Futuristic Ｔ Ĥ Λ Ŀ Λ Ƨ Ƨ Λ

[Sunbather]

It suddenly seemed as if everybody thought in unison. In spite of their many disputes and clashing personalities, they all seemed to be fed up with this place one way or another. Dylan still felt truculent after being faced with the indifferent agreeableness of Kaye and Turin, and wasn't quite able to act entirely appropriate just yet, and so she stormed right by Three despite their accordance.


"Let's go then." she hissed out, throwing a squint in Eve's direction as if she had personally been insulted, waving around the gun in her hand. She marched towards the closest door, one behind which layed a staircase. The way down led to darkness, through which fine dust drizzled from the stairs above, advertising the frailty of the structure, whereas the upper levels appeared brighter.


She couldn't pinpoint why she did what she did. There was no use to her action, and she knew it. She knew it, and did it regardless. "So let's hurry then, damn it!" she yelled over her shoulder, subtly feeling how she anticipated getting a rinse out of the group.


"We need to go up. Here's a staircase that goes up."


Her eyes flashed over to Three for a second, wondrous and guessing, as if to check for potential conflict after her rude behavior, then flew over to Turin, where she lingered. Her brows lowered and her arms crossed, Dylan couldn't help but feel dumbfounded at how calm and almost annoyed he appeared after what they had seen.


@Mordecai @Poe @Aldur @Coin

 

[Sunbather]

Automated response

⊷ Almost in sync with Idris, two of the muscular men behind their apparent leader moved as well. A track record of attentiveness seemed a given, judging by the lack of reaction or even an expression of urgency on the blonde man at the center of the action. Before Idris could land a punch, or a tackle, or really any sort of offensive maneuver, precise movements intervened, holding the young man in place. His ligaments twisted just enough to be painful but harmless, their expression didn't budge whatsoever.


"Damn." the blonde bull of a man commented, somehow sounding amused and dry at the same time. "Don't hurt them, will ya?"


He stepped closer to his men and Idris and put his own, gloved hand on top of Idris' shoulders, after which the pressure seized and both men moved away.


"Calm down."


It wasn't threatening, but his tone left no doubts that it wasn't exactly a request. With a boyish grin, he shoved his woolen toque up with a single thumb, then scratched his head behind his ear. Now less veiled in shadowy darkness and no longer hidden behind the walls of men he clearly lead, his feature came into the light. Stuble over a rugged looking face. His wide nose and slight wrinkles around his eyes suggested a man who has spent years in good spirit, but he excuded a sense of annoyed surpremacy. Despite the nose and his wide jaw, his face was narrow as a whole, and the comparetively small mouth gave him the look of a permanently nauseated intern, displeased with instruction beneath him.


"Before this goes any further: Weren't there more of you?" he asked in a tone that suggested his question was rhetorical.


"Dude with grey hair, the ginger, blue hair, other blue hair, AI, old gu... ah, he's there, cool... Uh... The pretty boy, the journalist and I have a few others, too. Mind telling us what's up?"


@CRiTiCAL ERR0R @BlueInPassing @korigon

 

[hosaki]

Arina Smirnova

​

The building was stable here, but the fluorescent lighting added a harsh, sinister tint to the extending corridor. Being bombarded by one danger after another had frayed Arina's nerves and wearied her mind, so much so that every flicker of the light made her muscles tense. Even the short exchange between Idris and Brian made her wince; she wasn't sure if it was just her nervous imaginings, but their voices seemed to carry and echo along with their painfully loud footsteps. The girl fell back behind Idris to keep beside the injured man in case they ever needed to move quickly. As the most useless member of the group, it was the least she could do. Idris could fight, and fight well. Brian had more guts than all of them combined. She'd assumed that he was a regular civilian from the way he'd carried himself, so wielding a gun during a shoot out was no doubt any more foreign for him than it would have been for her. This fact didn't remove any of the growing dislike she had for the man, but she felt as if she'd lost in some fundamental area, to an old man no less.


When everything blacked out, Arina froze, unsure if it was a mere short-out of the circuitry or some other precursor to misfortune. When the lights came back on without anything out of the ordinary, she felt immensely grateful. The feeling was short-lived.


Three men, three shots, and then they were dead. She cupped a hand over her mouth, sure that her heavy breathing would betray their immediate hiding place. A quivering glance backwards only yielded the same straight corridor. Nowhere to run. Please, just keep walking, the girl prayed. Cold sweat prickled the back of her neck as the seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly. "L1 here, we cleared the floor. Had three res. Couldn't find any of the seven, we're currently-" Please.


Silence. Alarm bells flared at the unnatural pause in conversation. She shut her eyes as her hands gripped her skirt fabric. They're coming over, they'll shoot us like the three bef -- "GET THEM!"


Grabbing Brian forcefully by the arm, she tore down the hallway, footsteps pounding, heart pounding, head pounding. They would be gunned down by those laser rifles. She hadn't gone more than five paces before a morbid curiosity compelled her to look back, and she saw Idris hurling himself at a soldier before swiftly being taken down. It was over. She stopped dead in her tracks at the sight, all but collapsing into a show of surrender. Internally, frustration bubbled at Idris's hotheadedness before envious admiration won out. If he was going to die, he'd die fighting, was the impression that Idris gave her. Even in her own possible last moments, she'd chosen to run away.


"Don't hurt them, will ya?" Arina's whipped her head up, eyes widening in surprise. The previous encounter they had with armed men had been entirely hostile -- no questions asked, just shoot. Could these people possibly be a separate party from those of the facility? In that case, the three of them could still make it out of this ordeal alive. It seemed sensible to cooperate. She stood up in measured movements, her palms open at her sides. There are no hidden intentions here, her body language said.


"We were separated right after the first tremors started. We don't know where they are." A quiver ran through Arina's voice, betraying her nervousness, but steady gray eyes communicated the verity of her confession.

 

[sorrow made you]

IDRIS DALCA

Memories of back at the hotel room, where all of this had started, flashed through Idris’ mind. How he was so easily manhandled by men that used a smokescreen to their advantage. But this time, there was no smokescreen. Just skilled men in heavy uniform. Maybe that was what pissed him off so much. They were stronger than he was. He was so swiftly incapacitated, and that was an embarrassment that only fueled what was left of Idris’ seemingly endless anger fuel tank. Even worse was the more Idris struggled, the stronger the hold they had on him.


Hearing the swear from the blond man, Idris turned his attention in front of him. Who was this guy? Gloved hands on his shoulders made Idris seethe. Was he so arrogant to think he could just walk up and clap his hands on him like that? What, did he think they were buddy buddy or something? Surprisingly, the other men pulled away, but even with the subtle order, Idris couldn’t help the burning malice within him. How could he calm down with all that’s been going on? He couldn’t trust anyone. Not even the girl and the old man, to be honest.


Idris gave the man a scowl, rolling his shoulders and refraining from decking the man’s head off. His question made Idris scoff, as if it was comically disgusting. “What’s it to you? I ain’t gonna tell you nothing.” He muttered, only to be overshadowed by Arina’s answer.


Looking back over his shoulder, he stared at Arina for a long moment. Seriously? The brute let out a low growl and turned back to the rugged blond. “What do you want with us? If you’re asking, there’s gotta be something of your interest.”

 

[Sunbather]

Automated response

⊷ The blonde man sighed in a childishly impatient manner and scratched his chin. "Seperated, mh?" he parrotted, looking over his documents once more. He seemed to pay little mind to the rumbling in the distance, surely coming from above. As he peeked up and stared directly into Idris' face, a cheeky smirk appeared. "Nah, we stormed one of the elite facilities during a catastrophe because we were bored."


The dripping sarcasm fell victim to a stern expression. "We need to find them and get out of here. Send Root and Bram into the lower area, we go up." Two of his men assumed a vaguely miliaristic position and sprinted down the staircase closest to them. Routine lingered in their motion, and one had to wonder wether they were former security or something of the sort.


"Let's go look for your friends then. We can do the coffee and tea talk later, redeye."


He began walking towards the staircase himself, the rest of his troop waiting in position, not moving, but keeping their gaze glued to the three captives. "Look, I know this isn't exactly the best way to get the boyscout badge for trust excercises, but you do see we could just shoot you if we wanted. Buuut we didn't. So please, make some room in your timetable and you can be pissed off later, a'ight?"


He didn't await an answer and continued his ascend, but mouthed down a "Name's Damon, by the way."


@CRiTiCAL ERR0R @BlueInPassing @korigon

 

[Poe]

K A Y E || M A T T I X

​

Dylan’s outburst did nothing for Kaye but she followed anyway. There weren’t many other options. Die, die, run or die. In any other world, on any other day, Kaye would have just accepted her fate but with so many people running forward it was hard for her feet to stand still. Maybe there was still survival instinct. One foot in front of the other, an easy command for her mind to make, but the shield kept her attention.


A weapon tapped into the nervous system of an unstable risk.


This ought to get real interesting, real fast.


Kaye followed up the stairs, dust falling around them from the fragile structure and she could feel her heart beat in her eardrums. Thump, thump, thump.


I told you she would respond. Look at that.


No, no, no.


Kaye’s quieted mind filled with white noise. Words, sounds, images and she was right back where she started before her breakdown, before the dam broke and her thoughts were free. No, she was right back where insanity met clarity and now was not the time. They had to keep moving, there was an unstable device strapped to her arm, she could not let go. She fell back a step or two behind the group, her footsteps slowing as she tried to even her breathing and mind, but she could feel the core getting hot. She could calculate the potential energy and she knew that it was responding to her.


In an instant there was a flash of red and Kaye let out a yelp as a force field expanded vertically, slicing through the staircase and the adjacent wall. There was a leap of space between Kaye and the others, but she glanced up with a bit of panic in her eye.


Dylan was right. Eve was right.


They couldn’t trust her.


“It’s malfunctioning,” Kaye called out, her words a bit frantic but it dawned on her quickly, “It’s – I’m too – the core’s too hot.” Kaye tried to yank it off, but to no avail, only a few droplets of blood pattered against the floor from where she had yanked the skin too hard.


Think of what she could do with a mind like this.


Kill everyone, that’s what she could do.


“They’re locked into our nervous systems, it won’t…”


She looked up to Turin, Three, Eve and Dylan. For the first time in a long time, a genuine apologetic look appeared on her features. “Go,” she said a bit shaky, “Find the others before I kill all of us.”


“I’m too much of a risk.”

@Sunbather @Aldur @Coin @Mordecai
​

 

[Sunbather]

Dylan, still ahead of the group, motioned towards the stairs, still feeling robbed of an outlet for her frustrations. Sulky, she tried to force herself to let go of the situation as a whole and instead march forward. She stopped upon hearing something she hadn't ever heard before. Kaye screaming. Forceful and loud, instead of the usual sound of her voice trailing along. Accompanied by a flash of red, Dylan found herself drawn back to the group, and with slow steps she descended the few steps she had taken to climb the staircase.


"Stop horsing around..." she mumbled quietly and needlessly audible. Her steps lacked vigor and turned into a dragged scuffle, as if relcutant to drop her antagonizing schtick. Then, she jumped. An impact, one that Dylan couldn't categorize whatsoever hit the hall, its damage visible with little effort. Eyes wide and tension returning to her body, Dylan's mind flashed to Idris, whom she still had to find, to Turin, who still represented some sort of comrade due to their shared experience with the abominations below.


"Run..." she mouthed, preparing to scream it. She threw an apolgetic look to Kaye, trying not to lose it in her decision to abandon the girl, trying to act before the guilt would endanger her and the others even further.


And then, her eyes met Kaye's, and a sharp, cold pain made her ache.


"Do, I wanna go home, please!"


"I know, just stay close, okay? Don't let go of my hand."


How mindless everyone was, stomping around like bugs, jittery and panicky, careless of the little girl Dylan tried to pull close into her...


The red light radiating off of Kaye's shield amplified the sense of urgency, and Dylan tried to gauge how to safely get everyone into the stairway without possibly being hit by the unstable weapon. The light in the hall flickered, either because of the consistently crumbling structure or because of Kaye's weapon, she didn't know.


"Dylan, I'm scared."


The light had flickered that day, and it appeared as a on and off play, switching darkness with the sight of a shopping mall floor croweded with people. All of them flooded towards the tears and the authority station to get out. Outtages were a true rarity in Thalassa and she imagined many of the other citizens had never experienced one before. She hadn't either, and admittedly, it was scarier than she had ever imagined. The price for this sort of life oughta be high, she thought. Then, a scream. Dylan jerked around. A tackle.


The present pulled her back, the wall crumbling where Kaye's shield had hit her. Imagery fluttered before her eyes.


She had been bumped into by a group of a few men and women who seemed to belong together. She felt her hand slip and lose the small, sweaty hand.


"Dylaaan!"


"JEAN! JEAAAN!"


A flash of panic in her sister's face appeared, before a row of men sprinted and broke their line of sight. A senseless search. A hopeless endeavour.


Panic. Panic and apologetic. Kaye. Who knew how similar two humans could be?


"STOP IT!" she screamed, forgetting her facade, forgetting her plan to bolt, forgetting the building and Idris and herself and the phenomenon and everything was her fault.


Her hands dug into Kaye's frail shoulders, her finger's knuckles turning white. With a pale face and dilated eyes, she turned to the others.


"Somebody do something!"


@Poe @Mordecai @Aldur @Coin

 

[Coin]

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​

Three was among the first to notice Kaye's slowing footsteps. Just as she was about to turn her head and glance back to ensure everything was all right, a brilliant flash of red light flooded her vision. A wave of heat washed over Three as she flinched to protect herself from whatever it was, but the danger never came. When her vision cleared again, Kaye remained, screaming and struggling to rid herself from the shield that clung to her arm and Dylan -- also screaming, hands firmly gripped on Kaye's shoulders. It was very clear that whatever lab experiment Kaye had attached to her arm could catastrophically fail at any moment and reduce them all into a smoldering crater before anyone had the chance to see the light of day again, yet, whatever had crossed Dylan's mind made the woman think the best course of action was to get as close as physically possible and continue to agitate Kaye.


Three noticed it when she lowered her rifle to her side and held one hand in front of her to get their attention. The shield and its angry red core seemed to breathe like Kaye was breathing, in a way. The more frantic Kaye was becoming and struggling, the brighter the core shone. The gear was interfacing directly with Kaye's mind, panicking as Kaye would, creating a positive feedback loop that ended in a mutually assured destruction. Suddenly, Three was feeling much less confident with the same technology hanging at her flank.


That would come later, her first priority was Kaye.


"Listen to me, Kaye, Dylan!" Three slowly approached the two, gently placing a hand on Dylan's shoulder from behind, rifle still lowered in the other hand. "Dylan, please. You're not going to make this situation any better being so close. Just give Kaye some space, but we are not leaving her behind. I promise."


Three had done this countless times before. Hostage situations were a regular part of being a doorkicker, and Three had talked down her fair share of explosive situations. This was different. The tactics they employed were to slow the hostage-taker's movements, calming them into a state of artificial peace in the middle of chaos, slow enough for a marksman to put a bullet in between their eyes. This was going to go much differently. She was going to make sure no one was going to lay a finger on Kaye.


Ensuring that Kaye had plenty of room to breathe between the two of them Three began to speak in a relaxed tone, "Kaye? Just look at me in the eyes for a moment. Concentrate and just listen. We're not going to leave you behind, not after all of this -- all I need you to do is breathe, in and out. Breathe with me and let's work together on this."


Though Three was an android and had no functioning lungs to breathe from, she tried her best to simulate a rhythmic rise and fall in her chest for Kaye to follow.


Please work.

 

[hosaki]

Arina Smirnova

​

Seeing Idris's apparent frustration at her for answering the man's question fueled an annoyance of her own. The way Arina saw it, her answer was hardly an act of betrayal to the group. The three of them didn't know where the rest were: what could the strange men do with that piece of information other than whatever they had already planned to? Getting angry wasn't the answer here, she reminded herself, neither for Idris nor for her.


"Cooperate," she hissed. Wincing at the unexpected harshness of her own tone, she continued in a gentler manner. "They'll lead us out of here, and you'll be able to reunite with the others. I know you don't trust them, but the way I see it, Damon's the best option we have right now."


The memory of Idris's previous violent outburst made her wary of approaching. This, combined with the ever present need to move carefully, resulted in a walk quite akin to a tamer in the face of a feral cat as Arina closed the distance between them. She gave his arm a squeeze of reassurance. From everything that had happened to them today, it'd strange if none of them were on edge.


"I'm sorry." An apology tumbled out, barely audible. She felt compelled to say it. Perhaps it was because she had been nothing but a burden to the others. William resurfaced in her memory, and she had the feeling that she wouldn't be forgetting his face for a long time. "Let's go."


Arina followed after Damon without looking back. Her mind was working furiously now, catching onto every minute detail she could glean from the blonde man's response. Her previous hunch was right: these people were different from the men who'd first attacked them. What interested her was his use of the word "catastrophe". They weren't the ones causing the tremors then? What was going on? Was her family safe? She wrung her hands.


"What is the catastrophe? Aren't the tremors only happening here? At least tell me that much. I think I deserve to know, as a law-abiding citizen of Thalassa who was just-- just taken off the streets." Her eyes squeezed shut as she exhaled.

 

[korigon]

Everything was a blur for Brian. All the incidents that had transpired over the few hours - current events included - seemed so surreal, like a disturbing dream of some sorts. But you don't feel pain in a dream. Brian never had, anyway. It was all too clear that what he was experiencing was real.


The thought didn't comfort the curator as he found himself being dragged along. Between bouts of sudden disorientation and confusion, he found himself taking initiative, or atleast trying to. It was as if he was watching a video in first person, but not able to control himself. Everything that Brian did was dictated by autopilot and a stubborn resolve to survive.


And then he snapped back to the real world, awakened by the burst of blazing sapphire. The girl - he couldn't remember her name again - rudely grabbed his arm and took off in the opposite direction the android went. Had they exchanged names? Brian felt as though they had.


Looking ahead, Brian found himself approaching the poster-boy of machismo, a man straight out of an action movie. The aviator sunglasses were the perfect touch for looking like a jackass indoors. Damian - had he heard the name correctly? - wanted them to travel to the upper sections. The past was repeating itself. Lots of moving, little answers.


"No."


It was interesting how much emotion could be put into speech. In a single word, Brian had created a cocktail of fear, bitterness, and exhaustion.


"Those people - Cogito No More. They could have killed us too. Instead they abducted us, and I know that's the same for you, right? Not like you'll just let me cruise away. I want some sort of answers. I know I'm in no place to set demands, but you can either share some knowledge, or just get one of your thugs to sling me around until we reach another inevitable destination. Not that I wouldn't mind that, eh. Ankle hurts like a bitch and I'm tired as hell."

 

[Sunbather]

Automated response

⊷ Damon began his ascend regardless of the stubborness of the group, his steps sluggish and sort of dismissive. "Well you can follow and listen to what I can tell ya, or you can stay here and die. Probably wouldn't hold up much longer outside anyways, huh, gramps?" He could hear the steps of Arina, easily recognizable; not as heavy as his men's combat boots. He chuckled, his laughter similar to someone coughing. "Well, li'l lady, I'll tell you what I can, but... You should probably stop thinking you're entitled to anything. I mean... what has your lawful and sweet and nice little schtick brought you today, you know?" he said, a hint of sarcasm lingering about.


"Well, I imagine you might've seen them already. There's these tears. Light. Bright. We've tried to measure them but it's not working. Like, at all. So with the bastards in here experimenting on all this crazy shit and you guys coming here all of the sudden... Seems like a bit too much of a coincidence, no? Conomo is already kinda shady. But we found some really messed up shit." He moved his heads to the sides, his neck cracking audibly. "Well, as far as we know, the tremors are only happening here. But... if one of the main towers crumbles, it spells doom for a whole lot of people in Thalassa, you realize that, no? We're trying to keep everything in check. Which... isn't as easy as we make it look, pah."


@CRiTiCAL ERR0R @BlueInPassing @korigon

 

[Aldur]

She had no fucking time. No one had no fucking time. They had already wasted enough time with the box. Eve's movements were twitchy as if she wanted to just bolt forward towards any light that spelled "EXIT" in bright lights. She couldn't leave the group behind, right? That's not what Cole would do. No, he'd keep a constant pace and wait for the others patiently... while the whole building was collapsing on top of him.


She instinctively hurried her jerky pace until she realized the group wasn't behind her anymore. She backtracked for approximately two seconds before she saw a streak of red flashing from Kaye. And then it all went to shit.


"No fucking time..." she muttered. Of course, no one heard it but herself. What would Cole do here? In actuality, he'd likely try to help. He'd get his hands dirty and try to move everyone forward through his charming personality and sheer motivation. No. Truly, Eve felt like violently dragging everyone to find an exit faster. She couldn't help but stare profusely at them until Three stepped in to strategically defuse the altercation. It wasn't long until Eve herself started following Three's advice to breathe. It was getting harder by the second.


Finally, she clenched her fists, which made Eve notice the handgun she was holding. One quick look at it set the wheels in motion. She aimed at the wall to her left and...


BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!


Four loud turquoise projectiles shot out of the contraption and melted away at the wall. Some sort of thick liquid lingered down the wall until it had finally cooled down and solidified. Eve stared. First at the weapon itself, with a bit of a surprised look and then at everyone else, a spark of anger tensing up the muscles on her face.


"We don't have time for this! Come the FUCK on!" came the brutal, unhinged reaction. Clearly, she was losing patience, a drop of sweat broke the contact with her chin. "Follow!" Eve motioned with the gun and nodded her head to the left.


@Sunbather @Poe @Coin

 

[sorrow made you]

IDRIS DALCA

This guy… Idris already knew that this Damon guy was gonna piss him the hell off. Was he simply egotistical? Or was he just that witty? Whatever the case, Idris wasn’t too fond of his lax demeanor in their current situation. The man seemed to hint at holding their own circumstances over their heads like a cheap bargaining tool. With a growl, Idris knew that there really wasn’t any other alternative for them at the moment.


Idris started to follow, even with Arina and Brian’s skepticism echoing his own cautious thoughts. Logic had to seep though, passed the forever burning temper of Idris. Even Arina had asked--well, more like told--Idris to cooperate. With any other option weeded out, much thanks to Damon for pointing the fact that they could have been mowed down, all Idris could do was follow. He kept quiet as Arina and Brian asked the mysterious Damon questions, only to be left in the dust.


As much as Idris wanted to retort, he remained quiet, only listening as he followed Damon up the staircase.


Now came some actual information as to what the hell was going on here.


“Conomo?” Was this the guy that abducted and brought all of them here? Idris thought back to the last moments he’d seen the greasy man. Sniveling, completely lost from the world. Broken. It made his stomach clench in disgust.


“Amuse me a bit. What other really messed up shit’ has been going on here?”


There was a slight pause from Idris as he let the rest of the information sink in. The tears… The transportation tears? Was that what was just cutting through the hallways? The flash of William being there one second, and then just gone the next and replaced with a large part of the hallway missing. What if it was...the tears were cutting into the towers? But how? Why? Was that train of thought even close?


“So if you’re trying to keep everything in check, does that mean you’re part of an organization?”

 

[Poe]

K A Y E || M A T T I X

​

It all melted together in her mind. Dylan, Eve, Three. Kaye’s eyes were firmly on the device and her mind raced. A threat. A risk. This was not how she thought it would end. She hoped it would be easy. In her sleep, in one quick moment, but not this – it was always supposed to be just her. Just her suffering, just her death, just her brain, but it was not just her anymore. Dylan’s shaking jumbled her thoughts. How was she supposed to disarm it? Where were they? Did she leave the door unlocked at home? Kaye tried to shake her head, her free hand coming up to grip at her hair. She needed a moment.


She needed a lifetime.


It’s too much cognitive stress.


She will handle it. She always does.


What happens when she can’t?


She can.


“…We're not going to leave you behind, not after all of this -- all I need you to do is breathe, in and out. Breathe with me and let's work together on this,” Three’s voice broke through her mind and she glanced up to see the woman looking back at her. Calm. Collected.


Kaye tried to shut her mind down. She inhaled, exhaled, but the pressure still built up and she could feel the core getting hot. It wasn’t working. She could not handle this. She could not do this. They were all going to die and she knew it. She could feel it deep in her bones.


“We don’t have time for this!” Eve yelled.


And she was right. They didn’t have time. She couldn’t –


BANG! BANG!


The jolt of the noise from Eve’s gun kick started her thoughts. Like an etch-a-sketch, her thoughts were there and then shaken from her body. Her heart rate increased, her mind dropped back down to zero before accelerating to eighty in a moment. Her eyes found Three’s again, this time showing something more akin to processing than the sadness and fear that had once resided there.


I told you, when she is pushed to her limit, survival kicks in. There it is.


Kaye’s hand reached for the device and instead of trying to tear it from her arm, she pulled back a panel and started fumbling through it. The wires were hot, burning her fingers but she pulled anyway, adjusting and reconnecting, her eyes jolting back and forth as she followed the speed of her hand. The core would always be unstable, but if it was connected to her nervous system, she could certainly manipulate it. In a split second, the near imploding core cooled and Kaye blinked a moment. Then twice. Then three times.


What had happened?


She looked up at Three, then over to Dylan before bringing her free hand up to touch where the tears had built up in her eyes during her panic attack. “I—” Kaye mentioned softly, “I’m sorry.”

@Coin @Sunbather @Aldur
​

 

[Sunbather]

Dylan was, for once in her life, wanting to say something but found herself at a loss for words. She glanced around, noticing the feelings of looking up to everyone from the ground, with Kaye next to her. Yet another sight, another perspective, another experience in this damn facility she could've done without. And yet, a weight fell off of her seeing that the crisis had been averted and their group seemed as safe as can be expected under the circumstances.


She nudged Kaye's tigh before blinking herself, and pushed herself up to get a bit of distance from everyone. "You... uh... So do you think you can control that?" she asked, pointing at the shield. She avoided looking at anybody directly, instead letting her gaze circle around Kaye's feet and the ground between them. She wondered if she should just remain quiet after her remarks from just a moment ago.


Her eyes flickered to the holes in the wall caused by Eve. She couldn't help but wonder how anyone could think it'd be a good idea to further destabilize the surroundings. Then again, wether the whole thing was intentional or not, it seemed to have worked. Dylan bit her tongue and avoided any comments, now dusting off her pants.


"Sorry." she parroted after Kaye. "Lost my cool a bit. Won't happen again." she assured, then turned towards the exit she had just ran from. "We need to hurry. It keeps getting louder." She didn't move for a moment, finally turning around again and looked at everybody with a vague expression. "Let's just got out of here, okay?"


@Poe @Mordecai @Aldur @Coin

 

[korigon]

Brian was tempted to simply slump himself down on the floor and stay there for awhile. Perhaps he could take a stroll around the rest of the facility. The idea was probably suicidal and absolutely idiotic, but he didn't want to focus on the cons at that moment. The curator felt exhausted. It wasn't just physical fatigue, though an injured ankle and being treated like chopped liver had left him actually drained. Brian suffered exhaustion, even on those days where the sun glowed brightly and he had a rare good day at work.


Bah, he sounded like a melodramatic teenager.


Pulling himself off the ground with a grunt, Brian decided to follow Damon, albeit reluctantly. The man nettled Brian's nerves with his attitude. He was much too calm for whatever catastrophic was happening around them. That wasn't a bad thing. It was certainly good to keep calm during duress; yet their rescuer seemed to merely consider their queries with disdain.


His eyes narrowed as Damon briefly mentioned tears in his muted answers. The Tears were essential for transportation on Thalassa. There would be widespread panic if they malfunctioned, even on the upper levels. The lifts. . . . . They would be flocked by mobs of people. Riots could break out. No, that was jumping to conclusions. He had already used them earlier today, to get to the level that dump of a hotel had been on. Tears were often updated, and this site could pass for a testing facility. A fatal glitch in the latest edition, then?


"Tears? What type of Tears? And what does all this have to do with the symbols?"

 

[Sunbather]

Automated response

⊷ It was not surprising in the slightest, and yet, Damon found himself feeling unprepared for the questions; he even felt annoyed. He could feel the younger man's eyes drilling the back of his head, as he continued to ascend through the rumbling building, his gaze glued towards the stairs. He let out a sigh and did not attempt to hide his disapproval and dislike for the current situation. "Conomo, yes. This facility. Nobody uses the pretentious not to mention long-as-shit name." he barked out, though his tone seemed aimed more at the facility rather than Idris now. "You'll get more information that you probably like once we get out of here, but to give you a test, they experiment on people. Alive. Dead. Doesn't matter to them. Weapons. Not really innovative, but that doesn't make it any better."


He elected to ignore the question about him being part of an organization, smacking his tongue against the ceiling of his mouth and cracked his neck once more, more out of habit than sense of relief. The cranky voice of the older man reached him and he stopped for a second. "Oooh, right. You guys probably think of the travelstations, mh? Well..." he gestured, and turned once more, now returning to moving up the stairs. "I don't mean the Tears", he made airquotes with his free hand, "trademark sign. I mean literal tears. In the air. And if there so happens to be something where the tears pop up - like this building - it gets crushed. Or... Well, torn apart."


Damon pressed up against his hat where his ear was and fell silent. "Right... Come back up then." he said to nobody in particular and held up his rifle with both hands now, his posture shifting into one of militaristic tension. "Unless you don't value your faces, I ask everybody to stay back a few steps now." he said and inched towards the door of this stories' staircase.


@CRiTiCAL ERR0R @BlueInPassing @korigon

 

[hosaki]

Arina Smirnova

​

Arina's lips pressed together, the only sign of her increasing dislike of the man. He was almost as bad as Brian, except Brian actually spoke his mind without injecting subtle condescension into his speech. Damon was right, of course, but that only annoyed her. The notion that good, lawfulness, and diligence meant nothing to the world made her stomach twist. She'd always known, somewhere, that Thalassa was a cold, cold city of steel. Hard work and obedient citizenship were measly pickings to the towering monster that fed and fed off of the greed of men. Yet if she acknowledged this truth, it would render her twenty-one years of existence worthless.


Then again, was it really worth that much now? Their world was literally falling apart… Damon said that there were tears in the air, whatever that meant. This government facility, Conomo, would only be the beginning. What would class divisions mean then?


Don't think about it. People were waiting for her, this nightmare would be over, this "tear" business was only a freak incident. Her steps slowed and she eventually came to a stop at the top of the staircase where Damon had halted. The plaguing doubts were set on the back burner in favor of the more immediate danger at hand. What could possibly be there that left the military man (which was what she presumed him to be) to be so on edge? Certainly not human for sure. An image of the three men flashed in her mind, their dented vests of particular interest now. She had taken notice of them then and had linked them to Damon's men, but upon further consideration, that simply wasn't feasible. The two groups were coming from different directions.


Arina instinctively crouched lower and hung back, like Damon had advised them to. Something was behind that door, and she did not want to be the first in line to meet it.

 

[Mordecai]

​

With all the confusion—the gun being discharged and planting bullets into the wall, to the breakdown, to the confused bickering between people wanting to go, but no one wanting to know, Turin had had quite enough. These people meant nothing to him; they had been the people who had gotten him here in the first place and, truthfully, he had no reason to stick by any of them. Not a single one. Kaye had been nice enough, but she had made another friend and Dylan had been fine, but she seemed as disoriented as the rest of the lot was. He was ready to go, unfortunately, he wasn’t a leader.


They were all like droplets leaking from his faucet. They did the same thing over and over and over and expected something to change. Drip. Dripdrip. Nothing would change. Dripdripdrip. It was all the same. Drip. But no more. Turin was sick of staring at the metaphorical wrench and, picking himself up, letting both of his hands hang down at his sides, he stepped around the group of people. No one paid him any mind, no one ever really cared to do so before. He was pretty sure that if he had just fallen into a hole and died, no one would have noticed his absence anyways. So, why bother trying to stick around?


There was a door and, as quietly as a mouse, he stepped towards it. No goodbyes, no encouraging ‘let’s go!’s, because Turin was done. Done with all of ‘em. They could sit here forever if they wanted, but he’d sooner die alone and trying to escape than together and like a lump on a log. His fingers curled around the door handle and it squeeked on its hinges as it opened. Into the darkness he stepped—leaving behind Eve, leaving behind Dylan, leaving behind Kaye, leaving behind everyone. They didn’t care. They had no reason to.


Unfortunately, fate had other intentions.


Turin slipped around the corner and into the stairwell, only to physically smack chest first into another man. A small bark of surprise slipped from between his lips as he staggered back, his fingers tightening around the grip of the gun but never once thinking to raise it at the man, Damon, he had just run into. “Hey-“ Turin breathed out, “You’re from that meeting,” he squinted, his desaturated blue eyes slicing through the darkness, “Uhh, glad you all didn’t die, I guess.” Quickly, his eyes flicked across the small group. “Looks like we’re all reunited again. Joy. A few folks still seem to be missing though.” A few faces seemed to be absent, but he couldn't remember their names. Oh well, it wasn't important.

@Sunbather @Group B
​

 

[sorrow made you]

IDRIS DALCA

I take it back. This guy isn’t so bad. was Idris’ initial thought when Damon gave the short and straightforward answer about the facility they were in. He couldn’t help but to appreciate it. At least it was some sort of answer. Even though he didn’t get a response as to what kind of group Damon belonged to, he felt that surely the man was right and all the answers they would be asking for would come soon enough. Though Idris wasn’t one to trust easily, Damon so far seemed to be their only bet. Besides… he’d trusted Arina’s judgement already…


When the explanation about the ’tears’ came up, Idris raised a curious brow. Physical tears. But… how? This only stemmed even more questions, though the gang leader decided to leave them for later. It was obvious they weren’t going to get too much out of Damon besides surface level answers.


Idris was taken out of his thoughts when Damon spoke abruptly to whoever was on the other side of his comlink. He was hesitant now… something was going to happen by how Damon suggested they stand back. Would they witness another tear? He reached out and placed his hand on Arina and Brian’s shoulders. Whatever it was behind that door, Idris wasn’t about to defy the words of caution. “If I tell you to go, you duck down and run back, got it?” He whispered after leaning close to the two. With everything that had gone on already, Idris didn’t want to take a chance that Damon and his crew could handle it. If something went wrong, at least he was willing and able to fight. The fact that he was already very tired didn’t even seem to cross his mind.

 

[Sunbather]

Automated response

⊷ Damon had held up his flat hand, palm facing towards the group of Idris, Arina and Brian as well as his men in the back. He motioned as if to push them away, signaling once more to stay back, before clutching onto his rifle and taking two stairs at a time to get to the next plattform inbetween stairs. His steps suddenly became remarkably quiet considering his heavy get-up. An air of professionalism radiated off of the blond man, contrasting his lax and stingy attitude from before.


Suddenly, a noise. A click to be precise.


Damon swirled around, his visor following and quickly aiming at the source. The door parted and a well-built man with partially grey hair bumped right into him. Damon remained where he stood, not tumblig upon impact, and he had lowered his gun. "How unnecessary..." he mouthed. Suddenly, he once more clutched onto his gun, retaking his posture and signaling something. "Juuust a moment, heartbreaker." he said, while one his men stepped forward from behind the group. He, too, directed his gun towards the new arrival, after which Damon proceeded to drop his.


"Hotel, you're saying..."


His free left hand found its way to his temple, the visor's case reaching all around the ear of his head's left side. A faint flash ran through the implemented screen, presumably displaying some sort of information pertaining Turin. He barked out to his men. "Carmine! Backtrace that path." A little clumsy, almost, perhaps taken off-guard by the sudden harshness of his captain's command, one of the men in the back came forwar, leaving only three more behind the marked ones. Damon let up from his visor and instead produced a device shaped like a shoetree with a thicker handle from one of his holsters, its black shell solid bar a single screen and a light to signal its status. On.


"Alright... Turin, yeah? Just stand still." Damon asked, his voice reeking with hostility. Just stand still for a moment. He proceeded to motion the small device all across Turin's body, similar to security searching attendants for particular items before granting entry into event halls. No sounds or noticable alerts came from the device, and after about a minute of the procedure - Damon's subordinate still aiming at Turin's head - he let up, seemingly content. A gesture followed, and the masked man dropped his weapon. Damon clapped his hands together as if to celebrate.


"Good then! Welcome to the group. Sorry for the rough treatment earlier, but we had to get in here somehow, eh?" Damon shrugged. "Not a fan of people with eyes too sharp." he mouthed quietly so that only Turin could hear and winked ominously.


"I'm guessing you know each other already? Shall we get the rest?"


@CRiTiCAL ERR0R @BlueInPassing @korigon @Mordecai

 

[Mordecai]

​

More guns. Except this time, it wasn’t Eve angrily pointing it towards a wall, but a man Turin had, for a split second, believed he had recognized aiming it at his face. Fan-fucking-tatstic. That’s what I get for picking door number two, he thought bitterly to himself, though he hadn’t a second to pass anything more than just a fleeting glance over the rest. Turin watched the exchange of power, his eyes trailing from one gun yielding jagoff to the other, as general chaos began to unfold.


Some kind of detecting… anti-detecting… whatever device was run all across him and it caused his artificial heart to speed up, though that was probably from the adrenaline. His senses were on high alert: every colour brighter, every noise louder, every stranger a cause to make his heart beat more fiercely still as the adrenaline was as good as a shot in the arm. His lips coiled, pressing against that perfect stretch of teeth beneath, the corners of his eyes pressed with wrinkles as he braced for the worst but it never came. Instead, a clapping noise and Turin jolted like it caught him off surprise.


“Yea, somehow,” Turin echoed the man, his eyebrows raising, “Thankfully, you won’t have to deal with them. The rest are through the door. And there is no ‘we’ here. You kids have fun playing soldier, but uh… good luck getting any of them to actually move before the turn of the century so, yea, I’ll see you all later. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Turin had had very much of high-priced electronics, angry wall shooters, and over-dramatics for one day and, true to his word, he was still convinced he’d much rather die alone than in a group with those he had smooshed into. Gingerly, he stepped to the side of Damon, resuming his prior activity of descending the stairs.

 

[Aldur]

And then the wheels were set in motion, albeit a little too harshly. Eve did not mind, however. Her arms relaxed again. A dexterous thumb found its way on the little button next to the gun's hammer and pressed it. With it, the weapon entered a sleep like state. Its turquoise lights dimming ever so slightly.


Kaye had seemed to retake control of herself. Eve gave a long look after which the gaze of her steel blue eyes scattered across her surroundings and the group as well. Someone was missing. Did they manage to get tailed and snatched up or... And then it clicked. He ran away. Turin had left the group. Eve's mind jumped to conclusions, a conflicting array of emotions filling in the gaps to silly theories.


"Where's the old guy?" she barked. The girl's forehead was wrinkling itself. Did he seriously just ditch them? Eve felt obliged to just stop caring about him and continue on her previous path. After all, this meant he didn't give a fuck about them. So, naturally, why would they?


"The fucker with long hair. He fucking ditched us!"


@Sunbather @Coin @Poe

 

[Sunbather]

Automated response

? Damon raised his left eyebrow. His head was tilted back, and though the both of the wear almost the same height, he glared down at Turin. As the marked man said his goodbyes, Damon let out a scoffing chuckle, and turned in the same direction. "Aaaah, tatatat, I'm afraid that is no option right in this moment. We don't really wanna stoop down to Conomo's level and take hostages, buuut... It'd be very unfortunate if one of you fellows were to be recapture by those guys, so... sorry bud, but you're gonna stay with us at least until we get out of here."


The blond's empathy was hardly believable, but his intent of having Turin stick around longer seemed serious. Before an argument could break out, Damon shrugged and spoke up once more. "Plus, you do realize your score is still negative, yes? Oh, and a few gentlemen are probably swarming your apartment right now. Trust me when I say this, you'd rather not run into those guys." He snuffled and turned to proceed into the stairway Turin had just emerged from. He bend over the edge of the top stair and peeked down, as if to try and check in on his subordinate. "Still wanna leave, killer?" he asked Turin.


@CRiTiCAL ERR0R @BlueInPassing @korigon @Mordecai

Dylan swirled around, ripped out of her part ashamed, part upset sullenness upon hearing Eve speak up. Her attention had been fixed on Kaye, only to look for Turin in a weird need for approval. It was only a moment, and Dylan was almost immediately upset at herself over it, but it had happened. And now she somehow managed to miss him leave the group? She looked on over every single one of them twice, scanning the corners of the room in the process. Eve was right. He really wasn't there anymore.


"Anyone see where he went?" she quickly asked into the room as loud and as clear as she could. They had just averted a crisis. Something like this happening shortly after seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. She clenched her fist, one of them closing around the handle of the gun she had retrieved from the crate, only to hear footsteps. "Hey!" she hissed out in a hushed tone, hoping to alert everyone, as she aimed - or hoped that she aimed the exit of the gun, anyways - towards the door the noises came from.


"I... uh... come in peace?" a high male voice sounded from the other side. "We found the rest of you. The old guy, girl and two other men." Dylan's eyes grew wide, and she now purposely avoided to look back again, trying to hide her face until she regained her cool.


"To the sides." she whispered and motioned for everyone to move, so that they'd be out of sight when whoever was behind the door came in. A mechanical swish later, the doors parted. A heavily armored guy, helmet hiding is face through something milk-glass-like, stepped on. He carried a gun, but had it pointed down and one arm raised.


@Poe @Aldur @Coin