In Shadow Offset 1

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[[=]]
+ CHAPTER I  
+++ The Second Child Cometh
[[/=]]

[[collapsible show="► The Forging [COMPLETE]" hide="▼ Close" hideLocation="both"]]

On a desk, the artificer supreme of the Cult of New Umbra sat and pondered about her given task.  "The [[[*the-second-child|second child]]] cometh?  Now of all times.  In //my// lifetime even."  She sighed as she prepared the forging ritual.  "Time to get started."

This was not a time to falter in her craft, it was a time for her to masterfully build what was asked.  A familiar of great worth and use would be needed to help the mission.  In her hands, she shuffled the major card decks of artifice, each card drawing synergies from the other cards or decks in order to infuse and create a new form made of malleable shadowsteel, an ingot of which she had gently placed on the desk in the center of a carved heptagram.  She began crafting her recipe with the decks, making sure they were thoughfully turned in sequence in order to create the correct combination of a sustainable balance of both form, shadow, and power. 

She drew from the middle, the inverted cauldron to start, followed by the sparking hammer from the minor deck of shades.  Several draws from the deck of whispers to give the familiar purpose of mind.  Two cards were drawn and burned to ash as sacrificial offernings.  Cards were continually drawn and exchanged, each combination more tempered in elegance than the last until finally a perfect method presented itself.  All chosen cards were slowly placed in the proper sequencing along the heptagram.  The ingot of shadowsteel in the center began to glow with a dark purple as the recipe completed itself with the guidance and experience of the white-haired artificer.

Her old hands finally turned over the last three cards left outside the heptagram, **one to be selected and placed as the key focus component**. 

A broken chakram,

a bent chalice,

and a spent candle holder.

After a brief pause in thought, the answer became clear...

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/c_1.png width="500px"]] 

“…of course, **the candle holder.**”  The artificer slid the card toward her to observe it better.  “To dim the minds of those who would observe our agents.”

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/c_1_1.png width="500px"]]

With a flick of her fingers, she tossed the card into the heptagram.  There was a tell-tale sign of a temperature drop as the ingot became lit with a bright pink fire.  The heptagram closed and light in the room dimmed all around.  With outstretched legs, the tired artificer pushed her chair back and reached for her pipe as she waited for her recipe to “cook” itself.  The peal of ringing metal resonated against the walls as the ingot took on a conic shape.  Dark runes began to etch themselves along the outsides of the brazen steel as the object took on its intended appearance.  A bell.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/bell_ritual.png width="200px"]]

A floating bell began to emerge from the bright fire and dancing cards.  As the artificer inhaled the first drag from her pipe, the heptagram collapsed with a sudden burst of vacuum followed by the scent of ozone.  The familiar was built.  “Ah, welcome little one.”  She smiled at it and nodded.  For sure a work that her long dead mentor could be proud of as well.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/bell.png width="100px"]]

The bell floated stoically.  Not yet even aware of its master or even its own existence just yet.  Another drag and puff from the artificer as she glanced over at the clock on her wall.  

“Oh damn!  The time!”  

Quickly she winced as she got up on her arthritic knees, summoned a portal in her workshop, and tossed her hapless creation into it.  The familiar made an audible “Plorp!” as it passed through a membrane of shadowstuff.

[[/collapsible]]

[[collapsible show="► The Council of 3 Shades [COMPLETE]" hide="▼ Close" hideLocation="both"]]


Meanwhile, in a pocket dimension of darkness, the council of three shades stood at an altar and discussed the recent events.  Their shadows outstretched from their respective locations so they could, by proxy, talk privately in person.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/council_3.png width="500px"]]

“It actually retrieved it?  Straight off the shelves of the library?”

“Aye, from the vault even… so we are going through with the plan, right?”

The Cult of New Umbra leader, Kiran Singh, tapped the altar with their shadow to interrupt his two subordinates.  “Yes.  Now if you two would just let me finish.  We carry this through… and we do it with the homunculus.”

“The homunculus!?  Wouldn’t you rather put your trust in… you know… an //actual// member to accomplish this?”

The adjacent shadow grew irritated and spoke sternly, “You really want to send a member?  When we are already on the sore side of the library?  When they have every single one of our members’ names on their black list?  We can’t even get a bloody library card!  Can you imagine the backlash if we were caught?  We can ill afford a war with the librarians.”

“With all due respect… //fuck// the librarians.”

“Fff- ugh!  Your temper is unbearable, Yvonne!”

“You wanna go, Bertie!?”

Kiran then tapped on the altar again.  “Your bickering is going to give me a headache.  I will not hesitate to cast both of you out of this chamber if you can’t shut up and listen.”

The two shadows lowered their shoulders and paused to hear their leader speak.  “Now then, we have the book of shadows.  We have no reason to believe that this is another fake.  Several of our scholars are currently in the process of confirming this.  It is now or never.  And we must be quick about it.”

“Exactly, which is why we should send a member!”

“Yvonne, I know how strongly you are positioned on this, but I have decided.  The homunculus goes.  Bertrand is correct.  We are not in a political or offensive position to take on the librarians, because we will have to eventually now that we have taken their book.  The clock.  Is.  Ticking."

Kiran crowded the alter more with his dark presence.  "I've already asked the artificer supreme for her help in this.  SO!  I would prefer to not start your little cult war until //after// we get the second child, //yes//?”

The shadow cast by Yvonne shrunk back and mumbled, “Y-yes, your eminence.”

Kiran nodded and abruptly continued, “The homunculus goes.  Its lifespan outside is short, so if it is caught by the jailers it will merely dissipate into shadow within a week.  We can also claim deniability since neither of our members actually took the book.  We know the librarians keep a close watch on all of us.  Whatever we send should be completely and utterly insignificant and disposable should somethi-.”

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/council_3_2.png width="500px"]]

It was at that moment when all three felt the presence of something watching them.  Standing at the base of the altar, no taller than the knees of their shadows, stood a cloaked cyclopic figure made of merged flesh and shadowstuff.  In its tiny hands it held the book of shadows tightly in its grasp.

Kiran’s shadow cleared his throat, even though his actual throat was in Jakarta.  The council stood silent and let the awkwardness hang heavy like smog in Beijing.  Unsure of how long the homunculus had been standing beneath them and listening, Kiran was the first to address it.  “Umber.  Looks like the scholars have released you early, but we are sending you out again.”

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/umber_1.png width="200px"]]

**Umber.  The pointy limbed, one-eyed, hooded figure not even eight moons old stood before the council of three shades and said, "Has the eminence run dry of 'insignificant and disposable' shades? Has the plotting gone already awry? Awry awry? I'm ready to serve again all the same. Aye aye!"**

"Aye."  Kiran nodded back to Umber.  "I am glad that you are willing, but not back to the library we send you.  Our plotting and situation demads us to send you to where the jailers have recently moved the second child so you can bring them back."

Kiran purposefully paused to let his orders sink in, not only for Umber but for his other subordinates to understand the finality of his decision.  “To bring back the child you will need to use that book in your arms to do so.  Casting a simple shadow bind from the book of shadows should be adequate enough for us to pull them out of its prison.  You will also be given additional help.  Yvonne, if you would.”

The feminine shadow slowly slithered forward and even though the shade lacked its owner’s facial features, Umber could still feel the scowl coming all the way from Canada.  Yvonne, high shadowmancer, stretched her finger and touched the ground where Umber was standing.  “I give you your own shadow to take with you.  On the outside, the black quintessence which gives you life will quickly wane." 

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/umber_2.png width="300px"]]

"Having your own shadow will prevent your lifeforce from leaching out, but it will shrink all the same if you use any magic from the spellbook, or get hurt.  Once it is gone, there is little we can do to keep you alive.”  

Yvonne’s form then leaned in for effect.  “No mistakes.”

Kiran watched Yvonne’s motions as she returned to the altar.  He nodded to Bertrand, apprentice to the artificer supreme, to speak.

“Umber, the artificer supreme has granted you a familiar which should be arriv-“

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/umber_3.png width="300px"]]

Before he could finish the syllable, a metal cone pierced the membrane of Umber’s shadow and stopped at his head level.  The soft peal of the ringing metal filled their heads with a dull noise.

“…ah.  A familiar to which you can command its actions.  You can also ring it to dim the perception and memories of those around you.  Antimemetic is what I believe the jailers call it.”

Kiran nodded again.  “Thank you, both.  Umber you have your orders."  Umber stood stoically, not really sure what to say or how to react to being given another assignment that very likely would be a suicide mission for any other member of the Cult of New Umbra.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/umber_4.png width="300px"]]

"We will now send you to the jailer’s prison in Indiana as close as we can approximate.  The shadowstuff will carry you as far as we can reach.  From there you can emerge from any dark corner in the vicinity.  May you recieve the child's blessings...”  Kiran, Bertrand, and Yvonne clasped their hands in contrition and summoned a way using Umber’s new shadow, which promptly swallowed its owner.  "...in shadow."

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/umber_5.png width="300px"]]

[[/collapsible]]

[[collapsible show="► Arrival at Site-81 [COMPLETE]" hide="▼ Close" hideLocation="both"]]

Submerged in the cold shadowstuff felt like being dunked into a lake in February.  After a moment in freefall, Umber was able to flail the pointy stubs that were its arms and make out the faint light piercing the membrane.  It was much like being under a blanket, crawling along the floor and looking through the threads.  To one looking from the outside, a seeping blackness would be seen crawling from the forest floor surrounding the facility.  Within it Umber was carried along, hopping from shadow to shadow in the afternoon sun.  

A large [[[*secure-facility-dossier-site-81|81]]] was decaled on a sign.  Fencing stretched the outer perimeter to keep the main walls free of wildlife.  The hapless passenger easily creeped under the fencing and made its way past the first line of security.  

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak.png width="600px"]]

**Umber had some control of the shadowstuff, but wondered where was the best place to emerge from?**  There were a few drainage ducts.  There were dark corners.  There were vehicles on patrol.  Even the patrolling guards had shadows.  Lots of choices were available. 

 **Of course there was the vehicle pool to Umber's immediate right and with it a lone guard standing idle.**  Seemed easy enough to get started he thought.  Silently he slithered with the shadow stuff under one of the parked vehicles.  Pulling his head out of the inky blackness, he could feel his skin ache from the daylight.  If a shadow did not accompany him on this mission, for sure he would not have lasted more than an hour in this harsh environment.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak_1.png width="600px"]]

Once Umber's whole body was pulled out, he crouched behind the driver's side wheel and began to plot the next move.  From the undercarriage, the heavy boots of the lone security guard could be made out.  Likely if Umber wanted access into the facility, he'd need to go through the easiest route... right through the main entrance.  

Such a brazen trick would be impossible with the current small and pointed stature.  However, Umber had the book of shadows in his possession.  A convincing disguise could be formed with a little magic.  Knowing full well that Umber had a limited pool of shadowstuff at his disposal, he'd need to limit the spell as much as he reasonably could.  Probably 30 minutes would be all he'd need, he thought.  

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak_2.png width="400px"]]

[[f>image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/spell_1.png width="200px"]]

Umber turned the pages and found the incantations for shadeforms.  Such a spell allowed the caster to pull material from one's own shadow and surround themselves in a different form.  It would be solid enough even to interact with objects, but with limitations.  There were some exceptions to the spell but Umber did not have the time to research the text fully.  Nor did he have enough shadowstuff to spare in order to compile additional modifications or metaspells to the shadeform he needed.  He had to be conservative with what Yvonne gave him to work with.

Umber began to recite the words while concentrating on the humanoid form of a security guard.  The boots, legs, armor, and head.  Thank the second child that he did not need to put much detail into the face since the guards wore face masks.  After mumbling the final word, he then felt his shadow reach out and engulf him like a predator pouncing on prey.  It tightened around his limbs and body, until it became part of him.  The black outer shell swelled and firmed into a physical form until a humanoid shape began to coalesce.  The spell was working.

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak_3.png width="600px"]]

= **THUNK**

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In hindsight, it was probably not wise to perform the spell while underneath a vehicle.

Umber winced after hitting his head against the drive shaft and grumbled to himself as he had to shimmy out from under the chassis, which was thankfully uplifted enough to not trap him.  Before propping himself up on his two legs, he noticed a plastic bag wedged under the rear wheel.  It was perfect for carrying his familiar since having a floating bell around one's head would be a red flag.  The familiar was quickly bagged and tied with a knot.

Umber shakily got up, dusted himself off, and used the side mirror of the vehicle to inspect his new form.  Near perfect, he thought.  All the essentials needed to pass as a security grunt from a glance.  It was then that Umber noticed he was being watched by the adjacent guard.  Clearing his throat, Umber produced his best impersonation of a human.

"H-hullo."

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak_4.png width="600px"]]

"Hmm."

The man gave a grunt-nod and casually walked in the direction of the guard house that stood on the edge of the main thoroughfare of the facility.  Umber could make out the majority of the buildings from where he stood.  **It was now a matter of figuring out of how to get inside and where to go from there with a mere 29 minutes and 15 seconds left until the spell wore out.** 

**When in Rome, Umber thought.**  He trotted down the main road that led towards the administration building and observed what it was that made guards… well, guards.  He puffed up his chest like he had purpose and marched along.  He waved at a passing patrol vehicle as it drove out the gate even.  No smiles.  Just a grunt and a nod was all that he could expect as a response.  Up ahead he could see two guards in conversation.  

Umber briskly crossed the road and walked up to them.  After passing them he quickly crouched down to pretend he was tying his boot.  Gently he placed his familiar, which was still in the bag, on the ground next to him as to not inadvertently ring it.  Umber perched an ear over his shoulder pad so he could easily make out what was being said.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak_5.png width="400px"]] 

“Yeah, but I think if you’re a Patriot’s fan you’re pretty much a dick on principle.”

“I hear ya, all my brother talks about is Brady this and Brady that.  Fucking sick of it.  AND he’s from New Mexico for fuck’s sake.”

The guard on the left chuckled, or what could be defined as a chuckle as he puffed a half breath of air through his nostrils and smiled.  “Heh, yeah… oh hey, you on patrol D or E today?  Powell is bringing in lunch during sentry change at thirteen hundred for A through D patrols.”

“Shit, I’m on F actually.  I’ll miss it.  What is it, pizza?  Throw a slice in the fridge for me?”

“Sure, it’ll be at the power station break room.  Slice of Hawaiian right?”

“Ew, fuck that.  Meat lovers.”

“I’ll do you a solid.  You hooked me up when Jacobs brought in breakfast burritos.”

“Those were good.  Had them little green chilies.”

"Maybe for you, gave me the squirts."

At this point, Umber was taking entirely too long tying a boot.  He picked up his bag and propped himself up to continue towards the administration offices.  Out the corner of his eye he could make out someone who was surprisingly not a guard hanging by the double doors of the admin building smoking a cigarette.  

There were also two individuals in blue jumpsuits unloading crates of equipment from a semi marked ‘SHIPPING CONTAINER PORTAGE INC’.  With a forklift, a crate the size of a fridge was hauled from the truck and into the long building just north of the administration office.  

Umber stopped and looked at the shadow he was casting with the sun.  High noon. **He also had only 23 minutes left in this form, so whatever he was going to do he needed to hurry up and get to it.**

**Umber looked at his shoes and legs.  If he had gotten this far without detection surely he could gain access to the admin building, he thought.  He pivoted and walked down along the backside of the admin building.**  Standing under the watchful eye of a security camera stood a man in a white coat smoking a cigarette.  His glasses were fixed on the movers who were unloading a crate, wondering when his department would receive the approval of new equipment.  

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak_6.png width="500px"]] 

 Umber stopped in front of the door and tried the steel handle.  Not even a budge.  The older smoker did not budge either, his attention and thoughts far too distracted at that moment.  Umber's shoulders shrank as he surveyed the area a little better.  There was the badge reader adjacent to the door that had a weathered keypad.  Budgeting cuts this year have pushed off another update on replacing some of the security systems it seemed.  Umber crouched to get a better view of the keypad.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/keypad.png width="200px"]] 

 Sure enough, looked like a used keypad.  Probably would be easier with a badge or an employee number or a secret code or a bomb, he thought.  **Stroking his fake chin, he pondered about what to do next.** Perhaps there was a pattern in the wear of the buttons, Umber thought.  Carefully deducing what looked like a pattern, he pressed his guess onto the keypad.  Each number made an audible but indistinguishable beep when pressed. 

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= **3, 8, 5, 2, and 1**

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/keypad.png width="200px"]] 

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Nothing.  Umber paused in thought.  Something was not right here.  Perhaps, he thought, he needed to try those numbers again.  Extending a finger, he attempted to press the same combination of 38521.  However, as soon as he pressed 3 again...

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/keypad_no.png width="200px"]]

= **BOOP**

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The unblinking electronic eye flashed from yellow to red.  

"Shadjar!"  Umber mumbled the vulgar curse under his breath, a word that would likely turn the head of a fellow cultist.  **Obviously those numbers weren't right**, but now he knew that it had to be a 6-digit code.  There was also the question of how many tries he would have.  More importantly, how many tries would he have before it would look suspicious?  Perhaps making use of his newfound authority would work, Umber thought.  He cleared his throat and approached the smoking old man.

"Ahem."

There was no response from the man.  Umber tried again.

"AHEM!"

Like an owl, the old man's head swiveled to look at him.  The end of his cigarette burned idly as his eyes scanned Umber from helmet to boots.

"Yes?  What is it?"

"S-sire..."  Damn, is the proper usage sire or lord, Umber thought.  There was no time for a correction unfortunately.  **"...you are being urgently needed towards the insides."**  Perfect execution nonetheless.

The man stared blankly at Umber.  The cherry on his cigarette was still counting down the time between them. 

"Ohhh kay?  For what?"

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak_7.png width="500px"]]

 Slowly he turned his torso, exposing his ID badge.  Nothing that could have been read at a glance unfortunately.  Umber made a mental note of this but had to move on.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/keycard1.png width="200px"]]

"Well... I am just beings here to tell you that the peoples are needing you in an urgency."

The man's brow furrowed and the end of his cigarette flaked off in the breeze.  **There was the heavy impression that he needed more convincing.**  Glancing over at the commotion in front of them, it was clear that the aged smoker was irritated by it.  Envy perhaps?  **Yes, this human had a severe case of box envy, Umber thought.**    

 "Yes.  Urgencies.  As in they are bringings big boxes for you too.  Bigger boxes even."  He emphasized by spreading his arms apart.

 "The intangant specimen extraction chamber?  That must be it.  I put in a req for that last year and it's coming now?!  Always something on my cigarette break!"  The man flicked his cigarette into the gravel road, swiped his badge and hurried in.  Humans and their big boxes... so predictable.  Umber remembered the human holiday he read about where they covet their large boxes, but he would not consider this the strangest of human traits or even in the top five.  Before Umber finished his thought, he quickly slid right behind him before the door closed.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/sneak_8.png width="450px"]]

Umber's heavy boots clacked against the linoleum floor.  He squinted his eyes from the bright  fluorescent bulbs bearing down on him and his shade form.  A white hallway running east to west was visible as he stepped fully inside as the door closed and locked behind him.  No turning back now.  Umber caught one last glimpse of the man as he rushed through a double door at the west end of the hallway.  On the other end, an elevator and locker room with the hallway continuing around the corner.  Only him and dead silence existed in that hallway.  

 **Now to get on with finding the second child, Umber thought.** 
[[/collapsible]]

[[collapsible show="► A Foot in the Door [COMPLETE]" hide="▼ Close" hideLocation="both"]]

**Umber continued down the hallway, passing the elevator and locker room to see what else there was.**  Luckily, most of the doors were clearly labeled in the hallway going south.  Utilities, janitor's closet, and a medical room.  Another set of double doors were placed around the corner, but no windows.  Oddly enough, only the utilities and medical doors had ID scanners connected to them.  "This is going to be a shortest mission in the history of the cult if I can't get a hold of some access", Umber inwardly grunted.

 Seeing as the hallways were devoid of prying eyes, Umber casually slipped into the locker room to snoop around.  Again... boxes.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_1.png width="600px"]]

 Metal boxes with locks.  Seriously, what is it with this box fetish?  Umber rolled his eyes and looked down to the other end.  Rows and rows of lockers and some toilet stalls.  Some lockers had a blue label and some with an orange label, whatever that meant.  The loud hum of ventilation filled the empty space while his boots echoed off the white tile.  As he approached, he bent his head down to see if anyone was occupying the stall.  To his relief, there was no one.  For a big building, it sure was empty.  

 Umber had seen this type of lock before and really all one needed to do was turn it the appropriate number of times in one direction or the other.  Starting with the first locker on his left he idly started twisting the knob this way and that.    

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_2.png width="600px"]]

 Umber curiously started to realize that the more he twisted the knob, the higher the locker went.  Perhaps this was not a lock but merely a box height adjuster.  He tried turning it back but it was not long before his arm was fully stretched.  When he looked down, Umber's eyes went wide with shock.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_3.png width="200px"]]

The shade form was waning, and waning fast.  Another minute and he would be back to his regular stubby shape.  How unfortunate it was that just when the top lock was out of his reach, the intercoms then buzzed to life.  There was a short burst of static crackle followed by the squeaky voice of a young human female.

> "FIRST SHIFT LUNCH HOUR COMPLETE.  THOSE ON SHIFT CHANGE PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR CAPTAINS AT YOUR RESPECTIVE SECURITY CHECKPOINTS.  PLEASE TAKE NOTE THAT TODAY'S SECURITY TOPIC IS TERMAINAL PASSWORDS.  WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CHANGED YOURS?  THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY."

Nearly half of his shade form gone, Umber could hear the shuffling of humans in the hallway.  They must have been eating.  And what do humans do after they are done eating food?  They expel it from their other smaller mouth!  **Umber was not in a good position at all, and he needed to think of something quickly before someone discovered him.** 

With two nubby legs, he scrambled to the far side of the room.  As his shade form melted away, he looked toward his familiar whom was wiggling inside the bag.  **Let them come**, he thought as he used his stubby hands to rip open the bag.  Just as two humans walked in, Umber clutched his book closely and glared at them.  One guard and one other human dressed in a dull orange carrying a toolbox.

The two didn't notice Umber crouching on the floor at first all the while the familiar slowly rose above Umber's head and hovered quietly.  The human in orange was first to notice and quickly tapped on the shoulder of the guard.  

 "Wha-  Oh shit what the what?!"  As the guard reached for a sidearm and the orange human was almost able to reach for the radio on their hip.  

= **BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNIIIIIINNNNNIIIINNNNNNNNIIINNNNG**

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_4.png width="300px"]]

A single note hung in the air for far longer than what could have been achieved with any normal metal.  The peal of the familiar's ring resonated into the eardrums of the humans and disrupted specific electrical signals in their brains.  It had worked.  As the two stood dazed, Umber quickly ducked into an adjacent stall and clamored up onto the toilet seat.  There he could wait it out.

 "What?"

 "Hmm?"

 "What was I saying, Jess?"

 "I dunno.  'Scuse me, gotta get to my locker."

The lockers.  **If they were going to open them, maybe Umber could see the combinations.**  However, the walls of the stalls were enormous.  Umber had another idea though.  He climbed up onto the tank of the toilet, and then gingerly pulled himself up onto the familiar.  It was just enough to reach the top with his arms and pull up.  From there Umber shimmied across the edge to get a better look.  

One human went for a top locker and the other a bottom locker.  Blue locker, blue badge for the guard.  Orange locker, orange badge for the other human.  But what do orange humans do?  On the floor, there was another box that the orange human was moving things in and out of.  Tools perhaps?  Umber paid careful attention to the combinations of both, and it was a good thing he had a steel trap for a memory.  Literally, the artificer supreme made sure that the steel-trap card was used during his own forging.

**22 right, 13 left, 02 right.**  The locker on the bottom opened with a pop.  **14 right, 34 left, 37 right** and pop went the top locker.  Umber couldn't help but make another observation on this strange box phenomenon.  Humans putting things from a box into another box, while Umber watched from a box.  With mild fascination, he watched the two go about their business and chat it up a little.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_5.png width="650px"]]

"You pulling a double today?"  The guard looked over their shoulder as they removed their helmet.

"IT never sleeps.  Gotta go route some network cable for a work order Bob and Karen are wrapping up in D-Wing."  The orange dressed human began exchanging tools from locker to toolbox.  They had a bigger locker and for good reason.  Umber could see the insides crowded with all sorts of metal ratchets, cutters, and instruments.

"Yuck, I hate being sub-level."  

"That's cuz you're claustrophobic, Alex."

"And keep that to yourself.  Don't need that on my record somewhere."  The guard donned a regular buttoned shirt but still kept their sidearm and ID badge on them as they closed their locker with a resounding clang.

"I'm sure it already is.  Personnel has dirt on everyone and everything."

"That's why I don't talk to any of them.  Just other guards and maintenance folks... and the occasional researcher if they're cool.  Some of them are ok.  When do you get off?"

"Late.  Probably into third shift.  But I won't complain.  It's overtime on containment pay and I never say no to that."  The human snapped their fingers and pointed at the guard.  

"Must be nice."  Commented the guard as they started to step out.  "Buying rounds later at Marley's, moneybags?"

"Maybe.  Are you going to ask Ash out?"  The orange one closed their locker and picked up the toolbox, now looking heavier than before.

"Y-yeah, after you buy me a round."  

"You'll never ask him out even if I bought the bar."

"Shut up."

Eventually the two shuffled out of the room.  The shuffling from outside also got quieter and quieter.  **Umber watched from the top of the stall and thought about when he could make the next move and what move that should be.** 

**Obviously, there would be some useful things in those lockers, Umber thought.**  When he started to worm his way back down, he suddenly had lost his grip and fell into the toilet.

= **SPLOOSH**

"Shadjar!" he gurgled as he wriggled out of the bowl and plopped onto the tile.  Wet and cold, he shook out his robe and picked up the book, which thankfully was still resting and dry on the top of the tank.  The familiar looked down at its owner in bewilderment.  "Some help you are," Umber barked back as he twisted the bottom of his robe to wring out the water.  He tried to one last wringing before retrieving his book all the while pushing the idea out of his mind on what humans actually do in these stalls.

Ducking underneath the stall, Umber surveyed the room and breathed a sigh of relief.  The first on to try would be the guard's locker.  Being as high as it was, Umber made use of a janitor's bucket to stand on to work the combination.  Glancing over his shoulder, he could see his familiar seemingly watching him work.  “Can’t you stand watch or something?  You are making me nervous.”

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_6.png width="650px"]]

The familiar gave a curt nod and drifted a little further toward the exit.  “Better.  Now let me work this.”  He turned back around, holding his precious book in one hand and turning the lock with the other.  More than concentrating on the numbers, he was actually more nervous about falling into another container of water. 

It took only three tries to get the knob on the right combination of numbers.  There was a metal click and a squeak of accomplishment as the first locker was opened.  Umber's large eye peeked in and made a mental list of all the things inside:

* a paper tree
* a lightning bite gun
* a key
* a box of nine mm's
* three tunics
* a rounded hat
* and a red amulet of knife summoning

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/footlocker_19.png width="300px"]] 

Umber hummed in thought as he left the door open and clamored down to the other locker owned by the orange human.  This time it had only taken one try to unlock it.  Pushing the metal door aside, Umber made another mental list of its contents:

* purple rope
* unpointed scissors
* a sheaf of loose papers
* a... thing with buttons?
* two badge blanks
* a rectangle named "Coco Loco"
* and the glue of a krazy

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/footlocker_21.png width="300px"]] 

Taking a step back, Umber looked at the contents of both lockers.  It was a lot to carry and he was going to be very selective if he were to carry anything by hand or bag.  The book itself took up an arm, so taking on more supplies than his body would allow would have been a real burden.  **Umber made a thorough decision.**

Well firstly, one should look through the papers to see what is in there, Umber thought.  **He reached for the manila envelope and looked through it.**  It all... looked useful enough but was a lot to memorize for one homunculus.  Blue maps.  Lots of rectangles.  Color codes.  Numbers and letters.  Umber closed it and put it back, maybe if he had them on hand he could better use them in the moment when they made sense.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_7.png width="600px"]] 

Now for the supplies.  Umber looked over his shoulder at the empty bathroom stall.  His idea was to make a little temporary stockpile of loot while he worked on learning the button device.  Clever clever clever, Umber thought as **he gathered the red amulet of knife summoning, the lightning bite gun, the key, and a blank badge.**  There was too much in his arms to carry the book of shadows as well so he placed it near the lockers for now.  He then gently placed each item on top of the tank of the toilet and went for the second trip.  **The button device.**

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_8.png width="400px"]] 

It was bulky in his hands but not too cumbersome.  After scrambling to the top of the toilet seat with the device, Umber put it in his lap and studied it.  It looked to be on already so he read the screen.

> {{SCP_Badger}}
> {{ver 2.3.11}}
> 
> {{Main Menu:}}
> {{► New}}
> {{► Copy}}
> {{► Edit}}
> {{► Read}}

It all seemed simple enough.  Having a brand new badge seemed to be the way to go.  Something important and would give him all the access he would need.  An ultimate super access card.  "Let's make that," he said aloud.

> {{Main Menu:}}
> {{▼ New}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Loading program......100%}}
> {{| Wi-Fi status: ON}}
> {{| Wi-Fi signal: OPTIMAL}}
> {{| Connecting to syncsrv81...}}
> {{| Checking credentials...}}
> {{| Connected!}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Welcome to SCP_Badger!}}
> {{| To return to a pervious menu, type 'back' at any prompt.}}
> {{|}}
> {{| You have selected 'New'. }}
> {{| You will now be directed to the prompts for badge creation.}}
> {{|}}
> {{| NOTE: Ensure that the new employee number is on}}
> {{| file at syncsrv81 before starting.}} 
> {{|}}
> {{| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:}}
> {{| █}}

"Hmmmm."  Umber paused in thought, then plucked the stylus from the side and tapped on the screen's keyboard.

> {{| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:}}
> {{| 1111111111111█}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Checking...}}
> {{| ERROR 33: Employee number not found in syncsrv81 database.}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:}}
> {{| █}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:}}
> {{| back█}}

He grunted in frustration with no ultimate super access card in his reach.  Next on the list was copy.  Umber tapped on the triangle.

> {{Main Menu:}}
> {{► New}}
> {{▼ Copy}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Loading program......100%}}
> {{|}}
> {{| You have selected 'Copy'. }}
> {{| You will now be directed to the prompts for badge duplication.}}
> {{|}}
> {{| WARNING: duplication of any badge will void the original!}}
> {{| Continue (y/n)?  █}}

"Yes, obviously."

> {{| WARNING: duplication of any badge will permanently void the original!}}
> {{| Continue (y/n)?  y█}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Do you have a valid badge you wish to duplicate (y/n)?  █}}

"Nnnno?"

> {{| Do you have a valid badge you wish to duplicate (y/n)?  n█}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Choose one of the following:}}
> {{|| ► The badge is missing}}
> {{|| ► The badge is damaged}}
> {{|| ► The badge is stolen}}
> {{|| ► The badge is expired}}
> {{|| ► Other}}

Umber was about to select the stolen option, but seeing as that is what he was trying to do he instead selected the expired option, thinking it'd be the least suspicious.  "Almost tricked me," he mumbled under his breath.

> {{| Choose one of the following:}}
> {{|| ► The badge is missing}}
> {{|| ► The badge is damaged}}
> {{|| ► The badge is stolen}}
> {{|| ▼ The badge is expired}}
> {{||}}
> {{|| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:}}
> {{|| █}}

Back.  Back.  Back.

He huffed while furrowing the brow over his eye as he selected the next option.

> {{Main Menu:}}
> {{► New}}
> {{► Copy}}
> {{▼ Edit}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Loading program......100%}}
> {{|}}
> {{| You have selected 'Edit'. }}
> {{| You will now be directed to the prompts for badge editing.}}
> {{|}}
> {{| NOTE: All edits will be recorded on the syncsrv81 database.}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Please insert the badge you are trying to edit.}}

It was the first time the device prompted him for a badge to insert into the slot.  Reaching behind him, he grabbed a blank badge and slid it in.  His little legs involuntarily swung back and forth in anticipation.

> {{| Please insert the badge you are trying to edit.}}
> {{| Reading...}}
> {{|}}
> {{| No data found!}}
> {{| No employee number found!}}
> {{|}}
> {{| You are attempting to edit an undefined badge.}}
> {{| Do you have a active badge for editing (y/n)?  █}}

He sighed.  "Back.  Back.  Back."

The last one to select was read, Umber did not know what to expect.  He wiggled the card in the slot to make sure it was still firmly in.

> {{Main Menu:}}
> {{► New}}
> {{► Copy}}
> {{► Edit}}
> {{▼ Read}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Loading program......100%}}
> {{|}}
> {{| You have selected 'Read'. }}
> {{| You will now be directed to the prompts for badge reading.}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Please insert the badge you are trying to edit.}}
> {{| Reading...}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Results:}}
> {{||  Employee ID Number: □□□□□□□□□□□□□}}
> {{|| Clearance: □}}
> {{|| Class: □}}
> {{|| EPIN: □□□□□□}}
> {{|| syncsrv81 security token: □□□-□□□-□□□}}
> {{|| Badge Status: UNDEFINED}}
> {{|}}
> {{| Would you like to read another badge (y/n)?  █}}

Umber shook the device in frustration.  His familiar cautiously backed away to let Umber have his little tantrum.  This was not the big payoff he was expecting.  Just as he quieted down, there was a loud bang in the stall next to him.  Umber was so startled that he nearly dropped his device.  After a short pause, the sound of scraping nails on the other side of the wall echoed in the empty restroom.  **Umber froze trying to figure out what to do.**  

What was a sure fire way to drive off a human, Umber thought.  Of course.  Every human runs for the hills whenever one of them nearby gives off their bathroom call.  He remembered this from one of the comedic books he read during his time in cult library.  Flatoolance is what they called it.  **Umber pursed his lips and then blew the loudest wettest noise he could produce into the palms of his hands.**

= **PBPBPBBPBPBBPBPBPTPBBPTTPBBTPBPBPTBPBPT!**

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_9.png width="400px"]] 

There was no response.  He had to double-down much to the embarrassment of his familiar who could only float and watch.

"Oh Gods!  There's so much!  Ugh!"

**PBPBPBBBPBPTBPBPT!**

"The indignity!  The horror!  All is lost!"

**PBBPBPTBPPBPBBBPBP!  PTB!  PTB!  TBPBPT!****

Umber dropped the gun into the water to add to his performance.  It made a loud splash but there was still silence from the other stall.  Umber knew his bluff was being called out and he was forced to take a rash action.  Quickly hopping down off the porcelain throne, he grabbed the gun from the water, approached the adjacent stall and kicked the door in.  Suddenly he felt the urge to blurt out a human curse for effect.

"DIE YOU FUCKER OF MOTHERS!"

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_10.png width="400px"]] 

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_11.png width="400px"]] 

Empty.

At this point, Umber could only stand confused but at least the claw marks on the wall were a validation that he did in fact hear something next to him.  "We need to go."  The familiar nodded in agreement.  With no time to spare, Umber gathered the rest of the small items on the top of the toilet and looked for an exit.  On the ceiling there was an air vent, which Umber could probably climb up to.

Scrambling up the side of the lockers, he was able to position himself to unlatch the vent cover.  The familiar floated up first to ensure the coast was clear.  With a heave and pull, **Umber wriggled up into the vent** and closed the cover behind him. 

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_12.png width="600px"]] 

It was dark, but it was the stuff he was born of and felt quite comfortable even though his vision was less than spectacular.  There were two passages.  One to the south where a loud humming noise was coming from.  The other to the west that seemed to lead off into the dark with another tunnel a little further ahead.  The wind in the vent also seemed to be blowing to the west as well.  Umber shivered in the cool dry air, tucked the gun into his robe along with the other items, and **looked to see which direction would be the better choice.**

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_13.png width="600px"]] 

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_14.png width="600px"]] 

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_15.png width="600px"]] 

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_16.png width="600px"]] 

[[/collapsible]]

[[collapsible show="► Stealth Without Style [COMPLETE]" hide="▼ Close" hideLocation="both"]]

**Umber decided to move westward**, away from the humming noise that was likely a large spinning fan ready to chop him into little pieces.  Likely the mechanism was responsible for supplying the cool air and moving it along the vent.  It was cold inside the narrow space, but pretty berable.  He adjusted himself and took a crouched position with his familiar floating closely beside him.  "Alright now, let's do this quietly," Umber whispered over his shoulder.  The familiar responded with a brief nod.

As they both wriggled down the vent it progressively got darker.  

[[div style="text-align: left; background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #fff, #000, #000, #000, #000, #000, #000, #000, #000, #000, #000, #fff); padding: 5px;"]] 
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 And darker.
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 ##fff|And darker.##
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[[div style="color: #fff;"]]

 And finally dark enough that Umber felt at his most comfortable.  For him, darkness felt like slipping into a cool bed on a hot night.  It was the bright light that really got to him.  Like sharp a sharp tingly sensation on your skin, it was not very soothing at all.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/vent_1.png width="100px"]]

 Umber could make out enough in the dark.  Shape and dimension was easy enough to discern, which is all you really need when navigating in blackness.  On the left, he passed another passage that ran south but he pressed on.  Very carefully he made sure that he made the most minimal amount of sound as the metallic vent would surely amplify any misteps.  He actually had a lot of practice being stealthy during his assignments to sneak into the library.

Another passage on his right this time that ended with a vent.  Umber stopped to hear any noise coming from it but the hum from the machine behind him was still too loud.  If he wanted to hear anything from these vents, he'd have to travel all the way to the end.  Ahead there was a long stretch which looked to fork out in four different direction.  He contiued on to see what was up ahead.

When he got there he could see another tunnel extending south and one ending north.  And yet again, the drowning hum of the machine was too much to hear from the vent, if anything could have been heard.  The familiar then tapped Umber on the shoulder.  "What is it," he whispered back.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/vent_2.png width="100px"]]

The familiar made some vague motions but Umber stood hunched over confused.  "What?  I can't understand you... maybe the artificer supreme should have given you a mouth."

Again, the familiar tried to gesture, but could only wiggle and twist indescernably.  Umber however finally understood what it was trying to say.  "This isn't the time for that.  You should have went when we were in the bathroom."  With that he pressed on ahead.  The familiar twitched in frustration and returned to his side, floating more closely behind him now.

At last they made it to the turn, which went south.  Another great machine with spinning blades could be seen at the turn, but it appeared to be off.  Lucky for Umber as he and his familiar slipped by and continued running down the tunnel.  Umber eventually made it all the way to the end.  There he could see many vents all blowing the cool air into what seemed like a clustered space.  Through the slots he could see large black boxes with lights sitting in a room.  No human voice though.  Again another room dedicated to the divine box.  He scratched his noggin in thought and tried to lift up one of the grates.  Unfortunatley it was bolted down.

"I think I have just the thing for this,"  He mumbled to his familiar as he produced the red amulet of knife summoning.  

"I command thee... to open."

Nothing.

"By the powers in shadow... open."

Nothing.

"Tiṟanta?"

Still nothing.

"Shadjar.  Open please?"

He shook it in his hand like it needed to wake up.  Eventually he sighed and came to the realization that he needed to try a different approach.

Umber then took his time and examined it closely to see if there were any inscriptions he may have missed.  Maybe it wasn't magical at all?  As he studied it in the light of a vent, the air temperature dropped a few more degrees.  Not that it would have been terribly noticeable in the already cold space, but the metal familiar was sure sensitive of it.  

Slowly turning, the familiar looked behind Umber to see a single red eye staring back in the darkness.  It dripped blood.  Unbliking.  Hungry.  The small familiar trembled and gave a very small peal of alarm.  

"Oh, look there.  You just pull up on this thingy,"  Umber was preoccupied as he pulled up on the notch to produce a flathead screwdriver.  "Clever human tool."

A claw silently stretched out from the black void and slowly reached for Umber.  Sharp grey claws opened like a blossom, ready to dig and tear into flesh.  The familiar backed into Umber and vigorously tapped against him to get his attention.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/vent_3.png width="300px"]]

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"Ugh.  What is it now?  Can't you see I'm working on getting us out?  Stop bothering me."
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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/vent_4.png width="300px"]]

When the familiar turned around to show Umber, the hand and eye had vanished.  Typical, it thought as it turned back around to see its master staring sternly back.  Slowly it backed up an inch to give its master some space.  Umber huffed and made sure the screwdriver fit on the head of the screw, which luckily enough it did.  He assumed that he could open any vent he wanted, even the ones he passed by.  **He just had to choose which one to pop open and slip out.**

**That room with the large black boxes looked enticing**, Umber thought.  Placing the screwdriver into the head of each screw was an agonizing process considering Umber barely had the strength to crack each screw to turn it.  When the last screw was pulled the grate swung down.  The creaking hinge was drowned out up by the hum of the room.  Each box was at least three Umbers tall and had all manner of cables and lights and whirring fans.  It was also noticeably warm.  
  
Umber gave a hand signal for the familiar to go first.  Call it penance for being a pain in the rear earlier.  The familiar then reluctantly dipped through the opening and surveyed around the large space. No human presence was visible.  It gave a brief nod-nod to Umber, signaling it was safe to come down.

“Alright… let me just go legs first… Mfhmf!”  
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[[/div]]
[[/div]]

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_1.png width="600px"]]

Umber’s stubby legs kicked in the air as he tried to reach the top of the nearest box.  Still unable to make contact, he inched down a little bit more.  Then some more.  "It feels like I'm almost there."  Umber inched a little further with his legs fluttering desperately to feel something solid.  Then he lost his grip altogether.  His side caught the edge of the large box as he tumbled down past the lights and cables until the floor suddenly caught up with him.  There was an audible “PLAT” as the pliable body of shadowstuff, bird bones, cloth, and other unmentionables that was a homunculus landed face first onto the hard linoleum.  His familiar looking down at him, wondering what to do next.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_2.png width="600px"]]

“I… I’ll need a minute,” Umber stated.  For sure, that hurt more than he expected and he would likely regret not taking something to repel down with either.  There was no time to focus on the pain.  Slowly he propped himself up with his arms, then stepped up and stood fully.  The familiar floated down to his level to make sure he was well.

“I’m alright.  Just shaken.  By the way, what was that all about in the tunnels?” Umber inquired.

The familiar simply twitched back and forth.

“We are under enough stress.  No more antics.  Understand?”

The familiar gave another firm nod-nod.  Umber nodded as well and looked about.  Just rows and rows of covetous boxes with the only thing breaking up the monotonous droning hum is the rushing of air from the above vents.  A lone computer terminal stood squeezed between two monoliths.  The grey desk shoulder to shoulder in the cramped space with an elongated screen sitting on top of it.  The only thing on the screen was the familiar Foundation logo and a white bar where the cursor blinked.  Must be locked, Umber thought as he scrambled up the chair.  Getting up onto the seat was not as hard as his sudden descent, but navigating in a human environment was beginning to be more and more of a challenge as the mission went on.

When he finally got up to the desk, he squinted at the username and spoke it aloud, "Jesse Abbot... an abbot? I didn't know the jailers had a monastery."  There was more to read under the name.  "IT Technician... it technician.  Jesse Abbot, it technician?  Is that just rude or poor grammar?  I can't tell."  He looked to the familiar for comment, but pushed the notion away as he remembered that it didn't even have a mouth.

“Nevermind.  Just watch for humans while I figure this out.”  

The familiar dipped up and down and then hovered up higher to get a better vantage point.  It would not be able to hear a human in this noisy room, but at least it could see one.  Umber paused as he glanced at his familiar that floated above him.  

“**I need to give you a name.**  It would make it easier to scold you when I need to.”  

The familiar ignored the rude comment and continued to make up for its lackluster performance and focus on sentry duty.  Umber shook his head to get his bearing and noticed the handle in front of him.  A desk drawer.  Pulling it towards him, he found a few curious items.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_3.png width="500px"]]

* A marker of permanency
* A sheaf of loose papers
* An obsidian tablet
* A small handwritten note

**He studied what he should do with them, if anything.  "Well this obsidian tablet and the marker may have some use," he decided.**

He took the two items out of the drawer and gingerly placed the lightning bite gun in its place.  This is a stealth mission anyhow, can't be shooting people when one is vastly outnumbered.  Then there was the computer screen in front of him.  A password seemed to be the only thing between Umber and the digital treasure trove he has been groping for since messing with the button device in the bathroom.  "A nickname...."

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_4.png width="600px"]]

= **J-E-S-S**

The computer flashed a window back at him.  "Login incorrect?  Ugh... I'll be all day at this trying to guess nicknames."  He tried to think of a few more just to be sure pulling the keyboard closer into his lap to better reach.  "Familiar, what are some good human nicknames?  Fleshy?  Pinksac?  Hairblob? Meatface?  Ben?"

The familiar twitched at the name Ben.  "Ben?  I'll try."

= **B-E-N**

Again, he was blocked.  "No no no, that one is no good.  Ben is a dumb name... huh... you know, that's the name I'm giving you for such a dumb suggestion."  Ben did not react to the rude comment and continued to watch for humans.  Umber rubbed his temples and tried to think harder, there must have been a master password that supersedes this one... like a skeleton key.

= **I-L-O-V-E-B-O-X**

= **A-L-L-H-A-I-L-B-O-X**

= **B-O-X-F-O-R-T-H-E-B-O-X-G-O-D**

All failed.  Umber grunted in frustration and pulled out the obsidian tablet, perhaps it would be more helpful.  He fumbled with the tablet in his small appendages looking to see how it operates.  Unintentionally, he pressed the circle on the bottom and the tablet lit up with shapes and colors.  It surprised Umber so much that he nearly dropped the thing, thinking he had activated some sort of terrible spell to trap any poor unfortunate creatures in a hypnotic trance.  After about five seconds of wincing, Umber exhaled pushed the previous notion aside.  He looked at the screen to see what he could find useful to him.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/phone_1.png width="300px"]]

Well there were many useful things.  If only he understood what half of this meant he could probably get some overdue hints on what to do.  Umber noticed the orange button which said 'Text'.  Well he was looking for text, a very specific text as the password.  He pressed it and it grew instantly to cover the screen.  There was only a single message sent from what appeared to be another human.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/phone_2.png width="300px"]]

"Moneybags?  I thought this was Jesse... ooooooooooh."  Umber's brain clicked and whirred with excitement as he put the phone down and typed his newly found clue into the computer screen.

= **M-O-N-E-Y-B-A-G-S**

The screen flashed the words 'Welcome' and Umber squeaked with joy.  The biggest victory yet since sneaking in.  He put his hands together in anticipation to see what he could discover.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/comp_1.png width="600px"]]

"Errrr...."  

Umber sat even more confused than previously when he was in the bathroom stall.  Where was the information?  Where was the payoff?  And what the hell is a dumpster doing here?  He slouched in his seat feeling a little defeated.  He almost wished the council of 3 shades had sent an actual agent and he could go back to sneaking into the library for books.  "They should have sent a human, Ben."

Ben tilted slightly down to face Umber.  It almost felt sorry for its master but knew there was little it could do to help.  Umber had to soldier on.  As a homunculus... no... as a member of the Cult of New Umbra he had to have faith.  The second child needed to be freed.  He propped himself back up, grabbed the mouse, and shakily dragged it across the screen to **see what he could dig up in cyberspace.**

**Umber decided to look through the phone first.**  Luckily, it didn't have any security features on it.  Probably the IT plebian assigned to it had ways to keep it unlocked for ease of use.  Blessed be the lazy who make subterfuge that much easier, Umber thought to himself.  Using his little digits, he thumbed through the email of one Jesse Abbot.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/phone_3.png width="300px"]]

Only a few messages but nothing referring to the second child.  Umber sighed and pushed the phone back down into his tunic.  **He pulled the rolling chair closer to the screen and squinted at the icons.**  "L-lodestar work orders.  Who is doing the ordering?"  Umber pushed on the icon with a thumb, but nothing.  "C'mon... blasted device."  Another firm tap on the LCD screen.  "Why is nothing intuitive?"  He bumped the table with a frustrated fist and made the whole thing rattle.  The tiny arrow in the center of the screen moved ever so slightly, and thankfully caught the eye of Umber.

He looked at the mouse and poked it with a hesitant finger.  Again the arrow had moved.  Umber then draped a hand over the mouse and slid the arrow across the screen, this way and that.  "Ah... alright."  He unskillfully moved the arrow and clicked the lodestar icon.  A window flew up into the screen and populated a display with table of ongoing repairs to the site.

[[div style="margin: auto; padding: 2px 20px; background-position: 50% 50%; background-image: url('https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/comp_1.png'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 600px; width: 600px;"]]

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[[div style="margin: auto; color: blue; overflow: auto; padding: 0px 10px; width: 350px; height: 240px; background-color: #faf4f2; border-style: solid; border-width: 20px 5px 5px 5px; border-color: #b1e2f0; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"]]

[[=]]
+ ❇ LODESTAR ❇
+++ WORK ORDER MANAGEMENT
[[/=]]

----
^^Client Viewer (Operator Access Only)^^

Site-81 Open Work Orders:

||~ Location ||~ Status ||~ SCP ||~ Description ||
|| D-Wing || Active || 2151 / 2980 || Rerouting utilities from chamber 05 to 06 while renovations are being conducted.  Fiber optic line is included.  Complete ASAP. ||
|| Railway || Scheduled || N/A || Furnicular tram needs new wheel bearing on left side.  Squeaks during stop. ||
|| I-Wing || Active || 017 || Need replacement of one of the high-intensity arc lamp spotlights.  Running on a spare currently. ||
|| F-Wing || Scheduled || 2540 || Electromagnetic manipulator does not turn on. ||
|| E-Wing || Active || 3707 || It happened again.  Need new wheel clamps.  ||
|| J-Wing || Scheduled || 3740 || Need replacement of hand-carved ornate oak table.  Commission work if needed. ||
|| E-Wing || Scheduled || 2445 || Research requesting IT resources to assist in achieving unrestricted access to the object's operating system. ||
[[/div]]

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[[/div]]

Umber hummed while reading them making little mental notes here and there.  He got distracted a little by the dumpster icon with a '1' floating in the corner.  He clicked and another display flew up at him.  A lonely file with a strange name was the only thing in there.  "Tckts file.  What's a tckts file?," he asked rhetorically.  

[[div style="margin: auto; padding: 2px 20px; background-position: 50% 50%; background-image: url('https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/comp_1.png'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 600px; width: 600px;"]]

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[[image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/text.png width="50px" link="*https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/%E2%96%A1%E2%96%A1%E2%96%A1%E2%96%A1%E2%96%A1.txt"]]

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[[/div]]

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[[/div]]

Umber nodded and moved on.  He glanced at the AIC helpdesk.  Help?  Well that's for sure what he needed at the moment rather than blindly probing through the computer desktop hoping to hit paydirt.  He clicked on it and a display with a curious looking avatar flickered up.

[[div style="margin: auto; padding: 2px 20px; background-position: 50% 50%; background-image: url('https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/comp_1.png'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 600px; width: 600px;"]]

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[[div style="margin: auto; overflow: auto; padding: 0px 10px; width: 350px; height: 240px; background-color: #faf4f2; border-style: solid; border-width: 20px 5px 5px 5px; border-color: #b1e2f0; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"]]

+++ AIC HELPDESK INTERFACE
+++ LIVE ##green|●##

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ###9966ff|Well if it isn't a user in the flesh! Name's Virgil.  I'm the handsome AIC assigned to guide you through the magical land that is IT helpdesk topics and troubleshooting.  And let me tell ya, I shoot that trouble so good it'll make your neurons burst on an atomic level!  What can I solve for you today, champ?##

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|| I want a badge.  Give me one. ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ###9966ff|Whoa whoa whoa there, bucko.  Pump them brakes for me.  Now I read through the access permissions master reference faster than a fart in a fan factory during a hurricane and it said that you, Jesse Abbot, are identified as a badge facilitator.  You need me to hold your hand through the creation process, tiger?##

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|| No.  Just make me one now. ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ###9966ff|Sorry, slick.  My credentials only allow me to make requests for lost or stolen badges.  You on the other hand, have credentials for creating and facilitating badges up to level 2.  Now I'll give you a wooden nickel if you take a gander at that SCP_Badger icon installed on your desktop.  Using your credentials we could access the program and I can guide you through the creation process, chief.##

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|| Fine.  Where do I put in the blank badge? ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ###9966ff|You got a blank?  Well hot damn, that's half the battle right there!  When we're done with the badge setup, just plug that sucker into the badge module on the printer at the far end of the server room there.  Least that's what your default printer settings are saying anyhow, sparky.##

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|| Stop calling me names. ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ###9966ff|Ha.  Will try my darndest.  Currently my personality driver has a confidence level set at 100% with a humor differential of 85%.  But I'll let my programmer know I got another complaint about it.  Alright, slugger?##

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|| Whatever. ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ###9966ff|Can do!  Sooooo... your badge is missing then?  As a security requirement, I'll need your consent to use your crednetials for making the replacement badge, kiddo.##

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|| Yes and yes.  Get on with it. ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ###9966ff|Wunderbar, boss!  You probably already know, but just as a reminder, these badges have mutable features that only work while inside the facility.  So you'll need to remember that PIN number for everything outside the building.  Super important cause I can't recover it and you'll need to make a whole new badge if you forget it.  Got it?  Good.  Now let's get cracking on that badge, duderino!##

[[/div]]
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[[/div]]

Umber rolled his eye and leaned back a little.  "A little bit of this thing goes a long way," Umber mumbled.  The plucky Virgil created another window and loaded up the SCP_Badger program, running through the prompts in milliseconds.

[[div style="margin: auto; padding: 2px 20px; background-position: 50% 50%; background-image: url('https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/comp_1.png'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 600px; width: 600px;"]]

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[[div style="margin: auto; overflow: auto; padding: 10px; width: 450px; height: 240px; background-color: #faf4f2; border-style: solid; border-width: 20px 5px 5px 5px; border-color: #b1e2f0; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"]]

[[f<image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]

[[div style="margin: auto; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; height: 190px; background-color: #faf4f2; border-style: solid; border-width: 20px 5px 5px 5px; border-color: #6e6d70; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"]]

{{SCP_Badger}}
{{ver 2.3.11}}

{{Connecting to syncsrv81...}}
{{Checking credentials...}}
{{Connected!}}

{{Main Menu:}}
{{► New}}
{{▼ Copy}}

{{ Loading program......100%}}

{{ You have selected 'Copy'. }}
{{ You will now be directed to the prompts for badge duplication.}}

{{ WARNING: duplication of any badge will void the original!}}
{{ Continue (y/n)?  y}}

{{ Do you have a valid badge you wish to duplicate (y/n)?  n}}

{{ Choose one of the following:}}
{{ ▼ The badge is missing}}

{{ Please provide the 13-digit employee number:}}
{{ 0013259987569}}

{{Employee found:}}
||{{NAME}}||{{J. Abbot}}||
||{{DEPT}}||{{Maintenance/IT}}||
||{{LEVEL}}||{{2}}||
||{{CLASS}}||{{C}}||
||{{SITE}}||{{81}}||

{{Please provide a new personal 6-digit PIN number:}}
{{998998}}

{{syncsrv81 generating new security token...}}

{{Badge setup complete!}}
{{Please insert blank template into printer.}}

[[/div]]

= ###9966ff|Congrats on your new badge, jack!##

[[/div]]

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[[/div]]

And just like that, it was completed.  Umber craned his neck to see the printer on the far end of the server row.  It was blinking yellow as if waiting on something.  Umber pushed off from the desk and rode the rolly chair down the linoleum highway.  His momentum, however, puttered out about three-quarters of the way there.  Umber simply huffed in frustration, clamored down the black plastic deskchair, and walked the rest of the way.  

"You plug it in yet, partner?" the computer speakers blurted out from the desk.  Umber winced, "I should have tried to mute it." 

There was a thin slot, clearly used for inserting cards.  Umber crammed the blank badge into the huge machine and watch the light shift from a solid yellow light to a blinking one.  There was a rush of hot air as the fans kicked back on and the sounds of whirring motors and toner filled the cramped space.  After about ten seconds, a new badge was produced.  It had a new mutable matrix barcode and a fancy orange border.  Finally, Umber had a badge.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/keycard2.png width="200px"]]

Umber held it high in a feeling of triumph.  The sneaking around.  The stealing of items.  The making of lewd noises on the toilet.  The fall from the cieling.  He was finally vindicated in his struggling.  Things were finally starting to turn around for Umber and Ben.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/umber_6.png width="200px"]]

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/umber_7.png width="200px"]]

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/umber_8.png width="200px"]]

= "Uh... Ben?  BEN!!!"

[[/collapsible]]

[[collapsible show="► Dead End? [COMPLETE]" hide="▼ Close" hideLocation="both"]]

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_5.png width="400px"]]

= "Lemme go!  NNNHMF!"

The ghost had a strong grip.  Umber flailed desperately to break free but it was no use.  How could a ghost be so strong, he thought.  He tried to reach for the nearest server rack to grab hold of, but it seemed to be just out of his reach.  If he couldn't break free, **maybe he could intimidate it by pretending to be a ghost as well.**

"I'm a terrible ghost tooooooooo!  And if yoooooooou don't release me, I'll overpower yoooooou!  I'll inhale your ectoplasm and make it my oooooooooown.  OOOoooOOOOooooOoOOoOOooOO!" Umber was sure that his ghost accent was dead on.  Very dead on in fact.

The ghost blinked and tilted her head ever so slightly.  In a corrosive whisper, she spoke to Umber in a calm and inquisative tone "You are a ghost?"

"Y-yeah.  Yes I am.  Now let go or feel my horrific undead fury."  Umber was still trying to pull away forcefully.

"But you know what this is."  The ghost held up a book.  The book of shadows.  The one he completely forgot about in the bathroom and the one thing that was going to help him release the second child when he found it.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_6.png width="400px"]]

"...oh..." was all that Umber could say.

The ghost pulled the book away and made it vanish into her own ethereal essence.  Then she released him.  "Now there are two of us.  Now we can make them pay.  How I've waited for another."

Umber rubbed his wrist trying to deice it after being in her frosty grip.  "What are you?"

"I am like you.  A ghost.  Torn from my body and tortured by these people.  Even in death, I do not find peace.  There is only my hate that keeps me here.  After being tortured, I learned their ways.  I learned their machines.  I figured out where to slip through the cracks of information.  I waited when the time was right and was able to fabricate my very existence.  They don't even remember me, now.  But I am not done.  My name is [[[*scp-2996|Emily]]] and I will raze this place into the ground for what was done to me.  How I've waited for another."

Umber hesitantly took a half a step back.  "O... kay?  Well, that //is// interesting.  My name is Umber and I'll just need my book back so..."

"UUUUMMMMMBERRRRRRRRRRRRR."  Emily vanished and reappeared behind Umber in a flash.  She held him very close in her frozen claws in almost an affectionate way.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_7.png width="300px"]]

"Y-yes that's me.  I just want my boo-"

"Umber, Umber, Umber... you and I are going to work together.  I read your book.  It has amazing power that we can tap into.  Together we can cause chaos.  Together we can sew destruction.  Together we can burn a hole so deep that they would never //ever// dare to do to another like they did to me."

Umber recoiled a little as a long claw poked him in the mid-section.  He could feel the icy tip even through his tunic.  "Well, I do like me some mayhem, but I'm really here to accomplish just the one thing."  Her grip tightened a little and her bleeding red eye grew into a hellish portal, which echoed the screams of Emily's past.

"WE WILL ACCOMPLISH MANY THINGS, UMBER." 

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_8.png width="300px"]]

"WE WILL WATCH THE RECKLESS ABANDON OF THEIR CAGED HORRORS TEAR THEIR WAY OUT.  WE WILL SEE THE LAKE SET AFLAME.  WE WILL SEE THE EARTH OPEN ITS TERRIBLE MAW AND SWALLOW THE EVIL OF THIS PLACE.  AND WHEN THE SURVIVORS TRY TO RUN FROM THE RUINS TOWARD SAFETY, WE WILL BE AWAITING THEM WITH OPEN CLAWS.  CAN'T YOU SEE?  CAN'T YOU SEE THAT WE WILL ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH MORE.  AND WHEN THE HATE IN OUR SOULS WASHES OVER THIS PLACE, THEY WILL KNOW THAT IT WAS THEIR OWN HANDS WHICH CAUSED THEIR DOOM.  AND THEY WILL LAMENT OVER WHAT THEY DID TO ME.  AND I WILL STAND OVER THE ASHES.  AND I.  WILL.  LAUGH."

Umber looked immensely worried.  "Um... yeah, but-” Her grip tightened to the point of almost being considered painful.

"WITH YOUR BOOK.  WITH YOUR HELP.  WE WILL ACCOMPLISH ALL OF THIS.  YOU AND ME.  ALL WILL SUFFER.  ALL WILL DIE.  **WHAT SAY YOU, UMBER?**"

Umber took a deep breath and wondered if he expressed a differing opinion, would he be ripped to shreds?  Perhaps having a blood hungry ghost on one's side could be useful, he thought.  Better to be in the maw or the bosom of a demon?  Probably the latter.  "I'll help you... but I have a request."

Emily's eye shrunk back down slowly to its original state.  "What?" she whispered.

"I am here on business.  There is someone I am here to rescue someone... someone like you.  I must accomplish this first and foremost.  **Help me and I'll help you?**"

She thought for a few seconds, then pulled her claws off of Umber's tunic.  "Very well, Umber.  But I am keeping the book till you fulfill your promise." 

"Well I didn't really make a promise or anything, this is more like a loose terms and conditions,"  Umber mumbled back.  Emily merely squinted back at him, opened the book, and ripped out the first page.  

= **SSHHHRIPPP**

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_9.png width="430px"]]

"GAH!  Don't do that!  Fine!  Fine!  Promise!  Just don't do that!"  Satisfied with Umber's response she then nodded back, closed the book, and made it vanish again in her hands.  Ben floated down to the two of them to see what was going on.  "Ben.  Little late to the party wouldn't you say?"  Ben just dipped down a little in reaction to Umber's condescending tone.  Umber then sighed and felt for his new ID badge, which he confirmed to be safely in his inside pocket.  

"Yo!  You get your badge situation under control there, comrade?  Can I close out your helpdesk ticket there?"  Virgil was still up on the screen awaiting a response.  There was no camera or mic attached to the computer so it was actually a relief that he didn't hear Umber and Emily talking.  "You there, amigo?  I can't go until you dismiss me and are satisfied with my service."

Umber looked back at Emily as she faded to near invisibility.  "I'll be watching," she whispered.  Umber shivered as an uneasy chill ran up his back.  He made his way back to the computer, pushed the chair into the desk, and climbed back up.

[[div style="margin: auto; padding: 2px 20px; background-position: 50% 50%; background-image: url('https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/comp_1.png'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 600px; width: 600px;"]]

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[[div style="margin: auto; overflow: auto; padding: 0px 10px; width: 350px; height: 240px; background-color: #faf4f2; border-style: solid; border-width: 20px 5px 5px 5px; border-color: #b1e2f0; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"]]

+++ AIC HELPDESK INTERFACE
+++ LIVE ##green|●##

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ##9966ff|You there, amigo?  I can't go until you dismiss me or are satisfied with my service.##

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|| Yes, I got it.  We're done here. ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadowAIC.png width="40px"]]
= ##9966ff|Neato!  Well if you need anything else just give me a holler, buddy.##

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|| How? ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ##9966ff|How, what?##

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|| How would I call on you again? ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ##9966ff|Well, uh... you just login to another computer I think.  They are located everywhere, friend-o.##

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|| Understood. ||

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/AIC.png width="40px"]]
= ##9966ff|10-4.  Also if you wouldn't mind, please spend a little time completing a survey for my programmers on how I assisted you today.  Hell, wouldn't want to go through a decommission like the last AIC did.  Have a nice day, boss!##

= [*http://www.polljunkie.com/poll/kmbwpk/aic-helpdesk-virgil-performance-satisfaction-survey Take Me to Survey!]

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[[/div]]
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[[/div]]

After taking the survey, Umber closed the window and leaned back.  He could see the exit along the east wall, which was the only door in or out of the room.  The ventilation was above, but he'd need to scale a server rack to get back up there.  Ben floated next to Umber tapped him on the shoulder.  **"Hmmm?  You have a suggestion?"** 

Ben floated a little closer to Umber and shuddered slightly.  **Peaking from behind Umber, Ben glanced back at Emily... nervously.**  Umber could tell that Ben did not trust her, nor should he either.  Basically holding his book as collateral for his cooperation, he'd need to find a way to either subdue her or get his book back.  Either way, they called themselves allies for the moment.  He silently nodded back to Ben, and there was an intrinsic understanding between them that one way or another, they'd eventually have to deal with Emily.  

Umber looked back into the desk drawer one last time to see if there were any other items of use.  He looked through the papers, which had a great deal of information on them.  Unfortunately there was no way to carry them with all the other junk he had on him.  "Emily?" he called from behind, "Can you carry these papers for me?  I'm not sure what they are but they are probably useful."  

Emily wafted up from behind and looked over his shoulder, "Why not just take a picture of them?"  

Umber looked back at her from over his shoulder, "A what?"

"A picture.  With the phone.  I have watched the others use the phone to take a picture.  I can show you." Her deft hand suddenly phased through his tunic.  Umber squelched a strange sound in both protest and shock from having an icy claw reach inside his person.

= "FGNCCHK!"

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_10.png width="300px"]]

His whole body shook as five icicles picked the phone from his inside pocket and pulled it out.  "H-Hey!"

"Calm.  I'm showing you.  Look with your eye.  There's a button here that looks like a camera.  You use it to take the pictures.  Also, I know how to modify it, such as setting to an airplane mode as to not lose power."  Emily worked the phone in front of Umber and switched to airplane mode in the settings.  Umber watched with fascination and took some mental notes.  "Airplane mode makes the phone fly?"

"No," Emily replied with a deadpan tone. 

Umber nodded, but not really understanding all of this.  "How do you know so much about human technology?"

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/server_11.png width="300px"]]

Emily continued to click trough the settings, "Out of necessity.  My heinous captors depend on technology and I have been learning how to use it against them.  It's how I was able to change my records and escape in the first place."  She closed the settings app and put the phone on the desk in front of Umber.  "There.  I also turned the brightness down.  Now try and take a picture of those papers."  

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/phone_4.png width="300px"]]

Umber looked down at the phone and picked it up.  He then laid out the papers, three sheets total, and tried to take a picture of them.  The camera flashed and singed him.  

"GAH!  You tricked me, betrayer!"

"You just took a picture of yourself."  Emily took the phone out of his hands once again and showed him his mistake.  

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/phone_5.png width="300px"]]

"You have to use the back camera.  Here..."

Umber rubbed his sore eye as he recovered from the flash, the sudden wave of nausea starting to slowly subside.  Being a mostly shadowstuff doesn't help as well.  Emily pressed the button to switch cameras and handed it back to him, "Try again."

Umber squinted up at Emily with suspicion and then took three pictures.

**[*https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/Admin_Map_2F.png CLICK]**
**[*https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/Admin_Map_Ground.png CLICK]**
**[*https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/Admin_Map_B.png CLICK]**

Afterwards he checked under files to see that they were in fact there.  Umber was surprised at the intuitiveness of this device was to him.  He reviewed them closely while Emily looked over his shoulder to comment, "Maps.  It's the admin building.  It goes deeper than that... I've seen only parts of it."

Umber closed it and put the phone back in his pocket.  "Can you get us to where the second child is?"

"Who?"

"The second child," Umber said again with more emphasis.

"I don't know who or what that is, Umber.  When I was in caged, I only saw parts.  Everything was isolated from everything else."  Umber hopped off the chair to think, "Shadjar.  **How should we make our way to the cages?**"

Emily stood silently for a moment or two before finally speaking, “The facility is much larger underneath, and there are many doors to go through.  Plus one giant one.”  

“Doors you say?”

Emily nodded.  Umber pondered about the keycard he now had and compared it with his maps.  There seemed to be doors he could open and others he could not.  More investigation on door opening techniques had to be conducted.  **“I saw more papers in the bathroom.  I think we should look to see what is in there.  Then let us see what we can find upstairs.  I still have some magic left… I think.”**  He looked at his diminished shadow and judged that he wasn’t even halfway through his reservoir, yet.  

Umber and Ben clamored back into the vents to retrace their steps.  Emily was just a short distance behind them, with only a bloody red eye being visible in the dark.  “Emily, you mind not stalking behind me like that?  Why don’t you go on ahead and let me know if the coast is clear.”  With a burst of chilled air, Emily moved through the pair of them and was gone from sight in an instant.  Ben looked to its master for a reaction, but Umber was steadfast.

Eventually they made it back to the bathroom vent.  Peeking through the slats, Umber could make out the vague shape of a person.  It was Emily scoping the place out, moving from stall to stall to make sure it was empty.  Then after she was convinced that the coast was clear, she tapped on the vent where Umber and Ben were crouched.  Umber was able to descend without incident and clamor down to locker 21.  There he worked the lock and pulled out the papers.  Some of them were the same maps of the admin building and the same work orders that he discovered in the lodestar program on the computer.

One folder was a little different and had an intricate map of the ventilation system of the admin building.  Second floor, ground floor, and the basement.  Not really detailed on where the vents end but he could probably compare with the other maps and estimate what went there.  He then opened the camera app on his phone and took some quick pictures of the papers.


**[*https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/Admin_Vent_2nd.png CLICK]**
**[*https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/Admin_Vent_Ground.png CLICK]**
**[*https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/Admin_Vent_B.png CLICK]**

On the last click, Ben started to vibrate softly.  Umber looked over his shoulder to look.  The shivering peal of shadowsteel hung in the air as Ben continued his alarm.  Something in Umber's head suddenly clicked, and he then understood that this was a warning signal for something approaching.  

“Emily, I need the book now.”

“Why?”  There was a wary hesitance in her voice.  This was followed by hollow boots, which walked down the hallway outside.  

“No time, just give me it.”

“No, tell me what for.”

“Emily!”  The footsteps approached closer.  “FFFN!  I need a disguise.  Hurry.”

She paused but relented and made the book reappear, holding it for Umber.  He thumbed through the pages and found the incantations for shadowforms.  Again, the spell would have a limited amount of time that it would remain.  Roughly 30 minutes, give or take.  Umber mumbled the script and concentrated.  As his legs and arms started to fill out, the door began to creak open.  Umber stumbled into a stall, half-formed and incomplete as a human walked in.

They whistled some kind of tune as they casually strolled toward a locker.  Umber had to finish filling out his shadowform quietly as Emily and Ben watched.  Emily actually had not really retained the concept of personal space since becoming a ghost.  “Stop looking at me, I can’t do it when you are looking at me.”

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/lockers_17.png width="400px"]]

The human stopped whistling and looked at the closed stall.  “Er… not looking at you.  Just came to get my stuff if you don’t mind.”

Crap, Umber thought, as he would have to switch into his human accent.  “I am sorries.  I was giving a talking to my… my phone.  Yes, I am having the phone conversation.  Excuse me.”  Nailed it.

“Whatever.”

Umber waited for the human to quickly grab their stuff and leave.  “Finally.”  He stood up and walked out of the stall.  A little shaky at first, but then got used to his human size.  “Map says there’s an elevator.  We can use it to go-  Where’d Emily go?”  Umber and Ben looked around but she was nowhere to be found.  “EERNG!  So frustrating.  Forget it.  Ben let’s put you in a bag.”  He grabbed a plastic bag out of the bin and shoved the familiar inside without much regards to Ben's feelings on the matter.  

Umber then took a deep breath and strolled out into the hallway.  There were a few humans in white coats discussing gibberish and whatnot by a door.  There was a person in orange pushing a cart of tools and glass containers.  Umber blended right in with the scene.  He quickly walked a short distance to the elevator and pressed the button for 2F, which corresponded with the map.

As he waited, Umber reviewed the map of 2F on his phone.  There was a room labeled classified.  How interesting, Umber thought.  The elevator then dinged and opened up.  A balding man with a large nose and a dark brown suit stood there with a clipboard.   Umber froze a little.  “Going up?”  He said and moved a little to the side to offer space for Umber.  Umber nodded and stepped in.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/2ndfloor_1.png width="300px"]]

“Busy on patrol?”  The man said as the doors closed.  His clipboard nearly pressed against his nose as he read some charts.  “Yes.”  Umber robotically replied.  Best to keep the conversation brief, he thought.  Umber glanced at the ID card, taking note of the red border.  Red cards meant unrestricted access, so this must be a human of great importance.  Could be in charge of all the boxes on site, Umber thought.

“What is in the bag?”

“L-lost item, sir.  Just returnering.”

The man moved an eye away from his clipboard to briefly view Umber, then reaffixed his attention back to the charts.  The rest was a short and uneventful ride as the elevator stopped and opened to the second floor.  The man made a brisk walk toward a set of large doors across from the elevator.  The name on the door read ‘Dr. K. Aktus, Director’.  With a swipe of his card, he entered the room and closed it behind him.  Uber breathed a sigh of relief and made his way to the door marked classified.  As he got closer, a strange sensation started to wash over him.  A dull pain that only got more and more intense as he closed in.  Ben was shaking as well, trying to pull away.  Umber held Ben under his arm and pushed through.  The pain was strong and Umber had the feeling of trudging up a steep hill to reach the door, almost as if there was some repelling force like gravity pushing against him.  

 It was unbearable by the time he reached the reader, quickly swiping his badge he watched the reader light turn red, meaning access denied.  Umber fell back and crawled away.  He felt this sensation before, but not from this plane.  He felt this once with the librarians when they tried to banish him.  Something unnatural and powerful was behind this door.  It was also extremely hazardous to Umber’s health, which was painfully apparent as he looked at his now diminished shadow.  **Less than half than when he arrived.**  “Forget that door.  I’ll kill myself if I try to open it.” He mumbled to himself.

 There was another door to try, an office that he seemed to have access too.  Shaking off the aches of his body, he moved around the classified room and into the offices on the south end of the building.  There were five rooms and a larger printer.  In the corner, a dying fichus tree and a half full wastebin.  Umber moved toward the office labeled ‘2C, P. Klingerman, Asst. Dir. of Facilities’.  He swiped the badge and heard the door unlock.  Quickly stepping in, Umber blended well in the dark unoccupied office.

 The computer was still on but locked, and unless Umber had a password for this human’s computer, he wasn’t going to access it.  Umber then tried to open up some of the filing cabinets along the wall, only to discover they were locked as well. 

“There’s something on the wall.” Said a voice as an icy hand crested Umber’s shoulder.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/2ndfloor_2.png width="300px"]]

“GAAFTP!” This was the resulting sound that came out of Umber after being scared out of his skin by Emily.  “Don’t sneak up on me.”  He whispered at the highest volume, which could still have been defined as a whisper technically.

 Emily merely pointed at the corkboard next to the calendar.  A diagram detailing some of the power systems underneath the admin building.   Umber reached for his phone and took a picture.    

**[*https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/Admin_Diagram_B.png CLICK]**

“Might be useful.”  Suddenly, Umber could hear the ding of the elevator from down the hallway.  Many footsteps and voices piled out and into the open area.  Sounded like they were about to have a meeting of sorts and were conversing outside the conference room until the meeting was to begin.  **Umber was losing precious time in this shadeform and thought about his next step.** 

[[/collapsible]]

[[collapsible show="► Over the Fangs [COMPLETE]" hide="▼ Close" hideLocation="both"]]

“There’s nothing else up here for us.  **We need to get down to the cages.**  Follow me.”  Umber opened the door to the office gently as Emily vanished once more.  Even though she was invisible, he could still feel her icy presence nearby.    Umber walked toward the copier and stopped at the entrance to the hallway.  He had to walk by the crowd and back toward the stairs.   He would have liked to avoid direct contact with humans in close quarters if at all possible.

He also needed to look like he was actually doing some work as he walked past as to not look suspicious.  Pulling out his phone, he pressed it against his ear and began to talk and walk past the crowd of suits and lab coats.  At a brisk pace, he tried to hold his own conversation with his phone.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/2ndfloor_3.png width="400px"]]

“No.  Nothing.  Yes.  What was that?  Then no.  No sign of boxes up here.  They must be in the sub-level… in the box room.  Yes, they know better than to defile a box like that.  Then they will be executed… I mean terminated.  Yes, box be praised.  I love you too.”

There were a couple of researchers, and especially Karen from finance, who gave peculiar stares toward Umber but none had the inclination or desire to say something to a security guard on patrol.  Most at that meeting were focused on budgeting for next quarter.  Umber then hustled down two flights of stairs and made it to the bottom, the sub-level access.  It was noticeably dimmer and colder as the walls shifted from drywall to bare concrete.  The tile linoleum was now polished and waxed cement that streched out ahead.  Past the double doors and around the corner, Umber could make out the large bulkhead door on the south side.  

Umber had to glance at his phone to refresh the rest of his memory on this place.  The generator room is what he had access to and it was just on his left.  Slipping past a guard reading a magazine, Umber reached the door leading to the generator room.  From there he could get a decent look at the bulkhead.  It was a beast of metal and rivets.  It'd take a massive explosion to even dent it, he wondered.  On each corner there were a set of hefy hydralics that kept the metal slab firmly in place.  He could also make out cables for the motors which were the only things powerful enough to slide it back and forth along its tracks.

Umber could not stare at it all day, so he swiped his badge at the generator room and tucked inside.  It was an empty space with three large orange machines labeled GEN A, B, and C.  Thick black cables attached to the ceiling spread like a web out from the machines.  There was the gentle hum of electricity as Umber leaned against the wall and sighed.  “Are we getting closer, Emily?”

“Yessss.  You saw the big door?”  Emily reappeared from across the room and stared back blankly.

"I got a good look at it.  But to get past it?  I don't know."

Umber looked about the room noticing only the one way in and out.  “Where to go from here?”  Emily paused and then slowly pointed above her head with a single claw toward an overhead vent.  Umber would have to revert if he hoped to fit in that small space.  After reviewing the maps on his phone again, he agreed.  **From here they could access the armory.**  Big chance something juicy would be stored in there, Umber thought to himself.

With a wave of his hand he dismissed the shadeform prematurely and reverted back to his original form.  He was able to shimmy up a power cable and access the vent, and then from there find his way in the dark towards a vent in the armory.  He could see from the vent cover that the guard he passed earlier was on sentry duty, yet still had his nose buried in last month’s issue of ‘Guns & Ammo’.  Remembering from when he was in the vents last time, Umber produced the amulet of knife summoning to unscrew the vent cover very quietly.

Success.  And Umber was able to work his way down onto a shelf of grenades.  Grenades!?!  There were grenades, sub-machine guns, pistols, claymore mines, demo charges, and every rifle or shotgun he could think of, and even some he couldn’t think of.  Thankfully he was able to duck between the racks of rifles and body armor while Ben occupied the other side of the aisle.  If only the lone guard didn’t have to stand watch.  Inside the clerk’s office stood a single body with a window facing out toward the armory floor that overlooked the rows and rows of weaponry.  For a brief moment he got up and perched next to the window thinking he had heard something in an area that was normally dead quiet.  

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_1.png width="600px"]]

“He will never leave.” Said Emily in a whispy tone.  

“What do you mean?”  Umber replied.  

“These guards… these filth with guns don’t move until another tells them to.  Or when there’s an emergency.  Or some other thing to draw them out.” Emily stated with her typical whisper.

“Shadjar.” 

Umber paused to think, then scooted closer to Emily.  **“Well we need to draw the idiot out… then subdue them.”**

“Subdue them?”  Emily confirmed.  Umber nodded and reaffirmed by ramming a fist into his other hand.  As a response, Emily opened up her claws to show Umber her own weapons, but he vehemently shook his head.

“Not kill.  Killing is going to complicate everything.  I’m going to handle this.”

“You?  You are going to take out the guard?  By yourself?”

“With Ben’s help.”

Emily looked at them both and then back at Umber.  “I don’t think that is wise.  I can just slash thei-“

Umber held up a hand for emphasis, “No killing… unless I’m dead.  Then kill away.”  Ben shuddered at the thought, then floated closer to their master.  “Hang back, Emily.  I will let you know when you are needed.”

She hesitantly nodded right before she vanished into a stack of crates.  Umber clamored up to the top of a shelf and laid flat.  He then pulled out the marker, nodded at Ben, then tossed the marker at the metal shelf next to the tiny office.

= **CLACK**

The impact rang loud in the silent armory.  The guard on the other side of the glass quickly perked up and scanned the empty aisles long and hard.  Finally after a long pause, they unholstered a pistol and stepped out into the dim light of the concrete room.  Slowly they panned back and forth, keeping the gun pointed towards the floor in front of them.  Their finger not quite wrapped around the trigger, but definitely a hair’s width away from it.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_2.png width="300px"]]

Umber peered over the edge just as the guard was getting ready to pass by.  He was pretty sure he could get this guard on the floor in about 5 seconds flat.  Hell, he's taken down the patrons at the library before... granted the majority of them were in their late 90's.  He counted silently to three and then jumped onto the hapless guard’s back, gripping the collar of their body armor vest tightly.

“S-HIT!”

Ben floated in close and got ready to ring, but suddenly was grabbed by Umber and used as a weapon to hit the guard. 

“AH, FUCKING!” screamed the guard.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_3.png width="250px"]]

Ben wracked against the hard helmet of the guard.  Not quite able to make the desired effect with shadowsteel against Kevlar.  Nor there was any indication that Umber could swing Ben with enough force to make a dent in said helmet.  After about ten seconds of flailing, the guard reached back with a grunt, grabbed Umber by the arm, and flung him forward.  

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_4.png width="550px"]]

Umber tumbled in the air for a good two seconds.  The disorienting spin was interrupted by the hard impact against the concrete wall.  Ben also hit hard and fell flat onto the floor.  Before Umber could scramble up to call on Emily, a gunshot rang out.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_5.png width="700px"]]

The single pop of the round was deafening in the closed space.  The guard stood frozen, not sure to make out what Umber even was.  Umber groaned as the hot bullet in his chest singed his insides.  A second later, radio chatter started to interrupt the silence.  

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[[=]]

[SHOTS FIRED!  SHOTS FIRED!  ANYBODY GOT A LOCATION?]

[THIS IS SITE-81 COMMAND.  CONFIRM, FIRE AND LOCATION?]

[F-PATROL, CAN CONFIRM.  ONE SHOT.  SOUNDED LIKE SUB-LEVEL IN ADMIN.]

[COMMAND, MOVING TOWARD STAIRS TO INTERCEPT POTENTIAL HOSTILES.]

[G-PATROL ALSO INBOUND, TAKING ELEVATOR.]

[COPY.]

[[/=]]

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The guard went to key up their own radio, when very suddenly the lights in the armory went out.

[[div style="text-align: left; background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #fff, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #181717, #fff); padding: 5px;"]] 

[[div style="color: #fff;"]]

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= “H-hey… the lights!  Get the fucking lights back on!” they shouted in the dark.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_6.png width="700px"]]

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= //“OR WHAT?”//

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_7.png width="700px"]]

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= “AAAAAAAGHAA… NO… NONONONONO… AAAAAAAaaaauaa…”

= //**gurgle**//

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[[=]]

[COMMAND, HOLDING POSITION ON STAIRS.  CAN CONFRIM VOICES.]
[SCREAMING.  NO OTHER SHOTS FIRED.]

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[COMMAND, DO YOU COPY?]

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[F-PATROL, COPY.  STANDBY FOR FACILITY LOCKDOWN.]

[[/=]]

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_8.png width="700px"]]

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_9.png width="700px"]]

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= “Not yet.”

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/armory_10.png width="700px"]]

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[[/div]]
[[/div]]

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----

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The artificer supreme suddenly woke up from a dead sleep.  “Something happened.”  Slipping on a loose shirt and sandals, the spry 80 year-old rushed down the corridor toward the exit.  Upon opening it, a rush of cold mist from the valleys blasted her.  A few steps up and she was on the open deck of her riverboat, currently floating up the Ganges.  The sail fluttered softly in the breeze as something hung heavy in the night air.  She looked up and proceeded to read the stars and weather above her. 

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/ganges.png width="400px"]]

“Polaris… AND Betelgeuse shrouded in clouds?  And the moon is waning as well… wind is in the east… which means Mars is aligned with... Damn!  That’s all we need right now!  I’ll need to be quick.  This weather won’t hold.”

She hurried off the deck and tucked into another cramped room.  She didn’t need light to see, as she replaced her eyes with polished star onyx long ago.   “Where are my decks?”  She pushed papers and tools aside to make room on her small desk.  A charcoal quartz statue of a dog headed human hit the wooden floor as she scrambled to find her cards.  Several papers and pens clattered onto the floor as well.  Upon pulling on a drawer she sighed in relief and reached in, scooping up her prized decks of artifice.  An impressive collection 60 years in the making that the Library would die to get their hands on, as well as a few other unmentionable organizations.  “Kiran is going to owe me big for this.” 

She tucked her white stringy hair behind her ears and started to shuffle.  Each cut of the deck had a meaning and had to be performed in such exactness that only a few master artificers could do this action without looking.  After a proper shuffle, she consulted her memory on how to pull her three cards.  This wasn’t exactly a forging ritual, but a ritual nonetheless.  She had ways of affecting her creations from afar, even when they were broken.  A good artificer always plans for an emergency.

First card pulled second from the top of an unknown deck, the zither played on golden strings.  She made a note of it as if she recognized an old friend, and placed it down in the moonlight.  Next, pulled from the very bottom of the deck of funerals, the burning seal.  She hummed in thought and then placed the second card on the table.  "Now to figure out the appropriate trump deck."  The artificer supreme reached over and pulled an older card from her book of recipes.  She straightend out the creases and gave it a good hard look.  The amber eye.  

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/eye.png width="150px"]]

“I knew I’d have to use this eventually.  Shame I can only do this once.”  She rolled her chair toward the window and tossed it into the murky river.  A card left over from Umber’s own forging, now returned as a sacrifice.  She watched it float down and into the river.  It landed face up, perpendicular to the Hajipur leyline before sinking into the cold black.  “Ah-ha!  I know which one I need.”  

She rolled back over and unsleeved an unusual deck with some cards having malleable jade edges.  “Can’t remember the last time I pulled from the paradox deck.”  She performed a kutti shuffle five times and then from dead center of the deck, she pulled the third card.  The sword impossible... inverted.  

Her face cringed slightly as she laid it on the table.  She was unsure what this combination of cards meant, but it was what she had to work with.  She leaned back and packed her pipe full of herbs in preparation.  

"...life gives you lemons..."  she mumbled. 

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/c_3.png width="500px"]]

All three cards were presented.   Three options.  Three solutions be they good or bad.  Weal or woe.  The old mind of the artificer supreme cleared the fogginess of distraction away.  She lit her pipe and sat on the wooden floor, feeling the boat gently rock as it continued upriver.  **She would have to meditate in the dark until a living quintessence of shadow presented a single selection from the cards.**

----

Six hours later, streaks of dawn began to shift the night into deep hues of blue and purple.  The artificer was still sitting cross-legged, in between sleep and awake, mumbling her mantra.  Slowly she tipped and fell to her side with a soft thud.  The arificer awoke with a sudden gasp and looked in front of her.  As her eyes focused, she could see the hazy night giving way to dawn.  The shadow of the outstreched mast split the boat deck in half as it pointed due east.  The three cards remained unchanged.  

"Well this was a waste of time and sleep."  She rubbed pulled her sore back and straightened up again with a few cracks and pops.  When she closed and opened her eyes again, she could see a humanoid figure of darkness sitting across from her.  "Gah!  You... sure took one of you long enough.  I've been here all night summoning!"  She furrowed her brow at the spectral form.  It appeared hunched with thick stubby horns on the side of its head.  Its body was nebulous and full, giving the impression that it was made of more shadow than it needed.  Beams of reflected light pierced its form, but it sat stoically in the shadow of the mast.

"So what do you have for me then?"

Slowly, without moving its arm, the fingers of the being stretched flat across the deck of the boat and **pushed the zither card forward.**  Afterwards it slowly retracted back without moving the rest of its body.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/c_3_3.png width="500px"]]

"Great.  See that wasn't so hard now wa-” the artificer's words were cut short as another icy shadow draped over her shoulder.  She looked back to see the head of another humanoid shade rising up along the crate behind her.  This one looked different.  It was more slender and more defined, but upon its head perched a pair of feline ears.

She looked confused at it, but was certain she was only summoning the one... unless in her meditation she mumbled something incorrectly and got two of them to answer.  "Who?  I... I only needed one of you.  I only //want// one of you."

The other shade did not respond with anything other than its off-hand reaching out towards **the sword impossible and pulling it forward.**

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/c_3_2.png width="500px"]]

"Wait... wait wait wait... you can't choose two cards!  You can't choose //these// cards!"

She looked up from the cards to see that the shades had vanished completely just as the sun had crested over the top of the Himalayas.

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= [[size 200%]]"REALLY!?!"[[/size]]

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Her frustrated words echoed back and forth between the shores.  She grunted and snatched the cards up, her knees wobbly, as she had to brace herself a little before trying to walk again.  "Fucking shades... all form, no brains.  How do they expect me to blend two cards?"  She knew she was the person for the job either way, but merging two cards of artifice can be... unpredictable.

She wracked her mind trying to think of a way to do this.  In one hand was the zither of golden strings.  Five threads of fate running parallel in perfect harmony.  With the pluck of fingers, one could vibrate and create magical chords.  A skillful user could then take the best notes from each and create favorable melodies.  Such is how changes of fate could work, theoretically.

Then the sword impossible... fucking inverted.  She groaned as she studied the card.  Never anything good.  All possible outcomes are thrown out and only the unlikely are left.  But inverted!  An inversion of an already paradoxical negative is completely chaotic.  Impossibilities begin to stack to the point of almost working against the user.  Now combined with the zither?  Five threads of fate turn into an infinite tangled mess pulling on every facet of the multiverse.  Inverted changes it again to opposing outcomes.  In addition, anything out of the paradox deck tends to be painfully ironic as well.

The artificer supreme, with all her knowledge and experience, did not know what was going to happen but she knew it was nothing good.  With a heavy sigh, she sat at the end of her bed and looked at both cards.  "The mission continues.  Shadow, forgive me for what I have to do."

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[[div style="background: #181717; color: #fff;"]]

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= "Umber?"

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= "Umber."

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wdfiles.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_1.png width="600px"]]

= "Are you alive?"

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_2_1.png width="600px"]]

= "You are!  Ben, come quick!"

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Umber opened his eye.  He was surrounded by the dank scent of stale air and humid groundwater.  "Where?  How?"  He sat up and looked at Emily standing across from him.  She helped prop him up and took a step back.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_3.png width="600px"]]

"We thought you were dead.  So Ben and I took your body down here so that you wouldn't wind up as a display in a jar."

Umber took a moment to let the grogginess melt off him.  He looked around at the rocky outcrops and stalactites.  "Thanks.  So we're underground now?"

"Correct.  This is where I like to reside sometimes when I want to be away from those enslavers.  It’s quiet, dark, and secluded."

Umber simply groaned as Emily finished her sentence and then continued to talk.

"After you were shot-"

"Shot!?"

"Y-yes.  You were shot.  You don't remember?"

He tried to think hard, but the last thing he remembered was being tossed into a wall by a guard.  He placed his hands on his chest and face, but everything felt normal.  In fact, he felt pretty great.  Emily looked over her shoulder and floated near to Ben.

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_4.png width="600px"]]

"Well... what happened after I was shot?"

Emily put her hands behind her back and glanced at Ben for a second.  “I took care of the guard and brought you here.”

“You took care of him?  Somehow I think you are confusing the word ‘care’ with ‘violently murdered’.”

She shrugged.  “Pot-ay-toes… Pot-ah-toes.”

Umber squinted his eyes as he felt his temper rise.  “No!  No potatoes!  My mission, my whole reason for being here is screwed!  Now the facility is on lockdown!  There would be no way to get to the second child now.  And if I return back to the cult as a failure there //will// be judgement.  I’ll probably be obliterated by, Yvonne.  Or deconstructed into recycled shadowstuff.  OR-”

“It’s been a week though.”

“What?”

“A week.  That was a week or so ago.  The lockdown was lifted on Thursday.”

Umber sat befuddled.  If it has been a week, how did all his shadowstuff not evaporate out of him after being shot?  He pushed the thought aside because he was alive now.  And now he had a second chance to get in.

“So I’ve been dead a week.  Lockdown has been lifted.  I feel better than I do during the winter solstice.  This is good news.”  

"Mmmmmmore or less.  Yes."

"This cave is nice.  It is close to the site?"

"Close enough, tucked in the forest."

"I can see why you like it down here.  Cold.  Quiet.  Nobody to hear your wails of suffering.  But where is that glow coming from?  Shouldn't it be pitch black in here?"

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_5.png width="600px"]]

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= "What?"

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_4.png width="600px"]]

"Nothing!"

"You had a look."

"No I didn't."

"You aren't telling me something, Emily?"

"Well..."

"Emily!"

"Well you //have// been dead.  That is for sure.  Up until the flash of light and-"

"Flash?  What flash?"

"I don't know.  There was a flash and you just... you're just different now.  Right Ben?"  Ben floated silently, clearly not wanting to be involved at that moment.  Umber had heard enough as he got on all fours and started to crawl towards the puddle in front of him and see his reflection.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_6.png width="600px"]]

=  "Um... don't know if that's a good idea, Umber."  

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_7.png width="600px"]]

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_8.png width="600px"]]

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_9.png width="600px"]]

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[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/in-shadow/cave_10.png width="600px"]]

= **"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!?!"**

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[[/div]]

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[[/div]]

[[/collapsible]]

In Shadow Offset 1

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