Main Role-Play Thread [Adventure 2] OPEN

[Syrenrei]

Adventure 2: "The Grand Experiment"
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​

Lloyd Wilson was an American whose parents fled to Psydrium decades ago. Your character would know him as an affable, competent, and chatty individual comically horrible with the fairer sex despite his attempts to woo a woman five years his junior named Eleanor. If you are a traveler, you would know him for being a nice, albeit slightly awkward, one of your peers. Other characters likely used his services to get groceries, supplies, and other sundries from the nearest town of ‘normies.’ He may have even transported you to Psydrium from abroad, or escorted you to a vacation destination. The only thing offensive about Lloyd were some scraggly eyebrows.

And then one evening Lloyd teleported you away from the safety of Psydrium. You’re relatively confident something you ate or drank had a roofie in it because you slept pretty goddamn hard to have had to passively accept his teleportation abroad. You started to come to when a female figure, wearing a plain white porcelain mask, shot poor Lloyd. You saw some other people near you as well as shadowy figures. Belatedly you realize the haze around you is gas, not just your weariness, and you pass out after a few moments regardless how much you struggle not to. “Welcome to the grand experiment,” you hear someone say.

You wake up the next morning clad only in what you had gone to sleep in. The house you are in is an abandoned, derelict home that is barren of anything- even useless trash. You can hear others rousing from their unconscious state in other rooms. There is no sign of Lloyd or the shadowy figures, but you’re sure this isn’t a dream because where you are is a hell of a lot warmer than Psydrium.

Welcome to rural Georgia in the middle of May.


FAQ:

Why can't our traveler just teleport us away?

Several reasons. First and and foremost, your characters do not know where they are geographically. Traveling to Psydrium without knowing where you are is very risky; if you don't have enough power to do so, you could end up somewhere unfortunate or simply dead. Once the characters know where they are, they might want to know what is going on in this strange little place and be reluctant to leave behind the other player characters... since only very powerful travelers can travel across the sea with a group and no preparation.


Why can't a traveler come get us?

To communicate where you are to another traveler, they will need intimate knowledge of your locate. A precise geographical sense of it, as well as the feeling of it, can be sent to the traveler via an author but even with that guidance it would be a big risk for a traveler to come get you. If they are off in their estimations at all they will die, and if they do not, they could 'miss' and end up in the middle of the war between DOC and Celes. Going to the United States is already risky in the setting as is and extremely discouraged.


How will we get home?

After the mystery of the plot is resolved and any antagonists dealt with, you'll have every reason and opportunity to leave either via a traveler or more conventional means (boat, plane, etc.)


What about after this adventure?

If the characters have a reason to stick together, such as all wanting to be Justicars or helping Preservers, I am happy to allow these characters to continue on a new journey either led by myself or someone else (with me as loremaster).


Can I be an antagonist?

No. The characters are meant to be protagonists. I may elect to have someone co-GM with me at some point to help with any antagonist(s) or other opposition forces, but the group is expected to triumph over them, not join them or turn on each other. Characters that attempt to harm each other or go blatantly 'dark side' will be forfeited to me to bunny!


Does my character need to be good at combat?

No. Generally I like to have conflicts that can be resolved with conflict or without; it's up to the choices of the players and how they work together. Just remember every action has consequences, both good and bad. I'm happy to relate those to you if you have any questions of what your character would know about such consequences relative to psion society.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Mac Williams
"And don't even get me started on pretz.....els..." Waking up as if someone had shocked her with a cattle prod, Mackenzie was greeted the harsh presence of unfamiliar sights, smells, temperature, and surroundings. There was no hazy aftereffect lingering, no soft edge in the corners of her vision, just the cool crisp sharpness of reality. It was like being teleported through time instead of space. The last thing she remembered was being out in the rather touristy bar just outside the castle espousing the virtues of peanuts over cracker and pretzels and now here she was on the cold tile floor of an unfamiliar bathroom. Unfamiliar for sure because no bathroom in her home nor the outlying city looked or felt like this.

Scrambling up, her boots mark up the floor something awful as she nearly launches herself up to her feet and does a full body run down. Checking herself out from head to toe, making sure everything was where it was supposed to be and there wasn't the addition or subtraction of anything else. Her training was in full force now, making sure she wasn't physically compromised. When she was mostly assured that all her bits and pieces were together, Mac checked her pockets. Her smokes were missing out of the pocket of her heavy leather jacket but it seemed fortunately they'd left her jacket on. Reaching down into the lining of her armpit, Mack hooked a nail and yanked out a patch she'd sewn in containing a metal slug. The little circle of metal was flat but wider than an american quarter and much thicker with an 'X' marked on one side. That was just to throw people off. Heading over to the counter she balanced the slug with her finger and flicked it. The slug spun exactly eight times then fell over onto the 'X' leaving the blank side up.

Right, it wasn't a psionic dream she was in then. This was reality. That much was confirmed. With her hands shaking she hides the slug away again and start to explore her surroundings. It looked like a nicely done bathroom. Maybe American Victorian style? High ceiling with old decorative fixtures. Wallpaper came halfway down to the floor with an elaborate wood molding meeting it and proceeding down to the tile floor. Definitely nothing like home. Checking the drawers and mirror, Mac was surprised to find them all empty. Just dust left behind. Even turning on the faucet led to a slight rattle in the walls and then a nasty brown liquid coming out of the faucet. She stuck her tongue out in disgust and decided there was nothing left to gain inside this room.

Taking a deep breath, Mac decided to go the route she normally took when in distress. What would a good Agitator do? Bracing herself, she makes several quick motions with her hands, aimed at the wall opposite the toilet, between the sink and the corner. Exhaling with each motion she makes a large square and then another X inside it. A couple seconds pass and she can hear running water inside the wall. Satisfied she kicks the wall.

The wall breaks into chunks that she'd cut out, leaving a neat door in the wall. Studs and pipes and wires, all cut through completely. Jumping into the Hall she refrains from a battle cry but still lands with a thump, going into a stance as she checked all directions.

Syrenrei

 

[JustNicole]

Christina "Zelda" Murdock
Christina's sleep was troubled as she tossed and turned. As her body groggily began to wake up, her dreams began something like a mix of reality and dream or some strange hybrid there of. She was dreaming of herself back in Mrs. Nittle's tenth grade classroom, except there was something terrible she was forgetting. Was there a test? Some kind of assignment she forgot to do? It seemed so important that she ought to remember it, but that memory seemed just beyond the edge of her grasp.

Lloyd! The response from the edges of her mind as her eyes shot opened. He had gotten shot? Or stabbed? Or something? It was like it was there, but only a fragment. Whatever it was, Christina was more than certain that Lloyd was in some kind of major trouble, the poor sod. Shaking her head, she scolded herself for her sloppiness. If her memory was this bad, she must have gotten incredibly drunk or something. Wouldn't she have some kind of hangover if it was drinking though? Perhaps some kind of drug then. Ugh. Luke was going to be pissed when he found out.

Sitting upright, Christina took stock of her situation. A shitty, at best, memory of last night had left with her no indication as to her whereabouts, but given she recalled Lloyd, it seemed likely to conclude that he had taken her somewhere. Presently, it seemed like some kind of unoccupied house. This, she gathered from looking around the barren walls and cracked open door, was probably a bed room, although it was devoid of any kind of bed, a fact which her back was already thanking her for.

The major problems facing Christina were that she was missing her cane and she had woken up in her birthday suit. The first was probably a more serious problem long term with not being able to navigate and all, although the second certainly had the potential for embarrassment if she was not the sole person on the premises. Now, the question was how to solve these problems...

You're basically part dog, Christina. Oh, yeah. There was that. Turning into Zelda, the name Luke and others called her dog-self, seemed like a great idea here. It'd let her navigate around without finding her cane, hide her nakedness, and perhaps let her snoop around without anyone realizing who she was, considering she had no idea if others were friendly or foe. Closing her eyes, Christina could feel her body change in a moment as she visualized Zelda.

When she opened her eyes, Zelda gave a hesitant sniff of the air, taking in all the scents in ways she simply couldn't do with Christina's noise. The house had certainly been abandoned for some time. The scents that once resided in the area had long since gone cold, but there were fresh new smells, humans, nearby. Of that, her noise had no doubt. It was time to find those people.

Walking to the door, Zelda pawed at it with her front right paw to open it slightly more so she could slip her furry body through the crack. The hallway was just as barren as her room had been. Tilting her nose upwards, she began to sniff the air more deeply when her ears picked up footsteps behind her.

No sooner had Zelda started to turn around than she heard the sound of a kick and cracks of drywall. Her eyes spun around just in time to see a woman step through a new hole in the wall complete with a thump. Like any dog would, Zelda cocked her head while looking up at the woman while smelling her in that second.

There was a few things immediately noticeable about the woman. The first was that she was a smoker. It was a strong, foul odor that was absolutely impossible to mistake for anything else. The second is that this person was a psionic.

It wasn't possible to tell if someone was a psionic or not based entirely on smell, although Zelda had tried over the years. While Psydrium itself did have a weak distinct smell in many cases, not all psionics lived in Psydrium nor were all who lived in Psydrium psionic. However, the castle, Schloss Sterne, had a very distinct smell that lingered in the air to a dog, and this woman was covered in it. She was certainly someone who lived inside of Schloss Sterne, which meant she had to be a member of one of the royal families, so this woman wasn't just a psionic, but a noble psionic at that.

With that split-second smell analysis done, Zelda decided, for now, to assume that this person was friendly to a dog. Sitting on her hind like a well-trained dog, she let her tongue hang out of her mouth and wagged her tail back and forth across the dusty floor as all dogs do to show friendliness and happiness to a stranger. Hopefully this woman likes dogs...

Syrenrei Teh Frixz

 

[Teh Frixz]

In an almost comical fashion, Mac was surprised enough by the presence of the dog to jump back a few feet. A few silent seconds pass as she sized up the situation and made sure that the dog wasn't going to pounce. The initial signs were good, dog seemed calm, tail wagging, tongue lolling out. Mac's hands relax and turn outward in the classic 'I'm not going to hurt you' fashion.

"Shh shh shh. It's alright, I'm just visiting here. Just a lost visitor tying to find a way out. It's all good pooch, you're a good boy. I'm not going to hurt you"

Patting the top of her thigh, Mac gives a soft low whistle. If this was a guard dog, it probably would start barking but it seemed more like a pet. Worst comes to worst, it could make a good bargaining chip. Who would want pain coming to their beloved pet after all?

 

[Malikai]

Stefan Schwarz
​

Stefan found himself on a cliff. A cliff overlooking a vast and wide lake. The sun was currently held high up in the sky, shining brightly off of the ocean. Stefan's hand instinctively went to cover his eyes. The current wind blew heavily against him, it's force threatening to knock him over. Looking down the cliff's side he couldn't see much below. The only thing he could truly see was the point where the water lapped at the rocks below. With all of this going on the only thing that Stefan could focus on was his breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Day in. Day out. Day in. Day out.

Closing his eyes Stefan focused even harder on his breathes. He wasn't sure why he was choosing to focus on them, or why he was focusing on anything really. Opening his eyes he looked at the water that faced him now. The water that was rapidly coming closer and closer toward him. Only seconds away from his water did Stefan close his eyes once again, bracing for the coming impact against it. After a second of waiting he felt nothing. Then all of the sudden he felt a drop of water on his head. Opening his eyes he looked at the tiles that seemed to surround him now.

Looking down he noticed that he was in a bathtub. A bathtub that was completely empty with a dripping faucet. Along with that, he was in a well-tailored suit that was completely filthy from the tub. Stefan gave a frown and quickly stood up and stepped out of the tub. There was no carpet in the bathroom so the water dripped out and spread across the tiles of the bathroom. Looking up and down at himself he wondered why he had fallen asleep in his suit in the bathtub. After a few seconds of wondering all that had happened came back to him. The shadowy figures, Lloyd, the porcelain mask, Lloyd dying, all of it. It nearly made Stefan fall over from confusion. Focusing again on what happened he began thinking carefully about what it would all mean. The conclusion he had was not in favor of whatever unknown room he was in.

With his now realized knowledge, Stefan decided to put aside thinking about what happened to Lloyd and focus on finding out where he was and getting back to Psydrium, so he began taking in everything about the room. Fortunately and unfortunately it was just a normal room. There was nothing immediately special about the bathroom. There was cobwebs near some of the corners but apart from that? Nothing. Though what was different was the temperature. It was as if somebody had turned the temperature up tremendously. Not only that but it was quite humid as well. Which of course didn't really help with the clothes situation he was dealing with at the moment.

After delaying it for long enough Stefan finally turned to the door and gave it a quick nod, Okay door, I am going to open you. Now unfortunately for you, you don't have a real say in this. Now that we have that out of the way... Stefan took a deep breath and walked forward, stopping right in front of the door. He put his hand against the knob of the door, halting right before opening it. Another deep breath in, another deep breath out. With a quick twist and some mental preparation for what might be behind it, he opened up the door.

Outside of the door was a hallway. With nothing special about the hallway, Stefan nearly walked right out of it before stopping himself at the sound of voices. To be more accurate though, it was just one voice. A woman's voice from the sounds of it. Listening carefully he heard the woman talk about her being a 'lost visitor' which confirmed to him that she had also found herself inside this house with little explanation as well. Feeling a little bit relieved he walked out of the door and turned down the hallway to see the girl plus one.

The girl that he had likely heard speaking was talking to a dog. A German Shepard to be precise. The girl herself was young, quite a bit younger than Stefan was. Though with that youth it appeared she was quite thin. Putting aside appearances for now Stefan walked slowly down the hallway, trying not to appear intimidating to the both of them. Though he was sure from the way that the girl carried herself that she would not be intimidated by Stefan's appearance.

Walking close to the two of them he was sure they would have seen and heard him coming, though he cleared his throat slightly to make sure, "Hallo. I zink I oferheard zee two of you talking about being new to zee house. I have also found myzelf here wisout mein own knowledge." Stefan hoped that his heavier German accent wouldn't butcher the intent behind the sentence.
Syrenrei JustNicole Teh Frixz

 

[DamagedGlasses]

Robert Reese
​

Robert opened his eyes and stared at the white ceiling parallel to him. He was still lying on a flat and uncomfortably cold porcelain floor. It’s lack of color matched the ceiling quite well. Robert closed his eyes again and sighed. This was the fifth time he had done this. The only thing that had really changed was a large amount of violent activity somewhere else in the house. Were they his captors? Was the man in the porcelain mask waking up from a nap? Were they trying to bring this house down on him? All of these questions, and more, came and went quickly from Robert’s mind as he picked himself up, warily looking around his surroundings.

He could feel the panic underneath his skin, threatening him with the risk of going crazy and losing his grip, but he tried to stay cool. A portion of him wanted to check his surroundings for any vermin, but that part of his mind was still groggy and even then, psionics were like a lazy leg in the morning. Sure, stretching it out would be nice, but the initiative to do so just wasn’t there yet. Grabbing hold of the vanity to his side, pulling himself up the rest of the way, he looked around and sighed as he saw one of the most disgusting kitchens he had ever bore witness too.

Cobwebs did not keep to the ceilings, no, for there was quite the array of webbing all around the room, some of the substance branching off to the various cabinets hanging on the wall with dubious security. Pots and pans in the sink, with plates scattered around, grime and bits of spoiled food populating the finery. Robert wasn’t much of a cook, but very few lacked the know-how of making a ham sandwich. Of course, he just had to find some bread and ham. If only Lloyd was he-Oh yes, right. Robert had, for a second, forgotten the severity of his situation, and had got distracted by his morning cravings.

The sounds of voices could be heard elsewhere in the house, the walls thin enough to let sound travel, but greedily keeping things like legibility and precise wording to themselves. Robert closed his eyes and considered what his characters would do. He had never had such a strange opening in any of his books, although these events might inspire him, but one thing he knew for certain, was that he did not write cowards. They would fight to the tooth and nail to leave this play, no matter how far Lloyd had sent them before his demise. They would pull out all of their little tricks, coming up with an out of the box solution to the entire problem.

Robert felt his blood pumping, enthused with the idea of being exactly where his characters would be in a number of his future books. Yes, future books. He was going to live through...whatever this was and to do that, he just had to go at it like he knew what he was doing, even if he didn’t. Encouraged by the part in his brain that fueled all of his character’s bravado and confidence, Robert picked up one of the many rusted and food scarred pans, feeling the weight of the object weigh down both his arm...and his mind.

...Nope, he wasn’t going to do this. There were many things in this world that he could and would claim to be, but right now, in this situation, a fighter wasn’t one of them. Robert was self-aware enough to know he had a slight penchant for lying that got him in trouble from time to time, but one person he could never lie well too, was himself. Robert sighed as he loosely tossed the pan back to where he had found it, without thinking. He turned away, hoping to find a better way to go about this, maybe some silent escapi-

*NUDGE* *TIP *CRASH* *SHATTER*

Robert stopped in his tracks. Slowly turning around, Robert first saw the shattered bits of plate resting at his feet. A small pile of unnoticed plates had sat precariously close to the edge, so close that, after just a small nudge from his flying pan, it had plummeted to the ground below, mercilessly breaking apart as it collided with the solid flooring. The destroyed eatery mocked him. There was no way for a silent retreat now. If his captors hadn’t been aware of his movements before, it was very likely that they did now.

Acting quickly with instinct, Robert went into flight or fight mode. He couldn’t exactly beat someone up with the Monkey Pose, but maybe, just maybe, he could fly his way out of here. He prepared himself for whoever was going to arrive first to the scene of his accident, licking his lips as set everything straight in his mind and made ready to tell nothing but the ‘truth’.

Malikai Teh Frixz JustNicole Syrenrei

 

[JustNicole]

Christina "Zelda" Murdock
It was a good thing being a dog was literally second nature to Zelda. You never knew what people would confess in the presence of a dog alone that they'd never say to a person, all because they think the dog isn't really listening. In this case, the information she gained was knowing that she was not the only visitor here, or at least not the only one was claiming to be one. This nobles psion might be lying about being a visitor, but Zelda honestly doubted it. From what she knew of the life of nobles, this location was probably the last place one of them would ever want to be.

Zelda approached the noble at the thigh patting and soft whistle, well more like bounded, and ran up to the girl, jumping and up down with excitement and trying to lick her like any dog would when meeting someone. Typically, a dog with police dog training wouldn't react in such a manner, but Zelda had the benefit of the human mind which meant she could play both sides of a dog, the ultra-trained police dog or the happy go lucky dog.

After a few seconds of playing with her, Zelda swung around as she both heard and smelled the sounds of a new arrival. A man, middle-aged, whom to Zelda's first impression based on a combination of smells and how he held himself seemed like a kind soul. His voice, thick with an accent, German perhaps, indicated that Zelda and her new friend were not the only two visitors to this place. Zelda wondered if like the noble and herself, this man was a psion.

Had she been given the opportunity, Zelda might have swapped back there, but there were some serious problems still. The lack of clothes, namely, not the mention she was uncertain if these people were those who could be trusted. And if the man was not a psion, changing back in front of him would certainly prove dangerous, not to mention illegal. She might have ran over to the man, but the sounds of crashing plates seemed more interesting.

Intruders? Another visitor? Dangerous foes? Zelda let out a loud bark then bounded away from the noble psion's side past the German man and down the hall to the where the loud crash had originated from. As she entered the room, Zelda immediately spotted the one responsible for the noise, a thin young man with one of those "cool" hairstyles. It was hard to pin down exactly what was "off" to her about him, but all her senses were telling her to be cautious of this person, a feeling she had learned to trust in her years as a police dog. More times than not, her dog gut was right.

It seemed prudent to try and alert the others about her senses, as any dog would. She barked at the man as he stood there, then barked again louder, before beginning to slowly creep up him as she began to threateningly growl at the man. Hopefully, the others would be alerted this way to her suspicion, while at the same time clearing indicating to this man that if he tried to run, she was more than ready to run him down.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Mac Williams ​

Good dog...good dog

Giving the dog a couple more pets before standing upright, she noticed that the Shepard had gone stiff and was staring intently down the hallway. True to the senses of the dog, a man had turned out into the hallway and was now addressing the two of them. Sizing him up, his suit meant he was at least conscious of how he looked but the dust and what she hoped was water blots on him meant that possibly he too wasn't a resident here. Keeping her hands up and at the ready, the man spoke out loud.

"Hallo. I zink I oferheard zee two of you talking about being new to zee house. I have also found myzelf here wisout mein own knowledge."

She squints her eyes at his words and his accent. German? Could be very good or a very bad thing as her knowledge of German people was relatively contained to war documentaries and bad horror films where they ended up sewing people together or something. Either way, she had to respond. "Dogs don't talk, you sure didn't just hear my voice? Who are you?"

Her questions were answered by a series of crashes and the noise of something smashing. Mac wasn't so caviler about the German man that she would run past but she does take a step forward, nodding at the barking now coming from down the hall. "Why do you lead the way there mr. man. That isn't some buddy of yours or something? I'm not getting knocked again so easily." She turns her left hand, palm facing outwards down the hall as she focused in and put up a little invisible barrier across the hallway, preventing the German man from going any other way except towards the noise. "Start talking and start walking!"

 

[Malikai]

Stefan Schwarz
​

Stefan watched the two's reactions to him showing up. The dog didn't seem to react in any other way then just noticing his presence and looking over at him. This slightly confused him, usually a dog would react with more aggression in it's home and likely be a bit more protective over it. Yet the dog seemed to be almost confused in a way. If the lack of any barking was to suggest anyways. That might mean that the dog had been brought here in the same way that he was. Though Stefan could quite easily be wrong in thinking this, as he has definitely been wrong in some of his predictions before. Still it made him wonder why a dog would even be brought to the house in the first place.

The woman's reaction however was different then the dogs. She squinted at him and asked if he had just heard his voice. This seemed a strange question but Stefan answered anyways, "Y-yes I did. I heard your foice. I assume zis meant you were talkink." Stefan was unsure what the first question was supposed to mean, but he did understand the reason for the second one. Before he could answer her question he was stopped by the sounding of a loud set of crashes and bangs from another room of the house. Taking his eyes off the two he looked behind him down the hall and turned his head just in time to move out of the way of the dog bounding past him.

Turning back to face the other girl he noticed she had put her palm up and was looking at him with a bit of a glare. If that wasn't evidence enough of her distrust of him then her words definitely were. Stefan was unsure if her putting her hand up meant she was a super or she had something else up her sleeves. He didn't want to take the chance, so he put up his hands and simply said, "I am as new as you are to zis house. All I vant is to get back to my home." As he said this he kept up his hands up and began walking down the hallway to the room where the noises had come from.

Entering the room he saw that the dog from earlier was growling at a a man who Stefan assumed must have been the origin of the crashing noises. The man that stood there was a young man with black hair and blue eyes. He was somebody who looked to be fairly fit though his ethnicity was something that Stefan was unsure of. Dropping his hands slightly and moving off to the side he looked over to the man and down at the plate and instinctively Stefan said, "Sir, are you hurt?" Though Stefan didn't see anything about him that might suggest he was injured he hoped that the question would tell the man that he meant no harm to him. Unlike the vibes that the dog was giving off.
JustNicole Teh Frixz DamagedGlasses

 

[DamagedGlasses]

Robert Reese
​

Ok, so a dog hadn’t been what Robert was expecting. He could work with this though, he was pretty good with all kinds of animals, even if he preferred the tinier, less bitey type. Yet, all Robert’s charming words died at the tip of his tongue as the dog began growling and barking, certainly letting his captors know where the source of the noise was. Ok, so this was bad. He couldn’t exactly fight off a dog and outrunning one wasn’t something he had taken lessons in. Think, Robert, think. There has to be a way to get out of thi-Too late.

Robert watched as his captors finally arrived. A man, his hands raised in the gesture for pouncing on Robert, like the savage he was. That look of sullen resignation being exactly what he thought he would see on his ruthless kidnap-Now, hold on. The man was followed in by another far more threatening lady, face having a lot of telltale twitches that let Robert in on the secret of what she was feeling. The man, now that Robert truly looked at him, seemed to be as much of a captive as he was. He didn’t seem angry, and the caring tone of his voice bleed over into his face.

Robert, in response to the man’s questions, shook his head, “No! I’m not ok at all! This dog just went crazy, trying to bite me! I think it got me on my leg, but I’m a bit too busy to check!”

The dog didn’t seem to want to back down anytime soon, and Robert wasn’t sure if there was much he could do in the way of words to get out of this. Looking around, Robert noticed a host of windows just a distance away, dirty and unclean panes of glass that let light inside, but really made the view an indistinguishable mess. Robert made sure to keep his face in check, letting nothing out that could cause any alarm other than the general tension everyone was feeling.

Then he bolted.

Robert began his mad dash towards the windows, slinging off another tower of plates onto the ground to keep the dog in check for as long as possible, spook it a bit, but Robert wasn’t even trying to hit it. Robert shielded his face with both of his arms as he recklessly sprinted as fast he could with the adrenaline so helpfully provided by today’s daily dose of danger.

 

[Syrenrei]

GM POST​

It was bright outside, and by the position of the sun in the sky it was easy to wager a guess it was not long after dawn. Windows in the front of the house (as it faced east) were lit by the gentle glow and might have been more welcome if the temperature wasn't already in the 70s. With a distinct lack of air conditioning in the home, any intelligent man or woman could deduce by afternoon it would be an oven costuming itself as a residence. A cool, refreshing breeze from the southwest blew outside and the leaves rustled with the movement- not that anyone was stopping to listen.

The exterior of the home had mildewed, outdated siding that might have once been white but was now gray and varying shades of green. Black shutters were still intact but covered in cobwebs... with the exception of one at the rear of the house that was in close proximity to an impressively large wasp's nest. Even the spiders decided to steer clear of that unpleasant surprise. Decorative bushes were outside the front, just beside steps that led to a dirt path and worn gravel driveway. The shrubbery in question had not been trimmed in years and were wildly overgrown. In the dark of night they would look like ominous, looming giants guarding the domicile. Surrounding the building were trees of all sorts, both deciduous and evergreen. Calling it a forest wouldn't be entirely correct; it was more precisely a forested area as it was on the fringe of a forest instead of inside it.

The fragile window that Robert Reese had sprinted towards broke on impact, shattering into hundreds of pieces, and allowing him to propel himself straight into the embrace of the aforementioned bushes- which were actually bigger than he was. In fact, at first glance one might think them trees of an unusual shape and foliage since their branches went all the way to the ground. As he became entangled and ensnared in them, they heard something in the distance and the direction the dirt path led to.

A woman (or a man with a higher-pitched voice) let out a loud wail. Following her cry there was the sound of others, mostly men, shouting to one another before it fell silent again.

 

[D. Rex]

Rudolph Wright​

With a deep and gravelly groan, Rudolph rolled over onto his side. Coming to, finally. He opened his eyes, blinking as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. It was burning up... and his mouth was dry. The grogginess quickly lifting from his mind as his head cleared. Giving him the chance to think. He... Wasn't at his home. The thought shot an electric bolt of worry through his head, waking him up even further.

What he did remember was a bit of a haze. Llyod. He definitely remembered Lloyd. But he couldn't remember passing out... Lloyd.. . He got shot. And some woman. That scene shown clear in his head. And as he recalled it, he felt sick to his stomach. His head looked up to scan the room. Searching for any signs of what he had remembered seeing. But there was no blood. No body. This didn't even seem to be the same place.

There wasn't much in here he could tell where he was. An empty room. Maybe it was just part of a drugged dream. He wouldn't have put it past Lloyd to try to make a night more interesting by introducing him to something. But then again... Rudy wouldn't have accepted it. Lloyd... where the hell was he. Was he even...

With another groan, the young man pushed himself off the ground and fumbled over to the wall. As the light headedness began to fade away, he began to notice noises coming from other parts of the house. Crashing and glass being thrown about. Whatever the hell was going on over there, whoever was making that racket had better have some answers.

There was another crash, he heard... it sounded like a window...

Rudolph went to the window in the room he was in, looking outside to see if he could catch a glimpse... the area... he didn't recognize. Not that he would have much time to think in it before he could hear something else through the window. A scream or something. Woman maybe. And shouts from others.

Rudolph took one more look around the room. Etching the place in his mind in case he needed to quickly get away from something. He looked outside the window again, making sure his planned jump was clear, and he apparatus into the other side of the window. In the shadow of the bushes were he hoped not to be obvious. Not knowing what was going on, he didn't really want to attract attention.

Outside now, it definitely felt a little cooler. Not by much. Not enough. He peeked his head around the bushes. Seeing the dirt path, and the broken window. And someone writhing in the bushes.

DamagedGlasses

 

[JustNicole]

Christina "Zelda" Murdock
This man was bad news. Of all the confusion that was surrounding ongoing events, there was no doubt in her mind that this guy, even if he wasn't involved in whatever had happened to Llyod, was going to be trouble. The fact that the man let out such a silly fib as her biting his leg was the icing on the cake. Please, kill it it the melodrama dude. If Zelda actually did bite his leg, he wouldn't be saying he couldn't feel it. He'd be down on the ground trying to stop the blood rushing from the giant gash marks her teeth would leave as they ripped through the human flesh.

Zelda wasn't certain if an application of force was called for here. The man might a be liar and be trouble, but that didn't mean she needed to jump on top of him and bite him. In that moment, the man decided to dash. Rather than chase, Zelda simply stopped barking, cocked her head to the side, and watched as the man crazily ran out and jumped through the window without a dog chasing them. Talk about sheer panic.

Right after the man had jumped through the window, landing, presumably, on the other side of the window sill, Zelda's senses concluded two definitive things. The first, from the kitchen, she had failed to pick up on until now. From the mixing of smells, it seemed that the abandoned house was not so abandoned. Somewhere between ten to twenty people had been through the house briefly in the last month.

The second, a sound, came from far off in the distance. A woman was wailing and crying about someone, presumably someone now dead. Men, behind her, were yelling to each other calm to her down. There was something about cleaning up and shovels? A funeral perhaps? Or something more sinister? Considering the events of the last twenty-four hours, she suspected the latter.

Regardless of who these people were, she didn't exactly have the benefit of getting to know them if they were going to figure out what was going on, as it seemed they were all in this mess together, given the confusions in people's voices. Doing a small complex shift that she had picked up sometime ago, Zelda shifted her internal voice box slightly. It was a simple shift in theory, but anything with voices was always complex.

"Hello, I am Changer. Voices. Woman friend dead. Men clean and shovel maybe death cause. We all same team, lost, Lloyd dead. Anyone have clothes can borrow?" The voice, of course, didn't sound exactly like it sounded in Zelda's head. In reality, it was far rougher and slower with poor enunciation as of trying to talk through a dog's snout, but she had practiced it enough that hopefully they'd be able to understand her simple sentences and words.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Mac Williams

She was on edge already. The abduction, the random men, and now screaming and window breaking. To top it all off a 'changer', at least one of the ones that pulled huge pet peeve on her by parading around as an animal was asking her for clothing. Well tough shit, changer. With audible tonal change, Mac with her hand still raised, shrugs and speaks down to the shifted human.

"Okay, Changer then. I don't have clothes for you and I don't know what's going on but I'm not going after that idiot jumping out windows. Go check a bedroom for sheets or something"

With all hell breaking loose outside, enough impetus is provided for her to turn tail away from the commotion to explore the rest of the house for some sort of explanation as to where she was and who took her. Or at the very least find some sort of exit away from prying eyes.

Waiting till the changer seemed distracted, Mac bolts in the opposite direction, trying to figure things out as she runs.

 

[Malikai]

Stefan Schwarz​

Stefan stood cautious of the man in front of him, although he didn't believe he meant any harm he could not be too sure in this new house. The man looked from Stefan to the woman whose name Stefan had not gotten. Clearly he was freaked out by the dog, and looking at the dog Stefan had no question as to why he would be. After a few seconds the man finally responded in what was likely a panicked voice. Without wasting anytime Stefan began speaking, "Sir please calm down. If you vould just allow me a look, I am sure zat I can help out vis your problem." Before Stefan could take a step toward the man he ran to the side and jumped out a window, knocking over some plates on his way out, Damn, it seemed as if he was another brought here out of his own will. As Stefan stared out the window he noticed that the morning sky had a nice glow coming through, wherever they were was definitely far from home.

Sighing Stefan looked out the window and stared out at the unfamiliar trees and foliage. He would have been okay with just staring out the window but then he heard a loud yell. The sound seemed to be coming from a woman. After looking to both the woman and the dog, hoping for some answer. Then the dog talked in a slightly rough but understandable voice, Oh good, Stefan began to think, Good. No this is good. This is fine, and in fact it's actually perfect. Of course the dog is a changer. Suppressing his concern at the idea of how long this changer had likely been in there dog form he quickly responded, "So you knew Lloyd as vell sen? I suppose if he trusted you, I shall also trust you. Here," Stefan took off the jacket he was wearing, which was in surprisingly good condition for what it had gone through and put it on the dog, "It is not much, but I have nozing else. Perhaps we could use a few sheets?" Although Stefan was unsure about it, he would remain by this dog. Considering that she had not attacked him as of yet, he had no reason to distrust her. At least not as much of a reason for distrust as the other two people he had seen so far. Both of which appeared to have now run away.
JustNicole Teh Frixz DamagedGlasses Syrenrei

 

[DamagedGlasses]

Robert Reese
​

There were a few things Robert had done in life that he could definitely say he wasn’t proud of. Yet, if he were to be honest, this was something he’d tell his children with pride if he survived. If he survived!

Brush and bramble scraped along the side of Robert’s face as he fell into the foliage. Smashing into glass may have been loud for observers, but Robert was getting quite the special treatment, audibly and physically. The cuts on his arms and legs, noticeably small, were testaments to that. Honestly, his injuries paled in comparison to what he would have faced if he had stayed near that dog. Especially since he couldn’t control it. Wait, what do you mean he couldn’t control it?

Robert was steered away from his inner collaboration, by sounds of screaming, similar, but much more sharp than glass. Well, metaphorically. These cuts were quite real, painful, and certainly didn’t come from screams off in the woods.

Gathering himself, Robert regained his balance amongst the foliage, working his way under and around the bush he had landed on and beginning towards salvation when he was met with mental presence just a foot away from him, a fact he realized just as the person came into sight.

Robert opened his mouth wordlessly, his mind counting all the other presences nearby, especially the weird one the dog was putting off, though something was itching at the back of his mind. He was pretty sure it would come to him if he could just get a second to think.

How was he going to deal with this new guy? Was he also a kidnapper? There was only one way to find out.

Robert coughed, “So, do you come here often?”

D. Rex