Outside the old crone's hovel, there's no particular obvious sense of urgency - other than the usual chaos of Shipwreck. Abovehead, on a creaking and rickety rope bridge, several pirates are having a fist-fight, occasionally smashing pieces of furniture or clay mugs over each others' heads. A nearly-empty rum bottle smashes to the cobbles nearby.
"Mara and the General are both looking around but they can't find what's wrong," Randall says to Jason as they hurry through the maze of Shipwreck toward where the Ozymandias is berthed. "What's RIU got for you?"
"Data stream scan, trying to access local object data through an illegal technique," Jason remarks curtly. "Programmer tactic, so has to be Blake."
As the two men dash along, Jason seems to be taking it all relatively in stride. For Randall, he's clutching at his side, and his breathing sounds a bit labored at points, but he's still just managing to keep up.
"You locked down the black boxes, right?" asks Randall. "Zork, I need to get in shape."
"Come on, Randall, you should be better than this! Have you been hitting the donuts too hard lately?" Jason chides as they progress.
Randall says, "Gotta finish them off before they go bad!"
"They're going to finish you off," Jason quips.
"I'm not disinclined to disagree," the 'pirate captain' admits as he wheezes up a stairway that seems more ladder than ramp.
A bit of jogging later, Randall asks, "Any idea what he's trying to accomplish?"
"Looking for something. I don't know what yet. RIU is trying to establish a link," Jason says.
The harbor is tantalizingly just a bit below, and they can see the ship below ... but, more alarmingly, there are strange, magical bands with alternating yellow-black diagonal stripes that encircle it. It's hazy - hard to see at this distance. No one shows any signs of being alarmed by the sight of it, though - and aside from the unusual display, the ship flows in an invisible, star-filled sea with no signs of damage or catastrophe. Alas, the way to get down there is via rows and ramps, ladders and stairs. The only fast way would be to take a long dive into the aether (a perilous thing indeed), or to make such crazy stunts as to cut ropes, dagger-slide down sails, and the like.
"Programmer mode has engaged," Jason says worriedly as he looks for the quickest ladder down. "RIU, status on that link. I need to get the ship out of programmer mode." he thinks.
Randall says to Jason, "I don't remember the caution strips." He starts down the rows, ramps, ladders and stairs - even if he were to resort to a daring stunt, he's not sure what he would do down there. Mara, can you get out of there? he thinks to his wyvern. There should be a hangar door release lever.
"Correction, RIU triggered it to keep VNPCs away from the ship," Jason calls out to Randall. "Is the scan ongoing? Can you locate the source?"
As Jason is working his way down the first (rickety) ladder, and Randall weighs his equally-unappealing options, down in the harbor, the back hatch of the Ozymandias slowly starts to roll open, revealing red light inside.
The police officer turned pirate captain checks his PDA as he goes, which is showing imagery from Mara's video camera - a handy feature of the motorbike for surveillance. "I'm going to get Mara out of there, she can get us a ride down," he says to Jason. "You can get a better link when you're down there yourself, right?"
"Yes. And I was right, Blake is active again!" Jason calls out. "RIU. Remember that chat stream we had access to in Teslium? Can you locate it again? With Skrymir active, now would be a great time to ping the devs as 'Hobbit'."
To me, Mara, Randall thinks to his Avatar. He keeps his eyes on the Ozymandias and the hangar bay door to give her a clear view of which way she needs to go to get to them.
Out of the hangar doors shoots an icy wyvern. Several sailors down at the docks suddenly look up in shock at the creature flying low overhead.
Randall makes for a wide open area and beckons for Jason to join him for the pickup.
Down in the harbor, through the viewports of the Ozymandias, the mostly dark bridge (save for that dull ambient red glow) is suddenly lit up by a pinpoint of light - the crystal orb, most likely.
"Coming!" Jason calls and tries to hurry safely down his later so he can sprint over to Randall.
Mara shoots up to the landing and hovers over Randall, her downblast sending bits of parchment flying, and broken bottles rolling. Poor Jason has to contend with a rickety ladder that isn't any easier to descend the faster he goes.
"That looks ominous," Randall comments as he peers at the orb. He clambers up into the driver's seat, and checks to see how long it's going to take Jason to get there.
Jason finally makes it to more stable ground ... but it's going to be a very long climb down compared to what it would take Mara to fly back to the hangar.
Jason runs his hands through his hair. "Randall!" he shouts, "Can you pick me up?"
"On my way!" Randall directs Mara to Jason. Gently now please, even if he did make a crack about donuts.
Randall hovers Mara near the walkway and holds out a hand for Jason to grab onto.
Jason takes a hold of Randall's hand and heaves himself onto the mecha-wyvern. "Go!" he says.
Randall nods, then with deft practice, boosts away from the walkway. You can grab him next time, he thinks reassuringly as he senses a snatch of disappointment from his wyvern.
"Y'know, I've got a bad feeling about what that light from the bridge means," Randall says to Jason. "Remember the magic detector in the bridge?..."
The wyvern pushes away from the platform with one platform - and just to emphasize how rickety it was, it promptly falls in itself and breaks apart into pieces, falling down into the mess below. The wyvern folds in her wings, as much for effect as anything, and shoots back toward the Ozymandias. The hangar bay doors are still open, and she bounces in (exploiting the "gravity plane" down the middle), then skids to a stop near one of the outcropping walkways, for her passengers to disembark.
Jason nearly falls off the bike as he clambers off in a hurry. His shoes skid and slide and he tries to take off in a dead run towards the hall exist and up towards the bridge where RIU was headed. "It was the scrying orb, I think. Skrymir may be using it to scan for us," he yells. "I'd have preferred a disco ball, frankly!"
Randall says, "Let's see what we'll see. If all else fails, don't forget your newfound power to make things explode." He clambers off and pats Mara on the neck before chasing Jason.
Dashing down the corridors takes longer than what might be hoped, but eventually they make it to the bridge, mostly illuminated now by the glowing crystal ball, and a myriad of "windows" hovering in space. RIU is spiraled around the base of the column. "Chat" windows pop up and vanish here and there. Usernames flash by - Chaz, ThorWannabe, and others - and the general indication seems to be that the sysads are busily trying to do some sort of damage control again.
A window: "Chaz: The White? What's this data stream? Look at [-link-]. What does this mean?"
Another window: "ThorWannaBe: I can't follow that link. It says my permission isn't high enough? I can't believe it - White is locking me out. Seriously - White. [-link-]"
Randall looks things over, then taps on his wrist PDA. "Holly? You there? Jason's up on the bridge taking charge of things, things might be blowing up shortly. Want me to come pick you up?"
Jason drops hard into one of the chairs at a console. "/Good job, RIU, you have the chat stream. Forge message: Hobbit: Link unstable.
In an aside, the police officer adds, "No offense intended, I don't mean that they're going to blow up because of anything you did."
Another window: "Chaz: Hobbit? Can't verify your signature. Checking addresses.... Got it." "ThorWannabe: Setting up a block. Pass on the word to customer service - going to be a bunch of user complaints rolling in. The Grey is having a fit."
Meanwhile, over the PDA, Holly's voice comes through: "Blowing up? Look ... I'm talking to a messenger of the White, one of the Artificial Deities that runs this universe. I don't know if leaving is an option right now."
Jason only nods absently to Randall. "/Now, lets see if we can elevate Chaz' privilege some," Jason thinks, "/If we can get the signatuer off one of the Skyrmir streams and overlay it onto Chaz' stream, it may think it is him and allow him access.../"
Randall peers over Jason's shoulder. "Affirmative. Jason's in programmer trance. I'll get Mara and be ready for a pickup."
The police officer checks the magic detector to be on the safe side.
The magic detector is, surprisingly enough, rather sanguine. There are a few blips that indicate the presence of magic-laden ships and dangerous artifacts in Shipwreck, perhaps, but nothing that matches the virtual fireworks reflected on the bridge.
Good, at least we don't have to deal with an Avatar-Avatar fight, Randall thinks. Not that Blake hasn't shown he can pull these kinds of stunts even while inside the system.
The chat windows keep flying by. One highlighted window appears: "Chaz: My permissions got tweaked - but in a good way! Have to report that later. I've got the stream. Set up a block. It's holding now. I think it's just clean-up now - ThorWannabe, can you focus on tracing that? Time to shut down our unwanted guest's funhouse."
"Of course, this will be the time Bake will shut down the stream and put his shard back into hiding," Jason mutters darkly. Stable for the moment, he triews to just set up a link to Holly's PDA and the chat window so she can talk to them directly (and with him monitoring, of course!"
Over Jason's feed, he catches ... well, the video just picks up solid white. But the audio picks up what sounds like a whole chorus of people speaking in unison: "Tasavalta is a place of strong convergence. The Black has given you a key as well. The breach is sealing. The White cannot continue this conversation - In Character, such a thing is not spoken of. But there shall come a time, when there is no In Character or Out of Character. There shall only be what is.
Randall says to Jason, "Keep me in the loop, I'm heading downstairs." He goes to check on the General ("There was an explosion on the dock, sir, looks like they're getting it under control, have to go and pick up some crew just in case,") and get Mara ready for a pickup.
Over the communicator, in Holly's voice: "Jason's key-ring. What about Blake? Can you lock him out? I need to know that my daughter is safe from all of this!"
"The White cannot intervene in your conflict with the Four," comes the chorus-voice over the communicator. "But the breach has been sealed for now."
"I doubt I could for long. Your friend Chaz has put up a block for now," Jason says into the communicator as he now decides to try Holly's suggestion ... and uses the Signature from Skrymir to actually lower his signature's own privileges to lock it out.
"Jason?" Holly asks over the com. "Did you manage to contact someone on the outside?"
"Chaz, one of the admins. He thought I was you. I hope you don't mind," Jason answers.
The chorus-voice over the PDA proclaims: "The way shall soon be open to you. But for now, the White's involvement is limited. But it shall be that the daughter shall learn that the mother yet lives."
"This is getting creepy," Jason has to comment.
Error messages crop up in several of the windows as several of RIU's data monitoring requests begin to run into interference - as the standard securities are being put back into place.
"It gets better," Holly tells Jason, over the com. "I'll fill you in after Randall picks us up."
"Okay, RIU, you can disconnect and rejoin me," Jason tells the dragon, "I think we fought off disaster for the moment."
Randall's voice on the com: "Righty. I'm on my way."
There's what sounds like a distant explosion over the com.
"What is blowing up?" Jason calls into the comm. Worried now, he starts cyclin up the ship's engines so they can get moving quickly if need be.
Down in the hangar, Randall hops onto Mara to go and scout things out. He heard the explosion as well. Sounds like we got a lot out of a hundred gold in crystals than Delphine bargained for, he muses.
"Say again, Jason?" Holly asks over the com. "Everything is quiet here for the moment."
"Something detonated over the Comm," Jason explains. His brow furrows curiously.
"No signs of an explosion here," comes Randall's voice. "Is everything all right here?"
Akiko's voice carries over the com. "The witch was doing some special effects - it's some magic smoke and fire. That might be what you heard when she dropped the stuff in. Boom."
"RIU? Can you pinpoint that explosion? Oh, wait, nevermind," Jason says. Sitting back, he actually asks the little dragon, "Do I look cursed?"
RIU uncurls himself from the pedestal, and glides over to his master. He just beams at his master and gives him a whisker-tickle on the cheek. Why, it doesn't look like he's afraid of any ol' curse!
"At least someone still likes me," Jason notes as he lifts the little creature and wraps him around his shoulders.
RIU makes a concerned-sounding noise, and then shifts about, making himself more comfortable on the programmer's shoulders. It might be imagination, but he seems a little bit heavier.
On Jason's PDA, a video feed from Randall's device comes in: There's a view of the interior of the hovel (and the video feed is heavily adjusted for bad lighting), and of the dancing flames and cloud effects. It looks like a three-dimensional model of an area of space near the Storm, north of there by about 4 clicks or so, in an area known as the Sentinel Shards.
"Oh, you're fine," Jason notes to the cybernetic reptile. "Not overly heavy yet. Lets see just what the others are up to..."