World Tree MUSH

    The news spread fast when the whole 'zombie' thing happened. That's what the news is calling it anyway, despite InfoSec's attempts to keep it under wraps. Three entire blocks of the city have been cordoned off and evacuated... and considering this city is under a dome on Mars, that's a huge amount of living space that's now inaccessible. At least they aren't all skyscrapers, even if they're tall buildings.

    A number of people are wanting this investigated, for various reasons. Espionage, most of them, but there are some virtuous sorts. It's also easy enough to find a place to slip through, but getting solid information is hard.

    What all of the reports agree on: The Lazarus Company could revivify your body, make you younger and well again, without resleeving. And some months after their first customers, some of the people who died nearby - mostly homeless - started shuffling about, even while rotting. That last part might be an exaggeration, but something is making the police and even other megacorps panic. Good thing there wasn't a hospital in the area, but... rumor has it the influence is /spreading/ so that might not be true.

    It's weird to see the streets so desolate though. Finding a spot to slip in isn't hard, but talking to the cops is also an option.

Of course Holly got word about the company that could revive the dead into new bodies, she wonder if that extended to ghosts. It's likely a good thing that she hadn't heard about until recently giving the results. The witch never thought she would be on Mars. "That's strange, where's everyone? I would expect there to be a huge line if someone could revive the dead." Holly seemed to by herself except for Servis and Lavaux of course.

 "I can imagine it would be rather expensive to create a new body for someone, most people wouldn't be able to afford it." Servis was quick to point out to her.

 "Oh right, maybe they can do it on some kind of payment plan?" It was a lot easier for Holly to get around as she flew around on her broom looking for the Lazarus corporation. "Or they take chocolate coins, everyone likes chocolate coins."

    Scrapclaw heard about zombies. Her first thought was 'Ghouls,' the sometimes intelligent decaying people of her own world, and the comparison between that and people who regularly swap bodies to maintain their lives was an interesting one for her. When she arrives here in the city on Mars, she decided to do some info digging first. While she heard they were undead, she didn't want to hurt anyone that may just be in a fugue state or something. This was a unique instance where her own world made her more careful about being kind to people.

    She definitely suspects that company responsible for this is up to no good, probably cutting corners for the sake of profit.

    Scraps goes immediately to the authorities to ask how she can help. Having an enormous reptile do this might come as a shock to the locals, especially one that makes gieger counters click maybe slightly too much because of her previous exposure to ionizing radiation. She offers her expertise: Either her intuitive mind, or her physical abilities. She could restrain the 'zombies' for detainment without having to hurt them, and it's unlikely anything like a zombie would be able to bite or claw her and do anything approaching harm to her.

Emily Nyx has meaning to go and pester Kore about this interdimensional spate of shades, but she got sidetracked by the whole Van Patisserie business and then sat around for a solid month. When she finally made her way to this world, she was immediately distracted by this new situation.

Now, she floats out of a staticky portal in the form of an auburn-haired woman with glowing purple eyes, four arms, and a pair of curved horns sticking out of the side of her head; she's dressed in a pitch black sundress with a bone-white flower print pattern around the hem. She's smiling her amused and faintly smug smile ... although both the smugness and amusement seem to be slightly less than usual.

She lands behind Holly. "I don't think chocolate coins are valid currency in this sort of world," she says. "Hey, you three. I don't suppose you've heard anything noteworthy about the whole zombie situation going on here?"

She ... clearly doesn't have high hopes about this.

Temulin has been in a dome city, once. Delivering product to the Kojin. This is different, for one it's tall enough that she's got plenty of room to fly through, and it's also one of those hyur--human style big magi--regular tech-y cities that still make her feel slightly uncomfortable. She happens to end up landing near Emily and Holly, and takes a look around. "Here for the Ashkin, too?" She asks, "I heard there were something that sounded like Fomor about."

Like always when she's on business. She's wearing her heavy black armour.

    The click~clink~ click~clink~ click~clink of heels and spurs seem to resound almost all the louder through the desolate, empty streets don't they? Indeed, they do as Salome Highscribe slips her way through a weak spot in the cordon, her black cat following quick on her trail just behind her as she carelessly makes her way down a block or so, whistling to herself.
    "Zombies. Why is it always zombies with this client, Sally?" The cat asks.
    "Well, considerin' who she is an' all I'd be surprised if it wasn't zombies, for once. Or relevant to the dying, dead, and or dam-ned." The witch counters her feline Familiar's logic.
    "Think it's got anything to do with that 'Soul Rot' that Athena girl mentioned the last time?" Pierce, the cat, asks, whiskers twitching as he sniffs the air cautiously.
    "Maybe. Possibly. Potentially. Dunno." the elf replies mildly as she saunters her way right for the heart of the mess. She's heading for Lazarus, fingers tapping a merry rhythm on the butt of the gun at her belt.
    "I've had nothing but bad luck... Since the day I saw that cat at my door~o/`." She murmurs.
    "Hey- hey no- no no no- don't you start that. Don't start singing, not when there are zombies around. I don't want to be a snack." Pierce chides as they turn a corner.
    And run smack dab into the path of Holly Winn and Emily Nyx.
    "... Holly, hun' ... And I'm assumin' your four armed friend is my one and only Emily Nyx. Don't we just run into each other in the damnedest places?"

    "You want to go IN there?"

    Yeah, concern, along with a little fear. This world has been integrating steadily, so Scraps is... horrifying but not shocking, as a creature obviously from offworld. The officer's coworker leans in. "Look, we don't know anything about it and they want to help. Not going to stop them, we aren't liable for any trouble offworlders get into if they cross that line." He looks at Scraps. "Go on ahead. If you dig up anything useful and figure out what's causing this, I'm pretty sure we can scrounge up a reward of some kind. Just go in, see if you can figure out if this building really is the epicenter or not." A scribbled note is passed over, gingerly, with the address.

    Meanwhile, the others are gathering on the empty streets. Yes, empty... because of the evacuation. Doesn't look like there are any shambling zombies right here, but the stench of rotting flesh is pretty distinctive, and it's coming from the direction toward the center. If anyone wants to try to avoid it, that would be the longer route.

Holly lands upon hearing the familar voices and turns around, "Hi Emily, I like your look! I so can't wait for Halloween! They're not? That could be a problem." She sounds a bit concerned with that but she sounds a lot more serious about upon hearing Salome, "You're not still mad at me are you? I don't want throw up again. Oh and I'm sorry about what happened when your book and your sister." It's the first time she had seen the older witch since doing her research. "Ashkin? Fomor? Hmmm...fomor sounds kind like Former... could that be..." Then Salome's comment clears it up for her "Zombies?! That's not good." Especially when you're a beacon for the undead like Holly is.

 "So much for the new bodies, I guess Holly will have to do the punching," Lavaux had already figured this wouldn't work out.

"Well zombies are people too...but it would be bad if they cause an outbreak..." She sounds a bit conflicted here.

This is the first time Emily has heard the word 'ashkin' before, but it's clear to her from the context what Temulin is talking about. "I am!" she says. "... My context for the word 'Fomor' is very different from what you seem to be referring to, Temmie."

But she immediately brightens at Salome's arrival. "Salome!" she says. Yep, that's Emily's voice all right. "How've you been doing? I've been off being a 'hero'." She sounds like she's holding the word in tongs. Long, sarcastic tongs. Whoops, looks like she's gone back to full-on 'amused and faintly smug'.

She sniffs the air, and makes a face. "Yep, zombies it is!" she says irreverently. "Good thing I'm a machine."

... Although she immediately remembers the corpse of that YoRHa android who got partially eaten, and can't suppress a shudder.

She peers down the street, and then opens a large staticky portal which leads to an alleyway several blocks down which is just barely visible from where they're standing. Without hesitation, she steps through, leaving it open for those who want to follow her.

    "Oh, yes. It would be good to have currency other than these old bottlecaps." She pats at her clothing, and there's a metallic clinking in her pocket. Scraps nods to the authorities, and takes the paper with the address, quickly reading it with that slightly cocked gaze that reptiles do when really eyeballing something. Then she tucks it away with the rest of her stuff, and she draws a bulky-looking laser pistol out and clicks off the safety, the weapon gently glowing in her claws. Whrrrr.

    "Thank you. I should be back shortly. If I find the one responsible for the disruption, I will try to detain them for questioning." If only because it'd be more useful than blowing a smoking hole in their skull.

    Scraps heads toward the address, following street signs as she goes and comparing them to the piece of paper. As the scent of rotting flesh gets more distinct, she finds herself drooling... She pauses to wipe the drool off her maw with her sleeve, rumbling in displeasure. That was usually the chance for an easy meal where she's from. She'll restrain herself here, but instincts are a tricky thing to shake.

"Fomor, they're like Wights but they still have flesh on their bones." Temulin 'clarifies' her terminology. When she smells the stench of corpses, she sighs and puts one hand on her blade, "Playing at being a hero is quite enjoyable at times." She answers Emily next, "Shame it doesn't make any real gil." She shrugs, and asides to Holly. "Not sure we met. Temulin, of the Dotharl tribe. 'hero for hire,' 'adventurer,' 'mercenary,' or whatever your preferred phrase is for this kind of work."

    "My book?" The look of confusion on the elf's face is pretty blatant as she taps on her chin. "Ain't nothin' wrong with my book, I must have published that like a century ago." She considers, hearkening back on it before Holly makes a mistake.
    "What. About. My. Sister?"
    Salome's tone us absolutely glacial, mismatched eyes glimmering with a hatred that would sear down to the very soul if looks could kill, a hand twitching in the direction of her gunbelt. It must take her a herculean amount of willpower to not draw then and there on the younger witch.
    A slow breath and she regains her composure, clearing her throat pointedly. Once again the elder witch is all smiles, flashing a fanged grin to Emily.
    "Bein' a hero? How's that been going for you? I've just been off doing my usual. You know. Witch stuff. I solemnly swear I'm up to no good, et cetera."
    "Temulin' darlin'! you're here too. The life of adventure never ceases for you, does it?"
    Then Emily opens a portal. Salome's cat starts edging towards it, but she scruffs him.
    "Ah ah. We're not goin' that way, Pierce."
    "Is it because you're still holding a grudge over that one time?"
    "Damn right you know it is." She says as she gets walking.

    If people expected the streets to be full of shambling undead... that's not how it is. There are several, but not that many. People are panicking over a small number, but that's... probably better than ignoring the problem? It isn't clear if the Lazarus building is the SOURCE of the problem, but it sure is near the center, because there are a few zombies shuffling around that way. Emily sort of pops out right on top of them almost, but the others will need to figure out what to do.

    Not that they look so tough. They really are rotting and falling apart, but they gravitate toward Emily with groans and wild eyes... even though Emily doesn't smell like flesh.

    Scraps can avoid this if she wants, but she'll almost certainly hear any ruckus raised by this, if she wants to take a very slight detour.

"Maybe, it would be best if you don't bring up her up in front of Salome?" Servis notices the look that Holly receives and advises her.

 "What about the black hole though that's not going to go away on it's own? I've been reading books about magical black holes, but I haven't found a way to make them disappear yet." You have to give her credit for trying. She's not going through the portal, she wants to talk with Salome more. "You know you can be both a hero and a witch!"

 "I don't think you can convice her Holly, it would be best not to get on her bad side again." Servis tries to keep Holly from provoking Salome again.

 "Well, should I talk to her about? Being scary? The zombies?" Servis points his tail at Temulin, "Oh right, I'm Holly Winn! Happy to meet you!,Temulin!"

    Scraps follows the source of the rotting meat smell to the ruckus over there, and spots the portal crafter. "Try not to destroy the bodies. These people may still be alive," she tells Emily, and then...

    She advances and roughly manhandles one of the 'zombies,' trying to grasp it around the throat with one of her huge murder mitts. Then she'll turn it about and examine its level of decay and its faculties. Is it trying to attack her? Does it look like a feral ghoul? She would know the difference. She doesn't want to kill anyone if she can help it. That would just be rude.

    "Are you awake in there?" she asks of the zombie.

"My pleasure, miss Winn." The dark knight steps through the portal. Unlike Scraps, Temulin has no compunctions here. They look like ashkin, they act like ashkin and they most definitely smell like ashkin. And in her experience, brutally slaughtering ashkin is nothing a mercy. The one time she saw one recover he appeared to have gone proper insane from the ordeal.

As such, her blade is unsheathed, and she clads herself and her blade in darkness, the tiny knight swinging her blade in a wide ark to send a wave of darkness going, "Come at me." She yells, wading in aggressively and recklessly, confident she can weather their attacks.

>> SUMMARY[Temulin Dotharl] >> Wade in, start murderin'

Emily just smiles at Salome and Temulin's comment about heroics. She simply shrugs. "Eh. Really, I prefer being more honest about myself."

She peers at the approaching zombies. "Hmmmm." She raises her eyebrow at Scraps. "Oh, hey, haven't seen you since the animal disappearances. Yeah, don't worry, I know about that particular concern."

Her way of handling the zombies: she rises off the ground so that she's out of reasonable human reach. "There!" she says. "That particular problem is solved!" She does, however, watch to see if the zombie has an answer for Scraps.

She snickers at Temulin's enthusiasm, however. "Oh, good grief," she says, closing the portal so that the zombies can't get out.

    "Your ghost-friend is mighty observant. Let's never speak of my sister again." Salome replies. She can walk and talk, and so she does, lowering the brim of her hat to shroud over her eyes.
    Her hat is watching Holly the whole time.
    "Well of course you haven't found a way to close it yet." She says, pinpointing exactly what Holly means. "You don't have the formula used to make it in the first place.
    But then Salome wheels around, walking backwards as she waggles a finger.
    "Holly, witchcraft is a way of life for individuals, not the masses, and there's no point in you coming toward the Craft if you are a wimp, a follower, a coward, or a fool, as sorcery is both a practice and a priesthood, and it is not a garment that can be discarded when the going gets tough." She says while sauntering backwards. "It ain't about bein' good or evil, it's about what you do and what you aim to do. Now I have my means and you have yours, and my means do not involve 'being a hero'."
    That said, she turns around and- nearly runs into Scraps. "Lord almighty, you're that big lizard from back in Central Park." She says, realization dawning, before she draws her six-shooter.
    Giving the gun a lazy twirl she takes aim-- not for the zombies but for Temulin as she thumbs back the hammer and squeezes the trigger.
    The krak-THOOM of a bullet going off resounds through the streets, but it's not a bullet that hits the dark knight.
    It's a Haste spell.

    There aren't a lot of zombies, and Temulin finds they go... down easy? Sort of. Bones crack and they fall down, but then twist to get back into position, broken and less effective but still moving. Still, a dedicated smack with darkness can do damage... in fact it has a weird effect. The two that Temulin took on, one is struggling to get up and staggering weakly, moreso than the injuries would hint at. The other one, though, becomes more lively, rushing forward. Maybe Temulin will be glad for that Haste spell!

    Scraps has a different one. It's true there is a feral hunger in the eyes, but the arms are scrambling at her hide instead of teeth tearing. It's like she doesn't know how to feed, just randomly grabbing and clawing with no real effect. She doesn't smell like blood either, though there's a necrosis going on at the extremities.

Holly thought things between her parents and her would complicated. She follows Salome through the portal, "I read your book, I didn't understand all of it but I read it. Are you saying I'm not cut out to be a witch? But I'm practicing witchcraft my whole life! Granted I haven't lived nearly as long as you! It's my dream to be a great witch!" She does sound a bit shaken by Salome's comment.

 Her attention turns away from the older witch and towards the others in time to see Temulin get attacked, she raises her staff out and a paper chain of bats is conjured forth ensnaring the zombie.

Emily whirls around at the sound of that gunshot, but relaxes when she sees the spell. "Oh, okay," she murmurs. She furrows her brow. "Holly, I recommend dropping it," she says, sounding surprisingly earnest. "You 'n' Salome clearly have the mother of all differences of philosophies."

She regards the zombies, then looks around between those present, and then shrugs. "Releasing capacitor seals 3 and 2," she announces. Three distinct auras appear, one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent; the first two shatter, and the third fades. And then, in a swirl of what seems to be silvery glitter, her dress becomes a black longcoat, and two falchion swords appear in her upper hands.

She regards the fight. "Okay, stabberificating them doesn't seem to work, we should head over to the Lazarus building. That's where this all seems to be centered." Still floating out of reach, she starts making her way down the street towards the center of this mess.

    "Hnn. This isn't like a ghoul. Not intelligent, though... Not worth killing."

    Scraps rather rudely shoves the zombie to the side, and continues to the address. She spares a glance to Temulin's behavior, breathing a brief sigh through her snout. "Don't you want to know what's going on before you start hacking up meat like a butcher?" she criticizes, but does nothing more than that to stop the dark knight's onslaught. Instead she turns to find the building she needs to go to, and ignores the others for the most part. Even the zombies are irrelevant to her. At most she shoves them roughly by the face to the side, showing immense physical strength but a general apathy to the situation.

    "Are you mercenaries?" she wonders to the others, since they're all roughly on the same path now.

Emily shakes her head at Scraps's question. "Not me," she says cheerfully, "I'm just a pain."

    "No, Holly, that is not what I just said." Salome points out. "You have the potential of a great witch, but I do not have the potential, nor the time, nor inclinations of a hero." She says as she twirls her gun and stuffs it back in the holster and just starts... Following Scraps in the wake of the path she creates via zombie shoving.
    "Emily is most definitely a pain." She mirrors the Eudaemon. "As for me, I am simply a witch of ill repute."
    It looks like that haste spell was about as helpful as she intends to be, right now.

"Look, miss Winn. You're in the company of some bad people." Temulin answers, while keeping at fighting the zombies, though she's quite eager to cut them down if they will keep down, her priority is clearly keeping their attention, even when the lively one bites into her ankle she doesn't seem dissuaded, simply offering a kick as darkness seeps from the wound and reinforces her flesh.

"I'm a dark knight, I've done a lot of bad things back in the day. Trying to take a more balanced approach this time around, but we'll see, maybe I get bored of playing hero." She takes a look around the place, "Cities like this? They make me think." Beat, "Maybe it would be a good idea if the worlds were clenched in my iron fist, all those who disobey crushed beneath my plated boots."

    Well, the zombies, whatever they are, are hard to kill... but they aren't hard to stomp down long enough to move away, and in these numbers don't really have much threat level. Perhaps to normal civilians, yes, but any trained fighter, even a police officer, can restrain them and avoid damage. It's just the bizarre nature that is making everyone rightfully cautious.

    A blessed difference is that they aren't focused, and with the evacuation, there aren't armed guards to deal with. Possibly security systems, but the Lazarus building has just locked doors to go through. Since the front doors are tempered glass, they are difficult but not impossible to just bust through... unless another route is taken. After all, there is a fire escape and such.

"Well, I've done bad things before. I've stole decorations from the store, I've put Halloween costumes on people who didn't want them! I brought a creepy parade float to life!" Holly leaves out that the last one was to battle a giant evil squirrel. "We both want to get rid of the black hole though right? That's something we can agree on." Even if their beliefs were different they still shared a common goal.
"And I'm going to ignore you just said that. We should focus on the goals that we share!" Her attention turns Temulin, they were on the same side at least for the moment. If there's one thing that Holly is good it's breaking through things as she builds up some speed on her broom before smashing through the front doors.

Emily sputters with laughter at Temulin's takeover-talk. "Temmie, no," she says, as if Temulin were talking about pulling some kind of goofy prank. "The consequences for being a bad guy just stink!" Looks like she's falling back on that old self-justification ...

She pauses at the entrance, and puts her lower hands on her hips. "Hmm." She nods approvingly as Holly just Kool-Aid Mans her way through, and swoops down and floats after her.

    Scraps reaches the front door of the Lazarus building. She looks it over briefly, and examines the perimeter with something of a discerning gaze.

"If they are already outside, where did they come from? The doors were closed... Can these things even operate a door? They don't even know how to bite something right." Scraps searches around the building for the source of the zombies, to see where they poured out of. Was it a transport vehicle, perhaps? Maybe someone left a door open? It's worth finding out about it.

    She's just being thorough. "Moralizing," she complains under her breath, having caught fragments of what the others are discussing.

    Annnnd Holly gets the doors.
    Salome isn't even bothering with the zombies as she saunters on after the younger witch. But she DOES overbearingly put an arm over Holly's shoulder once through the door.
    "Holly, dear... Your average witch is not, by nature, a social animal... The natural size of a coven is one. Witches only get together when they can't avoid it."
    Oh hey she's walking on ahead inside now.

"Frankly, while it's tempting. I can't be bothered." Temulin answers to the objections, brushing it off, though she squints at Emily. "Call me Temmie again and you will find some consequences that stink." She adds with direct glare, and since darkness is still clinging to her and her armour, a cloying aura, that may be a bit more menacing than it would otherwise be from the short adventurer.

Onwards and inwards, still hacking away at any of the zombies that are near. "So, what's the difference between a witch and a black mage?" She asks, curiously, "I at least got the impression that witches are closest to that."

    Well, Holly chooses the direct route. It isn't EASY to punch through tempered glass, but a full speed broom charge? That'll do it. The glass doesn't shatter either though, instead busting apart into pebbles and sheets, making it reasonably safe for the others to follow.

    What everyone finds is that the place is clinically clean, but feels off. Every person here has some level of magical ability, barring Scraps, so the strange aura is easy to pick up. Like an oppressive murkiness, a wrongness that clings like a muggy day. The building is shut down, but that means it should be easy to access the employees only area.

    Scraps may not be able to feel that pressure, but she can figure out something is off. One of the zombies was a businesswoman, the other two looked like homeless vagrants. None of them looked like patients here, far too low income, even the businesswoman.

    Whatever caused this may have come from the building, but the zombies didn't come from here.

Emily actually looks genuinely contrite as Temulin tells her off for the nickname. "Sorry."

She grins at the oppressive atmosphere. "Okay, this does not feel good," she says. She pauses. "It would seem that the effect came from this building, but not the zombies themselves." She shrugs. "Still, y'know. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. What we're looking for is definitely here."

Without the slightest hesitation, or indeed any apparent concern for propriety, she just strolls right into the Employees Only section.

She's durable, so smashing through the doors isn't going to result anything more than a few bruises and a bit of soreness. "It's not a coven if there's just one person! Besides you wrote that magic is stronger in threes!" Holly didn't understand all of the book but she got that part. She doesn't object to Salome putting her arm around her, she's happy that the other witch is being at least somewhat friendly. "I don't really know about your world, but black mage sounds like it's limited to black magic. Witches can use any kind of magic in theory." She cringes a bit, not from crashing through the door but the wrongness.

 "I think there's some kind of magical side effect? Maybe from the same spells that make the zombies?" She nods in agreement with Emily as she follows her.

    "Victims. All of them." Scraps surmises this as she inspects the shamblers. They seem to only recently be decomposing, which tells her that something did this to them fairly recently. They aren't preserved and, if her understanding of the transhuman principles of this place are correct, they aren't the 'sleeves' that are being used. They're just random people, of perceived low value. Innocents. Which tells her this may have been deliberate, and that's not acceptable.

    She's killing whoever did this, if she gets the chance. Even a deathclaw can't tolerate such callous, selfish, objectively evil behavior.

    She follows after the others, deciding she's unlikely to find anything more by pursuing the victims of this crime. "None of those people were customers," she relays to the others. "They're lower class citizens at best. Targets of an experiment, I think, considering the advertising that went on before this incident. Their procedure may have a cost they were not upfront about."

    Emily talks about a 'feeling' she gets. Scraps cocks her head in a puzzled way. "... magic. Right."

"It's fine to make that mistake once, just don't make it twice." Temulin answers Emily, following the others along. "Black mages don't just use black magic, they also use thaumaturgy. At least, that's what the books say; they're long gone, though. They perished in some old war that led to a calamity." The dark knight explains, she's done some research, at least.

As for what's going on in here, Temulin is quite keen to let the experts figure it out.

    Yep, oppressive here. Even Scraps, with keen senses, can tell something is off here. Of course Emily immediately goes to the first Employee's Only door and finds herself in a broom closet.

    The SECOND door leads down a corridor, and here there are signs that /something/ went wrong. Doors are torn off their hinges, and the elevator shaft is sparking and flickering under emergency lighting, the actual shaft open. Something went very wrong here recently, though the rooms with the doors torn off look like fairly typical, if very advanced, operating rooms. All except that each has a strange machine with a tube coming up out of the floor, the tube pulsing with an odd bluish light. Obviously it leads to the basement.

Emily chortles and closes the broom closet, and glances back at Scraps. "Could be anything, really," she says. "It is written: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." She pauses. "Of course, both this blossom and the halcyon remnant I'm from have both. But I'm leaning towards actual magic in this case." She opens the next door. "Hmm ..."

She makes her way through the corridors, peering into the damaged rooms. And when she notices those machines with the tubes leading to the basement? She breaks into a very wide grin. "Iiiiiiiiinteresting!"

    Scraps pauses, taking out a leather-bound notebook and taking some notes about the strange machine that can be found in these rooms. She puts away the notebook and just... jumps down the elevator shaft, extending her claws to slow her descent against two of the walls. The sound is a deafening grind of unnaturally strong claws against concrete, or whatever the walls are made off.

    Seems she thinks the tubes are interesting, too, and is searching for what is fueling those devices.

    It isn't concrete on the walls, but some kind of compound similar to it, probably mixed from martian soil. Easy enough to brace against, but Scraps crashes right through the elevator ceiling. Her and the other investigators find just what they were looking for, though.

    Probably?

    Cold storage is still working, and several emaciated bodies are stored in frosting cylinders. Tubes are attached to them, leading to the center, a large glowing crystalline lattice. And on the floor, symbols etched into the flooring, spreading out in a wide pattern. Faint motes of light sometimes gather, then pulse outward as well.

    This close, those attuned can definitely feel the faint tug against their beings. Whatever this machine is, it's part magical, and is somehow playing with the life force itself.

There's a pause, and then a staticky portal opens up right behind Scraps and Emily pops out once again. She looks around at the bodies, at the machine, her smile widening beyond human limits. Gone is the amusement and smugness; what's left is pure triumph. "Aha," she says, putting away her swords. "Even I can feel that tug, and I'm not even entirely alive!"

"I'm guessing something happened in the basement? Well, technology doesn't tend to be unpredictable for me like magic but I'm not that familar with it." There's a difference for magic and technology from Holly. "I wouldn't be getting this strange feeling if it were caused by technology." She nods in agreement with Emily. She watchs Scraps crash through te elevator ceiling and follows her down. Her eyes grow wide as she sees the tubes and bends over in pain as she feels her magic begin to be drained.

 "Holly!" Both ghosts shout in unison.

    "... this is beyond me," Scraps says, indicating the magical glyphs that make up part of the chamber's makeup when she gets in there. She checks the tubes and she says, "Reminds me of records we found of one of Vault-Tec's experiments. Those people had no idea they were stepping into their own coffins. Wonder if they were kidnapped, or if they were tricked." Tink tink. She taps on the glass with her claw.

    "The question remains: Who did this? I'll look for the lead's office." She starts casing the joint for the desk of some self-important researcher so she can find the paper trail for the authorities, and so she can dig through their notes and find out the culpability here. She may even try to hack into a computer, but these ones are definitely going to be more advanced than what she's used to. Might take some time if she can even pull it off.

    If she can find an emergency shut-off, that'd be a big plus.