Participants:
| Scene Title | Goodbye, Tami Erin |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Squeaks stumbles upon an urban legend that is more than meets the eye. |
| Date | March 15, 2019 |
Shalegate Machine Factory is a strange place. Its true modern purpose years ago was never really known, though it certainly had owners, a possible shell company of the Institute called Boston Mechanical Dynamics Inc.
The interior underwent many secretive changes in the time leading up to the war, and people seemed to have trouble truly penetrating it after. The general legend is that people who go in rarely come out, and those who do come out with stories of ghosts.
Post-war, there were rumors of loud sounds, lights, activity, but that all eventually stopped after a brief months long period. Now the gates are chained closed with relatively new chains, and a metal plate in the shape and style of a silver movie ticket is bolted to the front of the gate.
Anyone who enters probably won't leave, but the future is forward. Enter at your own risk, but proceed with extreme caution, intuition, and calculation. Remove this ticket to proceed. It's clear by looking that people have tried to bend and rip it off before, but the ticket seems to be bolted on.
Chasing urban legends isn’t so much a thing of the past as it probably should be. Squeaks is easily captured by the stories and when she heard about the haunted building near the market it had to be investigated — especially since discovering that the monsters beneath the city weren’t really monsters at all. Spooky sounds and people never coming back after going into the forbidden places is a line often used, one she’s more willing to believe now than before.
Finding the place was simple enough. Ask enough questions and go the way people tell you not to, and it’ll lead right to it. She looks beyond the gate as she approaches on quiet feet, and lightly grips the bars once she’s near enough.
For a long minute, Squeaks eyeballs the building that’s out of reach. It doesn’t look that scary. And there’s probably not ghosts or monsters. Stepping back, she gives the gate a tug then turns a squinty look onto the chain holding the way shut. Maybe climbing over would work. But instead of doing that she steps forward to read the inscription, with one finger lifting to trace the lines of letters.
As she runs her finger over it, when she gets near the edge, symmetrical lines in the plate suddenly light up. A voice from an unseen intercom on the other side of the gate asks with a synthesized voice, "New biometrics saved. Logic test initiated. How do you proceed?"
“Woah,” is carried on a breath when the plate seems to come alive. Squeaks’ eyes get squinty when it talks though. Sure, computer things can do that, but it seems too weird that it would happen at a place like this.
“Remove the ticket to proceed.” Her answer is given out loud, and with a curious tone. Obviously to proceed she needs the ticket, that's what the instructions said. She lightly runs her fingers over the panel thing again, seeking a way to take it.
The ticket doesn't seem to budge, and it might become immediately apparent why so many people tried to pry it off.
They couldn't get the answer right.
"Incorrect. How do you proceed?"
Tilting her head a little bit toward one shoulder, Squeaks wonders over the words again. If it isn’t removing the ticket then what else is there. She traces the letters a second time while she reads the inscription. Then…
With a squinty look, she eyeballs the panel. It can’t be that simple, can it? “With extreme caution, intuition, and calculation,” she says out loud, her tone a smidge flat in disbelief.
"Ability to read instructions confirmed. Congratulations," a laser scanner within the ticket suddenly scans her face. "Tami Erin." it says in an even more robotic voice, like it just inserted something off script.
There's a sudden mechanical release, and the chains fall to the ground. The ticket pops out, freeing itself from an even larger circuit board behind it. "Keep this ticket for future entries. Don't die, Tami Erin." again, the name is said with a more robotic voice than the rest of the synthesized sentence.
The gates open automatically, showing the large expanse of concrete for trucks to drive through. But if she walks forward, she'll see the large factory doors, several feet larger than her small form, waiting for her to enter.
It is that simple.
Squeaks flinches as she’s scanned and frowns at the name. It’s not hers, but can she really argue with a machine? When the chains fall, she hops backward a step and gives them a look too, like it’s their fault or something. Probably it is their fault.
“I won’t,” the teen says assuringly. It’s really meant for herself, but spoken out loud gives it the impression that she’s intending it for the computer. One hand reaches out to take the ticket as she passes through the gates. It’s briefly looked over and wondered about — but then the whole place is a curiosity to her — then it’s deposited into her back pocket.
Lifting her eyes to the structure, she tries to take it all in. Squeaks turns a full circle as she walks slowly forward, her head tilted back to look way way up to the tops of the building too. As she completes her circle she finds the giant doors. There’s only a second of hesitation before she starts toward them. No place better to start than there.
The ticket has a bit of weight to it, clearly a piece of technology.
As she steps close to it, the door beeps, then automatically opens. There's a long hall, it just barely looks like what a factory should look like. It's more like entering an office with a checkered floor. But within, there's only darkness…
Until two glowing, blue, circular eyes open in the shadows. They grow closer and closer, until suddenly instantaneously springing out, a mechanical face covered in what at first glance, in this split second, looks like torn up flesh. Then it speaks with rapidly changing tones, its face dangerously close to her's, too close to really see the rest of its body. "CHILD!!! WELCOME TO THE FUTURE, I AM B-B-B-B-B-!!!!" it stutters, and doesn't quite finish.
It's head starts to rapidly spin around, sending sparks everywhere as its strangely humanoid teeth start to chatter.
Darkness hasn’t ever really been a problem. Squeaks can’t technically see in the dark in the normal way of seeing, but she can see, in a manner of speaking, with her ability. She nearly sends out a wave of clicks to start getting a sense of the place when suddenly there’s blue glowing eyes.
Curiosity has her squinting slightly at the oddness of it. But when it springs at her she shrieks and stumbles backward. The sparks that follow force her to crab away and stumble over herself in haste to get to and then out of the giant door. Her head twists to look over her shoulder as she makes a frantic escape, and the robot thing gets some serious eyeballing. If it follows, there’s going to be problems.
It doesn't pursue, in fact, when she leaves those large doors, they slam shut behind her. When she makes it back through the gates, they, too, slam shut.
As she's running, she might hear something in the wind, something distant, haunting…
Goodbye, Tami Erin