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| Under Pressure; Jean's Challenge | |
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| Topic Started: August 11, 2015, 6:45 pm (148 Views) | |
| Storyteller | August 11, 2015, 6:45 pm Post #1 |
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Date: March 14 Time: Evening Place: Jean’s room of Murderworld ![]() ![]() Jean’s door lead to a small room, only 3 feet by 5 feet that had one wall that was a widow into a metal cylinder. It looked like the kind of metal silo used to hold grain. Inside the silo area, there was a single door and also a small tunnel that looked just wide enough for a person to crawl through. The only thing inside her room was a screen on the back of the door. It turned on and showed the even smile and wavy red hair of Arcade. He clasp his hands together and brought them to his mouth. “Wonderful, just wonderful to see you Ms. Grey. I was excited when I got the commission to kill you all, but can you imagine how I felt when I was doing research and the lot of you and discovered you had been the vigilante hero of New York called Phoenix? You have fantastic potential, lets test it shall we?” In the room behind her the door opened and four of the factory workers and one of the cops shuffled into the silo. “They can’t see you, that window is one way. You might have noticed already that their minds are hard to reach. Maybe its silence or static, I’m not really sure how that will manifest, but I do know that I’ve suppressed telepathy in that space. Let’s cut to the chase. In about thirty seconds, a very large weight at the top of the silo will be released. When it reaches the ground your door will open. I suppose that everyone will get crushed unless you can hold it long enough for them to make it through that little scary claustrophobic tunnel. The room is sound proof, so you can’t talk to them and I suppose you could get your mind to punch a message through to them, but would that much focus make you drop the weight? See you in the next room hero.” The screen went black and there was only a moment for Jean to process what was said before the bolts holding the massive weight at the top of the silo disengaged and it plummeted towards the people trapped below. Tag:Phoenix |
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| Kevin | August 17, 2015, 11:19 am Post #2 |
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Character: Phoenix Date: March 14 Time: Evening Place: Murderworld As Jean stepped into the room (which was more like a closet), her telepathic connection to her allies had entirely dissipated. She couldn't be even remotely surprised, of course. Some megalomaniac with a pension for fucking things up was putting them through a warped survivalist game. Still though, her heart sunk at the silence. She wouldn't know who was making it through their games or who was... possibly dead. She couldn't think about it, though. Her focus had to stay strong. She had to get out of this as quickly as possible. She peered into the other room through the window-wall, spotting the door and tunnel. Okay...? But that's when the screen popped on the door and she turned to spot Arcade's face again. Immediately, Jean rolled her eyes and raised a casual middle finger to the ass who decided to have some murder-games with the Utopians. Again, how did he know who they were? Commission? He was an assassin being paid to kill them... Research on them? How would he have access? Sure, the Friends of Humanity knew the X-Men existed, but not who or where they actually were. The only people who actually knew of Utopia either lived on it... or were part of the top level security Division X. Surely they wouldn't have caused this... would they? This guy knew more about Jean than almost anyone. He was bringing up ten year old history, even! Knew that she was the Phoenix of New York City. Great. Could she have possibly crossed paths with him then? Was it accidentally her who held the responsibility of leading Arcade to them? All these thoughts and questions ran through her mind while she listened to his challenge. She noted the people walking in, and him talking about the weight crushing them. She could hold it. She rolled her eyes as Arcade just kept talking, and before his message was even over, she threw a bullwhip type telekinetic lash against the glass, strong, but utilized in a way that she didn't quite need to waste much energy. It shattered instantly, though remained intact for the most part. She tapped the glass against with a light telekinetic nudge, and the thick glass rained down to the ground in a jagged mess, just as Arcade's message came to an end. The weight was released as Jean strode into the room, boldly defiant of Arcade's warnings that the weight could crush them. It wasn't that she was shoving it into his face. It's that she wanted to keep the hostages safe and calm, to let them know that she wasn't going to let anything happen to them. She watched above her, again utilizing her telekinetics in more of a 'trick' than the obvious. She wasn't technically trying to lift the weight and hold it steady, but instead had attached four strong points of telekinetic energy around the walls that were iron clad and would act as wedges to hold the weight in place. She'd feel some pressure if it worked, but would not technically feel the full force of however much the weight weighed. And if that didn't work, of course she was still confident she'd be able to hold the weight itself. It was her telepathy that blew right now thanks to the mental blocks in place, but the omega level mutant was still in full control of her telekinesis. "That man named Arcade who claimed you were going to a break room? Yeah, he's trying to kill us. He says the only option is to get you all through that tiny tunnel there or you'll all die by being crushed. That's why I think we should all cram into that little room I just came out of. Once the weight hits the floor, that door opens and we can all leave." Tags: ST Edited by Kevin, August 17, 2015, 11:23 am.
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| Storyteller | August 19, 2015, 1:54 pm Post #3 |
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Date: March 14 Time: Evening Place: Jean’s room of Murderworld Arcade gawked a little at the feed from Jean's challenge. His prerecorded message hadn't even finished playing on her door and she was already in action. She cracked the wall and then shattered it and actually stepped through to hold the weight while she talked to the would be crushees. He'd known about her past as Phoenix, at least in the cursory details that Ms. Coriander hand gleaned and from what had been written about her in the papers. His control of the situations in Murderworld wasn't as complete as he'd like all of his prey to believe. He knew enough details about them to devise effective challenges and dropping enough intimate details to disconcert them. Ms. Coriander's powers were hard to focus to pick out specific details. It took weeks of trolling the clairvoyant mindscape, or whatever it was she did exactly, to get enough useful information. He couldn't ask for a person's favorite food and expect her to get the answer any time soon, or at all. That's why he'd carefully crafted the rate and ways they received information from him. All he had to do was maintain the illusion that he knew everything about them. Still, Jean had surprised him. He had expected someone might try and break out of a room through a window or such and would have enjoyed seeing the surprise on their face when they encountered the utter black nothingness that was the edge of the pocket dimension. Beyond the boundaries of the spaces Mr. Chambers pulled in, there was absolute nothingness. It was so absolute that it didn't even contain empty space, so to anyone's senses it actually appeared as a black so deep few had every experienced anything like it. It was impassible by any object or force since nothing could exist beyond it, but it didn't feel solid, it felt like nothing. Arcade had touched it once just to see and had felt a moment of madness as his mind tried to reconcile feeling nothing, felling that the surface of his hand had ceased to exist. That reaction he had expected, but he hadn't anticipated Jean breaking through to the civilians with so little time to plan. Still, he had contingencies. Part of him wanted to tell her that they still had to go through the tunnel like he had planned, but he couldn't do that. He had explicitly told her that her door would open when the weight reached the ground, and he didn't lie, not in Murderworld. The game was only fun if the rules were followed and he was the only one that could break them, so he had to hold himself to that standard. Arcade gasped and bounced in his throne. It was fantastic! She had surprised him, and really that was just a treat. He liked being in control, but he like playing even more and this game had taken a thrilling turn. He pressed a button and a hatch at the top of the silo opened and a torrent of grain rushed in, adding to the weight above Jean. In the silo with her, the workers were terrified, especially as the sound of sliding metal above them echoed down the cylinder, but the police officer was on his game. He'd had training, he reacted under pressure and without hesitation, he started herding the other four people through the broken window into the room Jean had come out of. He didn't know if she was a victim like them or perhaps some kind of mole planted to gain their trust and then turn on them. At that exact moment, it didn't matter. She was apparently holding up something that had started to fall on them. That moment wasn't the time to question her or push for a reason to trust. After everyone was through he followed and turned back to Jean. "We're all through Miss, thanks." Tag:Phoenix |
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| Kevin | August 26, 2015, 10:46 pm Post #4 |
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Character: Phoenix Date: March 14 Time: Evening Place: Murderworld While Jean was utilizing her telekinesis in a way that relieved her of a lot of pressure she might otherwise have thanks to the few wedges she'd put in, preventing the weight from actually fitting as opposed to bearing the actual weight of it, she could still feel the force of whatever it was that was quickly adding weight. These wedges definitely weren't iron clad or invincible, though, and with enough pressure... the likelihood of them shattering would increase. Fortunately, she didn't really need to worry about that. The four factory workers and the cop all agreed to her suggestion without much fighting or deliberation. She wasn't sure how to really convey her appreciation, especially when she was focusing on preventing their deaths, but with them through to the other room, Jean nodded a chin and offered a quiet, "Thanks." She followed the five innocents and though crowded, they at least would survive this round... that was, of course, if Arcade wasn't a liar. Naturally, she had zero trust of this guy, but if he locked them in there, she would absolutely tear the entire facility apart. Given that her telepathy was weakened, that she could no longer sense her comrades, and that this guy seemed to have taken everyone out of their home reality... it was still in her best interest to play along. They all had a chance to get through these obstacles without much risk. Or, so she hoped. She apparently had more challenges ahead of her. As soon as she was through, Jean threw up a telekinetic field within the gaping hole where the window should have been and finally released her wedges and allow the weight to drop to the floor. According to Arcade, that would unlock the door. "We played your game, Arcade..." she grumbled under her breath, "now we better be safe..." Tags: ST |
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| Storyteller | September 6, 2015, 4:20 pm Post #5 |
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Date: March 14 Time: Evening Location: Murderworld: Jean's Room Despite what many of the participants in Murderworld would believe, Arcade was a man of his word. Yes, his goal was to have all of them die, but if he had simply wanted to murder them, they would already be dead. No he created Murderworld to play games and games were no fun if you cheated. He wanted to win, but more than that he enjoyed the game and it would be ruined if he cheated, so as promised he would let them out. His face appeared on the screen attached to the single door in the now extremely cramped room. He looked surprised but pleased. "I can honestly say I wasn't expecting that. How simply delightful. I said when the weight was on the ground, the door would unlock, and so it will." There was a click and the door opened ever so slightly. "You may exit this room now. The next challenge is not ready yet as Scott hasn't finished or failed his challenge yet and you have far more people with you than I was expecting. So please take a moment to rest in the next room while that is set up. It shouldn't take much more than five minutes or so." His face vanished from the screen. Beyond the door was not the factory Jean had entered from. Instead it was some kind of waiting room like the kind found at a doctor's office. The chairs in it were padded and covered with a neutral light blue print. The room was pristine clean and still had a trace of the acrid smell of new carpet. It was well lit but not bright and faint classical music was playing. The workers rushed into the room and all congregated in a corner, huddling together. The police officer approached Jean after she entered. "I suppose we owe you our lives for that, so please excuse my bluntness but who the hell are you and what is going on?" He was a middle aged man, bits of grey starting to creep into the hair above he ears and his woolly caterpillar mustache. The look his steel eyes had trained on her wasn't accusatory, but it was demanding. They all had no idea what was going on and then some lady that could save them from being crushed by no visible means appeared to save them. If anyone had an idea what was going on, it would be her. Tag: Jean |
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| Kevin | September 8, 2015, 3:29 pm Post #6 |
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Character: Phoenix Date: March 14 Time: Evening Place: Murderworld Jean rolled her eyes the moment she saw Arcade's mug hit the screen, and while she was pleased he was keeping up with his end, she knew there was more to get through. And apparently... her next challenge had something to do with Scott. She followed the workers and the officer into the next room, and while she'd intended on making a bold move, she had an officer in her face demanding answers. As if she even really knew what the hell was going on. And there were a lot of things to consider when answering the man. First of all, he could be a mole Arcade injected upon her to try and sabotage her or get more information out of her than necessary. With her telepathy even more crippled than it already was, it was hard to get even a basic read on the guy. Plus, they had all just seen a mutant be not-a-mutant, and actually a robot. A fucking robot. Because why not? "That man? Arcade? He wants me and my people dead. Someone's paying him to try to kill us. We're the good guys, and he's exploiting our job - to help people - and trying to make it our weakness. But nobody's dying today." She turned away from him look around at the walls for some sort of camera or audio recorder. "You hear me, Arcade? I did your game. These people aren't part of it anymore. I'm not stepping foot in the next room until I know these people will be safe." |
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3:20 AM Jul 11