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1.2: Crown Tower Hotel (Lachesis, Solid, Alicia, Emerald)

Posted by ControlFor group 0
Control
GM, 100 posts
Sat 22 Feb 2020
at 13:31
  • msg #1

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

Crown Tower Hotel
Yellow Brick Row
Lachesis, SolidState
Vanguard when he joins us


Winter on the West coast was always cold and wet.  Emerald City was on the edge of a rainforest locale, after all.  And the mountains to the East demanded their seasonal tribute.  No weather-system moved East without paying the toll.  But this winter, the storms were worse than usual.  Seismologists said that the storms were related to the fracturing of the pacific plate north of Hawaii.

The Emergency sirens had given warning nearly fifteen minutes before the giant wave had made landfall.   Most of the waterside had been cleared and the Yellow Brick Row had been all but abandoned, shuttered down in anticipation of the the fierce onrush of water,

When the tsunami made landfall, it wasn't an enormous wave of towering height.  But ther were waves up to nine feet, and the inexorable force pushed further island than Emerald City had seen in a long time.

When the heroes arrived, they were met by a thick-set black man, Captain Malcolm Forsythe.  He was a bear of a man, encased in, of all things, a wet-suit.  He waved them over.


"Glad you're here."  Forsythe said, nodding at the heroes.  "This is a rescue operation.   There are a handful of civilians trapped in the lower concourse of the Crown Tower Hotel.   Most people moved to the upper floors, but reports said there was some sort of disturbance shortly after the waves started flooding into the main lobby.   We believe it's a metahuman eruption, but I don't have any details yet.

Even as he spoke, the background behind him pixelated and resolved into the familiar skyline of Emerald City's buildings.

First priority is the safety of any civilians.  After that, identification and containment of the metahuman." Forsythe grimaced.  "This is classified as a code red indigo. "

So, your characters know that this is a psychic/digital simulation.   But it's realistic enough that you can't actually tell the difference.  You've had enough assurances that while this is psychic in nature, it's a collaboration between two other metas on-contract with AEGIS. They can't go digging in your head.  They can, with the proper equipment hooked up to you, provide a fully immersive VR scenario.

This message was last edited by the GM at 13:19, Sun 08 Mar 2020.
Lachesis
Player, 27 posts
Sun 8 Mar 2020
at 01:55
  • msg #2

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

  "Yes.  Any 'civilians' we find."  Cassandra made air-quotes with her fingers around the word and didn't even try to sound like she was taking the simulation seriously.  It was much like having her on an actual mission, in that sense.  The biggest difference, really, is that she was tense and irritable in simulation, as opposed to the cocky ebullience she'd show in the real thing.

  "Hey Yoshi.  Been a while.  I heard you finally graduated; how's the new lot in life treating ya?"  She turned her back on Forsythe to talk to her partner.  "You can kill the power if it's hitting the water, right?  But can you find your way in the dark?  I didn't get a full dossier, and the visions only tell me what they feel like telling, still.  I should be able to keep us out of any new disasters along the way—through all the static—but I think a lot of this is gonna' be your show."
SolidState
Player, 19 posts
Sun 8 Mar 2020
at 15:05
  • msg #3

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

Solid state frowned, partially at the scenario and partially at Cassandra, as a researcher he knew how important it was to take roleplays and simulations seriously, but he also knew that Cassandra was...well....different, interesting and fascinating at the same time. I mean just the fact that her healing process was incomplete was enough to have him considering the damage to her ocular nerve and how it had never been fully......

Shaking his head, the armored helmet shaking from side to side he focused on Forsythe first,"When you say a handful, how many is a handful? Do we have identities on any of them? Any histories? What about equipment? Are we in contact with any of them? Do they have cellphones, power, air, food? How long do we have? Structurally how is the building? Is it going to collapse?"

Blinking he looked at Cassandra and then at Forsythe,"While you were speaking I compiled an email with the questions if it is easier for you to review them in text?" His brain worked faster than a computer and he had many, many things that were going on in there as he looked at Cassandra.

"Graduated? I've got multiple degrees, Cassandra, and life treats me as it treats all with random chaotic unfairness.", he nodded,"I can kill the power if needed, I'm busy working on downloading schematics for the building so we can find our way and no...I can't see in the dark, but I'm sure that one of the Emergency Responders has a torch we can bother if needed...."

OOC: With quickness 10 Solidstate is trying to download plans for the building, power schematics and any kind of reports he has on the people trapped below or anything else of interest...including if there are anymore tsunami's or aftershocks coming.
Lachesis
Player, 28 posts
Mon 9 Mar 2020
at 00:19
  • msg #4

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

  "Pfffff... Never change, Yoshi." Cassandra rolled her eyes and smirked over her shoulder in Forsythe's direction. "Would you believe he was like this before the glittering? Hey, actually, did you two ever... Well, you won't tell me until later. Whatever."

  With an exasperated sigh, she turned back. There was a strip of cloth in her hand that hadn't been there a moment ago, bright white and wide as her spread fingers. "All right. You wrap up the briefing your way. I'm gonna start investigating my way. See you inside, flash man."  And then, the instant she got the blindfold tied tight, she began accelerating away toward the Crown—... well, toward the right block, anyway. It took the colorful blur a few tries to get to the right building. Took her the better part of a second, even.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 00:20, Mon 09 Mar 2020.
Malcolm Forsythe
NPC, 1 post
Sun 15 Mar 2020
at 13:33
  • msg #5

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

Forsythe offered a serious shake of his head.   "Survivors are triaging on the fourth floor ballroom level.  Concierge service said that it happened during shift-change, so it should be between six and eight people--all cleaning staff.  Hotel computer system is down as power has been shut-off.  We're waiting on government emergency override to get access to staff lists via hotel corporate.


"We had radio contact using hotel security radio channels.  Security Guard named Brian Hayes.  but they've been quiet for about an hour."
  Forsythe said.  "I sent two divers in, but they reported that a debris field is preventing them from accessing the lower-level.  There were also some very unusual water movements suggesting that the metahuman may have some ability to manipulate elemental forces of water.  Conjecture only.

The hotel is earthquake rated, and the divers tell me that the structure is still sound."



SolidState is easily able to access building plans that are available online.  Power-schematics and the like are certainly accessible if he's willing to hack into the county clerk's office.   Likewise for accessing hotel employee information from hotel corporate if he want's to bypass the bureaucracy.  Ultimately, it's not a dramatically interesting element of the story--not even from the standpoint of delaying him.  So, let's just assume you get the info you need.

any kind of reports he has on the people trapped below or anything else of interest...

That's always a difficult phrase to deal with.  I'd rather not throw a crapload of interesting but utterly irrelevant stuff at you.   Are you looking for something in particular?  I promise I'm not going to haul out the tired old excuse "but you didn't ask for that" without having given you at least some leading clues to try to drive you in the direction I want you to go (which, of course, presupposes I have a direction I want you to go in.  In this case, I don't).

including if there are anymore tsunami's or aftershocks coming.
Oh, good point!   Analytics SolidStatre is able to throw together suggests the simulation is pulling information from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and applying it to Emerald City's skyline.   There does not, however appear to be any aftershock's incoming at this point.

Forsythe grunted as Cassandra took off.   "You tell me what you need."  He nodded and tapped the earpiece, indicating that Forsythe was standard AEGIS frequencies.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:42, Sun 15 Mar 2020.
Control
GM, 133 posts
Sun 15 Mar 2020
at 13:41
  • msg #6

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel


Okay,...  consider that there's three potential entry-points:

Front lobby
Front lobby is filled with debris.  Corridors leading to stairwells and elevators to lower-levels are accessible,. but the level of debris washed in from outside is astounding.

Rear Entry
Starbucks on one side, boutique stores on the other.  Area is currently about waist-high with water, and water is acting erratically.     One can get about forty or fifty feet in, then a wall of debris block further entry.

Loading bay
There is a small yacht in pieces, nestled between a food delivery truck and another couple of heavier vehicles.   Entry is possible, but floorpalsn indicate that only a couple of doorways and a small adjoining hallway separate it from the Starbucks Rear Entry corridor.

Forsythe is more than happy to provide public floorplans (since he doesn't know that you'll have downloaded your own).   His plans indicate where the divers went in (Front Lobby) and how far they went in, where the survivors are believed to be (sub-basement,  actually underneath the swimming-pool, which is  bloody mess and mostly submerged).

By rights, there is no plausible reason they should be alive.  The amount of water that flooded in, their depth and location.  Nothing there would have been airtight.

Control
GM, 139 posts
Tue 17 Mar 2020
at 15:22
  • msg #7

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

After a minute of concentration, SolidState found the survivors.

They were located in a second sub-basement, housekeeping supply room, with a couple of big rows of shelves and a bunch of amenities for guests (toiletry kits, extra pillows, blankets, that sort of thing).  ALthough the room was dark, they had light.  And it appeared to emanating from an individual--a young East Asian male who crouched and covered his head with his hands.  But all around him, a sphere of pressure kept the water at bay.  They were practically submerged--only a couple of feet at the top of the room held normal air.  The sphere the kid projected went from ceiling to floor, and, likely beyond.

If you don't mind... give me some sort of text description for what it looks like when SolidState does this remote-sensing thing.    I've more details to hand out,, but I wanna know what he does and how he does it...
SolidState
Player, 23 posts
Tue 17 Mar 2020
at 16:27
  • msg #8

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

Solidstate processed the information as rapidly as he was given it, the plans for the hotel going into his computer, the information that Forsythe was feeding him being added to the diagram as he listened a blur of things happened electronically between the Technopath, his computer and the worldwide web as he downloaded and hacked information as easily as other people breathed.

He blinked as his mind dissected the information about the people who were trapped, sorting them into people who might have connections with any phenomenon that were normally related with people manifesting superpowers, trying to narrow down who could have them and make sure their were no strange connections to any villain organizations or things like that.

Taking Forsythe's plans he assimilated them with his own, the growing information providing him with a wealth of knowledge that he would use to rescue these people. With a sigh he reached out to the radios that AEGIS had given them++Cassandra, let's go in via the Rear Entrance, start clearing it if you can I'm going to locate them first.++

With a touch of his mind several microscopic drones flew through the air, they were always around Solidstate, but were too small to be seen, they were his eyes and ears when he looked around himself and with a thought they slid off into the building. Moving rapidly, silently and with great speed they slid under doors, through air and water with equal ease, avoiding electricity , fire or other hazards that could harm them, and from their link with Solidstate their master, as they scanned room after room in rapid succession .

Solid state walked, slowly and carefully, images imposing themselves on his vision rapidly, his brain processing and discarding them as rapidly as they came if they didn't serve as a way closer to those he needed to rescue and he frowned as at last he found them. With a thought he summoned up the files, finding the one for the Asian guy who had met the description,"Forsythe, I've found them, the Asian kid is keeping the water back, I'm forwarding you his information. We're going to need to pump water out to get to them, unless Cassandra has a way to get through water...they are deep down in the subbasement."

As he spoke he was finding the easiest path to the room directly above them, checking if it was full of water, and he kept going directly up till he found a room that had air in it,"I'm looking for a room for us to get into that we can then use as a way to get to them. If we can find a room clear of air I can break the floors slowly through and make a way for them to come up..but it would be easier if we could pump out the water...is that a possibility?"
Lachesis
Player, 34 posts
Fri 20 Mar 2020
at 07:34
  • msg #9

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

  'Sure I can get through water,' came Cassandra's voice over comms, exactly as nonplussed as she had been before taking off.  'It's called swimming, Yoshi.  All the cool kids are doing it these days.'  Her tone on the comms was unabashedly taunting, and it was probably a step down from the provocations she'd be up to in person.  She at least cooperated while delivering the smart-assery, and was on her way in at the rear of the building before she even finished the last sentence.

  Arriving at the barrier of debris gave Cassandra a bit of pause, but very little in the grand scheme.  She raised one hand dramatically and laid it on the nearest bit of schmutz piled in her way.  The first bit of scrap dissolved into rust that colored the water in the area bright orange; the next bit jerked toward the wall and grew into the damaged plumbing like a graft from a young tree.  'Just try to make contact before we throw ourselves into danger, if you can.'

Using I'll Guide You Through the Years and The Past/The Future Stay the Same as applicable to destroy or repair the downstairs debris out of the way.
Control
GM, 148 posts
Thu 2 Apr 2020
at 01:18
  • msg #10

SolidState

SolidState

Super-impressed with the writing and the thought-process behind it.

Most of the front lobby was about calf-deep with water.  The waves were receding now.  But it did nothing for the huge amount of water in the lower floors of the hotel.  It was going to take the hotel staff weeks to clean this place out, and even more, it was going to take months before they could get certification to reopen.

"The Asian Kid" was probably Magating "Michael" Arbeus.  He'd just started working in Housekeeping, helping his mother on  a part-time basis.  Mostly, he did work in the laundry after school.  The kid was a fifteen years old Filipino, a pretty-boy with a strong academic record.

"The Nook" Cafe, which served a light buffet and continental breakfast  each day was a complete shambles.    The cupboards had been thrown all about and unidentifiable debris was just everywhere.  But the Nook was directly above the laundry, according to the plans SolidState had.  And although it was grimy and wet and dark, it met with SolidState's requirements.

So... What now?
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:19, Thu 02 Apr 2020.
Control
GM, 149 posts
Thu 2 Apr 2020
at 01:31
  • msg #11

Lachesis

Super-impressed with the writing and the thought-process behind it.


Lachesis


While Cassandra couldn't tell how dark it was, she moved unerringly into the passage, into the chest-deep water.  The current eddied around her slightly, a light pull that told her the water was going somewhere.  it wasn't stagnant.

There were bodies in the water, among the debris.  Two of them.  Their flesh was cold and clammy, bloated lightly and squishy.    One felt substantially lighter than it should have been, and Cassandra briefly considered hat would happen if she should restore the body to it's former state...


"Oh no, no, no...."  A voice whispered.  A dry, brittle man's voice, throaty and hoarse a sif they'd smoked too many cigarettes and drank too much whiskey.  "You're getting much too close, too easily.  Can't have you interfering quite yet.  The boy is just so close to the realization, the insight, the epiphany.   What butterfly do you think will come from this little caterpillar, hm?"

But then, there  was only the comparative silence.  The voice did not continue.  And Lachesis continued on making her way through the debris.


The Debris doesn't really provide much of a challenge.  So, no rolls required.  But once you're past the initial wash of debris... what then?
SolidState
Player, 24 posts
Thu 2 Apr 2020
at 18:46
  • msg #12

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

Solid state sighed at Lachesis' comment and shook his head++Yes, I've heard of it, terribly inefficient for when you are under water for longer than a few minutes...unless you have another means to breath too? Also, what does the temperature of the 'kids' have to do with them swimming? The water could be warmed.++ Solidstates approach to much of what she did was simply to be as logical as he could be.

Now that he had a clear idea of where things were he started moving to where Lachesis was, using his telekinesis he started moving bigger bits of debris as he worked to catch up with the blind mutant and smiled softly,"We are going to the Cafe, from there we will break open the floor, carefully and should be able to lift them out from there. One of them, a 15 year old, has manifested power. This is the quickest way to get them out of the rubble and to safety, I can only imagine that Magating will be exhausted."

Solidstate's plan was simple, head to the Nook, break open the ground and remove the people who were trapped. Simple, concise and with as few moving parts as he could manage. There was a niggle in the back of his mind that if this simulation was to test them it couldn't be just this. Realistically there had to be something that would go wrong, otherwise he'd have been able to do it himself and the people running this organization were many things but wasteful of their resource was not one of them, but he couldn't predict everything and so he continued along his path of action till something proved to be an obstacle.
Lachesis
Player, 38 posts
Sun 5 Apr 2020
at 03:47
  • msg #13

1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

  "Pick another route," Lachesis replied in her most matter-of-fact tone.  She was still wading forward, into the current.  "There's a squidder here who isn't in the briefing, and he's trying to slow us down to trigger something in Magating.  No idea what, but if it was good for us, he'd have told us before we got soaked."

  The girl turned right seconds later, right into the force of a flow of water that shouldn't be moving, and barely sidestepped a chair drifting by.  "I can't tell you how to deal with that interference, either.  He can track what we're doing and spoke to me, so I have to assume he'd know what I tell you and use it to lead you astray.  Don't tell me what you're up to, either.  Nothing out loud.  Just get me headed in the right direction and go be unpredictable."  She sighed and turned toward her partner.  Even blindfolded, she still seemed to be looking at him.

  "And Yoshi, we gotta hurry.  He's trying to turn Mags into something else, trying to... I dunno, put him under so much stress he has a break-through?  Anything you can do to send water somewhere else will buy us time."
Control
GM, 157 posts
Fri 10 Apr 2020
at 06:50
  • msg #14

Re: 1.2: Crown Tower Hotel

Despite the amount of crap in the cafe, it wasn't difficult to create a workable space.  Already, the damp had given the entire place an ugly, fetid scent that clung to everything.  It was going to take the Crown Tower months to get the place up to snuff and open to the public again.

Getting into the Nook was time-consuming, but nothing particularly challenging.  Except for the sheer amount of it.    It Even with his enhancements it still took longer than SolidState would have liked.

Sorry, SolidState.
Forsythe's voice came across the radio.   I can get Army Core of engineers in there in twenty minutes, maybe.   So, this means there are survivors.  Good.  Do what you can.

Reality was, probably twenty minutes wasn't enough.

Even as he worked, SolidState could hear a deep groaning sound reverberating through the building around him.   It was safe for now, but eventually, one support-columns for the upper concourse was going to buckle under damage it had taken when the water flooded in.  It was still a while's away.  They'd get the survivors out and be well on their way before it collapsed.  And SS couldn't tell for certain what the results would be.  It was a load-bearing structure.  But given it's use, it would probably mean the open-area part of the second-floor concourse would become inaccessible.

Not, really his problem right now.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 08:06, Tue 21 Apr 2020.
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