[OPEN]

[cantgetanyworse]

WHO: Jane Porter & YOU(????)
WHERE: The Dwemer Ruins, inside & outside
WHEN: During event (can work around when people want to show up!)
WHAT: Exploring, because Jane never really learns her lesson about not getting herself into trouble.
WARNINGS: None yet!

--

i. outside

[Even before she enters the large, brassy-coloured door she's already scribbling notes and gasping softly at the sheer scale of the thing. She takes the odd rubbing here, the odd sketch there, measuring the width of the door with her hand (wider than the full span, thumb to forefinger), and then...

Then, she dithers, because although she came here fully prepared for an adventure - sensibly dressed, wearing strong shoes, with some supplies - she does have the self-control to at least temporarily second-guess the idea of venturing into a place like this entirely unaccompanied. Who knows what might be in there!

But then... who knows what might be in there?]

Alright, Miss Porter. [She says, straightening her rucksack across her shoulders.] Let's go and see what all the hullabaloo's about.

ii. it's a trap!

[So far, so good. It's difficult to open the doors on her own, but she's been managing to create gaps just wide enough for her to slip her slim frame through. Her initial eager scratching of pencil to paper has turned to simple, mute wonder at the magnitude of the place the further she's walked down into it, through wide stone halls lined with heavy, steaming pipes and down shallow ramps and staircases.

She pauses at the top of a particular set of stairs. There's a strange track running down the centre of it, and it's enough to have her pursing her lips and taking a step back. Not so reckless as to take on something so suspicious without due care but not wanting to turn around either, she creeps her way forwards and presses close to the wall, inching along carefully.

Then, a click, a clunk, and a dreadful swooshing sound and suddenly there are blades emerging from inside the stairs, spinning an all too deadly path towards her.

Jane does what any sensible person would do in that situation.]

Oh, dear. [She says, then she lets out a strangled shriek and bolts down the rest of the way, certain that any moment she's going to feel the dreadful things across the back of her legs.

But she's faster than the old steam-powered trap and makes it away unscathed. The blades retract, relative silence falling once again, just in time for her to see another person reach the top of the ramp.]

Ah, be careful!

iii. that's no statue

[She's found herself in a large room full of hissing and distant clunking. The sounds of the ruins have mostly faded into the background by now, and she takes a seat on one of the stone benches to have a break and munch thoughtfully on an apple she'd had stowed away in her rucksack.]

Maybe some kind of meeting hall... or a place of worship?

[Come to think of it, she's seen nothing at all down here to suggest that whoever or whatever lived here worshipped any kind of deity at all.]

Probably a meeting hall. They could have orated from up there... [She allows herself a giddy little smile, though it fades as she notices something - another noise over the hisssss-clunk-hiss rhythm of the ancient machinery.

A kind of strange... rolling, scuttling noise.]

... What is that..?

iv. the oculory

[It is, in the end, the reward for her exploring (as far as she's concerned). A button pressed, a deep pit of spiral stairs opened, and she had ventured carefully down into the silent darkness that it offered.

Below, she'd entered a large, open room and she had gasped. Sunlight somehow managed to make its way here, filtering through large panes of green glass suspended on brassy supports over what might have once been a map... now too faded and worn to be read at all (though she tries, regardless).]

An orrery? [She has to wonder out loud, excitement and wonder gathering in her chest like a tangible, solid thing. Jane wonders, then she shakes her had.] No-- no, this isn't a planetary system-- Oh, goodness.

[The remoteness of it and the initially sealed door have left the place safe from the machines roaming the halls above her (something to think about while she's trying to leave, but not just yet) and Jane seats herself in this place for some time, making sketches and notes or simply enjoying the peaceful aura that it gives off.

At least, until she hears movement by the door.]

Oh-- if you're one of those horrible spider things again, I'm going to--

Comments

iv

[hampire]

[As it turns out, the movement she hears is not one of those horrible spider things, but instead, a rather adorable-looking small black cat, who's approaching her gingerly.

Opening its mouth, it looks as though it's about to meow piteously... but instead, actually speaks, with a deep melodious voice and a proper English accent.]

Not at all, dear lady! Please don't do anything we'll both regret.

[cantgetanyworse]

[And, as it turns out, this isn't the first animal that Jane has seen speak. The last one was a snake, and a demon, and she manages not to look too surprised.]

Ah--... Hello.

[She'd half-risen from her seat, but she sinks back down with a relieved exhale.]

Good. I'm not sure what I'd do if one of them managed to corner me in here. Perhaps they can't manage the stairs.

[hampire]

[Under normal circumstances ('normal' being back at home in his own world), speaking whilst in animal form was not a thing he would generally do, except in select circumstances, as people there were not apt to take it well, to say the least. Here however, it's a different story entirely.

Satisfied she isn't about to shoot/hex/swing a stick at him, he jumps up on the bench as well, sitting on his haunches and calmly licking a paw.]

They do seem to be rather ungainly. Very... steampunk? Is that the term?

[cantgetanyworse]

[Ah, but he's such a cute kitty... It's only the fact he's talking, and therefore clearly sapient, that keeps her from reaching out and giving him a little scratch behind the ears.]

Oh... I'm not sure. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that word.

['Steampunk'. Hmm. She looks around speculatively.]

This room looks like an orrery, but I've never heard of anything quite like it.

[hampire]

I believe it's a combination of Victorian era aesthetics with more modern technology. Not that such things actually existed back then—in my world, anyway.

[If he sounds rather certain of that, it might be because he did live through the Victorian era after all.

He pauses his grooming long enough to glance around.] Vaguely, I suppose? Perhaps a different solar system.

[cantgetanyworse]

I'm sure I've never seen anything with this aesthetic in London.

[Victorian-era aesthetics, indeed? The aesthetics of the Victorian era are something still very fresh in Jane's mind. She stands up, tapping her forefinger against her lower lip.]

I thought it was a planetary system, but it isn't quite right. There's no real centre point, and were are the planets?

[hampire]

An alternate dimension, most likely. Not unlike this world in general.

[They're a bit more remote in Eccarius', even if he had been dressing the part not all that long ago. The centuries tend to run together when you're 350.]

Well, there's that lower part that's central more or less? But all in all, it seems rather like an abstract suggestion than an actual depiction.

[cantgetanyworse]

Ah, let me see.

[Jane doesn't hesitate in moving over to the machinery again, nor in hopping up onto the edge of the base of it and carefully walking over the 'arm' extended over it.]

It looks like it used to be a map, but it's so worn away... I couldn't say what was on it.

[hampire]

Well, I don't pretend to have made a study of such things, so I can't really help you there at all.

[Especially as he seems more interested at the moment in lifting a leg and washing his nether regions.]

Odd, though, isn't it? How this all just sprang up—or down—out of nowhere.

[cantgetanyworse]

Mm... I haven't made too much of a study of it, either.

[She's just read a lot, and widely.]

But yes... it's terribly odd. I've seen things appear here out of nowhere before, but nothing so large.