How ominous. [And that's all it is, for now: ominous. A line of spooky Latin text, bloodstained surfaces...as nerve-wracking as they are, there's no immediate threat to anyone's safety yet. The worst part of everything is the part where they're locked in here waiting for the other shoe to drop...]

Then I suggest we switch focus. As much as I want to learn about how the core drive functions, we'd likely be better served by working out how to open the doors. [Still calm, if with a quiet intensity to his focus that wasn't there before. They're smart people, they can work their way out of this. Right now, emotions are only going to get in the way.

As always, it's harder to prevaricate with inhuman features than human ones: without realizing it, Ratio has extended his wing on Varian's side, a barrier of soft feathers now arched around behind the younger man as if to protect him from anything that might be behind them.]