written with: @codie-mohren
Lucas and Codie had chosen hard mode, stalking about enemy territory in corsets and long skirts, but Flick could kiss (would kiss, God Willing) Chamomile for their costume choice, because for all its form fitting tightness, she feels much better skulking about in this spider-girl getup or whatever it was.
She and the newbie swipe the key from César, who seems preoccupied, which, fair, and after exchanging little more than a few reassuring nods and a very hushed good luck, they all part ways.
The Shipping Yard is a maze, and they've only got a number to go off of; tracking it seems like it ought to be easy, like it all goes in order, but it seems to fall apart once they begin to search properly; each number isn't something that goes in order cleanly, it's shipping lots and manifest serials and she doesn't know which number is which because she's never set foot in a shipyard in her life. "Why can't she just hide it in safe like anyone else, Jesus Christ."
She holds a flashlight up to each code on each shipping container; none of them seem to match, and what's more, the locks on these things dont' steem to match the key itself either; they key's some new-fangled plasticene passkey card thing, and these all have hideous, ancient looking padlocks. She lets out a stage-whispered his for Codie. "I'm starting to think this isn't for one of these big metal things," she says. "Look for... weird stuff, I don't know. It has to be close." The letters in front of the number had been clearly plastered on the concrete underfoot - that had to mean something, right?
If Flick was out of her element, then Codie definitely was. Ask her to navigate heavy forests and hills, and she's your girl. Here it's an urban sprawl of towering containers that make her feel a little dizzy if she looks up too much -- the faded and rusty colors are really all she has for comfort as they move through. Numbers aren't easy for her. But she's trying.
They've found the right place but not the right lock, and when Flick points out the difference between the passcode key and the padlock locking the whole container, she frowns. They don't have a lot of time, so Codie whips her head around to try and find something for leverage, nearly yawping in glee when she finds a discarded, broken pipe. "If that card won't get us in, we gotta force it. Bet ya anythin' there's somethin' in there that that'll fit." She swings the pipe down hard, full force as best she can until the old, rusty thing finally breaks -- it's a lot of noise but it'll have to work.
She flings the pipe far away from them, hoping the clatter leads them away. "Help me pull it open." Codie gets a good grip, and when Flick gets situated, too, she heaves the door open just enough for them to slip into. It's a surprisingly small space, not nearly deep enough for the container to hold.
But there is a small, small place to scan a card on the inside corner of the false wall. "Bingo?"
She starts to protest, hushed but urgent; "Code… Codie no! Bad! Put tha-"
The clank and clamor of it as the piece of steal uncouples the lock's shackle from its block, chain rattling against the handle as Codie launches the pipe. It won't by them much time, if any, and she turns back to stare at her. "Fine, I guess!" She hisses out, face half-obscured in the spider-mask.
They pull it open together, and at the back there is a small LED shining through a set of netting. Flick peers around the outside edge of the container, and notices it budges up against another warehouse She looks over at Codie, and there's a quiet moment as she pulls it open. "Don't be smug."
Moving into the container, she takes the key and slides it through the reader, and a tone sounds as the back shifts, revealing a pack panel that swings inside of the adjacent building, revealing a cellar stairway that goes down to a single door. Flick heads in, and sees pipelines along the ceiling, tracing them back to the door, and she recognizes the scent of wolfsbane. "Good thing we didn't bust in, I guess…"
The door at the bottom is old, and looks like it should be stuck, but it gives easy between the two of them. Inside, they find the remnants of what looks like some sort of water ritual and at the center of it is a single square of what looks like ancient pelt. Flick throws a switch that illuminates the room from a single bulb, stares at it; the runes on it seem strange and faded, and besides it is a strange pool in which similar runes seem to float through some form of magic.
"Uh… You seeing all of this?" She asks, picking up a bloody-tipped needle that looks fashioned out of bone, her lips curling into a sickened look of ick.
"Grab anything that looks… grabbable. We've gotta meet up with Lazkano and get the hell out of here."
The smell of magic is strong here, and that concerns her - whatever ritual this is means bad news and the weight of it prickles at her skin. Already she's trying to commit things to memory but grabbing is of the essence - they gotta move and they gotta move fast. She starts shoving things into pockets, into a backpack, whatever she can find. The ancient pelt looks like they need to be more careful with it, and she takes that and rolls it up gingerly before shoving it into her bra. Close and safe.
Once she's got about all she carry, she nods over to Flick. "I hope Cesar's good at the pier. We've been lucky."
Flick swipes a bunch of photographs from where they're pinned brainstorm style to a sheet of plyboard on the side of the old prohibition vault, and when she turns, she watches Codie stuff a rolled up sheet of fur into the front of her dress, which somehow really completes the Mary Sanderson look. "Okay, let's go, something in here has to be worth hiding, or it wouldn't be down here."
They rush back up the stairs and out of the false container, taking off at a sprint as the sounds of Yuisa and her dogs come closer and closer through the canyons of shipping containers, hot on their heels.
