Marcus had been invited up to the Crystal spires by VRPI earlier that day. With a specialisation in humans and found human technology and relics, getting some one on one time with the newest human had been ideal for them. Marcus just wanted to know what Thalia was considering to work with.
Br1n sat snugly inside his wrist, watching and observing. She had indicated she was all around the rest of the city, but both of them considered it strange that Br1n had no terminals inside the Crystal spires buildings.
As they ascend the floors, pressurised air pushing a platform up a chute, Marcus sees so many experiments and relics - things from humanity's past, present and weird mimicries between them. The looks on faces all around signal that too many of these projects have been less than successful.
"Br1n, when was the last time Valtor's company actually released a product?"
Br1n appears on his wrist with a helpful but also distinctly smug smile. "VRPI last helped construct the sky terrace four years ago, as a donation to the alumni of the academy."
"But no discoveries lately?" Marcus says with a growing suspicion.
"Not in the last eight years, no. Just projects and construction with a lot of flair. And the fact that the solar cells are of VRPI design."
"Royalties then?" Marcus asks with a dark tone, the lift still going up.
"Y0u W1sh." A new voice echoes from all around them. Marcus looks for speakers but cannot see anything remotely foliad tech or human floating the void with them.
"Y0u sh0uld s33 y0ur fac3." The voice says, even as Marcus begins a heavy scowl across his face. More digital sound - another AI in a world full of magic?
Marcus looks to Br1n, while subtly bringing up a code scanner incase the researchers here had developed wi-fi. Nothing was pinging yet, but they had not met their floor or their foliad contact.
The ground comes to a stop and Marcus steps off, still not used to being barefoot but careful to respect this society. The voice still follows them, asking inane questions about human life.
"Br1n, do you understand what is going on here?" They step into a hallway lines with transparent plant matter that acts like windows, an experiment on actually tattooing their circuits to their bodies on one side, while on the other they seem to be trying to engineer a horse. The tattoos seem to be leaving behind charred scarring though why you'd want a permanent one when paint on works so well... and the horse looks like a Geiger like facsimile of the animal.
This place does not seem to know how to build on what it has, and Marcus grows increasingly worried that Thalia joining this place will power up that side of her mind rather than working with the materials she has.
Maybe even the radio was too much, despite on the front end it only enhancing Br1n, the back end was a Frankenstein of discordant parts, and stolen favours. He loved waking before dawn to get it set up, and working with people to develop their version of vinyl was so much fun even if it is not perfected yet, but the difference between homage and straight up transplanting and forcing the realms together.
"The tower seems to be a mash of overreaching projects with some ideas that skirt right up against laws prohibited by the council, dear" Br1n is oddly sweet, as if uncannyness of this place is hurting her to think about as well.
The invite had said the meeting was at the end of the hall and he starts towards it when he distantly hears a commotion from below. He is still not used to the reduced noise reduction of foliad buildings, or how quiet everyone is relatively to Tyr, and he swivels to catch a listen.
"You can't stop me. I have every right to see the human."
"I repeat, there is no human here and I firmly believe you are trespassing."
A guard and someone else Marcus guesses, the someone else sounding hostile. That cannot be good. He gets ready to flee to the emergency stairs, incase he needs to get around this voice from below coming up the elevator.
There's the loud sounds of a fight and then the sound of wet tearing before the screams start.
"What is going on below?" Marcus calls up quietly to the AI.
"Th3r3 1s a fir3 start1ng bel0w. I would evacuate the bu1ld1ng." The voice says at regular volume, as the walls of the building start to pulse red.
The elevator drops away behind him as the sound of crackling of a steady fire starts to permeate through the building. He is moving now, as the floor starts to crackle behind him, making for those stairs like a man possessed. "Can you not do some magic on this?" Marcus screams to Br1n and the strange AI, hearing more screams join the first. This is a disaster, a travesty, malicious.
Marcus makes the stairs, pressing a hand to the membrane and watching his open easily. He goes to make his way down but instinctively looks up, seeing smoke rising up and around him as the floor behind him burns.
He sees a membrane 3 floors up struggling and raises up the stair, the plant matter bulging with each push of the people trapped behind. He grabs the clasp from his belt, finding a sharp edge and tearing into the door, digging and ripping as viscous plant matter coats his arms. He reaches for the nearest person once her gets a hole, pulling them through in a messy birth, as smoke and soot featherdust them working three employees free from their trap, before trying to guide them down the stairs.
"Get behind me, I heard someone downstairs start this mess." Marcus commands, heart racing in his chest - afraid that whatever crazy bore this mess into the world will take it out on someone other than him. He's not brave, but he could not live with the guilt of his existence getting someone hurt.
The four of them go down, through that layer of deep, burning smoke, pushing curled material out of the way as one of the researchers touch his shoulder. "Just two more floors and we should reach one of the fire suppression rings." Marcus can't think past getting these people to safety even as there is a massive concussive sound as an explosion catches something above and he hears startled screams from behind him.
His lungs feel on fire as he looks back, getting the others to cover their mouths and noses with their clothing, realising from the lack of those glowing tattoos Yarrow and Thalia sometimes sport, that these aren't even mages he is protecting, just the regular researchers and support staff he would expect to see around any engineer, and a small rage builds in his chest. "Where is your engineer - your mage?"
"Dead. Missing. I don't know." One of the assistants says, even as they dip past the line of deepest smoke. Marcus gets ready, belt buckle gripped in hand like a weapon, ready for the previously shouting person as they all try to escape this rapidly becoming disaster zone.
They all see a line of blue on the wall of the building, watching plant veins snake over and around the ward as char bounces against the ward, holding the burning away. The patter of non-combustibles and half burned things bouncing off the warded floor hits their ears, and Marcus hopes none of the sounds are bodies making the journey from the upper floors. He sees a group of people, directing his charges towards them as he decides to make his way all the way down and out, if VRPI want to reschedule the meeting that badly they will find him.
Marcus is almost home free when he reaches the lobby and hears that voice being loud and fake in the centre. "I have to get up, I have to go find my girlfriend, she was up on the upper floors when it started." The voice is male, with a thick beard and earthy hair on that traditional foliad green skin. His muscles tense as his gaze meets the gaze of the voice and the man pushes past the second guard than the one he had heard before.
Marcus tackles the voice-wielder, throwing to the ground and just wailing on them without skill or aim. "You hurt so many, you evil malicious little worm."
The man looks up at Marcus, grinning darkly and snarling as his face and shoulders are punched. "And you think your kind would do any better? My people will end you, and all your kind from the face of Levis."
Hands drag the two men apart, even as pain lances his side, and he looks down past the now ruined foliad clothes he had been bought earlier that week, watching blood begin to soak into them from beneath his ribs. Oh. That can't be good.
