Player Plot: A (skele)ton of Work

[einspine]

Who: [AU] Papyrus and everyone else attending the expedition
When: January 7th
Where: The I.B. Magitek Tower
What: The I.B. Magitek Tower may rest on top of the ruins of Asura's temple. Thus, it's up to our heroes to investigate the tower in hopes of finding the great Eidolon within.
Warnings/Notes: Let's just say it's gonna get... topsy turvy. ;)

Everything is pre-arranged. The flight to the tower. The appropriate waivers. Naturally, everyone who accompanies Papyrus will have to sign to gain access- the Triumvirate was rather adamant about preserving the more confidential secrets within the tower, after all.

But once the appropriate paperwork gets signed away, the tower staff escorts the group toward the elevator. Though with the sheer turnout, it may take a few trips to get everyone down below.

[ooc: Info and sign ups are here!

As a quick clarifying note, here's the gist of how the temple and tower relate.

- Characters can access terminals on specific floors, which will open up stairways to an upside down and photo negative version of the I.B. tower without any people in it. Characters enter on the ceiling, which is now the floor, but must proceed to doorways that are on the floor (now the ceiling).

- The elevator does not function on these flipped floors, but it does function on the regular floors, which is what will allow them to skip around to key areas.

- For the trials, there are only terminals within three floors of the destination (as outlined in the comments).]

Comments

[defenestraighttomyheart]

Richard, similarly, may not be the most tech-savvy person in the group. Although, he definitely knows his way around running a few scripts. He walks behind the gentleman who's biceps are about as big as his head and cranes his neck over his shoulder to look at what was going on.

"Try looking for maintenance logs." He mentioned under his breath, looking for the life of him that he probably needed coffee. "If we can find those, we could probably parse out what we need to be doing here."

And then the wall opened up with a terrific flash.

Oh, this bodes poorly.

[fixed_destiny]

Xehanort's preparedness is 100% the fact that he brought the cellphone he just happened to find during the recent holiday. It has room for pictures! So he's going to take some, just in case, for later reference.

Ignore the occasional click. He's surely not occasionally getting a person picture too. "Or a floor layout with helpful 'you are here' signs," he adds to Richards's suggestion of maintenance logs.

And then there is Door, and Stairs and .. "Does it really seem like a good idea to just trust suddenly appearing stairways? Is it even really there?"

Mind you this doubt also comes with being like two feet behind Papyrus and being thoroughly willing to see if the skeleton falls through or anything of the sort.

[desertbloomed]

"I fail to see how we have a choice," Ashelia interjects from near the room's entrance. She walks over to Gladio and Richard at the console, giving it only a cursory glance as she continues onto the stairs. "We came to solve the mysteries of the I.B. Tower. This magickally appearing staircase would seem mysterious enough to me." Time is running short - maybe it's short-sighted, but Ashelia can't just stand around a computer screen when there's so little time left until the end of the universe.

[einspine]

"I AGREE! THE FACT IS, THE ONLY WAY TO GO IS DOWN. AND IF IT REALLY IS THAT DANGEROUS, WELL, WE'VE GOT MANY HELPING HANDS!!!"

Which is precisely why Papyrus opts to march down there himself. For adventure! For glory! For the future of Vaikuntha!

Anyone who follows will be greeted to a... peculiar sight. First of all, the floor is far less stable than before, consisting of crisscrossing beams and even lights. In fact, a quick inspection would reveal that it's less of a floor and more of a ceiling.

As a matter of fact, the ceiling looks identical to the previous room's floor! The only difference is that everything is inverted colorwise. Even the elevator can be spotted way up there.

How strange. So strange that Papyrus, at least, spends a few moments gawking.

[bleating_heart]

So it's.. basically just the core, right?

Asriel follows along, going slow and making ample use of both outstretched arms and Prescience to not fall over with his gangly physique. Seriously, it's a literal lifesaver. Once he actually manages to get somewhere a bit more stable, he glances up and.. blinks.

Although "Well this looks freaking familiar" was ready on his tongue, it has now been utterly transformed into the unrecognizable as he raises an eyebrow. He slowly sidles up next to Papyrus, looking upwards with him and squinting.

"...Huh. Is physics supposed to work like that?" He asks the science skelly.

[littlemhigan]

"Would ye believe this ain't the first time I've seen sommat like this?"

Castor made her way down slowly after Asriel, and is currently peering into the inverted room from the threshold of the doorway.

"The Antitower'd been built like that though. This...doesn't seem like it was the plan."

[plagueofshadows]

"Ehee. What a bizarre phenomenon!" Plague Knight says, following after Papyrus and the others. Looking around the inverted version of the room they'd only just come from with a faint air of bemusement.

He jumps, once, just to make sure that he's not about to fall off the ceiling... Floor, and reaches into his pocket, too, to produce a one gil coin and drop it- to see if it falls towards the floor, or stays on the ceiling with him. These are important tests!

[neverbeamemory]

Quiet and hyper-attentive as ever, Sephiroth slipped down (up?) the stairwell once there was enough room for him to do so and paused just a few feet into the inverted room while he took one of his signature long looks around.

It was the position of the elevator -now on the ceiling adjacent wall to what it was in the other room- which gave it away. Silver hair shifted at his back as he looked up and over before deepening a curious expression and he turned back the way he came for a few moments. To verify; in case it was somehow tricking him into thinking-

"Seems to be literally inverted." He somewhat stated the obvious when he returned to the flipped room. "Wonder why though-"

[einspine]

"PHYSICS NORMALLY DON'T WORK LIKE THIS, BUT THIS IS A MAGICAL TEMPLE!! ALL BETS ARE OFF."

Yet the coin seems to follow the group's sense of gravity, instead clattering to the ceiling instead of the floor.

"PERHAPS IT'S SOME SORT OF DEFENSE MECHANISM? TO KEEP UNWANTED INTRUDERS FROM REACHING ASURA TOO EASILY."

He strokes his chin and paces back and forth. But still, something does feel odd about it.

"ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, IF WE ARE IN THE TEMPLE, WE COULD ALWAYS JUST USE THE ELEVATOR TO SNEAK AROUND!"

In fact, he quickly switched from Cool Scientist to Chemist- just long enough to draw his hover board out of pocket storage. "AND I HAVE JUST THE GEAR TO GET US THERE, UPSIDE DOWN OR NOT!!!"

Little did he realize, the mirrored elevator would refuse to open. Or so much as operate.

[desertbloomed]

Ashelia watches as Papyrus hovers up to the elevator - and sighs audibly when it doesn't work. She takes out her iMog slate and switches to ninja, silently making her way over to a wall and climbing it deftly. "If this is a temple, then this is just the first of many tests. There must be a clue somewhere."

[fixed_destiny]

There's still picture taking going on. For posterity and later review. At least it's not ALL Xehanort is doing, who is very dubious about relying on a flying skateboard thing; he's looking for anything ELSE that might be useful to reach the .. ceiling? Floor? A ladder would be nice but he'll make do with a stack of boxes if he can find them.

"Elevators aren't particularly sneaky. Besides, if you make a lot of noise and get attention right now, nothing might jump out at us later." Because it'll be too busy trying to murder them right here and now instead of later on.

There are, as ever, flaws in his logic.

[neverbeamemory]

"So if it's not the elevator-"

There is no point trying to get to it if it doesn't work- Sephiroth turns to the nearest rack of server-like machinery to inspect it. He's no tech-genius for sure, but he knew enough to know that these types of machines -at least from what he remembered- were used mainly to store data.

Interfacing with said data, whatever it might be in this mirrored room, could be a problem though- unless there was something more obvious uncovered in his inspecting.

go team villains

[bleating_heart]

"...I kind of wish Kuja was here right now." He says. That's a weird thing to say, but...

"I mean, he can fly."

Asriel walks over to stand next to Sephiroth and help out. He's spent a lot of time in the core. If nothing else, he can.. try and see if he can find an access panel to that elevator. Maybe they can get it called down without activating any alarms.

And if not, well, at least he's got that whole time mage thing maxed. Do-over.

tiniest sneak tag

[fixed_destiny]

"It's okay," Xehanort mutters, just failing to be quiet enough to not be overheard, "Papyrus has a flying skateboard thing."

[hashtagdaddy]

The noise and the surprise staircase draw Gladio's attention and he abandons the computer, huffing at the seemingly useless information it had given him.

He pauses as he jogs down the stairs, needing a moment to orient himself in the upside-down room, before heading towards the elevator. Pulling out his slate, Gladio switches his asterisk to Monk and draws closer to the crowd growing around the elevator.

"Lemme try. I might be able to pry it open if anyone has a hunk of metal they don't mind not getting back."

[einspine]

"WAIT! I HAVE ANOTHER IDEA..."

Because risking damage seems... maybe impractical. If the elevator won't turn on, then would prying it really help? What if they just get stuck with an empty elevator shaft? He shakes his head, hovering in front of the doorway.

"SO, HERE'S A THOUGHT! WHAT IF WE WENT BACK TO THE OTHER SIDE AND USED THE ELEVATOR TO SCOPE OUT OTHER FLOORS. PERHAPS THERE ARE OTHER TERMINALS LIKE THIS ONE WE COULD UTILIZE TO GET AROUND!"

It was worth a try, right? At the very least, it seemed less destructive.

"BUT IF THAT FAILS, THEN BY ALL MEANS, WE CAN PRY IT OPEN AND SEE WHAT WE CAN UNCOVER."

[littlemhigan]

"Worth a try," Castor hums as she picks her own way over to the elevator. "But even if we can't get it te move on it's own power, there's...I mean we have lifts in Eorzea, but nothin so fancy as this but doesn't it need te be in a shaft? If we can force the doors, we might have luck climbin' about on the inside."

[neverbeamemory]

It's not long before Sephiroth also turns to the group of them gathering on the elevator-side of the room, but not before delivering both Asriel and Xehanort something of a quasi-irritated look. He could very well just switch over into Illusionist and damn well levitate up there too but there wasn't any need for him to advertise the fact; wasn't going to help them open the elevator door if it was somehow sealed shut.

"-provided, of course, that the carriage doesn't move while we would be inside there."

To be honest, he's in silent agreement with Papyrus here; this way didn't seem like it was taking them anywhere.

[einspine]

Ultimately, no amount of tinkering or exploring would yield fruitful results. It really is just a mirror image of the previous floor, which means that unless they wish to go through the entire tower on foot, best to head topside and see what they can find there. They may be on the bottom of the I.B. tower, relatively speaking, but the tower was vast, and they hadn't really explored more than the lower floors they were directed to.

Moreover, with the terminal now on the ceiling, digging through it would prove exceptionally difficult. However, the machine does seem to have a new, flashing image on screen, and if they look up, they might notice what appears to be a small nugget of information, if not much.

Namely, it's an image of what looks like a Magitek Tower floorplan and the top floor, Floor 100, complete with a terminal much like the one they had found before.

In fact, Papyrus is already hovering his way toward the stairs. "I THINK IF OUR EXPLORATIONS ELSEWHERE FAIL, WE COULD TRY TO PRY IT OPEN. I JUST THINK THAT WITH TIME OF THE ESSENCE, WE SHOULD SEEK OTHER OPTIONS FIRST! AND IF THIS TOWER IS UPSIDE DOWN, THAT MEANS WE'RE CURRENTLY ON THE 'TOP' FLOOR, SO WE'D HAVE TO WORK OUR WAY 'DOWN' ANYWAY..."

[hashtagdaddy]

"The Papyrus might be onto somethin'," Gladio huffs, irritation coloring his voice. He turns and heads towards the staircase, figuring that going somewhere else from the room they started in should yield something better than just an upside-down room.

As he walks he continues to take in the strange room and a flashing light catches his eye. Looking up, he spots the source and tries to figure out how to get someone up there. Though he doesn't have his sword, with Monk activated, his strength is through the roof. And if he could easily use his greatsword as a catapult for another full-size person (which he has absolutely done before), he should have no problem basically throwing someone up to the terminal on the roof/floor.

"Anyone wanna get a lift up there?" He spots a glimmer of silver hair and grins.

"Hey! Sephiroth! C'mere and let me toss you up there!"

[neverbeamemory]

Sephiroth steadily followed as Papyrus was making to leave the upside-down room; indeed there didn't seem to be much there left to see so it was best to look for other options.

He halted about half-way across the upside-down room as Gladio called out his name. How the other man learned his name was by-the-by really, but there was something about the suggestion that immediately pinged at Sephiroth's general intolerance of other people. Still, as he frowned the silver-haired man still drew closer to where Gladio was standing.

"Whatever for?" He allowed his distrustful gaze to come away from Gladio and look up to try and catch what had caught the others' eye. If there were anything, and it seemed worth it, he'd be able to levitate up to the ceiling.

[fixed_destiny]

Xehanort for his part, having not been looking for interesting little bits of blinking technology, has NOT spotted what's going on with Gladio suddenly wanting to throw Sephiroth at the ceiling like a pretty silver comet. This in no way means he isn't suddenly interested in seeing this happen, however, which means his progress towards leaving the room ends completely in favor of turning and seeing if he can spot what Gladio's after.

The question from Sephiroth, perfectly reasonable in its doubt about being tossed around, makes him raise one tanned finger and point. "Something up there is blinking." He can't tell what, his vision is painfully ordinary. "If you're technologically inclined, perhaps you might be able to tell what it is."

He's not volunteering. "It seems our friend is willing to help you .. or ah someone else, get up there to investigate."

'Friend' is being used very very loosely here, by the tone of voice. While his expression is utterly sober, there's just this bare edge of amusement to his words.

[hashtagdaddy]

It hadn't been hard to overhear the Sephiroth's name, but Gladio doesn't know this other stranger's name. So he simply nods.

"Yup, that's what I'm thinkin'. You look like someone who could figure out how to stay up there once you've been tossed."

He is 100% ready to get someone up to that terminal.

"Up for the challenge? Or are you too chicken?"

[neverbeamemory]

Not that Sephiroth wasn't naturally somewhat line-faced by default but there was a noticeable way his expression hardened as Gladio laid down the challenge; he heard it alright, even though he was looking up to where Xehanort had pointed at the time. He even seemed to narrow his eyes a little as he turned his attention back to those at ground level with him.

After a moment more of consideration he let out a huff of air through his nose as he picked the Slate out of his inside pocket to switch over to Illusionist; ready to cast Levitation no matter how high -or not- Gladio might be able to shift him.

"Alright. Let's have this almighty leg-up of yours, then."

[hashtagdaddy]

With a fierce grin Gladio lined himself up with the terminal and took a step back before settling into a squat.

Sephiroth has no way of knowing that with his natural strength he was able to rip solid-stone pillars from where they stood in caves and throw them at attacking enemies. So he has no reason to believe that a Monk, even with enhanced strength, would be able to toss a fully grown man straight up to the terminal on the floor-ceiling.

He cups his hands, palms facing upwards, and squats a little lower with his arms only slightly bent. "Step on up."

Gladio plans to launch Sephiroth like a missile.