"It's often more difficult and expensive to eat healthy than to eat trash", Daniel comments to Arkady. "Either way, let's see if this one is someone we want to leave in charge of the door behind us or drive off like the previous one."

He puts his hand on the door and looks to Kendal, likely the least intimidating of the bunch, wordlessly inquiring if he wanted to try handling the guard.

He nods back to Lucifer, when the door opens Kendall attempts to be the first person the guard would see and talk to so he can just let the others waltz on in.

Alexandria steps back in through the door, quiet as the grave, and a few moments later the door clicks open.  She then steps back out through a wall, so when the security guard turns to look at them, his mouth drops open- though his hand is over a big red button.

"Hey- what- how are you here!"  His voice sounds strange, likely a speech impediment.  "You aren't supposed to be here, out before I call secuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu holy fuck it's you!"  He points at Kendal, "Ain't you the Exalted Senator Raines?!"

He pauses and narrows his eyes, "Still could be a shapeshifter..." His finger hovers over the button.

((Inspire to calm down guard:
6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 2 & 1.
26 + 10 + 10 = 46 Inspire
float 4-4

And if Auspicious navigation of courts technique helps? Can spend joss if applicable))

As he walks in he nods to the security guard as he hovers his hand over the button, "Hello to you too, and no worries, no shapeshifter would have the guts to mimic a solar exalted so rest easy. If one would show up they would probably mimic your superior to make it more believable." He looks at him in the eyes, back at the hand and back to his eyes again, "We are here on official business and hope for your cooperation." The word hope implies more 'do as I say' than anything.

As not to cause any further hinderance Lyla sticks to the shadows and leaves the talking to the front row of their team.

Daniel stays in the corridor unless otherwise instructed, ready to step in if necessary but otherwise letting the Face do his thing.

"mate, shapeshifters?"
Arkady stares at the man, actually amazed. Can someone actually be paranoid enough to be on par with Smoker?

No way.

The fat man nods slowly, jowls wobbling, "You never saw a god shapeshift?"  His hand trembles over the button, but Kendal seems to get through to him.  He brings his hand back to his lap, his mouth working a bit like a goldfish.

"If you're Solar Exalted why are you here?"

"Well, we're not ALL Solar Exalted, thanks," Kumiho rolls her eyes from the back.

"I mean, this place is a dump, there's nothing important here..."  He looks at the cameras and then back at them with a bit of panic, "... I swear I didn't do it.  I reported it upchain just like I was supposed to do, why would I- you don't think-"  He starts breathing heavily, "-He was already dead!  Overdosed!"

He keeps the professional smile as he continues,
"Well, we definitely aren't here for you. We are here because of this security station, the cameras and the walkways, for what purpose you ask? For you to take a 20 minute brake right now."
He is pretty much telling him to bugger off while they do their work in a way that sounds commanding, yet very polite for some reason.

Daniel leans his back on the wall just by the door in the corridor.

"Someone's been found dead? Sounds like something to question him about before letting the man go. Could be related to what's going on."

Lyla checks her PDA if the Ombra Agency had this "notice to upchain" tagged somewhere. It was not necessarily their turf, but the information of such an event surely was.

"Yes, sounds something worthy of checking out. Especially the when it happened."

"OK yeah, like... we found a dead guy.  On the tracks.  No record on the cameras of where he came from, he was just there,"  He says as he points behind him, "Not chopped up so in a space of about 4 hours.  Probably overdosed?" He answers Lucifer and Lyla, "That was, um, yesterday's shift, about 3:45 in the afternoon.  Lots of drugs in his pockets, or what was left of them.  I reported it, took the pictures, checked the cameras, and then we got the go-ahead to put him in the corpse-chute!  Upchain thinks it's an overdose in a god-drug circle, sometimes they just zap out the bodies and there it is.  Quick shunt down the corpse-chute to sanitize and make sure nothing nasty comes out and that's it!"

That explains that;  Ombra Agency's got its fingers on a lot of things, but accidental death isn't one of them.  3:45 is well before Hanthaburg fell off the map, and a full 17.25 hours before the rest of the Underdecks fell with it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:16, Mon 03 Feb 2020.

Lyla gives a shrug in return to her group :"Interesting, but nothing that has raised an alarm with my people. Sounds like it was handled by the book anyway."

Daniel nods at Lyla's words before finally peeking in, phone in hand.

"Was the deceased identified? Where was he found?"

He composes a short message before putting the phone away.

"I'm going to have Smoker double-check on the case to be sure. Faint chance of it being an early warning sign and the drugs being a cover-up or some such - Smoker's sure to sniff it out if so. Other than that, if the body's gone and all available info relayed forward, there's not much to do here."

Now that he's visible, he might as well step in. He glances at Kendal, then the guard, reminding him of Kendal's earlier instructions.

"We're on a mission, let's keep moving. Be very careful about who you let in or especially out after you return from your break."

"Kinda sounds like a cover up too, or shady for the least."

Arkady strokes his chin

"We might wanna dissect that camera feed tho, to the point shit went dark that is."

As there should be a security log to look through he tries to look for one, digital or analog.
Just wanting to see if there was anything out of the ordinary going on in the pathway they were about to take.

He says nothing as he waits for the guard to reply to Lucifer and hopefully be on his way.

"If he was identified they didn't tell me, I'm just a security guy,"  He says, jowls quivering.  He watches as Kendal goes through the logs- a big binder of them.  There it is, just as the guy said; John Doe, dead in the tracks.

"You can ask for the camera feeds from main Security office, this here's the local hub,"  He tells Arkady.

Then he looks at the others, "Uh, so, should... should I go for a big break?  A really long one?"

"Might not be a bad idea,"  Kumiho finally speaks up, "I have an idea, Lucifer, but let's let him take a break first, eh?"

"Don't need to tell me twice," He gets up, panting as he punches out and waddles out the way they came in.

As soon as he's gone Alexandria steps back into the room, arms folded.  "Well, security jobs haven't really changed since I've been gone..."

"So maybe if this is an alternate route in, we should get it sealed up with Ilmorijo?"

Daniel looks after the guard waddling out with a look of vague resignation.

"Smoker should be able to sniff out the tapes from the main Security office. Not much we can do here beyond that, I think."

He nods at Kumiho's suggestion.

"Increased security sounds worthwhile. Don't know what could be crawling out, or in."

"I doubt this is the only way in..given all the nooks and crannies this ship has, but after we've used it, it's surely one of the most notable ones, so it sure won't hurt to have someone capable watching our backs," Lyla agrees.

Kendall takes the task of calling the Ilmorijo, "That's not a bad idea, I'll call for them to look after the place."

He makes the call, stating the situation and asking for backup to seal the exit.

As Lyla mentions the nooks and crannies of the underdecks Arkady let's out a small chuckle as if he had just remembered something funny.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:11, Tue 11 Feb 2020.

The nearest Ilmorijo agree to show up ASAP and take care of the location!

"We best get moving before they show up.  I don't think they'll react nicely to me,"  Alexandria points out.

With the security station secured, they're able to follow signs leading towards the exclusion zone.  A good thing about an all-Enlightened team:  they're able to notice the tell-tale signs of essence as they get closer to the cut-off point by walking down those featureless corridors.  The moment they do there's a *SNAP-FIZZLE* sound and Alexandria rocks as if she's been bludgeoned in the face with a sledgehammer.

"Oh, ouch,"  She murmurs as she steadies herself against the wall.  "Whatever that was- I just-"  She tries pushing her hand through the wall and fails, "- I can't turn incorporeal.  And a bunch of the wards you'd been having me focus on in my head have just failed, Lucifer.  No Neverborn interference."

Up ahead is another door to another security node.  This one is likewise rusted and old, though something just feels... off about it.

((Wu Wei check, everyone; also go ahead with a Hearing check if you want as a minor action.))

((9, 8, 7, 6, 6, 5 & 3
Clam heart skill 1chi / +5 awareness & wu wei
Spontaneous effort 2chi / 1d minor action

Wu Wei 26 + WW15 + 10 = 51
Hearing 19 + AW15 + 10 = 44))

Arkady glances around under his hood, scanning his surroundings and going by his gut. His gut was pretty good where his head wasn't.

And hell, he's prepping his senses, taking a whif of his cigarette and letting the smoke linger in the air, watching how it moves, or how it's supposed to move.

((10, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4 & 1.

Wu wei 20 + 10 + 10 = 40))

OK, stuff got weird really fast. Better to just keep cool and hope the veterans know what is going on.

Kendall stands at the side, leaving room if someone wants to walk past him.

((Wu Wei: 28+15+10 = 53
Float 7-7))

Lucifer instantly positions himself between Alexandria and the rest of the team when she rocks back and leans on the wall, his perpetual frown intensifying as he tries to read the situation and essence in the air. There's a definite jerk of his hand as she mentions his wards failing, but the worst of it passes when she continues it's not the Neverborn.

"...Looks like the interdiction field has some strange effects indeed. Like it's a piece of a different reality or something."

He offers a hand to the ghost.

"We should keep moving. Stay close until we figure out how this affected you."