I1: Once Upon A Time In Madripoor

by **John Hino** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:20 pm

John blinks off brief dizziness, his mind slowly putting things together.

Oh fuck me...

"Muse, I presume," he said calmly, "Or should I call you Melpomene?"

by **Melpomene** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:26 pm

"I see your little tangle with Rail hasn't affected your mental faculties too much. Miss Kumo was very insistent that we don't harm you too much should you show up in Madripoor. Not that I don't appreciate a personal vendetta, but it does bother me when it threatens to interrupt my own business endeavors, you know?"

by **John Hino** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:36 pm

"So she wants me alive while she brings my family down? Good to know."

by **Melpomene** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:47 pm

"Petty, isn't it? But she's big on that. Sin's of the forefathers kind of thing. I'm sure she'll tell you all about that. Personally I find family history quite tedious and frankly the woman offends me. Forget I said that, by the way." she says, just to see how John reacts at the allusion to messing with his thoughts. "But fortunately that makes you quite the bargaining chip. I do enjoy useful people."

by **John Hino** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:47 am

John was too busy reacting to the confirmation of Kumo's cult connection to be subtly toyed with.

"You can't get in her head, can you?" he asked. What else would offend Melpomene?

by **Melpomene** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 2:16 pm

"No, but everyone at the Club has their ways to ensure they keep their little secrets. It's a matter of professional courtesy to ignore the knifes at each others throats. It's a precarious balance and I wouldn't dream of upsetting it. It's her insistence on the importance of bloodlines and heritage that sickens me. I reckon she would have felt right at home in the Great Japanese Empire. But regardless of her motivations, she has her sights set on you and I can respect that. Which brings me to the question of what to do with you..."

by **John Hino** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 3:03 pm

"Anything I could trade for my own release? She hasn't stripped my resources just yet."

He hated himself for offering, but saw no alternative.

by **Melpomene** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 3:26 pm

"I don't care for your money, it's about to be redistributed anyway. Your knowledge about Yui Kumo is much more valuable, though I believe I've already seen what I need to know. Unfortunately that means my hands are bound since I do not wish to trifle with these things. You'll just have to remain here while we decide how to proceed."

by **John Hino** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:22 pm

"And who is we? You and Hereford? Or is he your puppet too? I never could figure out his motive."

by **Melpomene** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:30 pm

"The Club. And I rather think he would take offense to being called my puppet. Believe it or not, some people are loyal to me without requiring further encouragement. He's a dear friend of mine. Now, is there any way I could accommodate you during your stay? There's no need to make this needlessly uncomfortable for you."

by **John Hino** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 7:49 pm

"At the moment I can't think of anything you'd actually give me."

by **Melpomene** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 8:04 pm

"So presumptuous. But no, I can't give you anything that would allow you to escape. But that doesn't mean you have to be miserable. Food, drink, entertainment. Company if you'd care to indulge in that sort of thing."

by **John Hino** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 8:27 pm

"Most of my entertainment requires an internet connection."

by **Melpomene** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:08 pm

"Well, if you change your mind just tell Rail." she says, not dignifying that with a comment.

by **John Hino** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:38 pm

"Actually... books if you have any." 'That aren't disturbing as hell you crazy bitch' went unthought.

by **Melpomene** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:43 pm

"That can certainly be arranged." she says, getting up and straightening out her dress. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some business to take care of. Rail." she calls out and the masked woman steps into the room again, motioning for John. She looks like she's putting a lot of effort into not letting John notice how exhausted she still seems to be.

by **John Hino** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:50 pm

John walked to Rail, noting her exhaustion. He might be able to take advantage of that later.

by **Rail** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:32 pm

She leads him out of a room and to a set of elevators. By the look of things they seem to be in a hotel. Down the hall and past the lobby he might be able to see open doors leading into a casino. Before the thought of making a break for it can take hold too much Rail nudges him between the ribs with a pen, which would seem much less threatening if it wasn't for her power. They silently take the elevator up and she leads him to one of the hotel rooms. There's no handle on the inside of the very thick door and a very keen eye might spot that the room seems slightly smaller than the spacing of the doors in the corridor would suggest. Reinforced walls, presumably. There's a phone and a TV in the room that are wired directly into the wall and no other electrical sockets. The big window seems to be made from security glass and there's no balcony. The view across the brightly lit skyline of Madripoor is stunning though.

"Just pick up the phone if you need anything. Don't bother dialing, it only goes to the one line anyway." she says, glowering at John.

by **John Hino** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:57 pm

"I hope you eventually realize that I'm not the monster here."

by **Rail** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 5:01 pm

"We're just giving these people a future. You have no idea what it's like in Lowtown."

by **John Hino** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 6:59 pm

He knew it was a long shot, but he had to try.

"No. I don't. But Muse isn't your friend. She's a murderer and a powerful telepath with no respect for free will. She's perverted your cause into the exact opposite of what you want and I think deep down you know something's wrong. I saw you fight her hold on you, if only for a moment."

by **Rail** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 7:45 pm

"You can't honestly believe that this place is worse than the slums." she tries to brush him off, an almost contemplative frown on her face as she turns to leave.

by **John Hino** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 8:17 pm

"We aren't defined by where we're born, but by what we do when given a choice. What are we when choice is eliminated?"

by **Rail** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 8:26 pm

"Not all of us have the luxury of ignoring the place we came from." she says and punches a button outside in the hall that makes the door swing shut.

by **John Hino** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 8:53 pm

John sighed and examined the view, mostly to see what was below in case he actually managed to be able to break the window.

by **Narrator** » Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:26 pm

He's at least 20 stories up, possibly more. Below him is the entrance to the hotel and a busy street. The side of the hotel doesn't seem to have too many places to use to climb on, most of it being a sheer glass front.

by **John Hino** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:32 am

It was times like this that he wished he had wings. He then looked around for anything he could use to help himself. Perhaps he could MacGuyver something with tv and phone.

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:56 am

The phone is cordless and sitting in a charging bay. Even without tools it's not particularly hard, especially for someone like John, to crack the casing and take it apart. The TV is mounted to the wall but while the later is very sturdy, the TV is just a standard plasma TV and easily torn from the wall. That leaves John with various electronics, among them a wireless port from the phone, batteries, display chips from the TV, various input components from the remote and the phone. Plus a series of wires that connected the two devices to the phone lines and the TV signal respectively.

by **John Hino** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 1:59 pm

He then examined the door and surrounding wall thoroughly, including checking for hollow places where mechanisms or wires might hide.

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 2:10 pm

There don't seem to be too many hollow spots. Here and there he can find small ones, presumably where the door mechanisms are. The spots are still reinforced but certainly weaker than the rest of the walls.

by **John Hino** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 2:28 pm

John picked a weaker spot and hammered at to try and expose what was underneath.

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:02 pm

It takes some work to punch his way through the metal concealed behind the wallpaper and drywall, but after a while he manages to pry it open and reveal the mechanism that opens and closes the door. It looks to be some kind of magnetic-seal based system.

by **John Hino** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:27 pm

John smirked and went about cobbling together an electromagnet of his own. Once finished, he positioned the device and gave it power. He moved it around and reversed its polarity in an effort to trick the system into a polarity reversal.

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:29 pm

There's a faint clicking sound as one of the seals disengages. The door doesn't open though, at least not by itself.

by **John Hino** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:42 pm

John repeated the process to disengage a couple more seals and tried forcing the door open.

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:51 pm

He can't get to all of them, but after disengaging some of them he finds he is able to force the door open. Unfortunately when he does move the door an inch it produces an unfortunate grinding noise as the door is moved against the magnetic clamps that are still engaged.

by **John Hino** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:48 pm

John backed off and thought it out. Then he assembled an arm to slide through and reach the button.

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:10 pm

It takes some poking around but after a while he manages to reach the panel. Unfortunately it requires a security code and beeps an error tone at John when random buttons are pushed, followed by what would be a shutdown protocol. Fortunately, John's messing with the magnetic locks means the system thinks the door is open while the remaining locks signal it's closed, which results in conflicting directions in which the locking mechanism is trying to move the door. When half of the mechanism tries to close it more than it already is it slams into the frame and is forced out of alignment, at which point the entire panel that is the door falls inward into the room.

by **John Hino** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:24 pm

John was almost too surprised to catch the panel before it hit the ground and alerted someone. He gently laid it down before he stepped out and began retracing his steps to the exit he saw, mindful of cameras and guards However he also looked closely at every door he saw in case something important stood out.

by **Narrator** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:46 pm

Finding his way to the elevator is simple enough and the floor appears to be deserted. At least no one is in the halls. However he remembers that the elevator just opens more or less right into the lobby at the ground level, which doesn't make for a very hidden escape route.

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