Darkness

[timesbureaucrat]

Who: Kay and Narvin
What: Investigating the blackouts and the whistling. Also talking.
Where: Walking the hallways late at night looking for ghosts incorporeal entities
When: Tonight-ish
Warnings: Nothing but general Barge creepiness. Possibly Kay's language.

Comments

[most_feared]

Kay was in a strangely troubled mood. Not even really because of anything going on, which almost made it worse. He was taking in his flickering surroundings with almost too much ease, and barely reacted other than when there was a darting shadow at his side at one point and he attempted to reach out and touch it while not looking directly at it. It flickered away, his hand went through nothing. Not even a change in air temperature.

When Narvin spoke, he was just looking where his hand was hovering in nothing. "The mostly show up with the whistling." He tucked his hand back in his pocket, continuing on the way toward the nearest stairwell. "T'Pol had the same experience. So I say we just watch for one of the floor lights to go out and head in."

He didn't mind how close Narvin was staying. With Narvin's luck, plastering himself to his side might be the difference between coming out intact and losing a limb. ...And not even to the "ghosts", to some random incident that happened along in the darkness.

[timesbureaucrat]

"Oh, wonderful. Musical ghosts. I hope they can at least carry a tune." He followed Kay to the stairwell and kept his eyes and ears open for signs of the apparitions.

He started when he saw a shadow move out of the corner of his eye. And sighed when it turned out to be his own shadow, moving as he walked out of the rays of one light source and into another. Cosmos, this was making him high-strung.

[most_feared]

It takes a lot for Narvin to be more paranoid than usual. He was worried the poor man would have a double heart-attack eventually. But perhaps it would desensitize him to a more dangerous world that was less politics and more attacks. That was still a great issue of concern for him.

"They seem to be able to." He waited patiently, watching the visible floors on the stairwell for one door to darken more than others. Pressed his back against the wall and watched what he could, and listened.

"You know, that thing I wanted to talk to you about. It'd mean I'd need you to make another deal after Drake. But it would be a way neither of us would have to compromise our loyalties and I'd be able to do my service."

He shifted his gaze up. "I know something big is about to go down on my planet. I have some more historical interference after the last time you interfered. But it has to do with somethin' big coming and somethin' I've been preparing a long time for."

[timesbureaucrat]

"Of course. Whatever you need I'll--DAMMIT" He dropped his scanner suddenly and looked at the hand that had been holding it. The palm and fingers were covered in frost. He flexed his fingers to try to restore the proper equilibrium between his cool core temperature and warmer skin temperature.

He picked up the train of conversation again. "Whatever you need I'll do what I can to get it."

[most_feared]

"Good." The frosted fingers earned just the most dry, unamused look from the Agent before he took Narvin's hands and started using his own fingers to rub the warmth back into them.

"I'll need you to ask for them to definitely activate clone protocol after I die. If something happens that the deal seems unlikely or you get sick of this place, I'll need you to go and make it happen for me. Stop watching us."

Whether it listened or not, another shadow moved up the stairs from behind his back, and Kay released Narvin's (now slightly warmer) hands to go trudging up after it. As predicted, that floor was dark. Whether or not the shadow actually listened to his request was up in the air, or whether it was even watching to begin with and Kay once again had impeccable timing. But he seemed at least in control of himself if nothing else.

"You wanna wear my gloves just in case?" he asked without turning.

[timesbureaucrat]

The heat of human skin quickly melted the frost away. Narvin nodded solemnly at Kay's request. "I'll make sure the clone protocol happens, one way or another," he promised. If he had to steal the technology and do it himself, although he hoped that it wouldn't come to that. A deal with the Admiral, or failing that, some serious politicking with Kay's superior should take care of the matter.

He quirked his eyebrow at the offer of gloves. "Have you seen the size of your hands? Your gloves would be a bit big for me. It's all right. It was more startling than painful."

He plucked up the scanner from the ground--it was perfectly normal air temperature again--and followed Kay towards the darkness, his eyes darting here and there.

[most_feared]

"My hands aren't that big, are they?" He holds them up to look at them until he's at the door, and has to open it. "Yeah, I guess they are. But- If I finish my career, then after clone protocol I can go with you and all the terms of our previous arrangements would be respected by the organization."

He opened the door, the corridor ahead was pitch black. Not just flickering lights. It was dark. And at the end, there was whistling. Loudish footsteps coming towards them, even if a shape was impossible to make out.

He went into the hallway, sticking his hand in his pocket again and boldly strolling into the hall. Still steps. Still whistling. Still no way to see ahead so he kept his gate slow and careful, presuming that the person would eventually stop themselves as he wasn't being secretive with his own dress shoes as they clacked along the floor.

[timesbureaucrat]

"You said something big is coming, something you've been preparing for. Is it anything I can help with?"

Narvin's voice was quiet, nearly a whisper. He tried to keep his tone as unconcerned as Kay's, as if they were sitting in the safety of their cabin. Why were they having important conversations about their future while pursuing frightening apparitions again? Oh yes, because Kay was immune to fear. Well, at least it was a distraction from how fast his hearts were beating right now.

The footsteps and the whistling were coming closer. There was no corresponding psychic trace, however. Half his senses insisted that there was someone there, coming towards him, and the other half insisted there wasn't. Narvin swallowed and held back the urge to reach for his staser. In this darkness, it would be useless anyway. He couldn't aim and he might hit Kay if he tried. But letting the...thing approach him without giving himself the sense of security of holding a weapon in his hand was nerve-wracking.

[most_feared]

He stopped dead. Not giving Narvin much warning as he did. He didn't understand what it was that the other man was feeling, even if a bit of it was being carried over to him. Just this strange, empty sensation, and he wasn't in much of a position to piss him off so it just ended up a curiosity.

He sighed as Narvin bumped into his back, and tilted his head as he stared blandly ahead at nothing.

But the other footsteps stopped too. The whistling? Gone.

"...S'cuze me?" He said, seeking a response.

The only one he got was the whistling and the footsteps starting up again, behind them, as if the entity had silently passed and was continuing on its merry way. Kay swivelled slightly and watched in the darkness.

"I don't have specialized senses, Narvin. Is it so dark that not even you can see?"

[timesbureaucrat]

Narvin "oofed" in surprise and staggered back a step when Kay stopped. Then he froze, the sudden silence--no footsteps, no whistling--more unnerving than the noise. When there was sound, at least Narvin had a sense of where the thing was.

Then the whistling started up again as abruptly as it had stopped, this time behind them. Narvin whirled and stared uselessly into the unrelenting black.

"Nothing. I see nothing. Some of my other senses are muffled as well, blank voids where sensations ought to be. I get no psychic impression from it at all." He sent out a few mental threads to share his senses with Kay. Kay had felt Narvin's full senses often enough that he should be able to perceive the difference.

[most_feared]

"...Huh..." All he said. Though the one thought going through his head was, They're fucking with us. And there was the irritation that usually came in place of fear right behind it.

To compound that irritation, the lights blared back on soundly and his pupils revolted. He grunted and pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut and wincing against the sudden light. "Oh- Goddammit." Then, a quick recovery.

"It's just a superweapon thing. I have to be ready for it- I've been getting ready for it for a long time. But I'm gonna have to take care of it." He pursed his thin lips, setting his jaw. It would also mean he would have to delete his memories- possibly store them somewhere to retrieve later. But he'd break a little bit on Narvin at a time. No point in throwing too much emotional confusion on him when creepy fucking shit was trying to get a peek up his proverbial skirt.

[timesbureaucrat]

Narvin winced and blinked against the flare, momentarily as blinded by the light as he had been blinded by the darkness just a few seconds ago. His vision began to return by the time Kay spoke again. He listened. Contemplated.

"All right," he said, simply. Because sometimes there were important missions and one's personal life had to take the back seat for a while. No distractions, no personal involvement lurking around. That was something Narvin understood. "You save your planet and I'll make sure you'll have a long life afterwards."

[most_feared]

"I'll get to save more planets. It'll be exciting." He said in a stern, but positive, way. He had no doubt that while Earth would always by his home, a little bit of him always wanted to be out among those stars.

And not with flickering lights while out among those stars.

"Any reading changes? ....Actually, did your scanner even register when it got that cold?"

[timesbureaucrat]

"If what Braxiatel says about the war is true, you'll probably get to save a lot of planets. And perhaps destroy some Dalek outposts." Then his (somewhat vicious) smile vanished and Narvin returned to business.

"My scanner didn't register any anomalies despite the sudden and inexplicable chill. I couldn't see exactly what happened once the lights went out, but it doesn't appear to have recorded any reading during that time frame. It's as if the scanner died with the lights and only resumed when they came back on."

He tilted the scanner to show Kay the data history: a sudden flatline, then resumption a minute later. "Whatever this is, it seems quite keen to hide from us."

[most_feared]

"It feels more like a very elaborate version of a serial killer sending his letter into the newspaper. Just to brag that he's done something and he can't be caught." Kay set his jaw and narrowed his eyes at the scanner's flatline. He even took a moment to rub his chin thoughtfully.

"Actually I wanna run that by Will Graham."

[timesbureaucrat]

"How very unreassuring." As he walked, he unconsciously stepped a few centimeters closer to Kay again. "Still it's better to know than to be kept in ignorance. And that sort of arrogance usually leads to the criminal's downfall."