines."

(He ran out of gas)

"So! I think I'll take the west wing. That seems like it'd be important. Who wants to join me?"
Mordremoth     Scarlet, the green woman, flashes a smile that looks far too human. The way her plant-body is built, it looks like a scar is running right up her cheek. "Why hello there~!" Scanning all the people that arrive - with her eyes! Not with a scanner or anything - she slings her rifle over one shoulder and adjusts the bulging satchel at her side.
    "Well now," she says lightly. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to find that ticking. Still-working machinery in a place this old? Sounds like something worth finding out about, hmm? I promise not to blow it up before you can get there." She spins around to Kyra and Ashurel. "Want to come with? It'll be fun~!"
    Without a care for the idea that MAYBE the stairs might be unsafe, Scarlet is already heading right for them.
Ashurel Cloudbank     Not knowing anyone at the event besides Kyra and now Scarlet, Ashurel will elect to shuffle behind Scarlet Briar and keep at her back with a thick tome in hand that she produces from her satchel. She smiles, "I shall come with you, Miss Briar. As they say, strength in numbers."

    As she walks along, she opens her tome towards the back portion of it, probably flipping about 700 pages in a book that looks like it should only have 100. As she reaches a blank page, she begins to hold her hand over it as Kyra talks to her, "Fascinating. So it can be catalyzed by equivalent energy and then trigger itself in response to analogous stimuli. Interesting. I will have to note this for future purposes."

    She postulates, "Perhaps that means that if you were to find a way to remotely spark it with chaotic energies, it could become more reliably deployable. Does the opposite work, and Order-centered magic suppress its chances of happening?"
Lin Tick tock, tick tock! Lin's forehead twitches in time with the tick-tocking until she rapidly shakes her head to clear her head. "Rrrgh... that noise..." In she strolls though... "An old philosopher who knew the answers to everything?! ... Can you even reach such enlightenment in a lifetime? Would they live in such a rich mansion?" Or maybe they'd be up on a mountain somewhere, seriously...

    Her viewpoint on such things is so culturally skewed.

    For now, Lin follows her ears! That faint tick-tocking is driving her batty...
Kyra Hyral "Alexis! Hey!" Kyra waves enthusiastically to Maaka. "Hey, great seeing you again!"

    At Scarlet's 'invitation', Kyra immdediately straightens, "Huh, yeah, of course. You guys were my ride in after all. I bet there's treasure somewhere in here too so yaeah, don't blow stuff up /yet/."

    Cheerfully, Kyra follows after Briar, gladly responding to Ashurel:

    "It can, it's a little worrisome when I'm around those types of people, actually. I tried to heal one and couldn't pull it off. But...to reliably deploy the Wild Magic..." she thinks back to the battle on Shiva where Phoenix was nearly summoned, how the energy had immediately made her magic malfunction. "That would be fantasti-you know, I don't really know. I can't say I have seen it /not/ happen around my friend, Landon. He is a Judge on our world and uses what I'd definitely classify as 'Order-centered magic' that centers around passing laws. In fact, I even affected him with a misfire of Wild Magic at one point."
Millium Argent      BACK HALLWAY

     Genji and Alexis take the back hallway. Turning out the lights seems like it might be a bad idea for anyone *normal*, but Genji and Alexis are anything but. The hall shortly leads into a stairwell that goes down into a basement. Down, down, down, and past a doorway that is halfway open, slide asid into the wall. Inside is pitch back, with nothing at all visible conventionally. But with night vision, they can see... a certainly odd sight. Alarming too perhaps. Up at the ceiling, hang countless featureless dolls, their arms spread as they dangle from threads. And shelves of books line the walls and the floor, creating aisles and aisles of long abandoned knowledge. The far back wall can't be seen due to the arrangement of shelves. ...But somewhere in there, through the sound of tick tocking, is a prolonged scraping sound, and a tak tak of footsteps taking it's time...

     EAST

     Millium and Rebecca head east! They stroll through the darkened hallways, illuminated with a blue glow from Millium's bracelets and anklets. And the girl looks left and right carefully as the two move along. They pass by many doors, some open, and some locked. The open ones appear to lead to random bedrooms, storage areas, and mini libraries that otherwise haven't seen use in forever. Nothing of note is in any of these places. But... By the time they reach the end of the hall, they come out into a wide open area...

     It's anauditorium with a stage at the far end, curtains drawn closed. "Whoa....what the heck?" Millium mumbles, peering into the place and shining a light in. Randomly seated all about are dolls, featureless and human shaped. Some are posed differently than others, but they all appear to be set up as spectators for an event... What that event is, who can even say?

     Suddenly, through the tick tocking echoeing through the mansion, there is a KCHAK, and every last doll seated in the audience turns their heads, looking at Millium and Rebecca with their smooth, blank heads.

     "...Uh oh."

     STAIRWAY

     Scarlet, Karal, and Ashurel head up the stairs, and indeed, the ticking sound subtly grows louder as they ascend. But still, it's hard to tell exactly WHERE it's coming from. Just that it's definitely above. Tick...tock....tick....tock.... The second floor features a walkway that extends around the perimeter of the mansion foundation, with guard rails, allowing for one to look down upon the lobby. And there are hallways leading east and west much like below. ...One would wonder where to go, but it seems like the question may be answered for them.

     Down the eastern hall on the second floor, a strange figure can be seen standing right out in the open, staring pointedly at them. "..............." It's very dark, so it's not easy to make out it's features. Shine some light, yo! But nonetheless, it doesn't move. Almost as if it's...standing guard? It's very tall though. About seven feet easily.

     Suddenly, the ticking grows to a faster pace right in time with the sighting of this figure.

     WEST

     WILL FLIES SOLO!?

     Down the western hallway, nothing seems to be amiss. Nothing...nothing in most of these rooms by strew doll pieces, books all over the place...and a creaking. A creaking of a rocking chair perhaps. Creak....creak....creak.... It's slow, but it's there, and it can easily be heard over the ticking echoing out all around. It's coming from one door in the center of the west hall, and inside...

     It's someone's room. A nice bed, though dusty, is seen. Along with a dresser, and a shelf of books that line the walls... And over at the other end, is a desk, with a rocking chair. Creak....creak....creak... Something is sitting there, back to Will, and hard to make out. Just...rocking.

     ...Strange. The figure doesn't even react to the presence of another.
Rebecca Chambers Rebecca heads down the eastern hallway along with Millium, activating her flashlight as she does so. She sweeps from side to side with her light-shining Beretta, as is standard procedure for her. Occasionally, she stops to peer inside an open doorway, thinking she's seeing something, but it's just a trick of the eye pretty much. Despite the sensation of uneasiness within her, Rebecca breathes in a level and quiet manner, gritting her teeth a little underneath her lips albeit. It's not until they reach the auditorium that things start to take a turn for the worst.

Upon first glance, she frowns a little, feeling like this is a bit out of place, until the strange noise sounds. And then...

Those dolls? Where did they come from? Why are they looking at her?

For a moment, Rebecca is frozen with terror, her jaw hanging open slightly. "I... I can't be seeing things..." She says. For a moment she considers retreating, but then she considers the possibility that maybe they won't see her and Millium if they remain still.

"Stay still and try not to move," Rebecca says as she takes a deep breath, albeit quietly, and holds it, trying not to move in the least bit.
Alexis Maaka     The lights are out, but thankfully Maaka has night vision. Her eyes glow green from within her helmet, and her visor adopts a tint designed to keep her eyes from being blinded by Genji's fancy glowing LEDs. "Have to wonder why you even have those." She mentions, before she covers the stairwell, going down slowly.

    She goes first, mostly since she DOES have the shotgun. "Goes down pretty far."

    Covering the door, she lets Genji take this one, entering after him just for the dolls to greet them. She doesn't make a noise, instead she just brings her finger to where her lips should be. Genji probably knows sneaky better than she does, admittedly.

    They're not alone down here, that much is clear.
Lin Karal Rei Lin flinches a bit upon noticing the figure way out here. She's instantly suspicious that this place is HAUNTED! She doesn't step any further down the hallway even as her heartrate SOARS. Instead...

    *PING!*

    A torch-bright golden-white aura of spiritual power, the exact color of the sunrise, flows from her skin!

    "Hail. Pardon us for trespassing if this is your home. It appeared abandoned in the wilderness." She's instantly doing her best to use a polite tone, though it's a strain to do so!
Genji Shimada     As the Cyborg Crew(tm) passes into the back hallway, every glowing green light on Genji's body flickers out. Now, along with the complete silence of his movement, he is utterly dark as well. His movements are fluid, silent and cautious; he keeps one hand behind his back at all times, on the grip of his shortblade, ready to draw, while the other keeps that trio of shuriken ready to fling past Maaka if need be. And he speaks not one word - this is the kind of place where you want to be able to hear anything and everything.

    And the basement is creepy enough he decides almost immediately that was the right choice. Even before he notices the soft scrape of footsteps. Maaka catches it too; through a brief radio exchange, he decides to scout ahead, so he slides around the other cyborg and moves into the basement. Silently. Cautiously. A few steps in, pressing up against a bookcase. Listening. If Maaka is still watching him at all, she'll see him pause for a moment to consider...

    ...then, whisper-silent, clamber up the bookcase and up to the tops of the shelves. Up there, he intends to make his way silently across the room, towards the scraping sound. Where possible, he only moves when the sound is actually happening.
William Pauwel     WILL FLIES SOLO. WILL IS A LOOSE CANNON ACE FLYBOY WITH A BAD ATTITUDE AND NOTHING TO PROVE. He's a hairtrigger sixshooter maverick on a wild horse riding off into a tequila sunrise!

But even he has to admit that... Well.

This is... kind of creepy.

    What kind of Ancient gets to be so obsessed with dolls that they fill their entire house full of them? Will shivers, it's probably just the temperature. Probably. It's also dark, so he's unlimbered his favorite sidearm to use as a torch. That's all. Really. He certainly isn't bothered about going adventuring in an unfamiliar place all alone. That weird creaking noise doesn't send a chill up his spine, no sir.

    He leans into the room, peeking his head around the corner with his gun held at the ready-- just to make sure he can see everything properly. What he finds is... a bedroom? It -used- to be a nice room, now empty, dusty, and probably moth-ridden-- But there's something in the rocking chair. Something in the creaking, squeaking, dusty old rocking chair. Something in this centuries-old mansion that's... still moving. "Um," Will asks, cunningly pulling a crowbar from the inside of his jacket. Will has many tools. "Excuse me, are you--" he reaches it over the rocker's frame and lightly nudges its tip against whatever's sitting inside.

CAUTIOUS, WILL. ALWAYS STAY CAUTIOUS.
Ashurel Cloudbank     "Well. There's a difference between proximity and exposure, for academic purposes. Chaotic energy is inherently prone to osmosis, meaning that proximity is equal to exposure. Because of the more regimented and specific nature of Order-based magical spells, directed targetting of the spell against you may be required." Ashurel conjectures, tilting her head as she makes some notes in her book about Kyra's condition and the discoveries that have already been made, "But it's helpful for future experiments. Ideally, we can help you get control of it and I will learn a new ability."

    "Ah, it seems we're beginning." Ashurel's fingertip glows with energy, "Divination on~." Her eyes light up, going from dark blue to a vibrant sky blue as all of her vision powers kick on. Magical aura, divination, scrying, low/no light vision, ability to see without being obstructed by dust and dirt. Her suite of spells, so to speak, all activate at once.

    "Miss Briar, it would seem we may have a hostile party up here."
Kyra Hyral "Interesting. So you suggest that Landon use one of his law magics on me for testing? I wonder if I can persuade him to do that. He's been...very hard to get ahold of lately though." A brief look of consternation is on her face. "You might need to seek a different source for order magic. What do you mean learn a new ability? You actually want to...use Wild Magic like I do?"

    Following along, she squints into the darkness, spying that figure, tensing. The increasing ticking makes her shudder, wondering if there might be a /bomb/ afoot. "It isn't moving..." she mutters, "Maybe it's a statue." She takes out her phone and holds it up, calmly switching to the flashlight app. She doesn't have darkvision, after all.
Mordremoth     Hostile party. "Hm, I like parties, I can't say any of them have been ~hostile~ for me!" Scarlet replies, half-listening to the earlier conversation. "You know, I study ley lines and magical power sources. If you ever want to see what happens when you shove some power into an asuran battery, just look me up!"
    She does not idle while she says this! The sylvari is readying her rifle, checking the magazine, and without even asking anything of the strange form, she fires a shot! It may not be immediate to see, but her shot is wide, intentionally made to pass close enough to startle the target... if they are human.
    "Who goes there?" Oh, there is the question!
Millium Argent      EAST

     Dolls. Dolls all in the audience staring at Millium and Rebecca. A bead of sweat rolls down the girl's face as she freezes still. "...Creeeeeeeeepy....." She mumbles aside to her company, eyes kept ahead. But then she decides to hold her breath and stay completely still. The blonde takes deep, quiet breath, and holds it.

     .........

     ......

     ...

     The dolls in the audience turn their heads away from the two, and back to the closed stage curtains. At this point, Millium looks like she's about to start turning blue...

     Her cheeks are puffed up. She's...she's not going to make it- "-PHWAH!" She bursts out, heaving for air, a hand to her chest.

     KCHAK!

     Suddenly, all of the dolls in the audience are AGAIN staring at the two, and this time, the closed curtains on the stage shift, and then flutter open, revealing the stage set. It looks like an ancient forest, is the backdrop, and in the center... is some kind of huge doll-like robot. Wearing a metal plated sort of 'dress' with countless turrets attached to it from all angles in rows, it stands there... And slowly, the thing turns around, facing Millium and Rebecca.

     It has some kind of fragmented metal face, with two eye sockets that light up green. "............." All of the turrets on it's dress point towards them.

     And a stream of green lasers are shot right at the two of them. Curving and weaving through space to find them.

     ".....GET DOWN!" Millium says, pushing Rebecca down with a hand before following, hiding behind auditorium seats as lasers strike the walls and light the place up. Well crap.
Millium Argent      BASEMENT

     Alexis stands guard while Genji moves on ahead to scout. Good plan. He gets up on top of the shelves and moves silently, crossing the room and approaching that slow, slow dragging scraping. What in the world could it be? The sound gets louder and louder the closer he gets, and then once he crosses the next shelf a look down will reveal...

     A thing.

     It's almost doll-like, but also clearly a robot. Standing at about seven feet, it stalks through the aisles, dragging an overlong, glowing blade across the floor behind it....

     But then it pauses.

     It's eyes light up red, and it seems to flicker, looking left, right, down, ....up.

     Following that, ALL of the dolls hanging on the ceiling start to jerk and jank, limb chittering and creating a creepy cacophony of sound.

     Then there is a whir as something glowing red cleaves upwards through the shelf that Genji was atop of, slicing it clean in half and sending books and paper flying every which way in an attempt to dispatch the intruder.

     Have fun with that, Gray Fo- I mean, Genji.

     STAIRWAY

     Up on the second floor...

     "......"

     Silence is the only answer Karal gets for her greeting the dark figure. The illumination provided reveals that tis is some kind of android, or cyborg. Much like the others, with a doll jointed theme, and a weathered look. It's got no weapons on its person. But evidently, it doesn't need them...

     With the shot fired by Scarlet passed by it, there no no reaction. Not initially. No panic or startling. Instead, it raises both palms, and a crackle of golden electricity starts up along it's form... and then FLASH! Twin beams of plasma are fired right at the quartet of Scarlet, Ashurel, Karal, and Kyra.

     You are not allowed to be here.

     WEST

     Will is cautious.

     Good. Cautiousness prevents death.

     He approaches the rocking figure and pokes it wit the crowbar. It doesn't budge. It's actually...pretty heavy? It's not going to be easy to get it out of that chair. But...

     The rocking stops.

     And the figure seated, now revealed to be wearing some kind of ratty old robe, turns it's head to reveal...

     A thing. A doll. A robot. But this 'robot' has a beard, and the closest approximation of a human face one could figure from these things. And what passes for wrinkled skin in some parts. There's a beep blip boop beep as it processes the sight of Will, as if determining what to do with this.

     And then with a CLACK, it's mouth opens, revealing a mote of azure energy growing within. ...Growing...growing....growing... FWAM! A single beam is spewed out from the robot doll's mouth, point blank at Will.

     SO ABOUT THIS MANSION.
Rebecca Chambers For a moment, Rebecca feels like things are going to be OK. They're both standing completely still, not breathing, and eventually the dolls turn their focus back to the stage. Rebecca slowly breathes out and wipes her forehead, feeling a bead of sweat on her brow going away as she does so. But then Millium exhales too fast and then the dolls look at them again, and then up on the stage.

"Oh hell no!"

There's some strange robot on the stage, and it definitely doesn't look friendly. Before Rebecca can even aim her Beretta, she finds herself being pushed to the ground by Millium. The two of them are covered by the seats, but Rebecca has a feeling they aren't going to serve as shields for long. "Dammit, now what do we do?" She says.

Apparently Millium wants to try to shut down the robot. Rebecca thinks it's a crazy idea, but she goes with it anyway, figuring anything's worth a try in an extreme situation. "U-understood..." She says, trailing off a little as she realizes that this might be suicide in itself, but between those dolls and the robot, Rebecca figures she'll take any port in a storm to deal with this. She crawls on her hands and knees, trying to avoid showing herself from behind the seats as she moves towards the stage while trying to avoid the aisles.
Genji Shimada     At just barely a whisper, Genji begins speaking into his helmet's comm device, quietly passing intel to Maaka. "Contact. Approximately two meters... robotic. Looks like a doll-" And then his voice stops. It looks around. The cyborg retreats just a touch- and then the blade of seeming energy explodes upwards through his shelf. A flurry of paper, wood and whatever binding the books are made of fills the air... but no pieces of advanced cyborg alloy, no sparks, and no blood. Genji Shimada is already gone.

    The ninja's voice speaks up over local comms. "Hit the dolls. As many as you can. It may be using them to see. If you get a clean shot at the hostile, take it."

    Down from the shelftops, he drops in among the shelves instead. Darting swiftly, lights still off. A book suddenly leaps off the shelf to hit the robot in the head, smacked from the other end. But if it tries to retaliate, he's already gone. It's a cruel, hit-and-run tactic of distraction... until he stops at the opposite end of the row and unleashes a torrent of shuriken, three at a time, several quick bursts in succession. Then he's off running again.
Alexis Maaka     Well, now they know who the mysterious creaking person is.

    Maaka hides a gasp when she sees the doll esque figure, before she kicks the door down like a good spec-ops. "I see it, and the dolls." She comments over communications. Thankfully her helmet makes all noises the cyborg might cause completely silent from the outside, which means Genji hears everything, but nothing else does.

    She takes aim with her shotgun, sighting down one of the dolls to fire 3" shell after shell of double-aught buck, intent on destroying each doll one by one as she goes from doll to doll.
Mordremoth     Oooh, it IS a clockwork person! Thus the ticking! Plasma splashes across the... force field that Scarlet uses, a brilliant greenish-blue light coming to life to make the searing heat just crisp her a little instead of leaving a neat hole. The sound of burning plant matter sizzles through the air, and the scent begins to flood the stairwell. Unfortunately Scarlet is 'green' wood, and so she's also starting to smoke a lot.
    "Might want to stay behind me, dear girls," she suggests. A healer and a mage? She has to be the tank here! Instead of shooting again with her rifle, she tosses out a large cylinder from her bag, and starts to sing a little song while she chambers some different rounds.
    The cylinder pops out legs, stabilizes, and a portable turret begins popping off shots at the android. The idea of retreating will need to be broached to her!
William Pauwel Caution saves lives. This is pretty much rule number three if you're a Chaser. The first is 'don't be a dumbass' and the second is 'if it's big, shiny and glows, duck.'

    Rule Two just so happens to be the thing that saves Will's head. Quite literally, in fact. The Chaser sees that little pinprick of light, so similar to the glow within his own weapon, that he knows by instinct that getting out of the way is a good idea. When beardbot fires, its blast goes utterly wide and burns a hole in the corridor behind him.

    "Ain't gonna get me that easy," Will quips, his own handgun glowing like a tiny newborn star. Three shots discharge, erupting from the Solano's barrel in fist-size spheres, each one aimed at one of the robot's limbs! Its legs first, then one of its arms!

Looks like Will's trying to immobilize it for some TERRIBLE, NEFARIOUS PURPOSE.
Lin "What in--" The PERSON is the source of the ticking?! Lin was about to scowl at Scarlet's audacity and rudeness, but then this... turns out to be a THING, not a person. A very hostile thing. And not a ghost.

    "YEEEEEAAAAAK!!" She would probably, oddly enough, be LESS freaked out if it was a ghost. She has NO idea how to deal with this thing spitting bright light at her!

    But her answer is to gather power into her hands and form it into a blade. A burning, slightly-curved sword formed of pure Solar Essence blazes in her grasp, catching the plasma bolt. The sheer FORCE behind it still forces Lin to go skidding back down the hallway though, as she struggles to control the deflection!
Ashurel Cloudbank     "Well. I am sure we can dig up some source of appropriate magic in the future, if your friend is unavailable to help you. Though I truly do wonder," Ashurel ponders vaguely, "If he is unavailable to help in something which could substantially improve your quality of life, perhaps he is not truly a friend. Not to insult your associate, it is simply my belief that a friend would be available regardless." She ponders before answering the second part.

    "Not so much learn Wild Magic, but the result of all my research is the betterment of magical knowledge as a whole and its practical application. I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression about my intent. I believe your ability, if controlled, could potentially provide a substantial advancement in metamagical research. Controlling entropy is an unresearched fiel-"

    "Miss Briar, I would absolutely adore conducting magical research with you at some point. We must discu- AH!"

    A plasma shot comes in towards the group, "RESIST ENERGY! QUICKENED!" She flashes her hand up in front of herself, shrouding her form in a dim blue light. The plasma blast slams into the somewhat frail-seeming mage and sends her toppling back where she hits a wall and slumps over. The worst burns plasma could do were spared by her spell, but she still took a nasty hit.

    "Owowowowow... ouchies." She sits up again, "Miss Briar, I believe we should handle this being now and figure out what it is later. She stands up and rubs her back a bit before opening her tome with a swipe of her hand and levelling her gaze, "Clockwork, huh?"

    "Iron golems are empowered by lightning, so I can't use that. How about this little trick I learned from a warlock, then." She swipes her hand and it ignites into flames. There's a twirl of her hand and a flick of her wrist as she casts a spell.

    Fireball
        Insert Metamagic: Arcane Mixture (Fire/Force)
            Insert Metamagic: Empowered
                Insert Metamagic: Maximized
Final Spell: Arcane Mixtured Maximized Empowered Fireball

    A roaring ball of fire erupts from her palm and flies down the hall, trying to impact the creature square in the chest and explode in a huge blast of force and fire that consumes it.
Kyra Hyral Ashurel brings up the topic of Landon and her..alleged friendship. She frowns, "W..well, he's the Prince of Ramuh. He's probably busy with political stuff. I know that's why he hasn't been around." Still, the look on her face suggests that Kyra's really wondering about that now-has she been abandoned? Even associating with her was a political risk for him. "Ah! Right! Metamagic. Yes, there could potentially be a lot to learn about the craft should we unravel it's mechanism."

    "Ohh, an /android/." Kyra starts to say before it suddenly goes into KILL MODE. Her reaction is immediate-she gets behind Scarlet with swift movements that betray several hours of practicing party formations at her school. She's the healer, she knows to get in the back behind the lovely tank. The forcefield of Scarlet nicely absorbs or deflects what might have hit Kyra.

    "Oh, you don't have to tell me twice!" she says, making a motion with her hands, "Heal! The scar of the glowing SUN!" she announces, not using white magic, but her white sorcery. The benefit of this, of course, is that rather than being strict healing, it's actually a sort of time spell that simply /reverses/ the damage done to both Scarlet and her force field.

    "Go on, knock 'em dead!"

    Kyra's not at all encouraging a retreat, it seems, and has full confidence that this group of four can take the sentinel.
Millium Argent      EAST

     Rebecca moves. And Millium stays behind to do a CRAZY THING. Keep the laser spewing operabot's attention on her. "Hooooooh boy. Okay... SERAPH Boost Mode!" A rush of wind follows as Millium's bracelets and anklets flare to life with a blue glow, and a forming of multiple wing fragments. She rises slightly into the air, and then immediately veers left to avoid a barrage of lasers, then flies up and right, drawing all of the fire that's chasing after her tail now. "Ahhhhh!" She screams in equal parts exhilaration and terror. Just one minor slipup and she's going to get blown up!

     But it was doing the job of keeping attention off of Rebecca who is free to crawl her way around and then around the side of the auditorium to the stage. With all the dolls watching Millium, none look at her, and she can reach the stage stairs without a problem, entering backstage and then coming out to one of the side openings to the main stage. She's close now. She can see the laser operabot making theatric motions while firing all manner of lasers from her skirt at Millium in the back...

     ...What now?

     BASEMENT

     Genji correctly assumes that the dolls hanging above are being used as surveillance. Because even as he escapes, the cleaver carrying doll down below does not stop. It stalks over the wreckage to give chase. ...Well, a slow chase, but chase nonetheless.

     But then Genji is gone. ...Where? Where did the cyborg ninja go? THUNK! A book bounces off of it's head and in response, it swings it's glowing cleaver, slicing through a number of shelves... But the ninja is gone again.

     This time, it seems to turn its head left and right, as if it's having trouble seeing... It's sight is slowly deteriorating with the destruction of the dolls above. Suddenly there a number of shuriken flying through the air and impacting with the mechanical entity in the back, causing sparks to start up. Its body crackles and it swings around, cleaving through the air uselessly, considering how far away Genji was.

     It needs to stop the destruction of it's watchers. There's a pause as a silent command is issued, and then every last one of those hanging dolls chitters as their bodies shift and open up, revealing motes of red light within their bellies...

     FWEEM! Countless laser bursts are fired downward, mostly aimed at Alexis, but also raining down into the basement library in general, threatening Genji as well.

     STAIRWAY

     It's a shootout now. Between a turret cylinder, an android sentinel, and a mage. The sentinel is struck with shot after shot, and doesn't seem to want to go down despite the damage clearly being done to it. In fact, its body crackles anew with golden energy, and palms are raised to aim again. But this time...only one palm is aimed forward. The other is directly slightly aside as it takes slow, halting steps forward.

     FWOOSH! Golden beams are fired, one towards Scarlet's turret, and the other is fired with slightly different properties towards.. a wall. But it doesn't stop there, it *bounces* off the wall and ricochets through the hall, veering left right up down as it soars through space in a zigzag, aiming to pass by Scarlet and head right for Ashurel and Kyra. Karal is spared only due to still contending with the last blast, which is dissipating in the struggle against her energy sword... It's going to lose. Which is why it suddenly FLASHES and small energy pellets disperse in a minor explosion, as if that would actually damage anything.
Millium Argent      WEST

     Will ducks.

     He narrowly avoids becoming the headless horseman of Gale. A shame- I mean, what?

     The shot misses and impacts into the corridor behind, with a smoking dent in the wall. And then Will counters. Three shots aimed to the limbs after than to the head or chest. Curious. Trying to immobilize the thing is he?

     Well, the beardbot doesn't seem to think anything of it. If it thinks at all. And as it's stuck in that rocking chair, it's actually *insultingly* easy to shoot it's limbs off. Blam, each leg is struck, and flies off to the floor somewhere, followed by an arm!

     The bot blips and bleeps, and then... nothing.

     Beep....beep....beep...beep....beep....

     What's that beeping sound coming from, and why is this machine just staring at Will silently now.

     Beep beep beep beepbeepbeepbeep!

     Shit.
Rebecca Chambers As a famous singer said, you're never gonna survive unless you get a little crazy. And that's advice which Millium seems to be taking quite literally here and now. But Rebecca's in no position to be questioning that right now. Instead, she takes advantage of the distraction to make her way to the stairs to the stage and then into the backstage area. From there, Rebecca prepares to make her way onto the actual stage with her Beretta still drawn, until she reaches the robot.

She pauses and then holsters her Beretta as she realizes that would most likely be a pea shooter against this thing. Instead, she attempts to look at the robot directly, looking to see if there's some kind of an emergency shut off or some way of disabling it. If all else fails, there's her stun baton which could possible short circuit the robot. But what's to say there's something else she's not seeing that might complicate things?
Genji Shimada     In a cluttered, dark environment like this? With his opponent causing destruction and scattering debris? Even with the watchers overhead, Genji is in his element. The darkness doesn't bother him. Even the pinpoints of red light just add a lot more illumination for his low-light pickups to work with. He darts and dodges, but-

    Lasers. Lasers everywhere. Most of them aren't focused on him, but there's enough that he's still in danger, and when they're aimed in a 'general scatter' rather than specifically at him, it becomes much more difficult to gauge their angle and lead their aim. A few lasers clip his body, scorching his side, a thigh, and a shoulder, before he's finally able to come around with his ninja-to. It whips back and forth with impossible speed, not just blocking the rest, but /reflecting/ them - sending the remaining red lasers back up into the dolls. But that's inefficient. Eventually they'll stop, or the robot will reach him. So there's one option left. Quickly, Genji ducks behind a shelf for just a moment, and sheathes his short blade.

    And as he reaches over his shoulder, every light on his cyborg body switches on at once.

                         "RYUUJIN NO KEN WO KURAE!!"                          

    Jade green light bathes the basement. A brilliant dragon of emerald light flares into being as Genji draws his Dragonblade, whirling and spiralling around the shinobi. A beast composed of his own spiritual power, surging through the scion of the Shimada and his blade alike. He goes from his current hiding spot straight up to the top of the stacks again, and begins slashing. And slashing. And /slashing/. Outright running across the top of the stacks, swinging the blade over and over as fast as he's capable. Empowered as it is, the Dragonblade's cutting surface is much longer than the blade itself - and the blade is already quite long. It's the fastest way he can think of to carve apart every single doll.
Ashurel Cloudbank     Resist Energy was the correct iteration of this spell to cast, instead of simply casting Protection from Energy. This is evidenced by the second attack of the night striking the wizard. It impacts her robes with a surprisingly odd shower of sparks and energy that were obscured when the blast of plasma struck her originally.

    The attack makes her go staggering from the unexpected angle, and though the energy resistance spell helps, she still takes yet a second nasty hit that sends her to her knees, "Owwwwww. Now I remembered why I stopped dungeoneering after the Academy and pursued the scholarly arts." She whines.

    "Staying behind you didn't help much," She remarks to Scarlet, dusting her robes off and picking up her book again with a scowl on her face. Luckily, Karal seems to have the matter of finishing off the enemy well in hand a few moments later, "I suppose martial specialists still have their uses." She begrudgingly notes, trying to remind herself that Martial Classes have a place in the campaign past level 10.

    "Miss Hyral, if it does not trouble you, I could use a bit of your healing as well."
Alexis Maaka     Maaka and Genji work out a plan over comms. She gets a bad feeling she's about to find out what he means by 'Sudden surge in light', and then she sees a dragon wreck the dolls all around. But there's no time to get distracted.

    KA-CHUNK

    Maaka chambers another round into her shotgun, before she begins to chase after the robot itself. She fires a shell right at the cleaver toting robot, aiming center mass. "OVer here, gruesome!" She taunts, racking the pump as she fires once more, this time at the head.

    Genji's nimble deflections beforehand should've been enough to keep her safe from the lasers, but she does feel the odd burning sensation even through armor plating. It's time to kill this thing right here and now.
William Pauwel     HAHAHA! A farewell to arms! A FAREWELL TO LEGS, TOO. If this thing wasn't apparently bound to a rocking chair, Will would almost feel good about this whole situation. Also, if it weren't... beeping.

Beeping.

shit, no, only one thing happens when robots beep like that.

    "Uhhhh--" Will flies into ENGINEER MODE at the drop of a hat. His hand flies to the side of his face, and not because he's shocked and surprised and about to be blown up! He's only one of those! No! It goes there to key his visor into HANDY-DANDY SCAN MODE. Unfortunately, that only tells him where the explosive device is located-- a hollow right in the middle of the beardbot's underbelly! It does not tell him how to disarm it.

"Uh." Beep beep beep. "Red wire, blue wire, red wire--" BEEPBEEPBEEPBEE-! "AW TO HECK WITH IT."

"BOTH."

And then Will shoots it, right in the self destruct device, with a plasma gun.

Either he's melted the dangerous explody thing into a lump of useless slag, orrrr exploded everything. Hopefully the former, because the Solano's bullets really are quite hot!
Kyra Hyral Just as Kyra finishes off her healing spell on Scarlet, she finds herself surprised to be getting hit with a golden beam of plasma. It /hurts/, drawing a yelp of pain from the white mage, plus an indignant look that her usual human shield tactics weren't working anymore. "Ugh! That's just-" for now, however, she ignores her own sizzling wounds and complying with Ashurel's request.

    Except this time, she switches magic systems completely, returning to her native Galiandan white magic. Green glows encircle her fingers as she gestures in the air towards the wizard. Unlike last spell, she doesn't vocalize as loudly-in fact, Ashurel will be hard pressed to hear her at all unless she got right up next to that white mage.

    A soothing, correctly-functioning healing spell wraps around Ashurel seconds later.
Mordremoth     "Hmm, now that's an interesting way of handling it..." Scarlet remarks as the healing washes over her. Does she mean the bouncing shot, or the time reverse heal? Maybe both, because it should be getting obvious that Scarlet is... not all there in the head, is she?
    Her turret explodes far too easily, but it was just meant as a delay and distraction. That loss doesn't bother her. "Oh, how convenient." THAT was definitely the healing though. "Flashlight, why don't you walk closer so you can hit it with your sword?" To Karal Rei Lin.
    Scarlet might have been in pain, but worried? No. Because- mostly because she isn't entirely sane. But also because she is up against a dolljointed robot. Guess what Scarlet is infamous for designing? Dolljointed robots. She's loaded explosive rounds into her rifle while the turret was busy, and draws a bead on where she's guessing the motor control for the lower half of the body is, to take a single, well-aimed shot.
    "I wouldn't mind taking apart the head~"
Lin "I have a name and it's NOT FLASHLIGHT!" Karal Rei Lin growls, putting plenty of strength in her arms as she finally deflects the blast and shreds it - she's pelted by little globs of energy that just sizzle against her outfit and flesh, but ignores the bits of pain the latter causes.

    Instead of flinching she steps forward into a sword-drawing stance, though there's no possibility of sheathing the glowing weapon - the Glorious Solar Saber doesn't come with a scabbard!

    Her gaze briefly flicks to Kyra, taking note of her healing abilities. GOOD. With someone like her around, Lin can afford to get a little wilder than usual!

    "It is KARAL-" WHOOOOOOOSH! With a half-step she's OFF, moving with freakish godspeed across the hallways. A crescent of golden light carves a path across the bot as she blitzes past! "REI--!"

    The martial artist skids to a halt and rotates her body around into a mirror of her previous stance, striking her blade down as if casting any yuck it accumulated off. "LIN!"

    How true did her blow land?
Millium Argent      EAST

     There's no telling what this huge thing is empowered by. Electricity? Some kind of energy cell? But there IS a curious thing to be seen at the back. There is an orb of glowing green fit into the back, with a bit of armor casing covering it for protectiong. And thankfully it has NOT noticed Rebecca sneaking up behind it. Nor have any of the dolls in the audience actually looked at the stage, so nothing has noticed her.

     She has a free and open moment to decide her course of action. Shoot the shell casing? Zap it with the stun baton? Try and pry it open? It's all up to Rebecca now. But she'd better decide soon, because...

     "Oh god, oh god oh god oh god!" Millium mantras aloud, swerving through the air, landing to the floor and then switching to Barrier Mode, creating a wall of blue that blocked several lasers and then sent her careening into a wall with a rough impact. But she immediately pushed off and rolled aside before another barrage could have smoked her. "REBECCA DO SOMETHING!" She yells, resuming frantic flight.

     BASEMENT

     Genji and Alexis realize that they were mismatched, and switch dance partners. This turns out to be just what the doctor ordered. With Genji's Dragonblade, the dolls don't stand a chance, and are cleaved wave after wave, rapidly reducing the cleaver bot's sights, which is perfect for Alexis who goes right in with the shotgun and gets right to work. BLAM! Bullets impact it's chest and it stumbles, turning Alexis' way. With body crackling and blade glowing red, it stomps towards her, and then starts running, ready to cleave right into her!

     But then it's shot in the head.

     The ballistic impact punches its head clean off with a rough break, leaving a sparking neck stump as the rest of the body falls forward, and collapses into a metal heap. Thwam. Down it goes.

     Any remaining laser ceiling dolls are swept by Genji, leaving the basement library a silent mess in the aftermath...

     But the battle did expose the far wall of the space, previously obscured by shelves. And there, they can see some kind of ornate mechanical door. ...But there's no key panel, no slots, nothing at all. It's just there, and very, *very* sturdy.

     Something must open it, but it's not in this room evidently.

     WEST

     It's going to be a farewell to everything else too if Will doesn't do something soon!

     He powers on his visor and examines the beeping bot, counting down to the end of the Chaser and his meddling friends too.

     Is it the red wire? Is it the blue wire? It's a tense mind game. Which is it? Make the wrong choice and everything is going to go up in smoke. But... But....BUT... Will sweats. Which is it? Which wire does he have to cut? ...He has to make a choice soon!

     Beep beepbepbeepbeepbepbepbpbpepep!

     BOTH! BLAM. Will fires a shot from Solano right into the heart of the matter, and...!

     There's no explosion. Just a pathetic sort of powering down as the bearded robot loses energy, and it's light, going stock still.

     Well. Congrats, Will. You managed to avoid drowning. Now what?

     STAIRWAY

     The four are working together now. The mage types are struck, but Kyra provides healing. Good, this means that the attackers can focus on going all out without getting disarmed. Or dislegged. Or disheaded. ...What?

     Scarlet loads an explosive round in the time the turret was destroyed and then fires that explosive round right off at the head of the plasma firing machine. BLAM! It doesn't even try to dodge, and it loses it's head just right that, leaving the body, scorched and nicked, standing there sparking.

     But it *continues* it's forward march, palms charging up again.

     But then Karal strides past, letting loose a furious golden slash that cleaves right into the thing.

     Silence.

     Nothing happens at first. And then... the upper half of the torso slowly slides aside, falling to the ground with a heavy thunk. The bottom half remains standing uselessly, nothing powering it.
Millium Argent      STAIRWAY

     The job is done.

     But that tick tock tick tock is still going.

     ...Deeper in. There's a door being guarded. Or well, was. The Sentinel is nonfunctional now.
Alexis Maaka     "Tango down." Maaka says calmly, after a pregnant pause. She pumps her shotgun one last time, letting the empty weapon exhaust its final shell before she immediately goes to reload the weapon with fresh ammo. "Fuck me, that was intense. You okay, Mate?" She asks Genji, brushing pages and debris off of herself calmly. As things settle down, she gives the ninja cyborg a friendly fist-dap, if he's familiar with such a motion.

    She clicks her shotgun to a panel on her back plating, letting the weapon hang comfortably and solidly there as she approaches what looks like a door, using inhuman strength to shove aside debris calmly. "Gotta be some way to get this door open. Certainly ain't flimsy, blowing it open would just take the whole mansion down on top of us." She comments, frowning behind her helmet's death mask. "Nothing we can do here on our own, unless someone else figured out the workings of this place."
Rebecca Chambers Sometimes, you have to think on your feet and go with your gut instinct. Rebecca decides to take a risk and use her stun baton on that strange robot. Namely by getting out her baton, charging it up quickly, and then attempting to thrust it into the robot's orb. She's hoping she can maybe overload it with electricity and shut it down. At the same time, she looks away, not wanting to risk being blinded by a possible flashing light that could blind her from such a huge electrical overload.
Genji Shimada     Dash and strike. Slash and run. Genji is a flurry of rolling, whirling spirit dragon and fierce blade strikes, right up until the last doll splits apart before the Dragonblade. Then he stops, leaps down from the stacks, and with a flourish returns the sword back to its sheath. The dragon dissipates with a fading roar, and the cylinders on his shoulders pop out to release steam with a hisssss. "I am fine," he calls over his shoulder, before turning to meet the fist-bump.

    With all of those dolls and the robot destroyed, he leaves his body lighting on for the moment, and moves to inspect the door. Just a moment's examination is enough to tell him that brute force isn't going to open this. Not even his Dragonblade would be able, not that it's an option at the moment. "Whatever's behind this door, someone seriously didn't want it taken."
William Pauwel     There's a sound that's halfway between a whirr and a whimper as the robot loses power. Will is... STILL IN ONE PIECE. And so is everything else. Forcibly deactivating a robot is a small price to pay for Not Dying. Will breathes long through his teeth as the robot smolders in its rocking chair.

Well. That's done.

...

TIME TO LOOT.

    Will systematically begins picking through the room for GLORIOUS TREASURE. Maybe he'll find something in the mattress, or under the bed, or in the dresser, or HIDDEN IN THE ROBOT'S BEARD and/or pockets. Maybe the books are important, or maybe, like in many RPGs, they're just sort of... there.
Millium Argent      EAST

     Rebecca activates her stun baton and then jams it into the energy core of the laser spewing operabot. And the voltages pours into the core, surging up and then creating a blinding flash that causes the machine to freeze and jerk erratically. A violent outpouring blips and beeps follow, and then... the core cracks in several places, and the thing slumps forward a bit, still standing, but with a broken power source.

     Millium lands in the middle aisle and promply falls to her knees, panting and wheezing. "Oh wow...we did it...! We did it!" She cheers, looking at a staring doll next to her. ...It doesn't move. Actually, those all seem to have powered down as well. Oops.

     There's nothing else here though. ...Was this auditorium really just a deadly dead end for anyone silly enough to wander in? ....Well.

     Millium stands and then approaches the stage, and the powered down robot. "...Mmmmn, the guild can probably repurpose this one..." But otherwise, the two seem to be done here.
Ashurel Cloudbank     "Bah. Golems..." Ashurel remarks, standing up and dusting herself off, "I swear, if they weren't such a hassle, I'd use them myself. But the materials cost is heinous and they really just aren't worth the time."

    She lets out a tired sigh as Kyra heals her, turning her face into a smile directed at the white mage, "Thank you ever so much. I appreciate it. Be sure to make sure you get healed as well." She points out, snapping her book shut a moment later.

    Ashurel looks around a bit, "Well. That wasn't quite as efficient as my old team would have done things, but still, it got the job done right away." She gets a distant look in her eyes as she seems to recall a 20th level Fighter killing 47 men with a toothpick because the -4 from an improvised weapon wasn't enough to penalize his BAB.

    The haunted look vanishes after a few moments as she hears people asking about door opening specialists, "Okay! I'm gonna try my most basic trick, which is Knock. If that doesn't work, I have a couple ten thousand Gold Piece diamonds, and we can just Wish it open."

    She runs her hand against the cover of her book again and then heads over to that closed door, stepping over the body of the automaton, "Nice work, Miss Rei Lin!" She compliments. She'd pat Karal on the shoulder, but with the spell Ashurel has queued up, it would immediately cast and then unhook Karal's armor and probably bra to boot.

    Which is why she slams her hand palm-first on the door to try to open it, "Open the barred way! Knock!"
Millium Argent      STAIRCASE

     Ashurel beckons the previously guarded door to open. ...And at first, nothing happens. But after a second or two, there's a whirr as energy lines run through the surface, and then the door splits into two, sliding aside and revealing... Oh. Some sort of computer room. Everything in here still appears to be functional. Dusty, but functional. In fact by fiddling with the middle computer a bit, they may find a button that they can press. There's a label written in ancient glyphs, and when pushed...

     BASEMENT

     Alexis displays her CHASER SPIRIT by looting the entire body of the cleaver wielding dollbot. Hey! If it still has it's uses, may as well, right? Right.

     That door though, it not budging. It's solid, and well built. And it's going to take some serious, serious firepower to bring it down. Which would kind of defeat the point of exploring the place. Kind of. Thankfully SOMEONE upstairs hits that button, and the basement door also lights up with the same energy

     The ground quakes a bit as the sturdy doors start shifting and separating, revealing...

     A prisine hallway that seems to lead to some sort of super advanced elevator. It goes down. It, and the hallway are clean, sterile white with a circular ring and a green energy platform to stand on.

     ...There's more to this place than just the mansion. But...they've spent enough time here for one excursion, haven't they?
Rebecca Chambers Rebecca drops to one knee from fatigue, but she gets back up and smiles a little. "That was too close!" She says, looking at Millium and the dolls... until she notices that the dolls aren't moving either. Immediately she stares in disbelief and then at the 'robot' she just short circuited. "Wait, this..." She frowns. "Was this some kind of a joke or something?!" She runs a hand through her hair and sighs. "Whatever this is, I don't think this is all there is to it." She looks to Millium and says, "Let's just get out of here for now. I don't want any more surprises!"
Alexis Maaka     Maaka finishes storing her new acquisitions in her inventory. Yes, this includes a whole two meter tall robot and a heat cleaver.

    She watches the hall open up to reveal an elevator once the door opens, and she narrows her eyes. "...huh."

    After a bit of debate over radio, Maaka and Genji come to the conclusion that now isn't a good time to go further, at least not like this. To quote an old man, 'You must gather your party before venturing forth.'

    Naturally, the adage applies here. Going in with everyone all split up would be an idiotic idea, and so Maaka begins to head for the door she and Genji took to get down here. "C'mon, we better get with the others while we can. We'll come back next time."
Mordremoth     Aha! Scarlet scoops up the head and stuffs it into her bag! Only 12 slots open unless she buys a bag slot expansion and gets some more Hardened Leather! In the meantime...
    Push button.
Genji Shimada     That... sure is an elevator back there. Where it leads, however, is not nearly so obvious. That alone, combined with what they just went through, is enough for Genji to realize the group's not kitted out for this.

    Well, most of them. Genji doesn't need much more than his blades and his shuriken.

    "Agreed," he replies to Maaka, still illuminating the basement with his green body lighting. It'll make it easier to head back out.
Millium Argent      WILL

     There are a lot of books and doodads to be had, but nothing really striking. However, on the powered down robot, there is one thing of interest. Some sort of keycard. It's white with fragmented lines of green running through it...

     Huh. Wonder what this is used for?
Ashurel Cloudbank     Ashurel lets Scarlet, who probably doesn't have a d4 Hit Die, go ahead and push that button while Ashurel remains in the doorway.
William Pauwel Will has acquired the WHITE KEYCARD.

"Huh. Wonder what this is used for?" Will turns the key over between his fingers. Maybe it'll be useful down below! Because they know there's a LAB FULL OF LOOT down there now, and that can only mean GOOD THINGS.