finding ankh

[01:40] <Reise> She takes a deep breath to sigh--and starts coughing, forgetting not to use her nose. After working through the fit she heads to the next door down the hall.
[01:41] <Reise> Wondering what fresh hell awaits her this time, once again she opens the door, prepared to look as disarmed as possible...
[01:45] <Ikiryo> Inside is...an odd robot. It looks very much like a human girl, save for one arm stripped down to a mechanical skeleton. She's dressed in the gold dress of a god-empress of some sort.
[01:45] <Ikiryo> Her head tilts slightly towards Reise with a slight clicking noise. "What fresh hell do my jailers bring upon me?"
[08:52] <Reise> She blinks to a stop, studying her in silence for a while. Then she gives up trying to decide what of her might have counted for dinner, considering that an unhealthy exercise. "...Uh. How about freedom? Escape?"
[08:58] <Ikiryo> She tilts her head again with more clicking. "...that would be most lovely, if I could take advantage of it."
[09:03] <Reise> "That's what I'm here for, unless you mean you physically can't?"
[09:05] <Ikiryo> "They were most enterprising. I cannot move without my heart."
[09:07] <Reise> There's another long period of silence while she tries not to look ill. "Right...any way I could help with that?"
[09:08] <Ikiryo> "As I am still not dead...as such...I can presume they have not consumed it yet."
[09:09] <Ikiryo> Despite her mouthless face, Reise gets the feeling of a faint smile. "I would most appreciate having my heart back."
[09:10] <Reise> "I'll...see what I can do. Stupid question, but...what's it look like?"
[09:11] <Ikiryo> "It is a literal heart, from when I had an organic body. They have stolen my soul...and already consumed the contents of my canopic jars."
[09:14] <Reise> "Sick fucks," she mutters, shuddering. "Alright. If I find someone else here who can carry you, I'll have them bring you to my friend and our ticket out of here while I look for your heart."
[09:15] <Ikiryo> "I would appreciate not leaving. At least, not yet. I intend to regain the contents of my jars with interest."
[09:22] <Reise> She smiles thinly. "Right. Heart first, jars second, then outta here."
[09:27] <Ikiryo> "Ah, I may have mispoken. The jars are gone. I wish to enact vengence and obtain recompense."
[09:29] <Reise> "No, I got that part." She nods. "I'm off to find that heart, though."
[09:29] <Ikiryo> "Thank you very much."
[09:30] * Reise nods and backs out of the room, then sighs, turning back toward the kitchens...
[09:30] <Ikiryo> Uytana is...tracing runes on the walls in the blood of the two men that Annandra killed. She doesn't look too happy about it.
[09:31] <Ikiryo> The other two are cowering in a corner, watching her.
[09:32] <Reise> "Keep at it, kid," she says, resting a hand on Uytana's shoulder, briefly. "I'm really sorry it came to this, but you're doing good. I need to go find a heart before it gets eaten and kills its owner."
[09:32] <Ikiryo> There is another body in the room, a new one. A corpse of a man who looks like he was once happily fat...then starved to death quickly. He's falled over on top of a large series of runes in front of the door.
[09:32] <Reise> She raises an eyebrow at that. "Did you...trap the doorway?"
[09:32] <Ikiryo> Uytana bites her lip. "Umm...don't step on the runes near the door...they are bad." She nods
[09:38] <Reise> "Good thinking." She nods, concentrating and aiming a mental target for the kitchen beyond, taking a path through walls instead of the doorway... To observers' eyes, she simply appears to cease to exist, until she pokes her head around the edge of the doorway and waves at Uytana. "Back in a second."
[09:49] <Ikiryo> No one seems to notice her enter the kitchen, just another member of the wait staff.
[09:53] <Reise> Trying to adopt the sort of zombified posture of the other waitresses, she wanders the kitchen, surreptitiously glancing about occasionally for where the heart in question might be--on a counter, on a plate or dish, in a pan, anywhere.
[10:01] <Ikiryo> She quickly spots what looks like a human heart, odd runes carved in it and glowing. It's on a tray...heading for the doors to be searved. It appears to be sitting on rice in the middle of a lovely soup, silver scales floating artistically in the soup itself.
[10:03] <Reise> She quickly follows the server out the doors, matching her step for step, only an arm's length behind her.
[10:11] <Reise> Once they're a few steps away, she delivers a stiff blow to the back of the waitress' head...and steps forward, smoothly catching the tray before it can clatter to the floor. "Sorry about this," she murmurs to the unconscious server, setting the tray down for a minute and dragging her to a corner before picking the tray up again and heading back to the kitchen.
[10:11] <Ikiryo> No one interupts her as she does so...
[10:15] <Reise> She sets the tray down, taking the bowl itself as she slinks off back toward the pens, taking a large step over the trap wards Uytana set up.
[10:16] <Ikiryo> The trio in the room look at her, rather confused.
[10:20] <Reise> She turns slightly, hiding the contents from the pair in the corner. "It's for another rescuee. This is...hers," she finishes lamely. "She'll be out in a minute. Gold dress, pretty girl, mostly robot, one arm's kinda all metal." She hurries onward.
[10:22] <Ikiryo> It doesn't take her long to get back to the next cell. The robot tilts her head at Reise
[10:23] <Reise> She holds up the bowl. "This is yours, I hope?"
[10:24] <Ikiryo> "That would be my heart, yes. I must say, it does make a delicious looking meal. I shall have to compliment the chef before I evicerate him."
[10:26] <Reise> "It's garnished with scales from the tiny dragon that was next door to you." Her grip is dangerously tight, threatening to shatter the bowl. "Anyway...you can handle it from here, right?"
[10:27] <Ikiryo> "I am afraid not. Could you insert it into my chest?" Her chestplate swings open, revealing a small runed shrine.
[10:29] <Reise> She makes a face, but kneels with the bowl, gingerly picking up the heart. The face worsens from grimace to outright disgust but she gingerly puts it in place, whereupon she sits back and flicks...something...from her fingers. "Don't take this the wrong way, but...I hope *never* to have to do that again."
[10:34] <Ikiryo> "The feeling is mutual. Such actions are normally reserved for my high priestesses." Purple light shimmers through her and she rises, standing to her full height of nearly seven feet with a series of mechanical clicks. "Oh, it feels good to move again."
[10:35] <Reise> "I believe it." She whips her fingers on the cheongsam and stands up herself; while tall, she's got nothing on the gynoid. "Go get your guts back. I've got more doors to open. When you have what you need, look for another eldarin like me, but instead of my ears she's got big black bunny ears."
[10:37] <Ikiryo> She shakes her head. "I will accompany you. Not all of our foes are fools."
[10:42] <Reise> She shrugs. "If you say so. I'm going to get the rest of these doors."
[10:42] <Reise> Suiting action to words, she heads to the third door along that wall.
[10:47] <Ikiryo> The tall gynoid follows her. "Oh, where are my manners? I am Ankh-Meri-Ra, Pharaoh of the Tharket Sphere."
[10:50] <Reise> "A pleasure to meet you, Your...Majesty? I think? I'm Reise Minkopy, Galaxy Police."
[10:51] <Ikiryo> "Such a pleasure...though I would perhaps prefer better circumstances for such a meeting." She twists an arm...and a blade drops out into her hand. It starts to glow a deep purple along it's edge.
[10:52] <Ikiryo> Inside the next room is...nothing but bodies. They were too late for these ones. The room is ice cold and clearly being used to store bodies in the process of being harvested for tasty parts
[10:53] <Ikiryo> Ankh's head turns, looking over the room...her blade shaking in her hand.
[10:57] <Reise> She stops and stares for several long, silent seconds, then closes her eyes, sighing quietly. "Corellon's Light guide your paths," she murmurs, backing out slowly, waiting for Ankh so she can shut the door.
[10:58] <Ikiryo> Ankh looks through the room, focusing on one invididual. She heads over to them, kneeling beside the body...her shoulders shaking.
[11:02] * Reise gives her the room she needs, not intending to intrude.
[11:03] <Ikiryo> "May you walk the eternal desert of night until I meet you...and we shall cross it together into the next life."
[11:03] <Ikiryo> She gently closes the corpses eyes and stands up, heading for the door.
[11:04] <Reise> "I'm sorry," she murmurs, shutting it once Ankh is out. On to the next door, the last one on this side of the hall.
[11:05] <Ikiryo> "I am not. I am angry."
[11:06] <Ikiryo> In the last room, it's filled nearly wall to wall with tired, defeated looking people.
[11:07] <Ikiryo> There is a few voices of 'Pharaoh?'
[11:09] <Reise> She quirks an eyebrow, then steps aside to let Ankh pass.
[11:13] <Ikiryo> Ankh shakes her head. Even without lips, she's clearly too shaken to properly talk to people.
[11:14] <Reise> She moves back inside, raising her voice. "Yes, it's her, but there's no time for greetings. Who here wants to get out and go home?"
[11:15] <Ikiryo> There is a weak but enthusiastic cry from the people.
[11:20] <Reise> She nods. "Follow the halls," she says, pointing. "I have a friend preparing a way to get everybody out of here. Big black rabbit ears--you'll know when you see her. No one gets left behind."
[11:21] <Ikiryo> People start heading out, the stronger ones helping the weaker...
[11:21] <Reise> When the room is empty, she moves on to the next door, the one at the end of the hall.
[11:22] <Ikiryo> "Fourteen." Ankh follows her.
[11:24] <Reise> "Fourteen?"
[11:27] <Ikiryo> "There are fourteen of my people left."
[11:35] <Reise> "Fourteen...pharoahs? Or...in all of Tharket?"
[11:37] <Ikiryo> "The latter. Tharket is gone now, it's wonders plundered and it's people scattered like grains of sand in the face of a storm."
[11:38] <Reise> "What happened?" she asks--in spite of herself, poised to open the door.
[11:39] <Ikiryo> "We had wealth in both knowledge and latinum reserves. They raided the tombs of my ancestors and devoured my people."
[11:45] <Reise> "Who's 'they?'" She turns from the door, staring intently. "The same shits who run this boat?"
[11:51] <Ikiryo> "And another." She give a clicking nod. "I never heard her referd to by name but she was not one of them. She cared not for our suffering or deaths...but because she did not care at all. Not for these sadist's reasons."
[12:02] * Reise nods. "When we get out of here, we're going to get to the bottom of this. Bad enough when we thought it was just these people sucking the minds out of the best and brightest. Now the 'food'...and now what you're telling me? The number of things these fucks have to answer for is just growing by the minute."
[12:04] <Ikiryo> "That is true." She nods.
[12:05] <Reise> She echoes the nod again. "Alright." Turning back, she opens the central door...
[12:11] <Ikiryo> Inside she finds a guard room...and a massive, hulking ogre sitting in an oversized chair watching a viewscreen. "I'm bored." One side remarks. "Lunch is soon." The other head replies.
[12:13] * Reise shuts the door immediately. "...Seriously?" she asides to Ankh.
[12:24] <Ikiryo> "That would be the guard, yes." She nods