No time to hesitate, Lyla crouches into the other stairwell, listening intently. She gathers her patience and with the help of a corner camera embedded on her sleeve, she takes a peek at the exchange infront of the cells. Maybe they'd give her some insight how the cells operated, or give her an opening to attack and thus get the cell to stay open. Either or, there was no point rushing away just yet.

"It's not a game." The Abyssal tells him, and then he walks right through the forcefield and the bars.  There's the wet smack of armored fist on flesh and a gout of fire stopped by the cell.  The Abyssal steps back out of the cell, his fist dripping blood.

"The Neverborn require subservience, Swan Dragon.  That means you sit still and be quiet."  He turns and points a finger back at the cell, "I don't like hurting you, damn it!  But I'll keep doing it until you comply."

"Oh, I'm not teaching YOU,"  Swan Dragon cackles despite what are no doubt some serious wounds, "You're not a learner, Warden of Despair!  Other people do learn, though."

"But you'll teach."

"Yes, I will teach."

"You will teach," The Warden points a bloody finger at the cell, "the secrets of fire essence to Cygnus and the Gunzosha?"

"I said I will teach."

The Warden looks surprised. "... Why the change of heart?"

"I never said I'll teach your men!" Another gout of fire blocks off the cell.

The Warden's hands twitch.  He almost moves to reenter the cell but he looks at his other Gunzosha, obviously annoyed.  "Keep up your rounds," He orders them, "I'm going to go blow off some steam."

The Gunzosha salute and head back the way they came, away from Lyla.

Quite satisfied with the turn on events, at least partially. It was easier to move around now that she knew what they were up to. Abyssal was out of the picture, and there was only Gunzosha around. Shame she couldn't just walk through the forcefield...or even if she could, Swan Dragon sure couldn't.

She waits a few minutes to pass, before turning to head to the observation deck, sticking to the walls and the few shadows around. The headache that she had acquired earlier didn't really help with patient working, since the whole ship felt like it wanted her to get out.

"I hope you were paying attention!"  Swan Dragon calls out as the Abyssal leaves.  "I'm not even the important one!"

Either by luck or design, the Gunzosha haven't headed her way.  They're also clear of the observation deck.  Once there she finds there are two consoles, one for each hallway, and an obvious microphone/intercom system.

There are gunzosha still guarding Swan Dragon to her left.

On her right she sees another row of identical cells.  In the middle cell (just like Swan Dragon) she sees a figure.  The grey pallor of his skin and the ragged edges of corpus show him to be a ghost, a ghost bound into place by hundreds of chains.  Amidst all of this she can see the green glow of Malfeas, vibrant and alive compared to the sickly green pallor of pyre-flame.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:44, Mon 21 Nov 2016.

Lyla looks through the controls and the surrounding cells. The other prisoner does interest her, but he is not why she is there. Extra luggage would always be extra, also she had no clue who he was and why wasn't he on the list of the to be rescued.

She'd need a distraction to let Swan Dragons cell open, in order to retreat to the ship with him. She had been dreaming to fly under the radar through the whole mission, but had known since the beginning it to be impossible. At best she'd get a Headstart for them.

Thus she closes her eyes and pushes the assumed controls to release the other prisoner. Once the guards would leave, she could help Swan Dragon.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:53, Mon 21 Nov 2016.

She quickly learns that the buttons here probably don't open the cells.

No, the button she pushes sends visible arcs of electricity down the chains holding the other prisoner, forcing a scream from him as he writhes in their grasp.  He bites off the scream, pausing to look up at her.

He sees her.

He grins, revealing way too many teeth with no gums to hold them.

"GUARDS!  GUARDS!"  The prisoner shouts as loud as he can, "GUARDSSS!  COME QUICK!"

It would be sadistic to enjoy someone writhing in agony, but Lyla is happy that she didn't try the button matching to Swan Dragons cell. As the other prisoner begins to shout, she does push the same button again, not really caring if it'd shut him up or no. He deserved it this time.

"Oh shut up..."
she growls under her breath annoyed.
After that she retreats to the shadows, heading quickly down the stairwell and positions her better in order to slip past the possible arriving guards. She takes a passing look at Swan Dragon and his cell, seeing if the wall has anything out of place that might hint to wiring that'd connect to the unlocking mechanism.

((Stealth roll 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 4, 1 & 1
Flowed 44+20+10 = 74

Awareness
21+20+10=41))
This message was last edited by the player at 01:11, Thu 24 Nov 2016.

He screams in pain again- and two gunzosha sprint down his hallway.

As she looks around, well, she can't tell where the unlocking mechanisms are.  They're not something she's used to looking for- how is the wiring working here, anyway?  The Gunzosha certainly don't spot her.

Two pass by to the controls.

"Looks like it's been tampered with," She hears one say to the other.

"Tampered with the torture controls?  Why?"

"No idea.  But we did detect that one possible Living ship."

"No way that survived.  Probably a remote probe anyway."

"Could be on the fritz.  There are a few wild ghosts still."

The Gunzosha ghosts stare at the panel.

"... Then again, he always was an asshole."

"Drill?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.  A drill."

"You sure?"

"Do you want to be the one who asks him?  Alright everyone, drill!  Back to your posts!"

Lyla lets an amused grin tug her lips, relieved that she was not exposed. Not really having any insight as to how the Abyssal machinery works, she sneaks her way back into the hallway in search of the bridge.

She reaches the main hall- which includes the observation deck, as the two Gunzosha have taken to the round that'll take them towards Swan Dragon.

As she moves through the observation deck she's aware of the other prisoner staring at her and GRINNING.  Not a second of her movement goes unobserved by him.

Lyla gives him a questioning look, which is hidden by her visor covering her eyes. Despite the grinning, which is bothersome and disturbing, she still musters her patience while waiting for good oppportunities to move forward.

Ragged flesh flaps around skeletal gums, as he mouths 'You're welcome' to her.

Their paths have been disrupted.  Judging by the simple floorplan she needs to head up towards the bridge, and there are very few deviating corridors.  It's a trivial matter to bypass the 'crew barracks', which are glorified places for the ghosts to occasionally shed their armor- which is conceptually quite rare.  The Buchenwald and the Pyongyang have a very similar bridge, then.  It'd have to be the Abyssal's personal quarters, as the Abyssal is still technically alive.

The doors there are locked shut.  If anyone's noticed her, no alarm's come up.  The Warden said he was heading for his quarters to let off some steam.

The silence and the lack of an alarm is both comforting as well as concerning. There'd be no alarm for her either in the sense that if the things are already going sour. Lyla tries to memorize as much as she can of the ship incase of speedy exit. The hallways did all seem too similar in a way.

Passing the barracks makes her tiptoe even more, despite knowing that none would be there. The logically straightforward leading route feels wrong, as if being lead to a trap which she can't avoid stepping into.

Upon facing locked doors, Lyla looks around for unlocking mechanism, such as a keycard placement or something resembling a camera for facial recognition.

Hm.  She spots a sensor above the door, a flat panel about the size of a business card.  Based on that, she's gonna have to go with some form of biometrics- though this being the Abyssals, it's probably necrometrics or something stupid like that.

Which means she's going to need to either draw out the Abyssal, figure out another way in, or... improvise.

This is the part where Lyla actually feels bad that she hadn't ended up in battle with anyone yet. Or paid attention to if the Gunzosha passing had been wearing any special tags.

Before doing anything rash, she decides to check through the barracks. Either she might get lucky by finding something, or lucky by finding someone.

She moves back to the barracks, ducking into the seemingly abandoned room as another group of Gunzosha passes.  Without specifically looking for her, there's no way they could catch the stealthy Solar.

Inside the barracks she finds pods instead of bunks.  Each of the black and white pods- black the color of soulsteel, white the color of bone- is a ghost with a green heart 'asleep', screaming silently and twisting as they 'rest'.

They're not in their armor.  She doesn't think she can get into a suit- nor would she want to, based on what little she knows about the Gunzosha armor- but she spots something by the unused suits of armor, little keytags.  Maybe that might give her access to the bridge or the cells?

Moving up and down the same corridor makes it at least certain that she knows the halls by heart, at least to an extent. The barracks seem odd to someone who is used to seeing people chatting and relaxing in there, instead of she is faced with a blank slate with distorted sleep.

She takes the keytags, looking them through and discarding similar ones. It'd benefit her to have more different ones incase they don't have the same functions. Now all she'd need to decide is which place to try first. The bridge might be the right one, but then she'd most likely face the Abyssal. The cells are safer, but more time consuming especially if she is not lucky.

Then again she was not exactly in a hurry, so she decides to return to the cells. Perhaps later the Abyssal would've left their quarters and give her better access.

Most of them look similar, with a few bearing weird symbols that look straight out of Wingdings.  She keeps a blank one and a few 'wingdings'.

She returns back to the cells- to Swan Dragon.  She has to dodge the Gunzosha again, who're following their patterns with commendable efficiency.  Commendable because, well, they're easy to dodge and bypass.

Swan Dragon looks up at her as she approaches.  He shakes his head subtly.  Then she hears a whisper, right by her ear.

"Careful.  I can't take too long or I'll spend too much essence.  Special scanning.  Even the Gunzosha can't come in, just in case I trick their minds. The warden's the only one who can come in and out, he resonates with the field in place.  Either you'll have to fake his resonance or you'll have to turn off the ship in the bridge.  The dog tags should get you into the bridge."

Lyla almost has a "so used to this" step in her dodging, and sneaking. It was also beginning to grind her, the feeling of not understanding how things work, and how a normal task such as this has resulted to running around like an idiot. But its not like she'd ever be sent off to spy in a ship made by the Living Fleet.

A shiver runs down her spine at the sudden whisper. It had been so quiet and eerie, that it comes as a surprise. She responds with a barely audible hmph.

Great. Fine. FINE, let's fight then. Bash their head in to get rid of this sickening white and colour it red, thoughts pass through her mind as she turns around and heads for the bridge clinging to the shadows once her temper cools down.

"Careful.  He can always make the ship blow up," Swan Dragon's voice follows her, "And I'm not even the important one..."

As she walks through, she finds- jackpot.  The door opens to the Abyssal's bridge.  The Warden strides out, flanked by two Gunzosha.

"You're certain," One of them rasps in a monotone.

"Yes.  Swan Dragon was using essence."

"So?  He does that a lot."

"When he's spitting at me, yes.  But a small amount? And someone should have come to me about the other prisoner.   Something is awry here!"

The Warden clomps by her.

Swan Dragons word echo in her mind, mental fingers being crossed that the more important captive wasn't the one she electrocuted earlier. With her coincidence, he probably was. That's what you get for haphazardly pushing unknown buttons.

The sudden opening is very sudden, and she almost doesn't realize to take advantage of it, sliding past and after them to the bridge. The discussion is alarming and means that she should pick up her pace.

The door shuts just behind Lyla.

The bridge/room is a testament to an orderly mind.  Every button on the bridge is labeled, from weapons to sensors to controls.  A large throbbing black portal with an overhanging sensor located over a pad.  It looks like a teleporter from Star Trek was placed directly in front of a Stargate.

The Abyssal's sleeping room has been separated by what must be priceless Japanese paper screen dividers.  If she were to poke her head around one, she'd find a cot, some bookcases with books that'd make any librarian bite their fingers off in envy, and a TV with an XBox One.

Oh, and don't forget the torture implements.  There's an entire section of the wide, brightly-lit room with a St. Andrew's cross, an iron maiden, and a wall of whips and lashes.  Someone likes their BDSM.  Right near it is a punching bag as well, leaking black sand from a truly vicious beating.

The almost carefree wandering around the ship seems to feel awkwardly wrong as Lyla studies her new surrounding. She was toying with dangerous forces here and the realization sinks in like an anchor, swift and heavy. It didn't take much from her to guess her date If she'd be caught. The Japanese dividers in combination with the torture equipment send shivers down her spine accompanied with bad memories from years back.

She refocuses her attention to the bridges control panel in search of the right buttons. Her mind was slowly itching for a cigarette but she knew there was no time, and the need releases itself in a form of ponderous tapping of a foot. The sound echoes in the room, and she quickly seizes it.

The control panel, as stated before, is wonderfully labeled.  The Warden no doubt knows every single switch by heart, but labeling is IMPORTANT!  There's a whole section of the switches labeled 'ATTUNEMENT'.

Under it are a few switches:
CELL 1:  UNUSED
CELL 2:  UNUSED
CELL 3:  SWAN DRAGON
CELL 4:  UNUSED
CELL 5:  UNUSED
CELL 6:  UNUSED
CELL 7:  UNUSED
CELL 8:  TAKEHIKO ISAKAWA
CELL 9:  UNUSED
CELL 10:  UNUSED

Then another switch INITIATE ATTUNEMENT:
INSTANT
DELAYED (10S)
SEQUENTIAL

STEP ON SQUARE AND WAIT 15S FOR ATTUNEMENT

ATTUNEMENT LASTS ~30 DAYS

Lyla looks about for the nominated square to step on. She could attune herself to allow herself into the cell, but that would still not let Swan Dragon out but she would need to unshackle him for sure.

The other prisoners name doesn't ring any bells to her, and probably neither did in anyone else's ears since there had been no mention of him to her. Weird.