Fandom Persona: Non Grata

[The One Eyed Bandit]

While Neat's expression may have remained as stony and glum as it ever did, her banishment at Amaryllis's hands brought with it a rush of panic. She had, to some degree, prepared herself for the advent of bizarre goings-ons, but being ripped from where she stood by what she could only describe as a black hole was unsettling, to say the least.

Between one beat of her heart and the next, her surroundings had warped completely. Gone were the Passion's unfamiliar walls, their place taken by the open air of suburbia. If she'd any doubts about the supernatural nature of her new home, this would've been enough to shatter them like an eggshell against the concrete that now lay beneath her feet. Her frame remained stiff and still, but a close observer would notice a brief, panics flitting of her eyes, darting around their new surroundings for a moment, before having their attention stolen by her companion's renewed antics.

A handful had elected to rush ahead, apparently more concerned with their escapade in the cafe than they were with the phenomena that had whisked them here. If she didn't know any better, she would have suspected that she was being fucked with.

While the others fluttered about, quipping and doing whatever it was that they were doing, Neat instead took her time processing things. Unless fate decided to twist itself in a different direction, they'd soon be brought face to face with a monster. One wearing the skin of a girl, probably one around her age. At that thought, her gun seemed to grow heavier in her hand. She didn't feel like the type to worry herself too much about morality, so the sensation was at once unexpected and unsettling. There was something about this, she figured, that was scraping at the back of her mind.

Whether it was just normal apprehension, or something more, she'd have to figure out.

Her sluggishness finally beginning to fade, Neat was quick to sort out her priorities. This mission, assassination, murder, hit, whatever it was supposed to be called, was a secondary concern. What came first, was finding some answers. Her gaze, which until now had been darting between the other Sinners and their surroundings, settled on Grey. The blonde was the only one here with any experience, and as a bonus, she'd also already raised her suspicions about a thing or two.

"Before we do anything rash, shouldn't we take some precautions?" Without much of a bid of the attention of the runaway Sinners, Neat begun to speak with a sudden start. "Most of us have no idea what we're doing, right? We should pair up for the time being. Cover each others backs, watch out for each other, make sure nothing bad happens to our travel buddies. Sound agreeable?"

 

[simj26]

Neat’s suggestion came too late, as the door gives way to Cinderella’s well-placed kick. The frame splinters, sending shards of wood scattering inwards, and the door swings open, and slams against the wall. The sight that greets the team is what seems to be a fluorescent light fixture attached to the floor, and nothing else. There is a whirr of a fan, and the static of a television in the room, but the light fixture is the only thing that any of the intruders can see. Initially, anyway. Grey, though initially confused, seems to have caught on to what was happening quicker than the rest, and casts a glance up, then makes a sound that seems to be a mix of both surprise and realisation. She points up, directing her companions’ attention to the ceiling.

Or rather, the floor. Above them, as if they were superglued to the ceiling, was the setting of a generic living room. A singular three-seater couch, a coffee table, a 32-inch television, and a standing fan, all standing on a red Oriental carpet, hangs above the team. Grey steps through the threshold, testing the environment, then turns and nods to the team. “It seems fine.” is all she says, and, choosing to ignore the bizarrely twisted normal setting, she continues into the room. There are two doors in the room- one is situated at the corner of the room, on the floor (ceiling) that they are standing on, certainly a small relief to some. The other, however, is on the ceiling (floor) above them, on the same wall that the other door is on. Certainly, more effort would be needed to get to that door from where the team is now. Grey doesn’t seem to intend to try the other door, and instead makes a beeline for the one available.

She tries the knob, and it turns, and she pushes it open slightly, peeking inside. She blinks, then turns to the remainder of the team. “I dunno if you’ll remember Amaryllis telling you about the whole space-time distortion thing, but you should understand, by now, that this whole place is under such a distortion as well. I advise you to stop thinking too much about logic and common sense in such distortions- it’ll do you no good. Places under the influence of monsters like the one we are hunting today are warped beyond all human cognition.” Grey pushes open the door fully, and steps through, directing her hand towards the room before her. “Like so.”

Sunlight streams through the glass ceilings and walls. A great garden spreads out across this immense greenhouse-esque construct. The first few things one might realise would be that the greenhouse is far too large to have been contained within this generic neighbourhood house, and that the sunlight that lights the garden with bright, warm vigor is one of the afternoon sun, not the blood red departing one that they had just seen outside. In fact, turning around reveals that there is no wall to where the door connects the room to the greenhouse but, rather, a white void where the door sits innocuously. There is no sight of the second door. Grey moves aside and crouches down, examining the flowers, another thing that should be noted. All of the flowers that grew in the greenhouse were roses, all deep red in colour, bathing the scene in a crimson-and-green glow.

“Roses, huh?” Grey mutters, but says nothing else.

 

[The One Eyed Bandit]

While she wasn't surprised, Neat still felt a sense of disappointment wash over her as her suggestion was washed away by the other Sinners' wave of idiocy. Not only were they not listening to her, but they were charging in there full bore too.

It was like they were trying to get themselves killed.

There was little she could do except resign herself to their whims, though. Resigning herself back into silence, she padded along behind the group proper, maintaining a healthy distance between herself and the more boorish of the lot. As Grey explained, or at least sort of explained, the bizarre phenomena that the house held within it, she let her eyes slowly roll over the room. The longer this day went on, the more that it seemed like Amaryllis's claims were genuine. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder, and keeping up with it all was getting harder and harder.

Even through her self-imposed stoicism, a momentary look of shock registered on her features when the garden was unveiled. She didn't even know where to begin. Even when compared to the inverted room that'd preceded it, this was bizarre. A feeling of dread begun to pool in her stomach.

A few thoughts flitted through her mind, though one in particular stood out. Clearly, all of the wild claims that'd been spouted at them were real. There was no way that even the most hardcore of hallucinogens could accomplish something as vivid as this, she was certain; and if this was real, then who knew was else was?

Like, for example, the monster that their client had been prattling on about.

Both to slow down the group and steady her mind, Neat took a deep breath, and begun to speak up once again.

"Listen to me, you guys. Just ass-rushing into this place is definitely going to turn out for the worst, monsters or no. I'll suggest it again. We should pair off, at the very least, and make sure we're watching each other's backs. I imagine you guys want to walk out of this alive just as much as I do, right?"

 

[BriiAngelic]

• Aster

• 
  
  
  Interacting With:
  Neat ( The One Eyed Bandit ) Team in general ( simj26 )
  

  ~???~
  Tansaku || Aster’s CS File
  This is the creepiest shit he’d seen in as far as he’d remembered. The distortion was more like a complete lack of logical premise. He should be able to look past it, hell logic shouldn’t mean crap to a group with no memories, but that didn’t mean he could quickly accept it. The greenhouse was packed to the brim with red rose bushes and nothing else. He didn’t know anything about flowers but he knew that one didn’t typically need a greenhouse for roses. They were perennial? At least that’s what he felt like, either he’d grown some or actually had rose bushes around.
  
  “So aside from the fact that we’re somehow now in a greenhouse, does any of this have any meaning to you guys?”
  
  He looked around to the group somehow he thought pairing up would be a bad idea in the long run. How would they seperate? How would they get back in contact if they did? Would a pair really be able to do anything?
  
  “You know somehow I feel like that’s not really our decision anyways with the utter lack of logic that we’ve found so far. If they wanted to move us I think we’d just be moved. Staying all together is probably for the best considering that we probably won’t be able to meet up again anyways if we split”
  
  

 

[Lucem]

Between being scolded by their boss and seeing the fabric of reality being torn, there was a lot to process in such a short amount of time. While his instincts told him to make himself smaller in order to hide from the stern voice, the fact that his surroundings were being consumed by supernatural darkness seemed a little more important. Besides, he had already been shrinking into the background since he regained consciousness. If he got any smaller, he'd be microscopic.

Hush didn't have any time to react to the cafe's disappearance, as the black void was quickly replaced by new scenery. First there was a coffee shop. Now there was a quiet neighborhood. The afterlife seemed to be full of mundane settings. Still, something simple like this was just as unnerving as a place that was outright creepy, if not more. The emptiness and near total silence was a clear sign that something crazy was bound to happen. That prediction came true sooner than expected, but not in the way he imagined.

Rather than some monster or other weird, reality-warping voodoo kicking off the descent into chaos, his fellow sinners decided to handle that themselves. Despite supposedly having more experience than the rest of them combined, Grey was quick to hide behind someone else and have them take charge. Maybe this was why she was still stuck making coffee in not-purgatory. That aside, her plan didn't go so well, as she was unceremoniously dragged inside.

Honestly, Hush wasn't sure where to start with all that was happening. First, one of them kicks open the door to the house that supposedly houses a murdering skinwalker. Then people start charging in without thinking, announcing their arrival a second time, just in case the monster couldn't hear the sound of them breaking in. Meanwhile, the others are arguing and treating the situation like it was no big deal, like demon hunting was a part of their daily routine when they were alive. Maybe it was. Maybe everyone here came from some alternate reality where things like this were commonplace. Maybe that would explain why his brand of common sense seemed to be so different compared to theirs. That had to be the explanation behind this group of lunatics. Being the only person to question these types of things was starting to make him feel like the crazy one. Thankfully, there was at least one other sinner that seemed capable of thinking things through. Although, based on the way things had been going so far, she could've revealed herself to he a nutcase at any time.

With no one willing to listen to reason, the group was forced to head inside, practically walking around with signs that read 'please re-kill me'. As he followed from the back, Hush ran a hand through his messy hair, thinking back to the last thing he had seen back at the cafe. That smirk gave him a bad feeling. In addition to being stuck in some weird monster-slaying job with a bunch of crazies, he was also apparently employed by a sadist. Not the best working conditions.

As soon as he stepped foot inside the house, the young man blinked a few times, hoping that his eyes would correct themselves. The floor was on the ceiling. The ceiling was on the floor. Fantastic. At this point, was it even worth freaking out about? His brain was already starting to get overloaded from everything else, but this may have pushed him to a point where his own anxiety just gave up.

Grey offered an explanation for the weird distortions that was pretty much just "don't look for an explanation". According to her, things under the influence of monsters were warped and beyond understanding. While he could've easily freaked out about the fact that she just confirmed they'd have to deal with more killer creatures in the future, he found himself picking at her choice of words instead. It wasn't just this place that was warped. Everything he had seen so far was beyond warped, including the people. Logic and common sense didn't have a place anywhere, not just in some distorted, eldritch space.

To no surprise, the others seemed to be handling the avant-garde decor a lot better than him. This included the girl who was so hesitant to enter just a second ago. Instead of hiding behind someone, she was now admiring a bunch of flowers that shouldn't have been there. Was she used to things or not? She bounced back and forth between a meek girl and the type of girl that stops to smell the roses in a monster house pretty quickly. Did all dead people have a screw loose? Well, he wasn't one to be talking about odd characters.

Once again, the bespectacled girl spoke up to caution the group that was so eager to rush to their second deaths. The second attempt seemed to get a better response, as someone actually paid her some attention. Although, they didn't exactly agree, suggesting that they stay in a large group instead of pairing off.

Hush didn't really agree with the man's reasoning that they could just be moved at any time. There was nothing that backed the belief that the monster could just move them around as it pleased. If it could, it was a miracle that they weren't being skinned right now. This place just seemed fucked from the start, rather than being sorted according to someone's will. Still, the reasoning didn't really matter. Both of them agreed that going in alone was a good way to get eaten. Now they just had to agree on how to group up. Hush was fine with either option, since both prevented him from walking around by himself in some cosmic horror house. However, the thought of going in pairs was unsettling. Being alone with another person was one thing, but there was also the matter of their numbers. He hadn't done a proper head count, so he wasn't sure if they had enough people to split. There was a chance that he'd be the one left by himself if there was an odd number of them. He didn't have any memories, but he had a feeling that he was the type to be picked last during kickball.

Hush said nothing as he waited for the others to speak up and tip the argument in favor of one of the opposing sides. As long as he wouldn't be walking through these crazy halls by himself like an animal that strayed from the herd, either way was fine. As much as he preferred to shrink away from the larger group, he'd rather not die. Again.

 

[Exanis]

From the moment that the group had been so easily whisked away from the coffee-shop-between-worlds, via a portal, warpgate, wormhole, blackhole, whatever you wanna call it, to the moment that some 'genius' decided the best course of action would be to literally kick down the door to a monster den, Raven had held his tongue and stood back, a silent observer completely unfazed by the ongoing events that seemingly still hadn't been noticed by anyone in the group. Not that he minded them not really taking him into account, if anything it helped him. Still, Raven kept quiet and watched, categorically storing information on every little thing that he caught while continuing to formulate a plan that he didn't even really understand yet. This habit of his was really starting to perplex him, if he was being honest. That aside, his watching did grant him nuggets of insight on the people around him. Most of them only really reinforced the ideas he had in mind about them, but others did intrigue him ever so slightly.

Case and point being Grey; She's supposedly the veteran of the group, and yet the moment they landed she went to seek cover behind another, while telling them, the complete newbies, to go ahead first. That rang some alarm bells in his mind, for various reasons. And then the moment the door was kicked down and she was dragged in, Grey seemingly flipped a switch, and took the lead, explaining, though the use of "explaining" seems to be a bit of a stretch, what was going on. Those previous alarm bells just got louder and louder. Truly, if their caretaker hadn't had such a miserable opinion about them, Raven would bring it up when, if, the managed to get back to the cafe.

The less said about Cinderella the better. One moment flustered and embarrassed, the next gun-ho and kicking down a door. Raven really didn't want to delve further in his thoughts about the man lest he get caught up in some idiocy later on.

Then there was the one with glasses. She seemed to be one of the more logical of the group, but the keyword there was 'seemed'. From the start she looks like she despises the world and everything about it, for reasons quite literally unknown to all of them, what with the memory loss. Still, she had taken an effort to keep the less rational of the group on track, rightly suggesting that they make some form of preparations. But then come the reason of the previous keyword, she suggested they 'break off in pairs'. Forgive him if this seemed harsh, but considering that they were hunting down an supernatural being, likely with superhuman attributes, armed with seemingly mundane weaponry and nothing else, the idea of breaking off into small pairs with no idea what to expect, no way to tell the passage of time, and no way to communicate, all in an unknown realm that is somehow controlled or influenced by a hostile creature? Laughable at best, assisted suicide at worst.

This isn't even taking into account the dispositions of the group, and how many of them would likely clash with each other. It isn't like they had formed any sort of camaraderie over time, all they had to go on about each other was a code name, and the fact that they are sinners who have agreed to do this dirty work to repent.

Still, as the group entered the garden-past-the-upside-down-room, Raven decided that now was the time to break his silence, at least momentarily, before the group literally tore itself apart, or worse, got them all torn up in a moment of ignorance to their surroundings.

"If you all would take a moment to consider something else before you get us killed? We're here to hunt down a creature of supernatural origins, one with an innate ability to literally warp reality from what we've seen. Do you honestly, truly, in the depths of your heart believe that some regular weapons, and your various conditions of fitness, will be able to take it down let alone react to it if it ambushes us?" He carelessly waves at all of them with one of his brass knuckles as if to make a point, then continues, "If that were the case, splitting up in pairs is an express one-way trip to hell, and staying in a large group is just a slow suicide as we get picked off one by one. But, I have a feeling that isn't the case." Here, he turns his gaze from sweeping across to the group to glaring directly at Grey. "Miss Grey, I'm only going to be asking this once. How are we supposed to kill such a supernatural monster, and what haven't you told us yet."

This, of course, was all delivered in a calm, smooth, baritone that perfectly reflected his impassive and unimpressed visage. As he finished, Raven subconsciously began to move a hand to the inside of his jacket, stopping near the start of the action as confusion flooded his mind for a brief moment, before he came to a conclusion to himself.

'Huh, I guess I smoke.'

simj26