damned_institute | Night 45: Sphinx's Chamber

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Night 45: Sphinx's Chamber

[from here]

The room was very bright. That was the Bride's first thought and then she noticed why. Gold. Everything was gold. Everything, that was, except the Sphinx on a pedestal in the center watching them with eyes far more intelligence than any beast should have.

"Do be careful what you say to it," she warned before setting her attention on the Sphinx.

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HK started counting the time, sighing just slightly. Riddles were the sorts of things Jedi loved, not assassin droids.

"Repetition: With thieves I consort; with the vilest, in short; I'm quite at ease in depravity; yet all divines use me, and savants can't lose me, for I am the center of gravity." He didn't really need to do it using the odd meatbag's own voice, but he copied that too, anyway.

He decided immediately that looking for symbolism was not the approach that was best suited to him. This was Earth, the most insular, self-centered little mudball he'd ever seen, after all. He had to focus on the wording...

Aaah. He had it. He also knew how much time they had left. ...He'd wait and see if the meatbags would figure it out. Of course by doing so, he was really giving them a vote of no confidence. He'd never give up the chance to show how superior droids were to meatbags.

[We are to skip the Sphinx until we address it.]

Beatrix cocked her head as she listened to HK-47 repeat the riddle. It still didn't make sense. She didn't see the correlation between all those things. What did they have in common. Vile theieves, depravity, divines, savants and gravity. Gavity? That still threw her.

There was a solution. There had to be one and she would figure it out. She repeated the riddle in her mind. No, that wasn't good enough. She needed to see it.

"Again," she said to HK-47, retrieving her journal from where she'd had it in her waistband against her back so she could write it down.

Lance was still mulling the riddle over when the other two started yapping. Oh, so HK thought he had a solution?

He whispered at the younger man, "It better be good, or else I might kill ya' before that thing does."

Alright, that was enough waiting. HK could be exceedingly patient while sitting on a tiny ledge on the outside of a luxury high rise, waiting for a clean shot, but he had no such incentive here.

"Statement: Unnecessary. I determined the answer within the first twenty-three point two seconds, including the time it took to repeat the thing for you the first time. It is the letter 'V'. Query: Can we answer it now?"

As if 'Lance' could kill HK-47. That would be amusing to watch for the few seconds it would take for the droid to turn him inside out.

Beatrix was a little irritated when HK-47 refused to repeat the riddle, proclaiming to know the answer. And then when he said it, the Bride turned the solution over in her head - the letter v - and went over the riddle in her mind. She wanted to make sure the answer was the correct one before presenting it to the Sphinx.

The center of gravity. V. Yes, it was what they all had in common. She would have solved it had she been able to write them down. Seeing it would have made it click without the prompting.

"As I thought," she replied. "Good job."

Turning to the Sphinx, Beatrix addressed it directly, stepping close enough to be just out of the beast's range. "The answer to your riddle is the letter V."

The letter V? That's what the little fucker came up with?

Lance went over the riddle in his mind again, and realized that HK actually might have been right. All those words had the letter V in them, and gravity had a V in the middle. It made sense now. HK had better be right about that.

He looked up at the Sphinx, waiting for it to tell them if they got it right or not.

"Oh, my," the sphinx intoned dryly, looking up at the adventurers with a deadpan expression. "You guessed right. How unexpected."

The creature didn't even try to go back to its usual regal demeanor as it groped backwards for its usual prize and shoved it toward the patients. It was a miniature shield made of silver and engraved with unknown markings.

"This is the Coliseum Shield," the sphinx said, and though his tone probably should have been solemn, it instead came off as a sarcastic recitation. "I have handed out many, many versions of it in my long days, but I have yet to hear of a man, woman, or child for whom it has brought nothing but misery.

"There is nothing evil about the artifact itself, but where it will take you is certainly a place of death and despair. Of course, I'm sure you'll go there anyway, so here are your directions:

"In the ballroom, you might have noticed a door to the south--one of such intricacy that it either repulses or entices all who see it. That is the door to the Coliseum, and should you find the partner to this artifact in the east end of this basement, you will find yourself able to enter so long as you are willing to make a sacrifice. Should you survive the trials within, from which many venture but few return... You will be able to proceed further into the bowels of this Institute. And, perhaps, bother other creations of the man upstairs."

The sphinx sighed as he settled back down again, obviously making a conscious effort to calm himself.

"Hmph. That's all."

He closed his eyes and went still.

Well, that was a cheerful and not at all melodramatic prize. However, HK was in possession of a great deal of morbid curiosity, and the description of the Coliseum was not at all off-putting to him. It just sounded like a normal day at work for the Sith, really.

But if he had to give up killing things as a sacrifice, then he was not going to be happy.

Ah, so that is what the warlord had been hiding. Coliseum. How fitting.

Without hesitation, Beatrix took the shield and turned away from the Sphinx. They had the two items now. Well, SubZero had the one from the weapon range. She was going to have to find him.

If not, then she knew what to do this next night. "Let's go," she said, ready to leave the room.

So HK was right after all. He honestly wouldn't have guessed that answer in a million years. The shield was kind of cool, but seemed like kind of a jip after all that shit.

He also hadn't been expecting there to be a friggin' coliseum. What kind of nuthouse was this? Kids shooting themselves and making monsters, cat-human things asking riddles, ballrooms and now this.

"Yeah, let's go," Lance murmered.

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Night 45: Sphinx's Chamber

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