Daycare Attendant intro

[dualityinjest]

Open/locked?: Open!
Who: Whoever wants to investigate
What: The daycare attendant's inglorious intro
Where: Inside the building
Why: Because his player is terrible?
Warnings: Moon being Moon. Yep. (More seriously, nothing just yet past possible violence. Let's see if anyone can get Sun to spill to them, first.)
Extra info: this bot is kinda tall. And if anyone wants to know what they sound like... :D

In one of the lower levels -- not so low as to still be flooded, but unused enough for no one to have turned the lights on lately... there was a crash, and a screech.

It wasn't the biggest crash; someone had just dropped a box of something. But the screeching... that sounded like genuine distress. It was a higher-pitched voice, probably not one anyone would have found all that immediately familiar. "No" could be made out clearly enough at first, repeated, louder and more frantically, until after a few seconds, it sounded strangled... and then it was quiet.

Dare someone investigate?

Comments

[elianne]

Eli had been hiding out down there as the floods had started drying up. Especially with Roxas gone, leaving her no one to watch her back. And she was still freaked out about...

After a few dry heaves she managed to push herself out from under the desk she had been sleeping under. She grabbed what was left of a broken chair leg and slowly made her way towards where the sound had come from.

[dualityinjest]

She didn't need to find the source of the sound of the crash; whatever it was had moved. There was the sound of mechanical creaking echoing through the halls long before she ever found the room in question. A pause, and more creaking, a few hard little sounds as whatever it was moved about against the stones....

...And a laugh. A rather unhinged-sounding little cackle, mostly breath, almost a giggle....

This didn't sound too friendly, whatever it was. And it seemed to be coming from that dark hallway down over there somewhere....

[elianne]

NOPE. Nope nope nope. She had no daggers. And no clue what the actual hopes that was, laughing. She turned and ran.

[dualityinjest]

Smart girl.

[professorsong]

"Finally, I thought nothing interesting was going to happen this week," River said as she walked towards the sound, unconcerned seeming. She was as armed as she could be here, but where was the fun in overpowering and cowing some new arrival if that was what this was. And if it was a thief... That was a whole other kind of fun. And threatening to give whoever was trying to steal to Chell as soup fixings was an amusing idea as well.

[dualityinjest]

Sure was a dark hallway she was looking down, there, in heading toward the source of the sounds. Would she find the room, before she found the animatronic? They'd gone the other way, it seemed, a few little creaky sounds echoing around another hallway past the room with its door left open, the dropped box of things lying abandoned on the ground within....

[professorsong]

She was keeping her senses open, eyes ears nose... even the floor through her shoes. Though if she felt something that way, it was probably already too late. Still. She drew her squareness gun. No one had to know it was a paper tiger. She followed the sounds that implied moving, though she did pause cautiously before crossing the door way to wait, listen. If she heard nothing in there, quick glance and oull back.

[dualityinjest]

The room seemed unoccupied, with just the half-spilled plastic crate of stuff on the floor as evidence that someone had been there. But, dark as the room was inside....

[professorsong]

She reached in enough to flick on the light, counted ten, then risked a quick look in again, Squareness gun leading.

[dualityinjest]

The light came on as it might've been expected to, in this place. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

A few things were knocked over, but they'd probably been like that already. The plastic crate was new, though... the little thing was on its side, its contents half spilled. Looked an awful lot like kids' art stuff, at a glance.

No one in the room, though....

[professorsong]

After she looked long enough to establish that she continued on. Anywhere else she'd take a flashlight, turn it on and send it spinning down the hall. Give her a chance to look for suspicious shapes and shadows. But flashlights were in short supply here.

But she could turn on lights every door she passed. If they stated going out then she'd know either whatever it was got behind her, or... there was more than one.

The Doctor was going to be sorry he missed this one.

[dualityinjest]

They didn't seem to be turning out behind her as she went. Not so far.

Another hallway split, and there off down it, there was a sound, something creaking, a mechanical squeaking. Much further down, at the end of that hall, a soft red glow reflecting off of the hard surfaces. Was someone using a primarily-infrared flashlight or something? The way it moved suggested a flashlight, at least... and then it was around another corner again, back to being out of sight.

[professorsong]

Well then...

Keeping the Sqareness gun up with one hand her other hand reached into her clothes and pulled out her sonic screwdriver. Seemed like the right place for the red setting... She aimed it at the light and...

...nothing.


Again...

...nothing.

Fine. She tried a different setting.


...nothing.

she put it away and listened carefully. She had gotten no information but it had made a lot of noise. So now she had to be careful, see what the result of the noise might have been.

[dualityinjest]

The red glow at the corner of the hall swept back around, the mechanical creaks growing louder again. Whatever it was had heard, and it was coming back. It didn't take long; it wasn't moving particularly slowly. The source of the dim flashlight-like glow came into view... it was a pair of something round and red, something which hovered around six feet up in the air... then ducked down to about four. Then back up to five, as they turned away, covering the back end of the hall in that dim red glow, just barely well enough to show her what seemed to be the silhouette of a big circle... and was that the top part of a figure, just below it? Someone wearing a mask, one with two huge glowing red eyes, perhaps? They were too far apart to have been covering eyes in a face with a human size and layout. Maybe they were just on either side of their eyes? ...But the figure just below seemed far too small, from what little was visible of it, for it to have been an adult human. A child on stilts, maybe? But it wasn't moving like a child....

She didn't have much time to get a better look; the thing turned, and both red spots then swung around easily in view... it was looking right down the hall, in her direction. And began heading her way, too, the creaking sounds resuming as it ducked down, back to a little less than four feet up... what was it?

And that cackle, high and breathy, sounding so entirely unhinged....

The two red eyes -- they had to be eyes, right? Or head-lamps? -- amid more creaks and mechanical sounds, ducked a little lower still... and then went up to the ceiling, to stay there at that height as it continued its way down the hall toward her. Was whatever this was... now on the ceiling, next to the wall?

What was going on? Whatever it was, she probably didn't want to stick around for it to get all the way down the hall to her.... Not with that little hint of a strained, hoarse-sounding giggle, as if under its breath.... That was no mere child. Probably.

[professorsong]

Her mind was ticking through known creatures it could be. She was guessing more mechanical, but it was no guarantee. Eyes glowing was probably not Cybermen, but they were constantly iterating. So not impossible. But the lack of tell tale sound and the movement also spoke against Cybermen.

Not Daleks, at all. Not a chance.

Carrionites were possible, she supposed. She'd want light if it was. Dæmon? Maybe. Not likely, but possible. Could be Drashings. Not her first time dealing with them, she could hope that was what it was. Because she could handle them without a gun. There were a few people here she could feed to them to distract them...

The eyes were far enough apart for Hath, but Hath eyes didn't glow, and there wasn't any of the tell tale sounds she expected. A shame, the Hath could be reasoned with.

The eyes were too small for an Ice Warrior unless they changed more than she expected in the last few thousand years. Too quiet for Jadoon. Which was just as well given she was a criminal. She didn't exactly have anything on her that would fell one. And there was rarely ever just one. And they wouldn't stop until they ended her, since there was nowhere to turn her in to.

Too tall for Ood. Ood could go either way really. But if it was an Ood.

No good. Too many options even before she considered something she'd never encountered. She needed a better look at the whatever it was. Even if that gave it a better look at her.

She reached into a room as she passed it, flipping on the broken lights. Only half went on, but half was better than none. She darted to the next room and flipped the switch. Good, they all worked. And she remembered that there was a break in the wall between this room and the next. Perfect. She darted into the well lit classroom and ran for the partially concealed break, then turned, her back to the shadowed opening. Hiding the fact that she had an escape route.

She leveled the squareness gun and aimed it at the doorway she had come through, at the height the eyes had been last. Speaking of eyes, hopefully hers wpuld adjust first...

[mist_the_point]

Foulques had found himself somewhat on edge after the incident with Eli and the lamp, and that feeling of something being amiss- well, moreso than usual- had persisted. In a way, it was almost a relief that another strange incident happened. An oddly tinny high-pitched voice that became a strangled noise and suddenly and rather ominously fell silent was something that definitely warranted investigation.

He drew his spear, but merely to have it out, not holding it at combat ready as he approached the area from which the noises had emanated. "Is anyone there?", he called. "If so, show yourself!"

[dualityinjest]

No answer came at first; the place was quiet. Whoever had screeched, whoever had potentially been in trouble, they weren't in the immediate area... or at least, not obviously so.

There were a few echoes, however, from much further off down the halls: metallic creaks and squeaks, audible evidence of poorly-maintained machinery of some sort. Maybe he should follow the tiny lead in that direction?

And if he didn't, that was fine too. The sounds were getting more obvious as whatever it was was getting closer again. They'd found a dead end in that path, and were returning.

[mist_the_point]

His eyes narrowed in suspicion at the lack of a proper answer, and he shifted his spear into combat ready position as he advanced into the dark. He moved slowly to allow his eyes to adjust as they might; Duskwights had better night vision than their Wildwood cousins, but not by a great deal, so even he could make out very little in the heavy shadows.

[dualityinjest]

Whatever it was... was apparently going to help him find it by meeting him partway. More creaking mechanical sounds were coming from down the hallway... but so was a soft red glow, as though from an oddly-colored candle: soft and dim, at least at that distance. But it was growing a little brighter as the source of it approached, a little more defined... not a candle, then, but a directed light source, like a flashlight. A small, weak lantern? Just a dim one, and at a distance... which was closing.

The thing neared the corner, the mechanical squeaks growing louder... and seemed to pause a moment, the red light aiming around a little more thoroughly, inspecting the hall. There wasn't a lot to see in this particular corner, the way the previous flooding had swept so much of the trash here further indoors and down to the lower levels, or at least into the corners another hall or two down. And whoever or whatever was swinging their lantern around seemed to be satisfied with it as well, and moved again--

--Moved up. With another handful of creaks, the light source went all the way up to almost the ceiling, as though whatever this was was had jumped up onto the top of a locker bank.

And then it proved that that was exactly the case, something sliding out from around the corner, something that the light reflected off of to reveal roundness, some sort of... small shield? With two glowing red circles on the orbs set into it.... a mask, of some sort? If he could make out the details, that was.

It spun, the two red light sources circling an assumed center and ending back up where they started... and as it did, the thing up there gave that breathy cackle and moved again with a few more little squeaks, sliding a too-small-looking foot around the corner onto the doorframe just around the other side as a too-long-looking hand -- an armored, gloved hand? -- grabbed the corner of the wall, another on a ridiculously long-looking skinny arm reaching up to somehow find purchase on the uneven ceiling.

It came forward, its lower half twisting, its other leg swinging around, poofy, shiny vinyl pants reflecting the red glow brightly, and seeming partially lit from within, yellow stars visible among the blue and black of its folds. Another cackle, and its head -- its mask? -- spun around again the other way, and back upright again, and this thing was around the corner fully, balancing somehow at the top of the wall, its feet on top of the doorframe, its hands pushing up against the ceiling....

Whatever this thing was, it seemed to be playing around or something.....

[mist_the_point]

Whatever it was seemed vaguely humanoid in shape from what he could discern, albeit skeletally thin, though its movement reminded him more of a spider. The creaking and clicking of its movements meanwhile, suggested something mechanical. Some sort of mammet, perhaps? Unlike standard mammets however, it lacked any sort of endearing traits and instead seemed vaguely menacing, a fact reinforced by its breathy cackle. Luckily the faint glow parts of it had gave away its position in the dim hallway.

"If you think you can evade me by climbing the walls like an insect you are sorely mistaken," he said. He angled his spearpoint subtly upward in the creature's direction. If it thought to spring upon him from above, it was likely to regret the action. "If you can speak as well as laugh, come down and do so. Who are you?"

[dualityinjest]

It swung its other leg back around again -- having done so twice now, it was clearer that whatever passed for a waist was able to rotate rather freely after all -- to take another step closer, rather than keeping its feet in the same order as a biological being might. That was another meter closer, the head spinning around fully once more, and then another step, still closing the distance between them.

"Naughty," it hissed. There, something about the voice was familiar -- to a careful ear, it might have even been the same voice -- the same voicebank, really -- as was used earlier, screeching in alarm about something. But this wasn't the way it'd been used before... here, it was lowered, gravelly, growling the words more than trying to be understood all that well. "Someone needs a time out!"

Rather than stepping across the locker banks again, the thing launched itself forward, landing only a few yards away from Foulques there in the hall, eyes circling one another as its head spun once more, the thing crouching low as it slid to a halt on the stone floor against the wall... and then sprang forward toward him, arms outstretched, heading high.

On the plus side, he knew exactly what its trajectory would be -- that was one very high and quick jump, one that would would probably leave it sailing well over his head, especially if he were to duck. It seemed to want to reach down to grab him from above, though, and with arms as long as it evidently had, that might not be the hardest thing for it to do.

Clearly, this mechanical menace didn't know what it was up against....

[mist_the_point]

Clearly it did not. Tracking its movement was easy enough due to its eyes and faint glow; that movement continued to be more insect like than anything else, but bending in a way he doubted any living insect could.

"So you can speak, after a fashion," he commented as he assessed the situation. The relatively narrow hallway made fighting with a spear less than ideal. But fortunately he'd caught sight of an open doorway behind him. The classrooms here weren't large by any means, but they were still a better option. There, he could turn on the lights to make fighting easier and potentially trap his mysterious opponent.

He shifted a bit until he was directly between the creature and the doorway, spear always trained on it. Ans as he expected it leapt again. Higher than one would expect, seemingly intending to grab him from above. He ducked down, and at the proper moment stabbed his spear upward. It met mild resistance, and he heard tearing fabric, which let him know he'd connected to some part of the creature. What part mattered little as he moved the spear in an arc not unlike a catapult or trebuchet, to alter the course of the creature's leap slightly and to add extra force to the momentum it already had. The result was that what had begun as a controlled leap became anything but, and the creature was sent flying into the room behind him.

Spinning around, Foulques moved quickly to block the doorway. With one hand he kept his spear pointed at the room's interior, with the other, he fumbled a bit until he found the room's lightswitch. "Now, let's see what you are...", he said, flicking the switch. After only a brief moment of flickering, the room's lights came on. Evidently it was more storeroom than classroom, as most of the rickety desks, chairs, and other contents were piled haphazardly in one corner. But of far more interest was the creature now clearly visible near the far wall.

[dualityinjest]

Its hands might've brushed his armor; it didn't matter. Its plan had been very thoroughly foiled, as the change in trajectory gave it no chance at all to grab hold, and before it could react, past crying out, it was already in the room. The sound of the crash when the mechanical menace made an impact wasn't negligible. That lanky build, versus the desk that had stood between it and the wall... it wouldn't really have mattered if it had managed to reach out and make contact with the ground again first, with momentum like that.

The lights coming on would show more or less what Foulques probably expected, at least in part: that ridiculous build it had, the blue-and-white hues of its outfit, with yellow stars on its shiny pants. And the large mask-like face's shape, now that he could see it better... a crescent moon in near-white, over a darker blue portion, its red eyes considerably dimmer, under the much brighter artificial lighting. It was some sort of clownish thing, a jester, presumably... but it was only visible so clearly for a brief moment.

The lights very obviously bothered it; the hoarse shriek it gave was one of pain, and it quickly turned its face away, ducking back down behind the desk as if it offered any quarter. Tangled as it was, it could scarcely shield itself from the bulbs' shine, but it had to try.

"No! No lights! Hurts! Error! No lighk-k--!" It cut itself off with a strangled sound, giving one last effort to curl up below the table there, and only really succeeded in mostly hiding itself from Foulques's view, thanks to the angle of the tabletop.

There was the sound of gears shifting and another squeak, as the stressed creaks of its movement stilled... and then a second of quiet.

What broke it again almost right after didn't sound like the maniacal thing he'd just clashed with, but more like the first voice he'd heard, the one protesting in fear before being cut off and going silent, high and metallic. It was faint, just a small sound that wasn't even quite a whimper... and the jester stuck a hand out past the desk, evidently looking to try fixing its tangled and presumably uncomfortable situation.

But the hand was no longer blue and white... its armor-like segments were faintly-glowing gold and cream instead. And as the thing moved, its knee came up in an attempt at disentangling itself... and rather than blue with yellow stars, the shiny material had broad stripes of dark red and gold. They weren't going to get out of that spot on their own just yet... but perhaps Foulques was no longer dealing with an immediate threat?

Very faint, more to themselves than anything, a quiet "No", and then another few in quick succession. The fear was beyond evident in their tone, though they stayed very quiet, almost hard to hear under the creaks of their movement.

[mist_the_point]

The light allowed him to see clearly that the creature was indeed some sort of mammet, one built like an oversized marionette, with a clownish look and a clear theme of moons and night. But he only had a moment to look at it clearly before it reacted to the light as though it caused it pain. It shrieked and attempted to hide itself from the light by ducking under a large table, though to apparently no avail; after a moment of mechanical whirring, clicking, and creaking there was silence.

For a moment, he wondered if perhaps it was dead, or deactivated, or whatever the correct term was for mammets, but no. The mechanical shifting and creaking soon started again, as did its voice. Though the voice had a different tone than the growling thing he'd just fought, one much more like the frightened one that had first alerted him to something being amiss. The menace was gone, and in its place, fear. Strange.

And stranger still, when the mammet poked appendages, first a hand, then a knee, back into view, they had changed color. Instead of cool blues and whites, it was instead colored in shades of red, gold, and cream. Whatever the case though the mammet had clearly gotten itself stuck in its panicked attempt to hide, which allowed him to step away from the doorway without fear that it would try to flee before he got there. Cautiously, he advanced into the room, walking around behind the table to confront it again. He kept his spear drawn for now, just in case this was some sort of ruse, though he was no longer poised for combat.

[dualityinjest]

Whatever they were quietly upset about, they didn't seem to dwell on it long; they were looking down -- well, to the side, technically, but from their perspective, that was the direction their lower half was in, and away from Foulques. They'd changed color entirely. There wasn't a trace of blue or white left, only bright warm colors, buttery yellows and oranges. And orange triangular things that stuck out from its head now, pinwheel-like, that turned gradually more towards red, as the gradient moved away from the outer points. Where the nightcap had disappeared to was anyone's guess. The back of their head, though... that didn't match the rest of it at all. Bare steel, it looked like -- or some sort of grayish, silvery metal, at any rate, a dull, almost matte finish to it, framed a dark gray-green board of some kind with little things all over it, and a few half-shiny cords and ribbons that linked one spot to another seemingly at random. If it was decorative, someone had exceptionally strange tastes indeed, and no sense of symmetry or balance in design. But judging by the rest of the mechanical clown's design, that would be hard to argue; the curves of its limbs were rather smooth and exact, emulating an organic person's, in a very doll-like way, and where and how the plating was shaped, around the ball-like joints, pointed to someone understanding bodies' designs and how to account for their natural ranges of motion very well indeed.

So, something was going on there, but what was far from apparent.

Easier to figure out was that the jester had caught sight of what Foulques's spear had done to those shiny pants, while it had been in a more night-themed state: the edges of the damage were sparkling slightly. Not throwing off sparks, but flickering, faintly, half dull in color, sometimes a little brighter, sometimes a little darker, as though the severed edges of the threads that made up their weave were undecided now, as to what color they ought to be. ...Except that there were no obvious threads, the material slick and shiny, like someone had laid a ridiculously thick layer of glossy paint over a mold, only to remove it and use it as the pants. That's what had caused the quiet distress this time, and as the jester had themselves slightly propped up on the one hand sticking out a little further into the room, they were using their other to hold the area around the slice, seemingly trying to keep it from being stressed any further as he tried to disentangle himself from the table.

One of his legs had been caught under part of the table... surely its weight wasn't the issue, so much as simply figuring out how to disentangle themselves without making the damage to their costume worse?

But they didn't seem to notice Foulques approach. They were doing well to pull their free leg out from its odd position, and slide their slippered foot under part of the table for leverage, at least... and in very short order, had lifted it enough to carefully slide their pinned leg free....

All right, so a few points in this oddball's favor, for problem-solving involving spatial reasoning and simple engineering concepts like levers and angles? And for being quiet and quick about it. They weren't so feral that they couldn't handle that much on their own... but they weren't also contending with being in apparently painful distress, while doing so. They ducked their head down, and those pinwheel-like fins retracted, keeping out of the way so as not to be hit by the table leg as they tried climbing out under it, heading to come out on the side where Foulques stood, and--

Oh, now they spotted Foulques, or his footwear, at least. They made a small sound, trying to jump back a little out of startled reflex, only to bang the odd back of their head against the leg they'd just ducked under. Well, that prompted a quick duck back down, and a retreat back into the underside of the busted piece of furniture. A quick scramble backwards, the lanky figure folding up to be a great deal smaller than they'd seemed only a minute or two before, and they ended up ducked into the other side of the table from Foulques, a few somewhat thin, unsteadily-connected wooden pieces between the two of them. The red glow was entirely absent from his eyes; they were a solid white now.

"H-hi there, new friend! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there!" He was trying to sound cheerful, but he was a poor liar, and that note of tension and wariness was hard to miss, for anyone listening for it.