IC - Bug City The Lost Years

[arcanus]

January 2057

Malthalamus Curren sat nursing his coffee and looked up at the concerned face of Casandra Alban.
For the past two months she'd helped Curren recoup from his Quest and unravel what he'd learned.

Gianeno placed a plate of pancakes before him, the smell deceiving Curren it almost smelt of real food.
"How'd you make this?" said Curren with friendly suspicion
"You a don wanna know" replied Gianeno with casual flippancy
The englishman sighed and allowed himself a grin
Casandra dug into her pancakes and swallowed down the freeze dried soycafe, although 6 months of revived life in the zone had ensured she was happy with what she had, many within the CZ were starving.

Curren was still thinking, Casandra and he had discussed the findings of his Quest on a number of occasions, that was once his usual level of mistrust had dwindled.
An Initiated mage herself Cass, had become trapped within an astral prison within the Aztechnology Pyramid, it was only through the foresight of a magical runner companion that he petrified her meat body and hid her within a cellar.

It turned out it was a running team that Curren had been involved with that had destroyed the prison and freed her.
Cass had told Malthalamus that as far as she was aware Curren was unique in that the majority of trapped Initiates within the zone couldn't access the Metaplanes.

As for his discoveries they were enlightening, firstly he'd unravelled a pattern, the symbol within the sands pertained to a tome, one that held great secrets concerning access to the astral realms, a tome that would bring him closer to nullifying the threat of the Gagglepus.
The second thing he'd learned was how to unlock his Metapowers to shield himself from higher magics.
The third thing he'd learned was his ability to access the Metaplanes from within the zone and how that provided him with the means of escaping the CCZ.
All of these things had significantly lifted the weary mage.

The thing that worried Curren the most was that he hadn't heard from his good friend Frank Drake in the past months.

[Curren]

After mulling over these thoughts for a while, Curren realised that his food was getting cold and the last thing he wanted to do was displease Gianeno today. A lot of things had happened and he didn't need an argument to cloud his thinking.

He bit into the pancake, his eyes widened and he suddenly realised why Cass had gulped down the Coffee so swiftly afterwards, and he promptly took a deep draught of his coffee.

'Control yourself you prick.' he though angrily to himself. As he looked furtively at Cass hoping that she hadn't noticed his expression of disgust.

[arcanus]

Cassandra Alban had sunkissed red hair, her face was angular, she'd once had a little bit of unnecessary weight but that had long been lost due to the attrition and meagre food supplies within the CCZ.
Her eyes were grey, she stood 5'7 and through a regime of fitness training enforced by their resident samurai 'Tombstone' her body was pretty hard.
Before the zone 'Cass' had was a self confessed 'Bitch', stuck up and arrogant with the special place her magical power granted her.

Her imprisonment within the Aztech soul cage had dosed her with a monumental amount of humility, a gift that helped her deal with the suffering she saw every single day within the zone.
From the limited amount she'd told Curren, he had a great deal of respect for her, to have retained her mind after her mental imprisonment showed a strength of character a cut above the rest.

[Curren]

After the feelings of nausea had passed Curren finally realised that something was bothering the girl.

Cass would normally be very good at picking up on any facial mannerisms or quick changes in a persons body language. In fact he had likened it to his own combat premonitions; but Cass's was centred more around a one to one perception of the person she was conversing with. What was even more impressive to the Englishman is that Cass's 'special' perceptions were not magical at all; she was just very good at reading people. And for a change she hadn't picked up on his discomfort over the food.

'Whats up?' He asked her as he sank the remainder of his coffee, and ate the rest of the pancakes tentatively as he willed his stomach to accept them.

[arcanus]

Cass turned and regarded Curren, obviously mulling something over.
"I just wonder Mal, whether we'll get out of here, I just have a bad feeling, as if the worst isn't over yet, as if the worst is yet to come" with that she went quiet.

The Robinson families children played happily at the beaten up farmhouse table, one of its legs held on by a mixture of gaffer tape and numerous additional nails.
Curren found himself smiling at the innocence, even within hell itself a light sometimes shone through.

[Curren]

Curren reached across and placed his hand on Cass's.
'Don't worry lav, everything will be fine.' He said simply with an easy smile as he looked into her eyes.

'That lie came easy.' he thought to himself uneasily. The light of innocence could easily be winked out in an instant he knew; and a happy ending to this situation was uncertain if not unlikely.

He shared her fear, but he would be damned if he would show it.

He removed his hand and continued reluctantly with the food.

'Hanging on in quiet desperation, is the English way' ran a line from a song he had heard many years ago. 'Bloody true that' he thought as the children all at once with giggles and screams of laughter leapt from their chairs and ran out of the room.

[arcanus]

Arnold Roberts stood from his corner, one of the two families fathers.
He seemed to be concentrating, cocking his head to one side.
"Shhhh" he hissed
As the children fell silent so did the basement refuge.
The atmosphere of the room changed, joy to cold reality, and still the survivors silently listened and then they heard it.

A heavy scuffling below the floorboards of the refuge, and whatever it was it sounded large.

When Gianno had reclaimed his resturant he had barricaded any access to the lower sub-basements, and collectively they hoped that they would avoid discovery.

The morbid imaginations of the refugees and the stark reality of the horror of their situation took hold again. The fear was almost a physical thing like a contagen; that chilled the hearts and sapped the spirits of one and all in the hideout. This fear could easily turn to panic at any moment, so the Englishman had to act.

'I must not be frightened, for their sakes.' Curren muttered inaudibly as he tentatively stood up and held his finger to his lips for continued silence.

[Curren]

Whereabouts in the room (under the floor) does the sound seem to originate from?

[arcanus]

Whereabouts in the room (under the floor) does the sound seem to originate from?

Within the corridors, sewers beneath and to the north of the basement.

[Curren]

Curren tip-toed swiftly over to the corner where the sounds seemed to originate from, and dropped down and put his ear to the dusty wooden floor.

Listen of 9 5 5 4 2 1 1 3 Hits

Curren casts Clairvoyance subtley to prevent a bleed off of too much power that could be detected. These things have a nasty habit of detecting magic!

Clairvoyance at FCE 5 : 12 5 5 5 4 4 4 3 2 1 1 5 Hits

Drain at FCE 2(-3 to Spell Force According to SR rules) 11 5 5 5 3 3 2 2 2 1 Drain resisted.