Orange Team Finale

[voidtreckermods]

Four days of ice maze, four days of cold, four days of wandering lost, falling into traps and slowly getting closer to the centre of the labyrinth.

There is very little warning in the labyrinth, those nearer the outer walls may see the storm get more intense outside but their first real indication that something is wrong is when the world lurches.

Parts of the maze have moved before, passages opening and closing. But now the whole labyrinth moves, shaking and twisting, spinning in the sky, as if it were trying to shake those inside out. They may be able brace themselves, they may be thrown down passageways, into ice walls.

The whole place seems to get colder. An attempt to freeze them out. The shaking only lasts a few minutes, but it is intense.

But even this attempt at getting rid of them isn’t enough it seems, because those close enough will soon find themselves entering through the last gap in the ice. To the machine room itself. Indeed it might be that they were flung closer by the shaking itself.

Comments

[so_dark_a_road]

The shaking comes to an end, and Curufin gets up on his feet and stumbles towards the gap that has just opened at the end of the passageway. He stands in the doorway taking stock of what he sees. Huge transparent sphere on top of a huge cylinder, and the cylinder is like a snow globe with furious activity inside.

He walks gingerly into the room and goes straight to the console and stands looking at the screens. He tries the keyboards and gets no response.

And then he kneels down and looks at the paneling under the console. He feels the edges of one of the panels with his fingertips, grips it, and removes it. Seeing the piping and machinery below, he mutters, "What's all this, now?" to himself and to whomever has entered the machine room with him. He turns to whichever teammate is nearest him and smiles darkly. He unslings his rucksack and drops it on the floor, and then pulls out the smaller satchel of tools he has brought along. "Unless you've got a better idea or want to try hacking the system, I'm going to start disassembling the damned thing."

Attempt at hacking~

[stealsyourheart]

"Let me see." Kaito comes over, all liquid grace and sharp edged smiles.

"Oooh, a computer. Fun times! Let me see what I can do - I've got some skill at hacking."

He considers the screens and touches one. "Hmmm. Needs a password. Don't suppose anyone's been dumb enough to leave a sticky pad somewhere with the actual passowrd? Or any other clues?"

And if Kaito doesn't succeed in hacking the damned thing, Curufn volunteers to WRECK IT.~

[so_dark_a_road]

Even though Kaito might be just joking, Curufin takes a look around the room, searching for anything the machine inventor might have used to make notes on, stickies, notepads, stray sheets of printer paper.

Then he has a thought. "Try ordinary words that relate to the purpose of the machine? Some people, even really intelligent people, are too lazy to think up real passwords and they resort to shortcuts. How about any of these: snow, ice, snowstorm, stormclouds, ice monster. . . words of that sort?"

Meantime, he goes to the wiring network and starts to trace the wires, where each comes from and where each goes.

[voidtreckermods]

The screen lights up when Kaito touches it. A snowflake logo shows before it fades to a text screen.

Authorisation required.

Password:

A keyboard appears at the bottom of the screen. There is no sticky pad though or any kind of paper at all around the machine.

The wires go up to the screens, connecting screen to the console below. Most the wires disappear into the central tube, where they can assume it connects up to the ball at the top.

Kaito trying a passowrd! ... how many tries does he have lol

[stealsyourheart]

"Hm. Let's see... some sort of snow thing, it looks like. Let's try..."

S N O W F L A K E

[voidtreckermods]

There is a second before a text box pops up.

Ice Try.

Snow luck though.

Nine attempts remain.

Try again?

Trying again, and here the mun regrets that *Kaito* might be good at this, but she sucks

[stealsyourheart]

"Oooooh a punster, huh?"

Kaito considers.

"Lesse now. Snow and ice based, doomsday machine, likes puns. Not likely to be something historical or mythological then. Think Mr Freeze... damn it's been a long time since that came out. Hm..."

ICE TO SEE YOU

dw I don't expect you to be an actual hacker!

[voidtreckermods]

Ice to See You too.

Can I alp you?

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin leaves the wires for the moment and comes to look over Kaito's shoulder. He laughs softly. "It seems this machine has a sense of humor. What a punster! Try the names of the Alps? A mountainous region in the nation of Switzerland, on the planet Earth, with some famous, immensely high mountains. I read about them in an encyclopedia. Perhaps there is a connection between this planet and that Earth, or this punning machine would not know of these mountains. Try MATTERHORN, JUNGFRAU, or MÖNCH?"

Thank you mods for being kind <3 <3

[stealsyourheart]

"I sure hope I'm not going to have to do this whole thing in ice puns!" He laughs.

"Lesse..."

Stop! Time to make like ice and freeze.

[voidtreckermods]

Snow can do.

Frost things frost, who are you?

Authorisation Required.

I AM GOING TO DIE OF PUNS AND IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT MODS

[stealsyourheart]

"Drat... well uh his name IS Professor Chill so... let's try..."

Chill it's me

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin is still laughing. Kaito pretending to be Professor Chill? Let's see if it works!

[voidtreckermods]

Favourite ice cream?

ORZ

[stealsyourheart]

"Oh dear Kami." Kaito kicks Curufin absently for the cackling. "Uhhh what sort of ice cream would a snow-themed villain like?"

Snow flavor like vanilla

[voidtreckermods]

Favourite animal?

[stealsyourheart]

"This Chill guy has some weiiiiiird password protection on his computer." Kaito observes.

Ice see you like penguins.

[voidtreckermods]

Verifying. Verifying.

Security Question: What is the freezing point of mercury?

[stealsyourheart]

Kaito bangs his head on a convenient nearby wall.

"Here's hoping he uses celsius..."

-39 degrees clecius

[voidtreckermods]

Authorising. Authorising.

What colour is snow?

[stealsyourheart]

White like ice

[kumoko]

This Chill guy..... he's kind of an idiot, isn't he? The spider's mostly preoccupied with grabbing people and getting them away from the walls, but she spends at least a little time teleporting back and forth from the machine to keep track of their progress. And squinting in disappointment at the screen.

'How's it going?' she asks in silk, the third time she pops back.

Feel free to just vaguely describe any panic hacking!

[voidtreckermods]

Incorrect. Not verified.

Water you doing here?

Intruder alert.

Intruders. Sleigh them.

The room begins to shake and liquid ice snakes out of the wall towards their feet.

The screen is still on, the keyboard still active. But they will have to work fast.

excellent panicking it is.

[stealsyourheart]

"Not great!" He curses and hangs on.

"Damn, damn, damn. Not used to having to pun to hack. Lesse... "

The screen and keyboard are still on, so he'll try again to re-access the screen. A different pun maybe...

[kumoko]

Aaah! She thought you had it! What's happening!!!

Instead of leaving again, she's just gonna guard Kaito's back. No point trying to flail at the computer, she has enough trouble typing when there isn't basically a countdown timer on the screen.

Ugh, she bets there's a real countdown timer. This sucks.

Whatever! Come at her, ice monsters!