Agnes' Awakening

[Laraqua]

The door is firm under her fists. Heck, it even muffles the noise of her pounding.

[Laraqua]

"Agnes!" calls out Lionel from somewhere behind you. "Sarah! I'm on my way! What's going on?"

[Mr. Handy]

Lionel catches up to Agnes in the darkness, out of breath. "Agnes, are you all right?" he asks. "Where's Sarah?"

[kabukiman]

-Lionel! Is it you? Someone has grab Sarah behind this door, but I cannot open it! Please help me!

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, it's me!" says Lionel. "Quickly, let's put our shoulders into the door together." As he works with Agnes to try to force the door open, he raises his voice. "Sarah, we're coming!"

[Laraqua]

There is only the screech of rusted metal to provide a backdrop to Lionel's shout. It'll take both their efforts to try to force this door open.

Strength rolls,Mr. Handy - you know what to do.

[Mr. Handy]

Lionel works with Agnes to break open the door. She is younger and stronger than he is, though he makes up for it with his determination to find and save his daughter.

OOC,I'm guessing we need to make a Resistance Table roll against the door's STR by combining our STR scores together. They add to 18, so with that roll we'll force open the door as long as its STR is 20 or less. If you meant for us to roll against STR x 5, that roll is a success.

[Laraqua]

The door slams open to reveal yawning darkness. There is no light. No comfort. No sound of Sarah. If she's in here, she's unconscious or perhaps in another room. If only they had a proper light source. Or maybe there's something around the room that could help?

Show,yup, you got it. Versus resistance!

[Mr. Handy]

Lionel feels around inside the door for a light switch and tries to search the room they're in as best he can for a torch or something similar. "We need light," he says. As he searches, he tries to figure out where in the hospital they are. While he knows his way around, the darkness is too confusing for him to place himself adequately.

[Laraqua]

He finds the switch but when he flicks it nothing happens. This area must have lost power. The room is, at least, big enough that he can't feel a wall in front of him although, of course, he can feel the walls to his sides.

[Mr. Handy]

"Help me search," says Lionel. "You go along the wall to the left, and I'll go to the right." He feels his way along the wall to the right, hoping to find some sort of light source.

[Laraqua]

"Agnes?!" Sarah's voice calls from somewhere below. "I'm down here! He sent me down on some sort of lift platform! He's still up there!"

[Mr. Handy]

"Sarah!" calls Lionel as he continues to search. "It's your father! Agnes and I got the door open, but we need light! Hang on, we're on our way!"

[Laraqua]

Make a Luck roll.

[Mr. Handy]

Lionel is fortunate in his search.

[Laraqua]

Lionel creeps around the edge and some sense within his inner ear notices his foot dangle over the precipice and he jerks it back, keeping himself from plunging headlong to his death. At that same time there is a creaking sound edging its way up towards them from the void.

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,Wait, WHAT?! :o I thought I was searching the room outside the door for a flashlight or something, and the Luck roll was to see if I found one. You mean that you thought I was in the room beyond the door, and I would have fallen down the shaft and died if I'd failed the Luck roll?

[Laraqua]

OOC,yep. You've killed folk for less... (like a failed basic take off and landing) :P You'd been walking down a corridor so I didn't think you'd search it for a flashlight when you knew Sarah was trapped somewhere inside. Permanently insane and all that.... It's all good. You made the roll.

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,But I specifically said in my post on August 9 (August 8 in the U.S.) that I was searching the room I was already in for a light source, in response to your post just below it. I repeated that I was searching in each of the posts that followed. I never went through the door into the corridor beyond, and I never suspected that you thought I had. You didn't describe going up the stairs that [b]Sarah[/b] was dragged up, which came before the shaft. I knew that a light source would be essential, especially when [b]Sarah[/b] warned [b]Lionel[/b] that there was a lift. I was also feeling my way along the wall, so I should have noticed that there was no wall there before stepping into the shaft anyway. I'm also only indefinitely insane, not permanently insane. My point is that I shouldn't risk death because I said I was doing one thing and the Keeper had me do something else instead. This sort of thing actually happened to me once in a roleplaying game in college, and my character died as a result. The GM had mixed me up with one of the other players who looked a lot like me (and whose first name also started with the same letter, which didn't help). When I pointed it out after the fact, he realized that he had made a mistake, but my character's death still stood. Luckily it was D&D, and death wasn't permanent. I did get resurrected, but it still cost me. The helicopter crash was more complicated than that. The landing conditions were far from ideal. It was dark, there were zombies known to be in the area, and while the ground was relatively flat, it wasn't perfectly so. Even so, a regular failure would not have resulted in a crash, but you got a critical failure on your Pilot Helicopter roll, and a 99 at that. Then you critically failed your Luck roll to see how badly hurt you'd be, but even then you were still highly likely to survive. However, the damage roll was abnormally high. The odds of dying there were miniscule, a far cry from the 30% chance in this instance. Most importantly, you made a choice to set down the chopper rather than lowering a ladder to let people aboard. It was a small risk, but the risk was there. You didn't say you were lowering the ladder and then have me think you were landing and proceed accordingly.

Lionel sees a faint glow that shines briefly from below. A few seconds later, it shines brighter before going out again, and he can hear a rumbling sound coming up. This continues for a short while before the sound stops and a light flares to reveal Sarah lying down on a lift platform, holding a lighter in her hand. She makes her way onto solid ground and over to where Lionel and Agnes are standing, flicking off the lighter before it gets too hot.

"Sarah!" cries Lionel, overjoyed, as he embraces her tightly. "Are you all right?"

Sarah doesn't recognize Lionel, but she feels like she belongs in his arms. "I...I think so," she says, "but I can't remember anything. I don't know what's going on or where I am or who kidnapped me or why." She doesn't have the heart to tell him she doesn't even remember him.

"That's perfectly understandable. After everything that's happened, you must have blocked it all out. There's a part of you that would rather not remember, so you can't."

"But what happened? What was so horrible that I can't recall it?"

"Are you sure you want to know, Sarah?"

"I think I'd better know. Otherwise I'll always wonder, and my imagination will probably fill in worse things than whatever actually happened to me."

"It's not just to you. Terrible things have happened to people you love, and that affected you worse than anything you've been through." He squeezes his daugher's shoulders. "Try clearing your head and letting go. Just let the memories return."

Sarah tries, but it's no good. "I can't. I think part of me still doesn't want to know."

OOC,Can [b]Sarah[/b] try Psychoanalysis on herself?

[Laraqua]

Everything is silent. Everything is still. It is almost as though the world itself is waiting for them. As though time itself is unfolding around them and giving them the space they need to make what decisions are necessary. Here it almost feels safe. Almost. As safe as standing upon the precipice of a momentous action can possibly be.