Plot: My Echo, My Shadow, and Me. (Closed Plot)

[Hattish Thing]

Undisclosed Location - My Echo, My shadow, and Me:

Here, deep beneath the earth where dark things sleep, a network of underground systems exist. These systems were incredibly old, originally made by some large burrowing animal eating away at the soil beneath the mountains. However, a species of duergar had improved upon the area, crafting a labyrinth of stone and metal deep underground, an empire that lasted for many years, until civil war destroyed what was left of the already diminishing duergar population. Incidentally, a certain vain and unsuspecting young man discovered the location when searching for the right spot to lay down construction for a drill powerful enough to pierce straight through planes of existence.

The place was worked on by Marciano Louv're as a kind of secret hideout in case something terrible happened, but the place was rarely ever used, and costs were getting high on supporting such a large establishment with such limited purpose. So, the well-funded ex-AMENite turned the underground into a network of experimental laboratories, testing the dangerous technology that Louv're Corp produced. Here, bio-hazards of all kinds mixed with abominations created by poorly maintained scientific teams. That is, until Louv're Tower went down. With that, electricity was cut from the place, the scientists and workmen within trapped with the monstrosities they created.

Recently, after long years of disuse, Marciano has found a use for his now abandoned lair.

---

Harley Zorzo, once the leader of AMEN had recently fled the base after a fated meeting with Captain Clegg, of GLoG. After that, her locations and movements were watched by thugs and spies under the control of the notorious Marciano. One night, she was visited in the darkness. There was a battle, a fierce one at that, but nothing could be done. There were so many. One tranquilizer dart and a sack over the head later, she'll wake up in a dark and musty room, smelling of rust and grungy water. She'll feel a bit sore, but mostly untouched. The first thing she'll feel is the warmth of a human body beside her, and notice an odd metal band wrapped around her arm, connecting it with the other figure's wrist.

This other figure is, of course, Magtok himself. As to how he got here, little is known by him, for he'll find most of his memory regarding the previous night gone from him. There is, however, a rather large bump on the fleshy side of his head. Maybe that explains the blurry memory and current predicament. He'll be tied towards Harley as well by the strange metal bonds around his wrist and hers. It seems to be some oddly glowing piece of metal, perhaps magically enchanted? Nevermind. There was more to concentrate upon now, after all, who was the figure he was attached to?

Both of them will find themselves able to look around. There was a small table in this place along with a huge steel reinforced door behind them, circular, and wider than ten men. It doesn't appear to be able to be opened from this side. A single lightbulb hangs precariously from the cieling, dimming every few seconds before growing brighter. Broken furniture litters the place, and several skeletal men and women, clearly dead, are piled in the corner. A radio rests upon the table, the only real piece of material completely undamaged in the room. A hallway leading deeper into the area seems to be the only way out of the small room.

After about thirty seconds of silence, apart from the pair of prisoners in the middle of the room, the radio seems to turn itself on. In a crackly audio, the large wooden and clearly old-fashioned radio begins playing a version of "We Three, (My Echo, My Shadow, and Me.)". The pair of people inside will find themselves able to stand up and move around, however the band around their wrists keeps them from being able to separate. They'll have no weapons, and no armor save their simple clothing. Magtok will find himself completely disconnected from any sort of wireless internet or with his fellow clones.

They're completely off the map.

((Feel free to take a few rounds to talk witch eachother IC.))

---

Elsewhere, Undisclosed Location - My Echo, My Shadow, and Me:

Happy will wake up to find herself in a tiny room, with no visible door. It's rather nice looking apart from the ends of the pale gray wallpaper, which are sort of falling apart. There's a generator pumping some sort of electricity in here, obviously, for a large television against one of the near walls plays static. She'll be tied to a chair quite thoroughly, unable to move at all. After what seems like an incredibly long time, a small speaker system in the top left corner activates, playing the same song the small old-fashioned radio was a while away from here. As it plays, the television activates, revealing a system of small boxes, all showing feed from different locations around the abandoned research facility. She'll be able to see Magtok and Harley in room one.

A small phone on the table will start ringing and go directly to call seemingly by itself. It's on speaker, and will allow Happy to respond with whoever's on the line. The man speaking seems to have a rather nasal and condescending tone. "Sorta sucks to be down on your luck like this, don't it, sweetheart."

---

((Posting order: Magtok, Harley, Hatter.))

((Posting order: Hatter, Happy.))

[happyturtle]

Elsewhere

"This is really poor quality for a kidnapping facility. Tied to a chair? A chair?! I'm accustomed to being kidnapped into the finest holding cells imaginable, providing me with the ability to pace, slump to the ground in hopelessness, shake the bars, reach out through the bars for something you're withholding from me by holding it just outside my reach, and so on. This rope-and-chair nonsense is terribly amateur." Happy says. "Also, the name is Happy. Or Mrs Amakirr, if you prefer to be formal. Sweetheart is not acceptable."

[5a Violista]

[Abandoned Lair]

((*breaks post order *))

Harley wakes up. Or, rather, she comes to. Before even opening her eyes, she feels a body pressed against hers. Her first impulse is to grow spikes from her bones to separate them, and to pull away - which is when she notices that her arm is bound to the person.

She stops the spikes before they pierce through her own skin, and she opens her eyes. What was she doing before? She was fighting off some people, and...her sword? Harley gasps. Her sword! Wait. She can just make it appear and disappear whenever she wants. No need to worry about that. It is still pretty useless anyway, all sealed up. Her soul gem - it's still in her chest, next to her heart. Her mask, though: it's gone.

She decides to see who she's all attached to. Is it someone she knows? Someone she doesn't know? Maybe she can find out why she's here if -

"Oh." Magtok. Relief. Disappointment. Anger. Is this his fault? Did he plan it?

She tries to pull away again. She even stands up to get better leverage. Maybe if she pulls hard enough, it'll slip off. This way, she doesn't even have to look at him as she pulls.

[Lord Magtok]

Abandoned Lair

"Oww," Magtok answers in response to his wrist getting pulled upwards, sounding like he could barely manage the effort to say even that much, before reaching out with a hand to rub his bleary, hungover eyes. A hand that only goes about a quarter of the way to his face, before the cuffs prevent him from pulling any further. Not without exerting more energy and pulling against Harley, that is. He grudgingly sits up, to give his arm enough slack to reach his eye. As tired and reluctant as he is to get up off the floor, he has to, because he's damn well not going to rub the rheum with his cold, indelicate metal hand.

With that dealt with, he glances up, at the cuff attached to his hand, and the woman standing over him with the other end of it on her arm. Oh jeez, he knew he'd probably been drinking too much at the Full Moon Party down at Inari's, but a kinky drunken hook-up with Harley, in someone's mysterious, underground sex dungeon? That's a bit more drunk than he thought he was, and-

Oh wait, nevermind. He's still got most of his clothes on; it wasn't that kind of evening. Or rather, it's not that kind of evening yet, he has no idea what the day has in store for him. The suit he went to the party in is a bit disheveled, and the gray suit jacket seems to be missing, but he's still got the shirt and tie. Harley's still clothed too, he notes. Not entirely sure whether to be happy for her, that her dignity and modesty remain unscathed, or mildly disappointed. Let's go with the former for now; we have more important things to grumble about than the latter.

Okay, so what kind of evening was it, then? Well let's see...we're unable to get any reception, whether it be via MagNetwork, GPS, or internet. We're locked in an undisclosed location and handcuffed with what we can probably assume is an antimagic manacle to keep Harley from shapeshifting free, a creepy radio is playing an old-timey song about being alone and waiting for the one you love, and there's a pile of skeletal corpse in the corner. This can only mean-

"****ing kidnapped. Again. ****ing ****, this is getting way too goddamn routine." Magtok groans, finally rising up to his feet. He shakes his head, pressing the palm of his chrome hand against his face. How in the world does this keep happening to him?! Raptor Christ, it's things like this that make him wonder if he shouldn't start going everywhere with an armed MagBot escort or something.

"Morning, Harley. Or...whatever time it is. I don't suppose you know...anything at all? Last thing I remember is a pretty face hanging outside of Inari's and maybe a baseball bat to the back of the head." It's a little sad that he could be so easily distracted and then bludgeoned like that. He knew he should've just teleported home right away, but she seemed so lost and helpless, and Inside's streets could be such a deadly maze late at night...stupid, stupid, stupid of him.

[Hattish Thing]

Undisclosed Location - Anti-Contamination Chamber, Happy:

As Mrs. Amakirr complains about her current state of being, the voice at the other end of the phone sighs loudly. "Ya know, I wouldn't be complaining if I was you. You've got a nice place here for the time being. No bugs, or rats, or nasty things that want to eat your skin here. No, those are for your friends over there in the entrance room. Oh, but wait! They aren't your friends! Well, one is a bit more than a friend, but you know all about that... Incidentally, so do I there, Missy. Yes, we all know about your little relationship with ol' Maggy over there. Hehe. Just in case ya didn't know, darlin', the gal tied up to him would be Harley."

"Now, to make what could possibly be your last few hours of existence interesting', I've decided to let you in on a few secrets here. See, if ya didn't know, Harley and your precious Maggy darlin' once had what you two have now. Or, not really two, with all those damned clones. Do they just pass you around, or? Aahh, but that's none of my business." He chuckles lightly, what a rude and downright piggish individual. "As I was saying, Missy, Harley there's Maggy's ex-lover. They sorta separated when Maggot betrayed the organization he previously led. I can't blame him, really, the place was falling apart."

He sighs in a rather sarcastic way this time. "Ooooh, the wonders of love. See, they couldn't be together anymore, with Maggy leading HALO when Ol' Toby stepped down, and Harley leading the shambles that AMEN was at the time. And so, the lovers were kept away from eachother, never to gaze upon the other again? Hah, no. Not quite. Maggy moved on, or so he says, to you. But has Harley moved on from him? Heh. We'll see. I got 'em both in this li'l dungeon of mine. They'll need to work together to get to the end and not die, and you know what happens when two ex-lovers have to work together under stressful environments?"

"I sure don't, but it should be fun to find out." The feeds shown on the television evaporate away, and the one view of the room Magtok and Harley are in magnifies until it fills the whole screen, giving Happy a rather nice view of the pair trapped within. Marciano speaks once more to her. "You get a front row seat, watchin' what's to go on. Should be jolly ol' fun, if I do say so myself."

"But, darlin', I have one thing to ask you here, for five hundred points, the question is..."

"How confident are you that Maggy's faithful? Heh."

"We'll see."

---

((I'm giving the other scene more time for the players to talk.))

[happyturtle]

Elsewhere

Missy is another PC of mine, which is confusing.


Happy starts laughing midway through this, and is guffawing by the end. "Do they pass me around? Hell no, I pass them around."

[5a Violista]

[Abandoned Lair]

I think we should decide whether it's the right hand or the left hand that's attached for each. I'm pretty sure it's Magtok's right hand connected to Harley's left - which totally sucks because she's left-handed. (Unless I missed somewhere in the first post where it said?)

Harley gives up on pulling and instead gives a look around the room. Maybe there's a key somewhere around here. That would be incredibly useful.

Still without looking at Magtok, she says, "I was just going to say that sending a bunch of thugs is a pretty awful way to apologize." Looking around the room. "But I guess it wasn't you, then." Since he was knocked out, too.

Then, for some reason, she feels she has to add, "It wouldn't have worked, anyway, even if it was you that planned this."

[Hattish Thing]

Elsewhere

Missy is another PC of mine, which is confusing.


Happy starts laughing midway through this, and is guffawing by the end. "Do they pass me around? Hell no, I pass them around."

From Marciano's location, there's a silence for a few seconds. In truth, he simply had no idea how to react to this. He'd never been in a relationship, nor did he ever care to learn how normal people reacted to other normal people when in love. Finally, he speaks once more. "Ah, but you didn't answer my question, darlin'. But I'll leave you to your thoughts for now. After all, I've got important things to do. I'll call you back when something you should know happens."

"In the meantime, please, relax, enjoy the show."

[Lord Magtok]

Abandoned Lair

It'd have to be that way, otherwise Magtok could just take part of his hand off and the whole point of having them handcuffed together would be ruined. If it's any consolation, Mag's right hand was his dominant one (though with advances in technology, he's fairly close to ambidexterity), so they're both fairly inconvenienced by this.

"I already apologized back in the HALO base. It was a pretty crappy apology, I'll give you that much, but I definitely recall saying sorry," Magtok insists, as his gaze wanders over to those skeletons once again. Staying here is probably not the best of options, but their only options seem to be an impenetrable steel door that they probably came in from, or a mysterious hallway of doom that goes gods only know where, which their kidnappers probably intended for them to explore on their own.

"I think we're in someone's dungeon. Not the sexy kind, the dungeons and dragons kind. Some kind of gauntlet of doom and terror. I'm surprised our host isn't cackling at us over an intercom or something yet, this seems like the kind of-" Magtok looks about for hidden cameras, and shakes his head. Regardless of whether or not he can see them, he's fairly sure there are some there, somewhere.

"Whatever. So you can't shapeshift your arm out, I imagine. Is that just your arm, or all of you? We might have to stab something to get out of here later, and my left arm's not good for much besides picking locks, campfires, and bludgeoning things." It's like having a boy scout for a hand, except without any of the fancy rope tricks, and a great deal more breaking and entering.

[5a Violista]

[Abandoned Lair]

Harley is going to assume that he was going to say "this seems like some kind of game show." That probably makes the most sense, anyway.

"I could," says Harley, tugging at her arm again, "but I just happen like having my arm locked in a manacle."

To demonstrate that the rest of her can still shapeshift, though, she does some shapeshifting of her right hand, into sharper things. Then, she looks down at the manacles again. "You know, I could probably cut off my arm," she says, as if it's the most casual thing in the world. Finally, she looks at Magtok and his face. "It would probably work. Except I haven't eaten in a day or so, so I won't have an arm and you'll have an extra one dangling around."

"If this is a gameshow, I assume the key is at the end." So Harley starts to walk towards the dark and spooky hallway.

[Lord Magtok]

Abandoned Lair

"Too quiet for that. The Running Man was all noise, flash, spectacle. A proper game show would be a lot more intrusive and commercial. This looks more like a rusty, abandoned Cold War military bunker than a newly developed-" Magtok stops midsentence once more, pulling against the cuffs so he can lean towards the filthy pile of skeletons, and grab a gross-looking femur from one of the bodies.

"-than a newly developed illegal television show. Do we have any common enemies? Someone creepy and on a shoe-string budget, maybe? It's also possible it could just be coincidence. Some freaky, totally unknown serial killer finds this complex, decides to start hacking people up and putting their bodies down here, accidentally bites off more than he can chew when he kidnaps influential leaders of the Nexus who turn the tables and beat the **** out of him?" Magtok suggests optimistically. Gods, cyborg, stop trying to write the narrative for your own story; you're the protagonist, not the storyteller. You're not even remotely close, either.

[5a Violista]

[Abandoned Lair]

Harley is then pulled away from going to the hallway towards one of the skeletons so Magtok can grab a dried femur. If only she were larger and stronger and heavier, she could doing the pulling around.

Rather than continue pulling away, she waits until he has what he wants. "I'm not current on the politics of Watchtower, but it could've been someone from there." I'm sure there's loads of people there who don't really like either of them all that much. "Maybe someone who resented that you became a leader of VIGIL?"

[Lord Magtok]

Abandoned Lair

"No, if DC wanted me dead, he'd shoot me in the face. He's not a big subtlety sort of guy, this is too much cat-and-mouse, too much beating around the bush for his tastes. He'd tell me that he was going to engineer a gene-tailored virus to wipe me out, and then do it. Or just do it without telling me. Maybe while publicizing some crimes I committed." Magtok shakes his head, and takes a few practice swings with the femur, to get a feel for its weight and potential use as a bludgeon later. He's content to let Harley lead for now, and takes care to keep his voice above a whisper, but not so bold that creatures lurking in the darkness will hear them coming far in advance.

"A handcuffed man and woman in a filthy, rusty dungeon? It's creepy. This whole place just sorta oozes slimeball and ick. I'm honestly surprised our captor didn't undress us before starting this, that's how skeevy it all looks. I want to say it's Marciano behind this, but the production values don't seem nearly outrageous enough. It's old, ruined architecture ugly, not gaudy, tacky mismatched colors ugly."

[Hattish Thing]

Abandoned Lair - Entrance:

At this time, the pair have had a little while to form some sort of strategy, and ponder over who could have possibly done this to them. A sound, or rather, a lack of sound might suddenly distract them from their conversation. The radio seems to have stopped at the final repeat of the lyric the piece was named after. After a few seconds of chilling silence, the phrase begins playing again, repeating the same verse again and again, much like a broken record. But these kind of radios don't do that, do they? Eventually, it stops again. From there, it's about thirty seconds of pause. The lightbulb hanging from the ceiling flashes a little bit, before dimming dangerously low.

A voice can be heard now, seemingly coming from the radio. It's crackly and distorted, almost hard to understand. It'll spout out every single word spoken by the two prisoners over eachother, creating an unnerving cacophony. It builds up louder and louder until the noise eventually ends with the radio's speakers exploding outwards. It won't actually send bits flying anywhere, but they may be partially deafened for a tad. It is at this inopportune moment that the lightbulb begins to completely go out. However, Magtok will have managed to find a flashlight with nearly full batteries on one of the workers when he grabbed their femur.

Following that, the light goes out, plunging the room into absolute darkness.

[5a Violista]

[Abandoned Lair - Entrance]

"Well, I -" Harley started, before she stops to listen to the radio stopped. She finally noticed. "Wait, it's..." Anything she did say after that is easily drowned out.

Even though it's dark, Harley blinks. Blink blink blink. Magtok has a glowing eye; it's good enough to see by, right? No need to light anything up herself. (Like her right hand, for example.)

"If it is him, you must've just made him mad," she says. She's not even sure if he can hear her; she can hardly hear herself over the ringing in her ears.

She guesses that's their sign to leave the room now.

[Lord Magtok]

Abandoned Lair - Entrance

"Forget what I said, it's a paranormal serial killer. Paranormal psycho killer. We're in psychological horror movie town. Saw. Japanese horror, survival horror, The Ring. It's a new age pyramid, these skeletons were tasked with building it. I'm handcuffed to the slasher movie's Final Girl, but that doesn't make me any safer if someone chainsaws my arm off" Magtok whispers, rattling off his fragmented thoughts in a panic, even though there's nobody to hear them. Somehow he's even more wrong about the plot than he was a few moments ago, despite having twice as much information to work with. All he wants to do is curl up and hide and wait for answers to present themselves, but Harley is still upright and moving forward.

Crap. Dammit Harley, the monsters can't get you if you wait at the entrance to beat them to death with a bone! Venturing forward just means you're putting yourself at greater risk! Cowering underneath some broken furniture answer was the right way to go. At least we already knew the shape and size of the room we were in; gods only know what horrible mysteries are ahead!

"Here," he whispers, offering her the flashlight, and burying all of that panic and terror in the back of his mind, where it won't embarrass him in front of her. The flashlight should make a better bludgeon than the bone, but she's clearly the better melee combatant of the two of them, given her training as a knight. Magtok can partially see through most non-magical darkness anyways. His eye gives off barely any more light than a matchstick would, and he has to look at everything in that creepy, grainy nightvision green, but it's still enough to justify giving her the light instead.

[Hattish Thing]

Abandoned Lair - Entrance:

So, there's at least a little bit of light now. Magtok is always able to see forward with is eye, though the room certainly looks creepier than it once did due to the green tint. There's a light sound, rumbling just atop their heads. It sounds much like a train was passing over the ceiling atop of them. The rumbles by for a bit until it fades away into the distance. Hmm. Was there an active train nearby, or was their some sort of feed projecting sound from an unknown location? Either way, it seemed that this was a terrible place to be at the moment. There didn't seem to be anywhere to go now save for directly ahead, through that incredibly creepy looking hallway. Magtok will be able to get a decent look forward, and he'll be able to see what seems to be writing on the wall ahead, along with a particularly large looking cobweb in the corner, full of spider eggs. Beyond that, his vision couldn't reach. There's no way to know how long it goes.

Hopefully nothing horrible heard the noise the radio made, right?

[5a Violista]

[Abandoned Lair - Entrance]

Harley grabs the flashlight and holds it in her left hand. Much better than in her right hand, right? Because this way she still has her free hand free.

She pulls down towards the hallway. No sense in staying here, right? She notices that he's planning on using the bone. "That bone would make a better dagger than a club," she remarks. "Or maybe a spear."

She does sense that he's a little frightened. "Look," she says, stopping walking long enough to look directly at him. "Just because I'm still mad at you doesn't mean I won't protect you. You don't have to worry about anything." She presses on again after that.

This is going to be really awkward, though, with both of them walking and stopping and moving whichever way they want.

[Lord Magtok]

Abandoned Lair - Entrance

"Writing on the wall ahead, can't read it from here. Also, a really big cobweb with spider eggs. Going to check the ceiling and corners for swarms of little ones or one big giant spider," Magtok points out before they get too close to the room, hoping against hope it's neither of those things. They aren't at all equipped for a fight like that, and with the way his wrist is hurting already, he's terribly worried about what would happen if they both tried to run away at the same time, or if he tried to do so and Harley wanted to stay and fight, or they each picked a different direction to run.

The cyborg sighs, and tries his best not to think about horrible giant death spiders. He's not normally arachnophobic, but even the most bug-friendly person in the world would have to admit that a giant arachnid with a taste for human flesh is a little scary. That one might be lurking ahead, that they could have been tossed down here just to be the creature's next meal and die slowly, being bound up and drained of fluids little by little...Magtok cringes at the thought.

"Harley, I'm not worried about you being a problem. The magical manacles kinda force the issue. I'm worried about whatever else is down here. Also about being dead weight. I'd sharpen the bone but I'd probably break it," he points out. Then, instead of a sub-par bludgeon, he'd have a useless lump of broken bone.

[Hattish Thing]

Abandoned Lair - Entrance -> Cobweb Hallway:

The place is quiet, almost dreadfully so. The only noise that pierces through the darkness would be that of the hushed words produced by Magtok and Harley. As they move forward into the depths of the abandoned research and testing facility, their flashlight penetrates into the shadow, lighting the way. Sure enough, as the get deeper into the somewhat small hallway, the cobwebs get bigger. Not enough to block the way or anything, but clearly enough to somewhat hinder them and get them a bit uncomfortable. The air here was thick, and warm, ominous as it presses down upon the pair of explorers. The light will flash to the wall, where they can see a figure.

As they get closer, the can notice that the figure appears absolutely cleaned to the bone, missing any sort of flesh. The scary part is that something appears to have burrowed straight through the bones all over his body. There's hundreds of little holes where things burrowed inside of him, eating at his marrow after they feasted upon his flesh. It's disturbing. However, whatever creatures may have done this are gone. The writing appears to be in a sharpie across the metal wall. It reads in sloppy writing, "They got out, the door is shut. The others are lost. Remember me". The sharpie lies on the floor, the cap long gone. Well. Nothing remains on the corpse save the remnants of a lab coat.

Well, not much to do here, it seems. That is, until a sudden movement beyond the hall might attract the attention of Magtok's mechanical eye. Sure enough, should Harley's flashlight be shined forward, she'll see something lurching towards her. The first thing they'll notice is the odd movement and bulging in it's skin, as if thousands of tiny things crawled just beneath the rotting flesh, through tendon and muscle. The corpse is missing it's eyes, lips, and fingers, long gnawed off by rats or whatever the things here were. It's not quite obvious what's causing the thing to move, but those bulges might have something to do with it. Without speaking, it moves forward, attempting to rush towards Harley. It's absolutely horrifying up close.

What is to be done?

[5a Violista]

[Abandoned Lair: Cobweb Alley]

Harley was probably going to respond with something, like, maybe "Even broken bones are pretty useful for stabbing things" or that she should know, since she frequently stabs things with her own bones when they break, or that dried bones are pretty brittle but sharp when they fracture, or maybe something else like that...but she doesn't get much words out because she notices something.

Harley hears it before she sees it. When she finally does see it using the flashlight, she orders, "Hey, don't move." Being chased down into a dead-end would be pretty awful.

She doesn't glance at Magtok; honestly, she's afraid that he'll be gone and leave her alone in the dungeon if she looks at him too hard. Shambling parasitic corpses or giant spiders, she can fight off, but being alone is one of the things she's actually afraid of.

She tries to gauge Magtok's location by feeling, and waits for the shambling thing to come closer. ...Hopefully Magtok doesn't jerk away as it draw close. Harley leans back on one leg, readying a kick and a swing with her right arm.

So long as Magtok doesn't jerk away or seriously distract her, Harley throws a hard kick at the thing, then swings her hand. As it swings, though, there's a bright flash of light and a sheathed sword (sealed and locked away in its scabbard) appears in her hand. (Also. Pants.)

((Psst! Magtok. I was thinking maybe it would be better if whichever one of us is online after Hatter posts would be the one to post first, instead of waiting on an arbitrary posting order.))

[Lord Magtok]

Cobweb Hallway

Magtok shakes, but remains standing where he is. That's what Harley told him to do, after all. As much as he wants to just run away, she's clearly not going to agree with that, and he'd just pulling ineffectually on one end of the handcuffs until one of them either gives up or is attacked by the monster-thing. No, Harley has a plan, and she's the better combatant, so best to just let her do her thing, right?
she's letting it get closer she's letting it get closer she's letting it get closer she's letting it get closer she's letting it get closer

I mean, it's going towards her, so even if the worst happens, she can just freak out and swat at the spiders crawling on her while running away with him back towards the room they came from, right? Assuming, of course, that this is some sort of parasitic zombie spider guy, which it probably is. She can just swat at them and shapeshift her ears and nostrils closed to keep them out of her brain, and then everything will be fine, right?
oh christ so close it's moving so slow but so close why are we letting it do this this is a bad idea it's bad

A moment later, she's kicking it and trying to slice at it. That's it; Magtok's done with her plan now. As soon as she's slashed at it, he's going to grab her manacled wrist with his own, and start running the holy **** away from this monster. They can find out if she successfully killed it (or if her sword swipe did anything at all) after putting some distance between it and themselves. If it's still alive they can hit it again later. Tomorrow, maybe. Just block off the hallway with those skeletons and broken furniture, and wait until tomorrow when they're good and ready to try tackling this dungeon a second time.

[Hattish Thing]

Cobweb Hallway:

The creature lurches forward now, it's mouth opening wide as it begins to let out a horrific yell, as if the thing still possessed some sort of consciousness. Perhaps this thing was... alive? Somehow kept living despite the thousands of flesh-eating spiders feasting upon his flesh? The thought is downright horrifying. However, the pained scream of agony is somehow much worse. It draws close, intending to do... something horrible to Harley, probably involving her skin. However, as it approaches the calm warrior brings her foot forward in a terribly strong kick to it's hip. The blow strikes true, for the monstrous and corpse-like individual can't really move. You wouldn't be too spry if a thousand tiny spiders were living off your tendons and ligaments either.

The heroin's shoe will end up smashing right through it's hip, her limb actually penetrating through it's incredibly brittle flesh and bone. Unfortunately, this means that the shoe will also be stuck inside the thing's pelvic area. There goes a web-covered colon. As the foot connects, Harley and Magtok will be able to witness the horrific sight of an incredibly amount of tiny spiders erupting from the wound like ants from a particularly explosive dirt pile. They'll swarm forward, each the size of half a fingernail. These are genetically modified infernal spiders, whose poisons were being extracted to produce the toxin that eventually became the Grundlekrunk's breath weapon. Now, the scarlet spiders are scattered all over Harley.

The little beasts functioned in a most peculiar way, too. See, they were too small for their relatively weak pincers to actually penetrate most skin, yet required ample flesh for nourishment. Rather than fluids, these things needed flesh alone. And instead of poisons, spit small amounts of acid out. This acid was strong against inorganic material, but hardly burnt flesh straight through, simply weakening the flesh, allowing it's pincers to penetrate, rip, and funnel the flesh into it's maw. Harley has an incredibly amount of these spiders on her now, all spitting their toxin and attempting to burrow straight into her. The pants and shoes do little to help from the swarm of viscous insects. However, due to Harley's nature, she may be able to shapeshift enough of her skin to negate most of the damage and keep the things from entering her body. Her clothing is however, most likely a lot less substantial due to the acid.

The host then swings it's two fingerless arms like clubs, attempting to pummel her leg stuck inside him. Of course, she'll take no damage from the blows, but upon hitting the side of her leg, the arms explode and collapse, releasing even more of the spiders. The host seemed to be doing some sort of kamikaze attack, trying to scatter as many spiders onto the prey as possible. Now, poor Magtok may find at least a few of the spiders have scattered his way, but not enough to be a serious problem, for a smack of his metal hand ought to serve as a sufficient flyswatter.

[Lord Magtok]

Cobweb Hallway

"**** **** ****! **** **** ****!" Magtok shouts, apparently incapable of saying much of anything that isn't an obscenity right now. He doesn't intend to allow Harley to keep her foot inside that abomination long enough for it to 'punch' her, they have running away to do and her stupid leg can't be allowed to slow them down! He grabs at her leg, likely risking bites and acid on both of his hands, before pulling as hard as he can. There is no goddamned time, no goddamned ****ing time, they have to run!

[5a Violista]

[Cobweb Hallway]

Sad. Her clothes are disappearing. It's a good thing things always remain modest in these movies.

Harley is now getting tugged by Magtok. Her sword also disappears, for the sake of using both her hands. She pulls at her leg by swinging it downwards.

At first, it hurts but then she dulls the pain by disconnecting the pain from her mind. She can smell the bitter acid, so she decides to counteract it. Her skin, through shapeshifting, begins to secrete a cocktail that she's always found really useful. It is made up of a flammable oil, a potent poison, and a strong base. What this means is that the spiders have literally tried to bite off more than they can chew. The base is strong enough to counteract the acid in an exothermic reaction, and still have enough left over to fizz and burn inside the spiders when they bite. I'm not so sure if the poison is effective against demons spiders (because I've never seen one yet!) but it's definitely there.

"It's just a few bugs," she says.

She brushes away at spiders, smashing as many as possible with her hands.

It works really well against ants, so why not spiders?


(I do wonder, though, if the spiders' acid affects the magic hand thing...? Probably not, 'cause that would be too easy.)

[Hattish Thing]

Cobweb Hallway:

Well, it seems with the use of Harley's special shapechanging powers, the horrific spiders are unable to do anything at all to her. It'll take an incredibly long while, but eventually she'll be able to smash the things to bits. So, between her poisonous secretions and the smacking, only a few spiders remain. As for the now clearly dead figure, most of his body has deflated due to the spiders having abandoned the host. Now he's only a mound of flesh and odd pieces of bone, spiders crawling all over him angrily. It seems that the group will now be able to pass through the hallway, and into the area beyond, should they wish. Harley will be alright, though the areas where the thing's bit her might swell up a tad. It shouldn't be anything too dangerous.

Now, if they proceed, the spiders in the flesh-mound of a man will not follow. The pair will be able to move ahead and talk a tad, for it seems since the brief spat, all has gone quiet once more. There's a whole lot of webs on the ceiling here, but no giant spider to be seen. The hall opens up into an area that stems off in two directions, one to the right, and one to the left. Comparatively, left turns a corner and leads off into the darkness, while the right corridor seems to branch off into two separate hallways, both leading off. The place seems incredibly expansive, who knows what sort of things went on here.

The area the pair has stepped into contains dense webbing, along with the skeletons of many workers. It seems that the one spider-host that attacked the pair was the last meatsack the spiders had left to eat off of. Which way will you go?

[5a Violista]

[Cobweb Hallway]

Yes, it was almost way too easy. It's almost as if it was designed to lure them into a false sense of security. Unfortunately, Harley has to start feeling pain again because not feeling pain is very dangerous. It hurts, and Harley gasps then holds her breath as it begins hurting again.

After being sure they've gotten the last spider, Harley makes a suggestion, after looking at all the ways the paths can branch off. "You know, I heard a trick about mazes. If you always take a left, you'll always get through it." Unless it goes around in a circle, or something.

"So I'm going that way." After giving a last look at the corpse, she starts to walk to the left - that is, unless Magtok has a better reason to go the other way or is particularly stubborn or...well, a bunch of reasons. She can't really force him to go that way.

[Lord Magtok]

Cobweb Hallway

Mag reaches for Harley's cuffed hand with his own. Something for her to squeeze and/or crush in her iron grip, while she's dealing with the pain from those awful spider abomination things. Hopefully her shapeshifty powers can find a way to heal those wounds or something, before she has time to consider breaking all of the bones in his hand.

"I always heard it was 'keep turning right until you can't go right without going backwards or down a dead end, at which point, go left.' I don't think I ever had a chance to test that, though." Magtok shrugs and goes along with Harley's decision anyway. They can always head back and try again if left doesn't work.

Magtok peers at the wall, and sighs. Shoot, they should've grabbed that sharpie. Mark which ways they've been, leave a little trail of signs so they don't get lost. Oh well, too late now. Like hell he's going back into SpiderTown and risking his life over a goddamn magic marker.

"Not the best time, but I am sorry, Harley. And if this has anything to do with us, I'm twice as sorry for that. At the very least, I should've told you I was going to HALO, instead of you finding out the way you did. Or talked about it before making a impulsive decision. Or...something, I don't know. I don't even like the people in Watch and HALO." Magtok explains. That's a slight exaggeration, he's met some people who seem friendly enough. Most of them just aren't his kind of people, though, and if it weren't for that Malice brat taking the 'evil MagClone' identity for himself, he'd consider dropping out of the group.

[Hattish Thing]

SpiderHall -> Left, Arachnid Research Cell 7593:

The silence is deafening. There's nothing now here, and only the words spoken between the two show any sort of life beyond the abundance of spiders, cockroaches, and other small insects. They'll be able to turn left easily, avoiding the rather large mounds of web and spider eggs that continue to gently throb and ooze a pus. The little mounds are absolutely disgusting. The left way leads to a corner, which proceeds forward for another few feet or so before opening into what seems to have once been a room with a pair of clear see-through doors. One of the glass doors has been toppled over from it's hinges, and lies smashed on the ground.

A tin hazardous materials sign is mounted upon the wall beside the doors, alongside an authorized personnel only warning. There's nothing particularly horrifying in the hallway besides a few cracks in the ground and on the ceiling. Magtok might be able to recognize the cause of the damage to be some sort of an earthquake. The signs were all there, and he probably has that information backed up in some section of his brain. As they turn, entering the room will be easy enough. Nothing is stopping the pair, and the room seems cleared of any sort of monstrosities. Upon closer investigation, the pair will find themselves in the middle of the room.

It's cooler here, the temperature a bit less ominous and warm. The floor is nice here, and there doesn't appear to be any blood-splattering upon the walls, offering a welcome break from what had just occurred. Six large glass and steel containers atop metal tables rest on opposite left and right sides of the room, while, straight ahead, a small computer system can be seen. Four of the containers have been broken, leaving dirt scattered about in glass on the floor and upon the table. The other two containers are tinted slightly, the case on top closed shut. Who knows what's inside the place? It seems that now, the pair will have at least a moment to talk.

Best use it well, for this may be one of the last few peaceful times they'll get.

[5a Violista]

[Arachnid Research Cell 7593]

Over time, Harley tries to kill down the swelling. But, at the moment, it doesn't seem too dire.

Since there's nothing immediately pressing or distracting, that means there isn't anything to stop the conversation from continuing. Well, at least, the computer system certainly doesn't distract her. She doesn't really like computers all that much; they're, in her experience, useless relics that she never bothered to learn.

"Well," she admits, as she steps over some glass, "I probably really shouldn't have been mad at you. It's just...I don't know. I guess I just expected more from you." Then, she explains, "I thought you would be around. But every time I needed help, and there were only Moff and Mister Thing in the Walls there for me, and you were...gone."

Harley is totally not paying any attention to the sealed containers or electronics or tools.