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[cmdr_renegade]

Who: Commander Shepard and anyone/thing who happens to be lurking around, searching for weird shit in the memory-buildings.
What: Let's be stuck in a holographic maze together. Btw. It's full of corpses and disembodied voices.
Where: Probably Kurzweil.
When: About 4:50 PMish.
Warning(s): Bloody things and creepiness? Also swearing.

Comments

[arbitrating]

Fortunately, the sound of gunfire made no difference to the holograms and whatever intelligent design was behind them. It did, however, attract the attention of someone else

[cmdr_renegade]

The layout of the building hadn't changed much, but the holographic walls had cut off several established exits, shifted and blocked paths she would have preferred to take. Shepard didn't like it much, but that didn't mean she had much of a choice. She was a rat in a maze, at the moment, and there was very little she could do about it. If she deactivated her avatar, she could cut through the walls, but that didn't help if she couldn't open the doors without it, so she hadn't bothered to try.

Her hand dropped away from her pistol as she rounded a corner to, yet another, empty, skinned hallway. She'd already managed to waste a clip because some creative hologram had startled her, she really didn't need to waste another if the darting shadows decided to sprint across her vision. The carnage in the hall prior wasn't the norm, but it was nowhere near unique. Most of the walls were smattered with hand-shaped smudges of blood. Deep, long, nail marks followed the floor, skipping and jogging intermittently. The occasional corpses she passed

[arbitrating]

Human. He scented it clearly, and quickly activated his armor's invisibility. Even if it gave him only a few moments before shorting out, as was inevitable given how old it was, he wanted a clear look at what was waiting for him up ahead...

Not a SPARTAN. Human, certainly, and armored, but not nearly tall enough to be anyone he knew. He hesitated, wondering whether to simply turn around and vanish back the way he'd come, avoid any unwanted confrontations. He had no obligation to reveal himself, after all, if the female was lost she would surely be able to find her own way out, and the holograms were not actually dangerous, so--

--and his armor shorted out, right on cue, leaving him in plain view as the invisibility dropped.

[cmdr_renegade]

For about half a minute, Shepard was staring at nothing but an empty hallway with bad lighting. She was ready to turn, ignore the recently halted sound of footsteps, and continue on her less-than-merry way, when the air flickered and, with a mechanical sizzle, gave way to a tall, dark shadowy thing. Shepard recoiled slightly, her hand going reflexively to her sidearm, and she had to force herself to keep from drawing it.

Whatever it was wavered into existence and just...was for a moment. It wasn't really moving, and Shepard kept still as she surveyed it. It was tall enough that if it stood up straight, it'd punch a hole in the bulkhead behind the holographic skin. Double her size in bulk, if not in height, and armored like it was going out of fashion. It was a species she'd never seen, but that was less surprising than it should have been

[standaloneshell]

« Shepard to Normandy crew »

It wasn't visible in the relative, but the transmission brought Motoko's head up like a grazing deer brought to attention by some soft, predatory trace. Nearly, she scanned the surroundings, as if the comm system somehow indicated proximity. Then she did it anyway, to satisfy the creeping rise of professional paranoia.

The transmission didn't repeat, and the radio static held sway- not that that was unusual. The more solid of the holograms produced a certain amount of interference. The Major had taken to the rooftops when it had first started trapping people. If nothing else, the height she could achieve in a jump prevented mobility from becoming an issue. It was a calculated risk to drop to the ground, therefore, and sacrifice the- and then the holograms went live, shifting the dead zone elsewhere and trapping Motoko in a glowing maze of buildings that she knew shouldn't be there

[cmdr_renegade]

"I happen to enjoy not suffocating in maintenance closets," Shepard snapped and pulled back her foot. Some of the holographic corpse had leaked onto it...or rather, onto her avatar. Holograms.

"But if you want to stay trapped in here, while I find a route out, be my guest."

[standaloneshell]

Motoko surveyed Shepards avatar and all but rolled her eyes. OF course, she herself hadn't been playing the game either- that was why she'd programmed a bot to do it for her. That was the kind of tediously knee-jerk work that reflexive subroutines were ideal for, wasn't it?

"You're going to be killed, walking around like that," The Major pointed out, pragmatically, "It was my intention to get back onto the rooftops, but you need an escort."

What she needed was a babysitter, but Motoko wasn't willing to go that far. At least, not out loud.

"Unless you think the consequences for taking damage while this game-system is in place are more your style?"

[cmdr_renegade]

"Hate to break it to you, but I haven't come across anything that needed my help getting deader," Shepard responded tersely and motioned at the corpse she'd just cracked open with her boot.

"Closest to anything living are the voices in the walls, and while I don't particularly like to listen to crazy yammering," Shepard paused and stared pointedly at the Japanese woman, "it hardly constitutes a threat."

Shepard moved toward the door and palmed it open. It stuck slightly. Whether it was a code error, a mechanical error, or a quirk of the game, she didn't care. She gritted her teeth and looked back at Motoko.

"Come on, I don't want to get trapped in here."