[GRO] Guouli Pyrero - Teen

[Gl!tch~]

Guo pulled Akkira to the side with him, following after Ammura. "Yes, ma'am!" It wouldn't be worth his time to set her up for a scare right now. They needed to focus. He leaned in, trying to keep Ammura from hearing by speaking quietly into Akkira's spongeclot. "We're in. Everyone here looks like a sad lowblooded sack of s**t, though. Probably won't find anything here." But maybe if they gained access to lower levels...

"Anyway, if you need me to elaborate on anything whenever someone might, uh, forget about your condition, lemme know, okay?" He already noted that she probably would have no clue how to gauge how wide the walkways were, or where to find the gates. Or how to 'watch' her step, outside of poking about ahead of her.

If Akkira was good, though, he might have some questions...

saihen

 

[Hivestuck]

It was easy to lose sense of how deep the party journeyed into the mountain as the tour continued. Ammura would occasionally gesture to a hallway that split from the main tower, and explain the purpose of the various wings. She rarely stopped to do so. Her intent was to reach the end of the tour as quickly as possible--wherever that point might have been. Twice, she broke from her script to mention an anecdote related to a particular dent or stain the group passed. She seemed almost invested at those moments, though her smile never exposed the tips of her teeth.

"And this hall leads to the sick bay--one of many. Due to the scale of the facility and vast number of ways a troll can be injured by these felons, the Royal Alternian Punishment Pits makes sure to provide its faculty with a wide variety of equipment to better understand and treat what may befall its occupants." Ammura made to continue her spiel when the lights illuminating the indicated hallway burst. Ammura swore reflexively. "Embarrassing..." she muttered. She could be heard fumbling with something on her person. The beep and crackle of a handheld radio echoed off the stone walls.

"Maintenance? Ammura Talion: Cullrections Offi- Ugh. Public Information Dispense Unit. Central Keep level fourteen. What the hell did I tell you about that last shipment of ligh-"

Ammura was cut off by a wrenching metallic groan. The platform beneath the trolls shuddered dangerously. Prisoners in nearby cells yelped in surprise and muttered in hushed concern. Ammura was motionless, but the tension that rolled from her was obvious, even under the lack of light. Her radio flickered and buzzed, but no voices came through.

Akkira would feel a familiar chill in the air, though anyone else would attribute it to the cave's naturally damp atmosphere.

After a moment, Ammura spoke, clearly and deliberately. "Children. I need you to advance, slowly, to the nearest exit. Take the east-"

The platform buckled and everything went black.





You awaken... or were you even asleep? Your surroundings are unfamiliar, though you've pretty decidedly ended up in a stairwell. The walls are rough stone and the stairs themselves are a chipped and rusted metal. You apparently haven't left the Punishment Pits, though you seem to be in a rather underused area. The lighting is only strong enough to aid nocturnal vision at the barest level. The upper flights of stairs lead into complete darkness. The door at this level has a sign posted next to it, but most of the information has been scratched out. You can barely make out the word "Organ," or perhaps "Organic," and the letters, "B... H...ZA...D."

A weak buzzing alerts you to the only object on the landing. The small red light on a hand radio flashes pathetically.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

The tour felt slow, more than anything else. s**t, this is what trolls did when they did that at other places? For things that weren't prisons full of convicts, some of whom can melt flesh? And no one went on tours here? Yeah, it could get pretty dull, but it could only be better than the other crap tourists did elsewhere. Though, the blueblood did tune out the med bay stuff. "Wake me up if she tells us we get to check out bonesaws or scalpels," he mumbled to Akkira.

Then, a light popped. Ooh. Almost interesting. Guo sniggered at Ammura's annoyance.
The Punpun pits? Imperfect? Nahhh, who would ever think. Even had to call in a maintenance report in the middle of a tour. Maybe he could be a little a*****e about it, for added entertainment. 'Cullrections' especially sounded interesting. And right as he wondered if there was a story there, everything kinda went to hell. He stood up straighter at the plaform below them started to give out, but before he could try to run, it bottomed out completely.

"Akkira!" He tried to grab her hand in the darkness. No such luck.

When he gathered himself, Guo found himself a little sore. He got to his feet, slowly and confused. "Akkira? Akkira!" Nothing. No response. Guo cussed. They weren't supposed to get separated!

He looked around in the dark "Now where in the hell..." am I? Going up was into darkness. But going down, that probably wouldn't be a better option. Already pretty deep into the mountain. Going down probably meant going farther in. Hm.

Guo checked out the sign next, running his hand over it. BIOHAZARD, probably. "Just ******** me up, I guess," he mumbled.

Something kept a-buzzing in the deep dark pit. When he stood still and didn't make noise on the rusted metal with his movements. He looked around, squinting in the dark, then down. Eyes widened back up at the red light. "Oh, s**t!"

Guo immediately grabbed it and started fiddling, through channels and volume to see if someone would pick up and he'd hear them. "Yo, anyone on here?"

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

The radio sputtered and fizzed. It was on, at least. It didn't feel damaged from a fall, beyond the knicks and scratches of regular use. A long minute dragged on before the crackling solidified into something that sounded like words.

"H... llo...? H... H..." The slightest twitch of movement seemed to affect the quality of the call, for better or for worse. Even at its clearest the voice on the other end was uncomfortably broken and distant. It sounded as though whoever was on the other end was holding their radio under a pillow and shouting.

"Who... 're.... oo? Who... you? Wh-" The static cut suddenly. The light on the radio continued to glow steadily. The only remaining noises were atmospheric and mechanical thrumming from behind the door off the landing.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

A voice. Oh man, someone else. But not their tour guide or anyone familiar. "Hey? Hey!" he called into it. s**t, bad reception. It went out pretty quick. Still, he hesitated and hit the button again to speak. "This is Guouli Pyrero. If anyone can hear me puh-lease come find me before I leave the worst survey you'll ever get." Not that it'd do much. He groaned and looked back up and around. Guo guessed it was just him for a bit. And something was behind that door. He'd check it out, if it was a lead. And if it wasn't...into the darkness. Pretty spooky. A little thrilling, really.

But, even before his first step, he paused again. Turned the radio back on. "And there's a Akkira Kagome, too. Make her your first priority or I'll...I'll find some way to make everyone know you guys are s**t garbage at running a prison." Then clipped it over his pants. Guo went to the door to see if he could open it.

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

The radio gave Guouli no response beyond the soft buzz of the battery hard at work.

The door, meanwhile, made plenty of noise. It was heavy and rusted, but receptive to opening with enough force. The other side of the threshold was dark, lit only by rows of clunky CRT monitors and the occasional flicker of a dying fluorescent light. The floor twinkled with broken glass.

The workstations looked to have been vacated quickly and recently, if the assortment of papers and beverage canisters, and lack of dust were any indication. The signs of struggle were strangely minimal, though a number of blackish stains were cordoned off with yellow tape.

As a whole, the room appeared to be equal parts med bay and research lab, though the two were sharply divided by thick windows. The recupercots in turn were separated from each other by reinforced walls. The prison atmosphere was apparent, despite the relatively businesslike decor of the lab. The windowed cells looked almost comfortable, if not sterile, relative to the blocks of the cavern near the surface. Only one looked like it had been occupied recently. The door had been left ajar, though it was hard to see at a distance from the sporadic lighting.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Guouli shoved on in. Upon eventual success, he had to pause to scan the room. Well, the best he could, anyway. Lights were ********, but there still seemed to be some amount of power. Not a whole lot, but enough to help him see the glass a little bit. Moments like these made him think of Hogdad whining about his choice of footwear. Suck it, Dad. Getting glass in his feet didn't matter a whole lot compared to everything else going on.

He opted to shuffle through the cronch. He paused at the papers, not that he could really read anything on them, and he absolutely checked to see if anything was left to drink. Energy drinks? Coffee? Anything? He'd even drink water like a pleb if he had to. But that trial was interrupted by the yellow tape and stains. He kind of wanted to lick it. Just cuz it'd be a bad idea. Hm. Maybe he really should've brought Leeroi along.

Guo continued on, checking things out here and there, but there was only so much he could do with little light and only so much interest he could give stuff. Like, if the monitors didn't have minesweeper, what was the point?

But he did admit to being on edge, even if there probably wasn't any threat of any escaped cons or anything. Or ghosts, cuz he couldn't see those. Something was definitely wrong, though, but he could only feel it in his gut. And that was a real good feeling. Better than worrying about Akkira. Feelings like that sucked. Best not to think about it.

He spent some time peeking in the cells, just because it was something to do before heading back out. Maybe he'd finally find some blood stains or something, as likely as it was because this was reality and stuff. But he could hope. The blueblood came upon an open door, very unexpected after everything else. So, of course, he had to check that out.

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

Most of the cells were perfectly normal. They were carefully maintained, though the shackles on the cots indicated occupants didn't have much opportunity to cause a fuss. The open door was another matter entirely.

It was difficult to see in not because it was the only cell without a window, but because the window had been completely blackened from the inside. The exterior of the door showed little wear beyond rusting at the edges. With effort, it could be pulled open. There seemed to be something jamming the mechanism to slide it open electronically.

The source was obvious. Obvious and everywhere. The stench of flowers and rot hit first. The stagnation of a room untouched for weeks only added to the thickness of the air. Monitors in the room cast an eerie glow on the macabre scene. The furniture that wasn't bolted down was upended. Sopor slime bled out onto the floor, which was already heavily obscured by more black stains. The largest covered the window. At its center was a form. Only a trollish torso and skull could be parsed from the corroded silhouette. Whatever it was had been was thrown at the window, contacting, rotting and adhering in place all at once.

Further lumps were visible across the floor, but they were too far gone to be discernible as much of anything. The mystery of the door jam was solved, if nothing else.

The radio started to flicker with rhythmic pulses of static.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

"Cripes." Upon getting the next door open (had to after a good mysterious messed up window tipped him off) Guo covered his lower face with his shirt collar. It smelled real bad in there. Didn't take much to see why. Someone got got. He put his hands on his hips as he looked over the corpse. Seemed with no sunlight down here, it wouldn't be a daywalker. Lame. Guess his knives were still not gonna get any action.

"Guess Gangrene ******** you up before ollie-ing out, eh, buddy?" He looked at the lumps, only able to guess whatever those could've been. "Get wrecked." Very grody, very much along the lines of what he had been hoping for. Ground zero of the break-out, maybe? And no successful clean-up efforts. Hm. Guo guessed he wouldn't be touching anything.

The radio barely caught his attention in all of this. He pulled it up and looked it over. Weird s**t near a dead body... Curious. Maybe...? No. No way. Only Akkira could do the ghost s**t. And yet he let the radio get a little closer to the body anyway. At least, as close as seemed safe and didn't smell too overwhelmingly terrible.

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

The black smudges crinkled under Guouli's footsteps like charcoal. They seemed inert, if not still highly unsanitary. The foul sopor slime seemed to be an almost worse mess than the ruined trolls.

The radio continued to get louder, and the pauses between bursts of static decreased as Guouli approached the center of the room. Once static filled the room, the noise began to twitch and distort. Multiple voices began to surface.

"͞W̸hat ͠ha͘p҉p͡en͏e̢d̢?̵"
"Rio͠t͠ i͏n͟ t͢he͝ ͡l͟owe͢r ̧b͝l҉o͜cks,͘ ͏si̵r."͞
"How ̷l͡ow a̡r̴e ͟we҉ ̸ta̧l͡ki͠ng̡?"̸
"U̡m̕, t̨h͝e..́. th̢e tr̸en͢c̶h҉,̵ ͠sir."͡
"Th́e̕ w͢h͝at͝!͡?̧ ̴Where̕ ̴a͘re̶ ̛the a͟l̵ęr͞t͜s͟?̸ ͏T͟h͡e͝ ev̛a̶cu͏ati̴ơn̵s͡?"
"̢N-No̷ o͘n͡e̕ to̴ ͠ęva͞cu̶at͜e ̷s̛i̴r͘.͟ A̸l͏l ̶in̢vo͢l͝ve͘d ̸pa̧rtie̡s͠ ͘h͝a̢v͜e b҉een ̧termin̸ate̶d͞. ͘E҉x́cept t̶hi̡s one͘."
͟"Thi͢s.͟.͠?"
͜"Is̸ch̛em̧ ̡A͡m̕t͟are. ̛Ńot ̸on͠e ̧ǫf t͝he̢ ̀inci͞tiņg ͡inm͜at͟es̕-"̶
"J̶ust ̡th͡e̴ o͜ne ͢who f̛ìn̛i͘sh̕ęd͘ i̡t."
͢"...́Śèv͘en͟ inmate̢s͢ ͡ąnd͘ t҉h҉ree ́g̀u̡ard̨s.̀"͘
"...Sh͝it."

The radio went silent.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

The radio got more and more intense, makng his pumpbiscuit pound. It got loud, kinda painful, and then...voices? And only a quick burst, definitely not the normal kind. And, like that, it was over.

Guouli was left there, spongeclots still ringing, breathing deeply. He stared at the radio for a few more seconds. Then, desperately, he tried to establish contact again. "Hello? Hey?! I've played this video game before, and I'm not gonna go around looking in every nook and cranny for ghost s**t! Are you gonna just keep toying with me or what?!"

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

The radio beeped and flickered as Guouli fussed with it. Finally, the static warbled and tightened as it tuned into an actual voice.

"-Repeat. This is Cullrections Officer Talion. Who is this? Where are you?"

A literal actual voice. Ammura Talion rang through with perfect clarity. Whatever force that had been blocking reception had apparently dissipated. Edges of the stain flecked off the wall as though confirming the theory.

The monitor beside the recuperacot continued to glow with an error message.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Despite getting exactly what he wanted, something in Guouli sank. The game was over. His grip tightened. He let go of the button so he wouldn't be heard outside of the room. "******** coward. S. Whatever. Probably deserved to die, with that obtuse s**t you're trying to pull. You want, like, vengeance or whatever? Won't get it if you're gonna do that bread crumbs s**t. You got some kind of way to actually talk to me, maybe we can work something out. Until then."

Guo pressed the talkie button of the walkie talkie. "This is Guouli, visitor who fell because your prison sucks. Also maybe clean up your shitty med bay? You guys find my redblood yet?"

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

Ammura didn't respond immediately, but the reaction to finding Guouli was nearly palpable over the airwaves. "Of course this is," she replied flatly. "To answer your question, yes we do have your redblood. She's being examined for whatever the ******** just transpired and will be able to check out shortly."

Another brief moment of silence.

"Wait, which shitty med bay!?"

The monitor flashed. The error message disappeared as the computer seemed to reboot itself. The display came up with a normal-looking readout.

GRIMALKIN SECTOR, LEVEL 24, MED BAY 3: ORGANIC AFFLICTION UNIT
OVERSEEING PHYSICIAN: DR. TERLOW
MEDBLOCK 8
NAME: ISCHEM AMTARE
COLOR: #61BA2D
SYMBOL: ◥ ◤ ͟ ͜ ͢ ́
A͞G͟E̷:͘ █▌
HEIǴHT̵:████͟
҉W͜E҉I█͟██͠██▌͞
̩█̭̱͝█̻̣̗͍̮͕̲ ͚█̱̠̙█͈̮͚͍̪͈ ̵̠̟̗̣̲͚ ̶͎͉̱█̯̪̫█̱̲̺̗ ̵̮█̸█͍█̹͖̬̠̠ͅ▌̟͇̣̻̙ ͇̺ ̻͜ ̳̳͙̜̲̗


The monitor switched off and the jaw of the corpse fell to the floor. It disintegrated on impact.

Gl!tch~

 

[Gl!tch~]

Akkira was okay. Good. Guo let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Before he could respond, technology hip-happened again. "Bingo," he growled to himself victoriously and rushed over to the monitor. He checked the info over before it went away. "Greenblood, huh? Is that...our melty dude? So who're you? One of the dead? All of 'em? You the doc or someone else? You want a hit on the dude, I need more than just a name, you know." He was quieter, more serious, when he went through all this.

Guo looked around the room again. Turned the radio back on. "I dunno. It's pretty dark. But you guys definitely didn't clean up the last accident that happened down here. What's up with that?"

Hivestuck