Editing Setting:CATastrophe/Writefaggotry (section)

==The Lady of the Lab, by Maestro==

[[Image:CATastropheWritefag1.png|thumb|300px|From left: Allec, Mata, Renner, Bean]]
'''''Author's Notes:''' The story is also a thinly veiled proposal for a "dungeon" run. It can probably be fleshed out as needed from the details I provide, but this will tell you what happens when you go in through the front door. It's also a (hopefully rare) case of the party finding a completely unbroken piece of advanced Earless tech.''

''Here's my party again, this time labelled with the names I'm going to be using.''

----

Allec made a hand signal and pointed. ''Right there, that's it.''

Renner and Mata followed the direction of his finger, while Bean swam down beneath them to get a better view. The giant building they were hovering over did not quite have the look of the Earless' usual constructions; it seemed to have been built actually in the water, or with the knowledge that the site it stood upon would be underwater some day. The old Inumi on the island had been right about that. What made Bean nervous (and Mata too, though she was too much the stoic to show it) was what else the Inumi had told them:

"We haven't been back down there in years, not since I was a pup. There's no Oldguard in the area, but there's something else inside -- something whose nature I can't even begin to guess. My sister heard it calling out once, the last time we were down… and to this day, she says it sounded like a ghost."

Ghost indeed! Renner would have snorted, had the scuba mask permitted it. There was fear of the Oldguard, and there was fear of the outright supernatural; one was just natural caution against a proven threat, and the other was an overreaction to the unknown. They'd just have to be extra careful, that was all.

If this counted as careful. They were doing something that the superstitious islander had warned against: "We think that ''it'', whatever it really is, is confined to the main entry. That's why we stuck to using the alternate entrances around the back." Thanks to the design of the place, it was impossible to mistake which of the entrances was the actual front door; it was a gargantuan hatch, its seam running horizontally across the middle. And they were swimming straight towards it.

As they arrived, Renner gave a few hand signals of his own, and the other three members of his diving party began examining the edges of the door frame, looking for some kind of way in. Allec dove down to investigate the bottom edge, his fox tail rippling behind him like a banner in a high wind; the two girls moved to the sides, and Renner himself to the top.

It was Bean who found a panel, off to her side of the door; there was no knob or handle on it, but it swung gently open when she pushed hard against it. She waved to the others (shaking her head to get her oversized ears in on the action), and Mata floated over to help her examine it. Mata's knowledge of the Earless' devices, though rudimentary, promptly inspired her course of action -- her hand ran down the array of buttons and levers the panel had concealed, found a lever with traces of red paint still on it, and pulled it.

An alarm went off, the horn bleating loudly and repetitively even underwater, and a series of small but very bright red lights suddenly switched on all around the perimeter of the door. The power was still on? Well, so much for the possibility of making their entrance without drawing the attention of the unknown thing that lived here.

The two doors of the hatch hissed and began to open outward, one rising and the other swinging downward. A passing school of fish scattered and fled at the noise and movement; Renner and Allec kicked off the side of the building and paddled furiously to get out of the way. The doors continued to swing until they stood out horizontal, perpendicular to the wall. Mata and Bean, staring through the doorway, could see nothing at first; all was dark within -- and then the lights came on, a brilliant and almost blinding white. The divers took this as an invitation, and moved in as one.

The walls and floor of the inner chamber appeared to be of metal and concrete, but there was no trace of any natural growth on them: no kelp, no coral, and nowhere near the amount of algae it should have had. Some of the lights were affixed to the ceiling, but a great many of them were embedded in the walls. The divers floated in the middle of the chamber, uncertain as to how to proceed.

The sound of the alarm suddenly changed from a loud, blatting horn to a quieter beeping tone. A loud creak of metal came from behind, and Bean spun around in the water to see the hatch beginning to swing closed; she began swimming nervously back toward the entrance, but Allec grabbed hold of her leg and shook his head. He gave another signal: ''Wait.''

The hatch clanged shut, hissing loudly as it did so. For the first time, the adventurers noticed the green lights lining the inside of the door frame; as they watched, these lights went out and were replaced by red ones. The lights in the walls began to dim, while the ones in the ceiling grew brighter. There was a loud gurgling and whooshing noise -- and the divers looked up to see that air was beginning to fill the uppermost part of the chamber as the ocean water receded. The room appeared to have two separate levels, and they settled down in the lower one, among a set of metallic rails jutting up from the floor; Renner had time to wonder: ''What are those doing there? It looks as though some sort of vehicle's supposed to land here…'' It would certainly explain the gantry that extended over one side of the lower level -- evidently a walkway.

The water level continued to drop, surprisingly fast, and they soon found themselves seated or standing on a relatively dry and slip-proof floor. Mata made a quick gesture to everyone, then removed the rebreather mouthpiece from her mouth and slowly inhaled.

"Well?" Allec asked, severely muffled by his own mask.

"A little stale, but it's okay," Mata said. "I don't think we'll have any problem breathing this."

This pronouncement was met with sighs of relief, as her companions began to shrug off their diving kits; they stripped off their masks, swim fins, and the harnesses of their air supplies, and stacked them against the nearest wall. Allec wrung his long hair out, then moved on to trying to squeeze the water out of his sodden tail; Renner and Mata did the same with theirs. Bean didn't have a tail long enough to make this necessary, but she did run her hands over her long ears, sweeping excess water out of the fur.

Allec was examining their surroundings closely. "So," he said, "what's our first move?"

Renner pointed. "Up that ladder, I think, and examine the rest of this room first. Then we'll move on to exploring the rest of the joint."

"Well, duh." Mata shrugged. "I mean, what else ''can'' we do?"

The ladder was a series of rails, like giant staples, built into the wall. Bean was the closest, and the first up. "Ah… Now ''this'' looks like it needs investigation!"

The others heard the sound of Shiny in her voice, and followed her up the ladder with enthusiasm; by the time they had all reached the upper level, Bean was already across the room, examining a row of lockers against the wall that appeared to be watertight. One was already open, and still slightly wet inside like the floor. ''I'm guessing that one wasn't sealed properly,'' thought Renner.

The Usami tried the latches of all the lockers, finding one or two unlocked. Her ears drooped in disappointment. "Sorry, guys," she said. "No shiny here. The lockers themselves might float if they weren't stuck to the wall, but that's about it."

"Wonder if someone already searched this room," said Allec, examining a lifebuoy held by clamps to the nearest wall. Stylized letters in the Earless fashion were printed around its circumference; reading them, he wondered what '''SCRIPPS''' meant, or whether it might be someone's name.

There was a hiss from the opposite wall, and Mata's voice spoke up. "Hey! Found these!" Allec and Renner turned; a watertight panel had opened at Mata's touch, and the black-haired Nekomi was holding two handfuls of uninflated life jackets. "It could come in handy in an emergency… You never know, right?"

"Could probably make a little dosh back on the island, sellin'em," Allec grinned.

"We'll consider it," said Renner. "In the meantime, let's go exploring. Who knows, maybe we'll get some ''actual'' shiny out of this -- the old guy did say there were parts of this place nobody ever went into."

"Yeah, including the front entrance." Bean shivered a little, and her tail twitched anxiously. "Let's do this quick and quiet, okay? I don't wanna run into… whatever's down here."

"Probably just superstition," Allec said. "Nothing could live down here that long."

Another door, this one closer to Kemomimi proportions, was set in the far wall. There was a ring of red lights around this one as well. "How do we open this thing, then?" said Bean.

"I'm guessing this has something to do with it." Mata pointed to a softly glowing panel positioned by the door. It was colored red, but when she placed her hand against it, the color cycled from red, through blue, to green. The lights around the door turned green simultaneously with the panel; a soft chime rang out, and the door hissed open loudly, withdrawing straight up into the wall.

"So is anybody else freaked out by the fact that everything still ''works'' down here?" said Allec.

"Yeah, I know," Renner replied. "Everybody keep your eyes and ears open, you dig?"

"Aw, ''shit!''" Bean quickly reached up to her own ears and pulled out her waterproof earplugs; she smiled bashfully, tucking them away in her bikini top. "Sorry about that. Thanks for reminding me."

The door was wide enough for them to proceed through, two by two. Mata and Renner went first, with the others following close behind. Perhaps they followed a little too closely -- when the pair in front came to a sudden stop at the other end of the short corridor, Bean and Allec almost walked straight into them.

"What are you doing?!" spluttered Allec.

"Dude…" Renner said. "Shut up and look at this." He stepped forward, allowing the Kemomimi behind him a better look, and Allec's jaw dropped open.

The corridor opened up into a large entrance hall, roughly the shape of a cylinder, with a gently rising domed ceiling. At the apex of the dome was a massive skylight, crisscrossed with a tracery of steelwork, that bathed the interior in a shimmering blue; the blue was enhanced by a series of wall sconces, giving off a pale bluish-white light. Two larger corridors forked off, leading out of the room into other parts of the building. Of the remaining wall space, one portion was taken up by a massive map of the facility, while another portion bore two massive circular logos, mounted to the wall; one appeared to be a symbolic representation of a kelp forest, while the other seemed to be a globe. (Not a very accurate globe, of course; the outlines of the continents were ludicrously oversized.) Beneath them, in stylized lettering, again appeared the mysterious name '''SCRIPPS'''. There was a large hemispherical alcove at the opposite end of the room from where the divers stood, with what appeared to be a desk or a wide, semicircular podium in front of it; the back wall was covered with screens, all of them either turned off or glowing a dull gray.

"What is this place, anyhow?" said Mata, with a definite touch of awe in her voice. "What'd they use it for?"

"Maybe this'll tell us," Allec said; he maneuvered around Mata and walked over to peruse the map.

"One thing's for sure," Bean said, following him. "These folks certainly liked circles."

Renner's eyes passed over the room's contents again, then moved down to the floor. "Man, look at all this dust. When they said nobody's been down here in ages, they weren't kidding."

Bean lifted a foot to brush off the gray film that had accumulated on its wet sole; Allec did likewise.

"What do you suppose ''that'' is?" Mata asked, waving a hand in the direction of the darkened alcove.

"Well, let's investigate," said Renner, moving to do just that. "We can cover this room, then move on to the rest of the building."

"Not till I'm done memorizing this," Allec interjected, his eyes still fixed on the map. "Just for safety's sake."

The podium standing before the alcove, Renner saw, had a word written across it in one of the old Earless scripts, but it wasn't any word he was familiar with:

''' NFORM TI N'''

At the foot of the desk, an I, an A, and an O lay on the floor; that was enough to enable him to reconstruct the word. "Information?" he said aloud, then looked up. He knew what that meant, but nothing here looked as though it would be capable of providing much information. The screens, as in most Earless ruins, were dead, and behind the desk (the surface of which, he now noticed, was covered in buttons) there was no chair, just a small circular pedestal, of the kind you'd usually set a vase or something on. The topmost surface of it, though a little dusty, was unusually white and reflective, and upon it rested several strange gadgets; they looked more like gloves or gauntlets than anything else, mechanical hands that retained a dull, dusty polish -- golden hands with silver fingers.

A single button was flashing, bright blue, on the top panel of the desk. Mata pointed it out: "What do you think?"

"…Yeah," said Renner. "We might as well--" Before he could say anything, Mata had reached out and pressed it. "What'd you do ''that'' for?!" he said indignantly.

"I thought you said we might as well," retorted Mata. "Make up your mind!"

A loud humming arose from the pedestal behind the desk, causing all four of the adventurers to prick up their ears. There came a flash of light from the wall of screens in the alcove as they all simultaneously turned on; the screens began to cycle through pastel colors -- soft blue, soft purple, soft green, and back to blue -- and the logos from the other wall appeared on each of them, somehow appearing to orbit each other.

"Hey," said Bean unsteadily, "what's going o--"

The uppermost surface of the pedestal suddenly turned a radiant white, and the humming increased in volume for a few seconds, as though there was some old machinery turning on beneath the floor. The humming quickly grew quieter, the surface of the pedestal ceased to be blindingly bright (though the light did not die out entirely) -- and an image began to appear, impossibly, in the air above it.

The Kemomimi gaped as the image wavered blurrily before them. At first its shape was hard to make out; in a matter of seconds, though, it resolved itself into a translucent picture of what seemed to be the head and limbless torso of an Earless. It glowed a warm orange all over, except for two shining points of silver at each of the shoulders (where the arms should have been), two more on the sides of the head, and an alternating blue and green pulse of light at the neck.

Allec, who had been approaching the desk, leapt back in an instant and shrieked in a most un-Allec-like voice: "What the f-- ''Look out, they're MOVING!''" Renner and Mata blinked, staring mutely down at the pedestal, then gasped and jumped back as well. Bean, who had not bothered to look before jumping away, peered timidly around Renner's shoulder.

The six gauntlets rose gracefully from the podium and hovered in the air before the blurred, armless image. The fingers on each hand flexed, slowly curling and uncurling, as if shaking out the soreness of long disuse.

The head of the image came into sharp focus as the hands worked off their stiffness. It was a woman's head, but almost a cartoonish simplification of the real thing: there was a gentle protrusion in the middle of her face, but no actual nose to speak of; the eyes, though closed, were just a little too large to be credible; the eyebrows and the point of the chin were too neatly drawn; and the thing's long bangs were blatantly unreal, for they hung before the face in solid, flat wings of hair. It -- ''she'' -- appeared to be an Earless, judging by the lack of ears atop her head, but the glimmer to either side of her face revealed itself as a shining silver pair of earphones, with what looked like a radio antenna sticking out the back of each cup.

[[Image:CATastropheWritefag2.png|thumb|left|250px]]
Now the rest of the thing came out of the blur. It was definitely intended to be female, but you could only tell by the general shape -- as with the face and hair, there was a distinct lack of realistic detail to it. The hands changed their position: one pair moved down to the rows of buttons covering the desk and waited there patiently; the other two pairs clasped themselves together politely, even primly, at about the chest level of the translucent woman-thing. The creature's eyes opened, sclera glowing a mellower, lighter yellow-orange behind the deep orange of the irises. It examined each of the divers briefly, then abruptly broke into a cheerful smile and spoke, its lips moving in synchronization with a voice that emanated from within the pedestal itself:

"Good afternoon! My name is Arachne Forty-Seven, and I'm delighted to welcome you to the Scripps Oceanographic Institution's Mid-North Pacific Offshore Laboratory and Museum! I hope the submersible ride down today was a pleasant one…" As the thing spoke, it swept two of the hands, no, ''she'' swept ''her'' hands out in a magnanimous arc that took in the entire room; the movement of her shoulders made it seem as though the hands were connected to her by invisible arms. "I'm afraid none of the staff are available at the moment to give you a tour of our facility, but I would be pleased to assist you with any inquiries which you may happen to have. Is there anything you would like to ask me about today?"

The divers were fairly shocked (not to mention confused) by the voice's smooth, rapid-fire spiel,  but not too shocked to self-consciously glance at each other, asking with their eyes which of them would be first to speak up and address the thing. As if by arrangement, the eyes of the other three rested hopefully on Renner, who sighed and stepped forward. The face of the woman-thing -- of Arachne -- bore a wide and endearingly confident grin as he began to ask his first question…

(See also: [[CATastrophe/Arachne Scripps]])