trans_9 | The Chamber of the Ordeal (Open)

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The Chamber of the Ordeal (Open)

Alanna had decided that it would be best to at least scout out her new surroundings. After all, she'd rather not find out the hard way that there were dangers out there just waiting for them all to drop their guard and if she was really fortunate then she might even discover a way out of here. She wouldn't hold her breath, but she also held on to a certain amount of hope that the solution to their captivity would be found soon. It wouldn't be found through inaction though.

That wasn't what she found though as she entered a new area and found herself face to face with something very familiar. Her breath caught in her throat and her hands clenched at her sides as she stared hard at the stone chamber within the room. To someone unfamiliar with it, it didn't look terribly intimidating. It was a plain stone chamber, rectangular in shape. Alanna was far from unfamiliar with it though and she knew that it was far more than it appeared.

The Chamber of the Ordeal... why had it been brought here? Did it function the same as it had in Tortall? Given that the Chamber could not be manipulated by outside forces, at least as far as she knew, she assumed that it had to function as it had. She was in no hurry to test it, in truth. She'd managed to pass the Chamber's test, but she didn't think that there was anything in the world that would convince her to walk willingly back into that room again.

Not totally trusting her eyes, she took a step closer to further investigate, biting down hard on her lip. It was forbidden to make a sound in the Chamber of the Ordeal.

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She wasn't the only one scouting the area out. Roger Maxson hadn't lasted twenty years in the post-nuclear deserts of California by not getting to know his environment. The sound of human footfalls had caught his attention, so he'd headed towards them, slow and careful-like. No sense startling whoever it was.

But this didn't really look like anywhere he'd seen on the ship before...

Alanna's eyes stayed fixed on the Chamber, lost to the memories. She didn't have to enter to remember the freezing air that had torn through her so easily, the pain of helplessness she'd felt as those that she cared for begged her to save them from the Black God's grasp, her fear as the giant spider advanced on her, the way her lungs had burned for air as the room had seemed to fill with water, and... Roger standing over Jonathan, her prince's face white and lifeless.

No! It hadn't happened!

She'd stopped it. Nothing would ever happen to her prince who was now her king. Not while she drew breath.

Her breathing was quick and shallow now as she took a step back. Like so many before her, the Chamber had made her face her greatest fears and she'd learned from the experience, become stronger because of it. That didn't make it any easier to remember though.

She'd changed since the last time she'd entered the Chamber. Grown. She wondered whether it would show her the same things now that it had then or whether the images that she saw would reveal new things about her. Still, she wasn't quite curious enough to walk back in there.

There was a clink of metal on metal behind her. T-51b suits weren't designed for stealth- and Maxson was hoping to get the woman's attention before speaking to her anyway. From the look of things, she'd about jump out of her skin if he just spoke up or put a hand on her shoulder. And this was no place to take a chance like that.

Alanna spun around at the noise, her hand on her sword's hilt as she mentally scolded herself for allowing her guard to drop. There was no excuse for such a mistake. No excuse for leaving herself so vulnerable especially in a foreign area where danger could be lurking around any corner.

The sight that greeted her though gave her pause. The covering that the newcomer wore was unfamiliar to her, although her first thought was that it must be some strange style of armor. Or not.

"Who are you?" she demanded, trying although not necessarily succeeding in keeping her voice level. Alanna fingered the hilt of her sword just in case, but she didn't draw it. This newcomer could have killed her while she'd been distracted and hadn't which earned him some trust. Besides, she would not spark a fight by acting first. "What are you doing here?"

Swords, in Roger's time, were a sign that you'd found the remains of a Marine- or the stash of someone who'd fought in the Yangtze or Gobi campaigns and come back with something looted from a Chinese officer's body. They weren't all that unusual, although finding anyone other than a Brotherhood soldier who actually knew how to use them was a little strange. This woman evidently did; best, he thought, to be respectful and go on from there.

"My name's Roger Maxson," he said. "I was High Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel, back home. I'm new to the crew. Found myself in this part of the ship when I was trying to reach Hydroponics. Figured I'd better try to find other people..."

"I'm Alanna, a knight from the kingdom of Tortall," she responded carefully as she watched Roger, still unable to relax. "You're new?" She felt bad for him actually if that was true. Bad enough to end up on a strange part of the ship altogether, but worse to have it happen when everything was still brand new. Smiling at Roger, she added, "Well, you found me for whatever that's worth. Have you noticed anything that might help us get out of here?"

"Pleasure to meet you, Knight Alanna," said Roger. 'Sir' was reserved for one's Brotherhood superiors in rank back home, but nothing was wrong with using 'Knight' or 'Paladin' in direct address. "I'm not sure how long I've been out of the pods, to be honest. I've been trying to map this area out- mentally, mostly, since I don't have a Pip-Boy or paper- but I haven't yet spotted anything that even remotely resembles an exit hatch. I'm guessing you haven't either?"

It... was an odd form of address to Alanna's ears. She was used to being called "Sir" or "Lady" and more recently she'd started being addressed as a baroness, although that wasn't one she cared for unless it was absolutely necessary. In truth, she wasn't a big fan of any of them unless the formality proved necessary. With a friendly smile, she corrected him. "Alanna will do. Thank you. I'm pleased to meet you as well."

She shook her head, a troubled frown flickering across her face. "No, I've noticed nothing that would indicate a way out." It was frustrating... yes, that was the word that she wanted. Frustrating. All she had found in her search besides a lot of unfamiliar space was a reminder of home that she'd have preferred stayed there. "There must be a way out of her though, so the best thing that we can do is keep searching."

"As you like," said Roger, and then grimaced- not that it could be seen behind his helmet. "You're probably right about the searching. Although something's going on I definitely don't like- more than usual, I mean. I've seen a lot of strangeness in what little time I've had on the ship, but nothing quite like that before."

He nodded towards what he could see of the Chamber.

"I could be wrong, but it seems like a bad sign."

Alanna's frown deepened, worry reflected in her eyes although she tried to hide it. That life on Stacy was strange was pretty clear from the moment you woke up and that fact didn't seem to change much. It was as though every time she thought she had a handle on the situation, the carpet was pulled out from under her and she was back at square one again. "This situation is worrying, but everything about this place is worrying," she grumbled, possibly sounding a tiny bit cranky. Better than sounding worried, afraid, or angry. She hated this, being cut off from most of the crew and having what little control she'd over her own life stripped from her. It felt as though she was being toyed with and that was not a feeling that she cared for at all. "No point in dwelling on that point too much. We just need to be prepared for as much as we can be."

A bad sign? One could call it that certainly, although perhaps not. Alanna herself wasn't even sure what to make of the Chamber's presence. Why had it been brought here? Was it intended to test those aboard Stacy as it had back in Tortall? Was it here simply by mistake? If it was a mistake, it was a potentially dangerous one.

"I... don't know," she answered slowly. "It has it's uses, but it's not wise to take it lightly."

Nothing wrong with cranky; military men had been turning to cranky to bolster their arguments since the days of the first organized force to defend the first city. Roger nodded. "Not so very different from the way things tend to shake out at home," he said. "We should be able to manage. Some of us've found the restrooms and the mess hall, and a miniature crew quarters. It's a base, if nothing else."

And then she commented on the Chamber; Roger turned to look at it a little more closely. "Sort of resembles things you'd see in museums, back home," he said. She seemed to recognize it, after all.. "Temples and such. Doesn't... doesn't feel like one, though, if you catch my meaning. What's it for, if I can ask?"

"And there's confirmed food and water in the mess hall?" Alanna asked, wanting to make sure that their needs would be met even if they were here for a while. Not that she wanted this to last long enough for it to matter, but it would be foolish to ignore the possibility especially given that she'd seen no place where she might be able to hunt for or gather food nor any place where it might be possible to find water. "That's good to hear. We may need it." Never underestimate the importance of having a secured base.

She shook her head as her eyes drifted back to the walls of the Chamber. "It's definitely not a temple. The Chamber is... a test."

"So they tell me," said Roger. "I haven't tested it yet, but it smelled about how you'd expect an operational mess hall to smell while I was in there."

He considered the words. Slowly, he nodded. "Understood," he said. "Automated, I'm assuming? It starts its testing action on its own? That kind of thing ought to be marked."

Whatever the test involved, you didn't want to spring anything big on an unsuspecting arrival.

She nodded thoughtfully. That they had an operational base was perhaps the first encouraging thing that she'd heard so far. "That's good to know. Thank you."

Alanna hesitated, biting her lip as she considered the best way to broach the topic. She took her duty to her companions aboard Stacy very seriously, but she took the oaths that she'd taken when she'd accepted her shield very seriously as well and so she felt divided. It was forbidden to speak in detail about what one saw within the walls of Chamber, but she could at least offer a warning, even if she had to keep it vague.

"It is... magical in nature. A strange magic that cannot be affected by outside sources," she told him carefully. Everything she'd said so far was common knowledge in Tortall. "It should be marked. It would... be very bad for someone to walk in there unknowingly. I don't understand why the Chamber would be here in the first place anyway."

Magic or science or something else entirely, it was dangerous and automated and unable to be disabled; that was the important part. Roger nodded. "There's a lot about this place I don't understand myself," he said. "For whatever that's worth. Right now the important thing is, that place is here and we can't get rid of it, so we'd better make sure nobody does anything dangerous with it. I haven't got anything to write with or bar the door, though, do you?"

Sakura paused near the entrance, catching sight of one of the other people trapped on this side of the ship. Or this portion, she supposed. The ship had more facets than a shaped diamond, and how large a portion this actually counted as she didn't know.

The young woman looked -- Sakura wasn't sure. Intense. Like something was unexpected about what she saw, in a way that reminded her of something else. Hard for Sakura to say if it was the area itself, or some faint echo out of memory coming through loud and clear to the other woman.

"Are you all right?" she asked softly, not wanting to startle the other woman too greatly. "Did you see something around here?"

Alanna jumped a bit at the sound of another voice so near her as she let go of the thoughts that had been running through her mind, tensing and turning to face the source of it, but hesitating as the words themselves finally sank in.

"I'm... I'm fine," she said slowly, watching the newcomer carefully. "Yes, I did." Motioning towards the chamber, she added, "That... that is from my homeland. It hadn't expected to see it. That's all." Sort of. Not really. She'd never been much of liar.

Sakura nodded, contemplating how Alanna had shared that much information. She'd startled her enough -- if not greatly -- that it made her wonder. "Do you mind me asking what it is?"

"It's... a chamber. A magical one," Alanna answered vaguely, her eyes flickering back to the walls of the object of discussion. She had been thrown off-balance by this discovery and she knew it, but for that reason she worked harder to better ground herself. Surprise in itself was not a problem unless it hindered the ability to think and act.

She wondered if it was impolite to press for clarification. "A dangerous kind of magical?" If so, best to avoid. Bringing knowing danger into her life wasn't something Sakura went out of her way to do.

"It's not a magic to take lightly," Alanna said, turning the question over in her mind. In a sense, she felt trapped by two conflicting loyalties. She had a duty to help those aboard Stacy and she took it seriously, but she'd sworn oaths to uphold the laws of her kingdom and she took them seriously too. It was not permitted for a knight who had taken the Ordeal to explain what the Chamber would do in any sort of specifics. But in Tortall it was well known that one would not play around with the Chamber, so warning people off was not generally necessary. Here that was not true. At least as far as she knew. She needed to at least warn people of the danger.

"I wouldn't enter the Chamber without good reason," she finished, her tone implying that there weren't many things that she'd consider good reason. "It was used as a final test for knights in my homeland and it's the final test for a reason."

Sakura looked to the chamber again, then nodded. "Final tests have a habit of not seeing everyone through past the end. I don't guess you're meant to say much on it either, though thank you for the warning. We should probably put up some kind of sign, or seal off the area. Unintentional access might be troublesome."

She looked to Alanna for some kind of confirmation of her final statement.

Alanna was relieved that Sakura seemed to understand without needing her to go into much more detail. It was very much appreciated. "The Chamber is not something to be toyed with and you're right that I'm limited in what I can say about it." Her voice was apologetic, but firm about the point. "To what I can say though, I can add that no outside forces can affect what happens within the Chamber. Once you're in there, you will only be released when it is done with you. Also, a part of the test is that no sound may be uttered until exiting the Chamber." A fact that was far harder then it sounded.

A sign was a good suggestion, although Alanna was at a bit of a loss on what to write on it. Often times people seemed to take "do not enter" as a challenge and, given the potential danger that the Chamber posed, that would not do. "That would be a good idea. It'd be very bad for someone to wander in there without knowing the risks."

"What happens if you do?"

It's a simple, pointed question. She wondered if that was too much of an answer for this woman to give.

"Write up the risks, warn people about those. You can't stop an idiot from being an idiot, but you can at least hand them the tools to get through things on their own if they're going to be stubborn about the whole idiot thing."

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The Chamber of the Ordeal (Open)

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I am so sorry for how long this took. :(

It's okay. These things happen, no worries.

Thank you. :)

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I'm sorry that this took so long.

Pfft, not even a week, you're perfectly on time in my books!

Thank you. :) I've been having the hardest time tagging the last week or so..

I feel you there! Sometimes I think it's just hard going, period.

It definitely can be. Thank you for understanding. :)

<3 You're always welcome.