Crack in the Wall: The Black Market

[sphererpmod]

Who: Anyone either involved in the Black Market Quest or for those wanting to shelter in the Black Market . You can shelter there without being involved in the questing.
What: The Black Market as an Emergency Shelter/trying to get things turned back on.
Where: The Black Market and the tunnels below.
When: June 13-onward.
Notes: For the first three days feel free to make normal just being locked in a shelter things. The actual questing stuff will happen in closed threads. Hope you didn't think the Black Market would be the party dome.
Warnings: Max, ghosts, child ghosts, creepy shit, bad androids named Annie, riddles.

The alarms have sounded and people have begun to move. Everyone knows about getting to the closest shelter. For the most part, this is an orderly move, but there is some panicking. The council and various npcs are out shouting for people to get a move on. Water is coming in rapidly. When the alarm first sounds it’s up to people’s ankles, and then when the final alarm rings and the doors start to close, it’s up to the average person’s knees. Once the outer door is sealed, there’s feedback and communication is off.

Max is in his office when the alarm goes off, naturally, and he goes down to let people in. Of course there’s people he sure as fuck doesn’t want in, and those people he definitely eyes as they come in. For it being the black market, the place is definitely cleaned up and resembles more of a gym than anything else. There’s no sign of the normal debauchery, no drugs or liquor or anything else. As a matter of fact if Max sees anyone smoking anything, he makes them put it out ASAP.

Comments

Closed to the fix it team: collecting the players:

[sphererpmod]

On the third day he very angrily rounds up people and leads them into his office, hiding the combo on his safe as he opens it to the door behind. “Don’t fuck with this or I will kill you so many fucking times the Sphere forgets how to put you back together.” It’s a sound warning, and one he clearly means, because Max isn’t full of shit on this. “The Sphere says it’s you, so it’s gonna be you. Get in there and reboot the system or we all die. It’s that simple. No, we don’t know more than that. There’s supplies the Sphere provided. No, I don't know what's in em and no you don't get anything extra. We're running out of air, water and power. Don't fuck around down there. Get in and get out."

[10milliondollars]

In the days leading up to the alarms going off, Rhys had been doing his best to avoid areas where the rain was most prevalent. A splash here or there was no big deal, but if a deluge started, he'd be screwed.

He's in his own office when the alarms sound, so getting to the Black Market is the quickest route. He spends the first couple of hours pulling EMT duties, checking the others for any injuries and making sure everyone is safe. Once that's finished, he keeps to himself.

On the third day, when Max rounds them up, Rhys is pretty annoyed. He'd rather just wait this out. He's dealt with too many crises in his life as it is, and it'd be nice to take a break for once. But if this involves rebooting a system, he's probably one of the most qualified.

"That's it? Just turn it off and back on again?" Yes, he's suspicious. It sounds too easy.

[smokedout]

"Dunno what you're up in a knot about, that tends to solve most things."

Where did Dodger come from? It's a mystery. He's just... here now. Well, he's actually been invisible on-and-off for the last few days, disappearing and hiding whenever Max got too close. Now that there seems to be some action, he's showing his face.

[10milliondollars]

"If that's all it is, why have more than one person go? Why not just have Max go down and do it?" Rhys scowls at Dodger. He'd slap the smug smile off the man's face, if he knew he could get away with it.

[nobasisinfact]

Richard, for the past weeks, had been researching as to whether this had happened before. When he'd come up empty, he'd been working on helping with supplies. He wasn't a monster; after all, he was an asshole.

The beforehand briefing from Max made things easier. There hadn't been questions, but an understanding that this was how it needed to be. He understood that. Max had a specific personality to keep up, and its normalcy kept everyone in line.

Then there were these two. Rhys was a known entity. A friend of Alex's and probably just as idiotic as her. The other one, well, he got the feeling that he didn't want to know him. Even so, these were the two that it seemed he was going to have to do this with. "If the two of you are finished." There are no questions, no protests, just a movement toward the vault and grabbing his bag. "And if you think it's going to be easy when you haven't watched enough horror movies." Of course, Richard's mind was thinking more about the issue with the moss, and the fact that Alex was probably being dragged into all this as well. Or more accurately, she was skipping merrily into what could be her doom and recording it the whole time.

[smokedout]

"Never said it was going to be easy, but there's no point bitching when the other option is drowning."

There's a shiver that runs down his spine at the thought of that. He can't say why, but this whole situation is rubbing him the wrong way, and quite a lot more than it should.

Seeing as Dodger is here expressly against Max's wishes, there's no supplies for him to grab and he doesn't expect there to be. That frees him up to just follow Richard; not by walking, of course, but by bursting into sparks and reappearing beside him every so often. As if he couldn't be more annoying, each teleportation is announced with a loud pop. He isn't saying much either... just observing. Which absolutely includes checking Richard out.

[10milliondollars]

Pouting, Rhys grabs his pack and trails behind the other two. It's not like he asked for this.

"Well, we know it's not Annie this time. Max and Laurie shut her down," he says. It's not like he's forgotten the moss. He likely never will. "I just don't think it's gonna be a simple switch flick. There has to be something more going on."

He scans over everything with his eye as they go.

[nobasisinfact]

Richard can feel Dodger's eyes on him and knows if he comments on it that it'll just encourage the man. So he doesn't say a word about it, instead, he keeps moving ahead, replying to Rhy's brilliant deduction. "Of course, there is."

This whole thing is going to be an exercise in 'more than that.' Both of them are going to be insufferably annoying, and Richard has no idea where Alex is and no way to find out. He's also utterly confident that this whole thing was going to be another exercise in a B-rated horror movie that encapsulated things they cared about.

[smokedout]

"Either of you mind filling me in on who 'Annie' is?"

Seems like a better topic than the supposed ease of the mission. It couldn't matter less to Dodger what dangers are ahead, but the tease of new information catches his interest enough that he starts actually walking instead of teleporting.

[10milliondollars]

"She was part of the council," Rhys answers. "A couple of months ago, this moss stuff infiltrated the Sphere and took control of her. Turns out, Annie is an android. She was helping this moss abduct people for...I guess an army?"

He neglects to mention having been one of the abducted. Just talking about the situation briefly makes him uncomfortable. He'd rather not go into detail.

"I don't know exactly what happened to her, but I'm pretty sure Max shut her down."

[nobasisinfact]

Richard continues to let Rhys deal with Dodger. Better him than Richard, after all. Rhys, for all his idiocy, seems to have Alex's knack for collecting trouble, and this man seemed just that.

Instead, Richard focused on moving forward. Down the patented horror movie corridor and to a door standing at the other end.

[smokedout]

"Right... heard about the moss. That ah... journalist chick, mentioned it's weak to fire, so. We're set if it shows up again."

Now that they're officially out of Max's jurisdiction, he slips a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lights one with the snap of his fingers. He's positively giddy with the chance for his first smoke after days of sneaking around.

He comes to stop in front of the door, a little too close to Richard but not close enough to start anything over it. "So, who's going first?"

[10milliondollars]

"Of course it's weak against fire, why didn't we think about that when we were getting ambushed and having our network units ripped out in a manner that killed us?" Rhys rolls his eyes. "Little hard to fight back when you're knocked unconscious or killed."

He stops with the other two, staring at the door. "I vote you go first, Dodger. You've got magic powers, it'll be easy."

[smokedout]

"Boohoo. No one dies for good here, so quit whining."

Although there's a bit of an edge to his voice that might not be there if he hadn't gotten himself killed last week.

He looks the door over, and huffs quietly.

"Not magic powers. And I'm not going first for free."

[nobasisinfact]

During their arguing, Richard steps to the side, quietly observing. He isn't a fighter by any means, so he's not going through a rather large and ominous door first. Honestly, though, their squabbling was getting annoying.

"The only offers of compensation you'll get are these. Not being in a reoccurring loop of dying and being brought back, and that I'll put a good word in for you with Max, should you make yourself useful."

[10milliondollars]

"Look, it's not the dying part that was horrible, it was the fact that we were incapacitated and couldn't defend ourselves. Once I could, I fought back and managed to get free."

Rhys smirks on hearing Richard's offer, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'll throw in a keg of Rakk-Ale just to sweeten the deal~ Thought I doubt you can get a better offer than what's been put forth."

[nobasisinfact]

Richard pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, pushing open the door for Dodger. Rhys had missed his point in his 'compensation'. The point had been to explain that the reward was the fact that they all didn't die, not to give actual rewards; but what Rhys had done was a very Alex thing to add on.

"One of you just go through." The sound of annoyance was brushed in his tone.

[smokedout]

"You say that like I give a shit what you've been through." He turns his attention back to Strand and scoffs. "Tinder can think what he wants, I'm not planning to suck up to him."

Strand has a point though, they can't just sit here bickering until the city floods. He rolls his eyes, and if either of them is in the way when he goes through the door they're getting shoved aside.

"You're both pussies, I hope you realize that."

[10milliondollars]

Rhys is pointedly not near the doorway when it's opened. He knows better than to let himself get shoved into strange openings. Especially when there's water damage to be avoided.

"Stop complaining and just do your job. And I'll have you know, I'm not a pussy! I just won't be very useful if my arm gets damaged." He really hates that he doesn't have a pistol or an SMG on him right now. Putting a bullet or five through Dodger would be extremely satisfying.

"What do you see in there?"

[nobasisinfact]

Richard ignores the comment about him being a pussy. He's a scholar and, apparently according to Max, a babysitter of idiots, not a fighter. These two were supposed to be the firepower on this excursion, and he'd be using them to the fullest.