Patiently Waiting

[Will Stanton]

No real effect. It seems to be happy remaining as clay for now--at least, if only given a slight nudge.

[Miriam Bell]

"It's not repairing itself at this point. As far as restoring all this goes that's bad news. But maybe if I fix the walls I can clear out the goo that's accumulated inside." she tells herself and starts fixing the walls just to get the basic shape of the structure repaired.

[Will Stanton]

She would find the clay particularly easy to work with and well suited for this purpose, although her initial efforts made it look like an imposing, cinderblock building.

[Miriam Bell]

She hovers there, looking at the walls for a while, contemplating. "I should put a proper finish on that." She goes back and places more goo on the walls to give them a nicer-looking finish, the brick walls feeling... uncomfortable. Once she's done with that she starts thinking up some kind of pumping mechanism for emptying out the inside of the building, experimenting with the goo to see if she can make it do more complex things like pipes and machinery.

[Will Stanton]

She totally can! It's incredibly easy to work with, and bends to her will almost as if it were an extension of her body. It seemed to respond to her particular method of manipulation quite well.

Now, one of the issues at hand is where all this excess clay would GO. I mean, there's a lot of it about, as it were.

[Miriam Bell]

Outside seems to be a good a place as any for now. Miriam is mostly trying to unearth what's inside the building, so she goes about constructing a pump that'll keep pumping the clay outside while she's hovering inside the building, patching up walls as descending level of clay reveals them.

[Will Stanton]

The base floor of this building was, from what she could piece together, very large, and not really divided into separate rooms, as the floor above had been at one time. It was really big, too--maybe two or three stories tall for just this first floor. Lots more twisted machinery and wreckage here, a long with a lot of containers--something was apparently brought here at some point, though what it WAS doesn't seem to be very clear.

[Miriam Bell]

She spends some time going through the wreckage to see if she can find any indication of it's purpose or how it should fit together.

[Will Stanton]

Without a guide, there's very little chance of that, I'm afraid. A guide, or blueprints, or some sense of the history of this place.

[Miriam Bell]

She frowns and floats back up and out of the building to see what other buildings she can find nearby, maybe getting a sense of the bigger picture helps.

[Will Stanton]

The broad picture reveals that most of the buildings are located centrally, perhaps around what used to be a center wall. That left a LOT of blank, open space which seemed to have nothing but clay as far as the eye can see. Perhaps all the big buildings were in the center, and everything else was underneath the clay, or perhaps there was just a lot of blank space? It's hard to tell.

There was, however, something else of note. In the very center of the centrally located buildings appeared to be something hovering just above the clay--a small wooden box, from what it looked like from way up here. It...

It...

It didn't feel right.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam slowly makes her way over towards the box. Objects that felt like they didn't belong are rarely anything good.

[Will Stanton]

Now, I should clarify. The box didn't feel evil or like it was actively something that needed to be removed necessarily, like a tumor. It didn't feel like a weapon that blew up the buildings, or a mental tap created by an evil organization.

Imagine buying a vanilla ice cream cone, taking a big bite, and tasting chocolate instead. It looks like vanilla, smells like vanilla, but tastes entirely different. That kind of wrong. Like a guy with an umbrella on a sunny day. Like the sun at midnight. Like a competent starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. Just wrong.

The box was made of fine wood--oak, perhaps? I'm not sure Miriam knows much about wooden furniture, but Oak sounds about right. It was elegantly carved, with patterns and spirals etched all over the surface of the box. It was about the side of a trunk or chest of some description--not, like, a shipping box, but a full storage space of some kind.

Another sign was elegantly hand-carved into this one, clearly labeling it.

Code: Select all

06211201030820140113151818091507081401

Son of a....

There were also three very large, complicated looking padlocks keeping said box closed.

[Miriam Bell]

"This just raises further questions..." she mumbles as she takes one of the locks. She contemplates for a moment, then grabs a handful of goo and pushes it into the lock, willing it to turn into the proper key to see if she can unlock it that way.

[Will Stanton]

Before she can try that, she touches the lock.

Remember how the outside of Will's mind had no protection or barriers of any kind? This was the exact opposite--it's almost as if the entire protective energy of Will's mind was on this box, or something was. As a result, the moment Miriam touched it, an intense wave of psychic pressure would slam into her, like a million voices yelling at her at the same time. If it was a physical punch, it would have been enough to lift her off her feet. It might be the same in a mindscape.

[Miriam Bell]

She certainly didn't expect that and it knocks her back and into the grey goo and for a moment she panics as she sinks into the endless expanse of grey.

[Will Stanton]

This would seem to be a problem if she panicked!

However, she would find that she WAS fine, even if she inhaled some of the stuff. It was vaguely salty and chewy, but not absolutely disgusting or anything of that nature. If anything, it seemed to actually cushion her fall and support her, laying her gently down on what felt like cobblestone under her back--hard to see, though, with a facefull of clay.

[Miriam Bell]

For a couple moments she does seem to be freaking out, but then she shuffles around inside her robes and seems to slowly calm down, focusing on the stones she can feel underneath her that indicate there's still something there. Reminding herself that she doesn't need to breath she slowly works her way into a standing position before willing herself to rise up.

[Will Stanton]

Like a majestic dolphin bursting through the waves.

Or like a robed masked lady plowing through some soft malleable clay. One of those things. There would be no resistance to her emerging, though some of the clay might stick to her nice robe.

[Miriam Bell]

She bellows out her robe to get rid of the clay, briefly exposing her legs and a glimpse of something else that's hiding underneath the dark fabric before shadows and dark cloth wrap themselves around her again. Both her masks focus on the box again. "So this is where all your defenses converge. But why..." she mumbles and takes a look at the three locks while making sure not to touch them again. Maybe they're distinct enough from each other to provide a hint as to their origin or why there are three of them. It makes her think they're meant to open to very specific circumstances.

[Will Stanton]

They definitely were different from one another, though mostly in color--one red, one silver, and one black. There were other subtle differences, but nothing that seemed immediatley significant.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam frowns. This seemed pointless. For all she knew there were three keys of different colors buried somewhere underneath all the clay. Not feeling like digging through seemingly endless amounts of clay, even if it only requires flexing her mental muscles, she slowly withdraws from Will's mind.

[Will Stanton]

Leaving was as easy as entering--no resistance. She even might not notice, at first, when she's back in her own head.

Will, for his part, seemed totally happy.

[Miriam Bell]

"You really enjoy this, don't you?" she asks, sounding vaguely amused. It's possible her mood is brightened a little by Will's happiness.

[Will Stanton]

I said I did, didn't I?

[Miriam Bell]

"People say a lot of things. And even then it's different to really feel it. It's very peaceful."

[Will Stanton]

It's fulfilling, is what it is.

[Miriam Bell]

"A lot of people will probably never get to experience that. You should count yourself lucky." she says as she stretches and gets up from her bed.

[Will Stanton]

I do!

[Miriam Bell]

"Alright, I should really grab dinner." she says, grabbing her purse and heading out the door.