event one | a bone-deep itch (open)

[voidnpcs]

CHARACTERS: Everyone
DATE: July 10th (Day One, sunset)
RATING: PG-13
WARNINGS: "Slight" body horror.
SUMMARY: Welcome to the void!

Comments

[ayearoftorture]

"Do I look like a local to you?" he asked with a wry look, setting the joint between two fingers as he turned to regard Eliot. "To answer your question: I wouldn't have the slightest clue. I was walking down a motorway in Los Angeles before I got kidnapped here, same as everyone else on this nasty little beach." There was a pause for thought, as he kicked away at a few slugs and turned to look back the way he came. "Unless someone's been lying to me," he added. A little paranoia didn't hurt, and if his concerns about this being an experiment were correct, this was a perfect opportunity to sow a few sleeper agents into this mess.

"Right now, I'm more concerned about that text message we all got. You did get that message, yeah?" He glanced to Celty and Eliot and turn, before looking back up to the siege walls. "And now it's getting darker, that fortress over there's looking more and more tempting. Which I suppose is what they want us to do," he remarked, taking another toke as he regarded the siege walls.

He glanced over to Celty for a moment, finding her another exotic guest among many here. A mute, motorcycle-wearing leather-clad woman with a cellphone... well, there were weirdos enough where he'd been living. He supposed that was a thing to investigate at a more hospitable time...

[distinctive_guy]

"It didn't hurt ta try," Eliot answered, sticking to his role and flashing a brief smile at the other. "But I hafta say, Los Angeles is a long way from Boston." His glance shifted briefly to Celty behind him; it was even a longer way to Japan.

He dug into his pocket before he turned back, pulling out the strange smart phone for the first time since he shoved it away. His own phone was still in his other pocket, silent with no signals. "You'd best hide?" he quoted, looking up from the screen to the strange man. "Seems like that's the only place we can hide." There was barely anything besides a few trees, the beach, and the formidable looking wall.

[sanshead]

Los Angeles, also American. It was a little comforting at least; she was always the different one, the one that didn't exactly belong no matter how much she adapted to fit in. It was nice to know that in this place she can still meet people from other parts of the world. Japan was still small despite its modern and overcrowded setting.

There's a thoughtful pause from her before she types out another text, fingers moving quickly over the keyboard:

Though it may have been premeditated, finding shelter is probably for the best. There may be more unpleasant creatures for us to deal with out here after dark.

[ayearoftorture]

"Long way, yeah," Jones admitted. "And none of us remember being dropped, confined or being otherwise incapacitated. That worries me. Either we're dealing with fucking Peter Pan taking us off to Never-Never-Land, or we were dragged here by professionals." The last term is said without a hint of irony, fear or paranoia, though his forehead's slightly creased with a hint of worry. "Would like to think that I can't be easily snuck up on, but then some toss-off managed to brain me with a crowbar a couple days ago, so..."

His gaze then turned to look upon Celty's phone, and he couldn't help grudgingly agreeing with her. He really didn't fancy staying out for much longer. He took one last toke from his rolled-up joint, and then briefly glanced around, seeming to take her typed words seriously.

"Yeah... huh. Don't fancy any of you want a pass of this? No?" The big man looked like the sort of man who wanted full charge of his senses, and the woman... well, he wasn't sure what her deal was in the first place. He let the joint drop to the ground, not bothering to stamp it out, and took one more glance for parasites before gesturing to the kitty-helmeted woman. "She's right. I don't make a habit of following the orders of whoever's decided to fuck around with me, but it'd take too long to search this beach for something. And the sun's almost gone."

One more furtive glance to the sun, disappearing over the horizon. For once, he felt that he was going to miss it, despite all the problems it gave him.

"Yeah, I think we'd best head in, before it gets too dark. But before I do that... I'm noticing we've all been given the same equipment, here." He checks the cryptic phone for a moment, dialling through the options... and checking the signal strength. "...And it looks like we've got full service here. Meaning that the arses who dropped us want us to keep in touch with each other. Might be that if we keep tabs on each other, we can find what we're looking for a lot faster, even if we split up. You fancy giving these things a test-run?" He glanced to Eliot and Celty for an answer.

[distinctive_guy]

Eliot smothered a snort when the other mentioned being put the jump on. It happens to the best of them, so he let it slide past silently. His expression turned more serious when they moved onto discussing their options.

"There's only that walled area there," he said, gesturing with his cell phone in the direction of the siege walls and their mysteries. "Looks pretty fortified to me, like some top secret base. Or what movies show those bases ta look like. But I don't see a way in and I'm not fancyin' scaling those walls."

Since it seemed like the other was comfortable taking the lead, Eliot let him while he played the dumb cop. He checked the phone and flipped through its functions briefly, recognizing some apps and skipping most others. This wasn't his area of interest, he just needed to check for basic abilities.

"Got an app here that... links to our infrared camera." The foreboding expression he gave the two wasn't faked. "Now why would we need an infrared camera?" He glared at the machine in his hand. "There's no phone number in this thing."

[sanshead]

Perhaps they want us to communicate via email. It's more reliable than phone calls sometimes.

As Eliot flips through the phone, Celty brings out hers as well and thumbs through the applications and features. Finding the flashlight feature, she turns it on, aiming it at the wall and finding an opening.

The phone can wait. You're welcome to stay out here, but I'm heading in first.

With that, she turns around and heads over, smoke curling around her free hand and solidifying into a large scythe.

[ayearoftorture]

"An infrared camera," he murmured, checking his own phone over. "Fancy equipment." He didn't like Eliot's look of foreboding, and the more he delved into this mystery, the less he liked it.

But then he heard typing from the other stranger, and Jones glanced over to the woman's phone as she held it out to them. "Yeah, maybe," he murmured in response to her text, looking a little irritated, fingering his right ear. "But why the headpieces? How do we work these things? Are they connected to everyone here, or just a few? Too many fucking questions--" But now she was moving towards the walls, and Jones couldn't help but watch as she seemed to pull out a--a scythe?!-- out of mid-air, stalking towards the siege walls.

"'Ey," he spoke to get Eliot's attention, looking to him. "You see what's in her hand, right? That's not just me, is it?" He had to be hallucinating that... neural fallout from the Desolation Tests. But after the people he'd met in this place, he wasn't sure what to believe.

[distinctive_guy]

Reading Celty's text quickly, Eliot's brows furrowed in protest. He agreed with the stranger, someone going through such an elaborate set up wouldn't restrict them to just e-----

And he stared when a freaking huge scythe was formed from smoke. Like those daggers earlier, but this couldn't be a magic trick like what Eliot assumed earlier.

"I do," he muttered, startled like the other. "She just made a scythe out of smoke." As if saying it out loud made it more believable... it really didn't. "She claimed it was some ability earlier." He looked to the skeleton man, glad that he wasn't the only one seeing this either. "... ya gonna follow her?"

[ayearoftorture]

"That's not--" He wanted to say it was impossible, but things were already a little too unreal for him, and he wasn't completely ready to determine what was and what wasn't. Instead he held one head to his forehead, grimacing. "This place. The people here. This whole situation. Totaly fucked," he declares with vehemence, before looking over his phone once more, checking the inbox. "'Nother message on that thing. Something about Kernos. Corporate thing. Probably a shell company. Where does one get the money for this operation? And why this random throwing together of people? Who are these arseholes, anyway?"

'Nother kick to the ground, a little less enthusiastically than before. "Fuck it. Getting too dark. I'm going to follow the girl, get inside and take a look-about. They'll probably have something waiting for us in there - some other shit they want to throw at us." He glanced over to Eliot, idly tapping the headset on his ear. "You gonna stay out here?"

[distinctive_guy]

"Good questions," Eliot observed, but his shaking head showed that he had no answers for the other man either. He squinted out in the direction of the setting sun, judging that the civil twilight should hold out a bit still before it became completely dark. He could still make his way in later, after he took a look around more.

"Somethin's not right about this whole place, this whole situation feels wrong," he muttered in agreement under his breath. The siege walls bothered him too, and charging in with a bang was not his ideal entry. "You go ahead. I'll find my way in later." He pocketed his phone back with his removed bluetooth and got ready to go. "I'd say stay in touch, but doesn't look like there's a number on these things for ye to call."