july 2019. welcome to the void.

[modblob]

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: First Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of July 2019
Where: Around and outside the city.
Warnings: Please add any warnings in the subject lines.

Redshift: Welcome to the v͖͕̺̲̘̱̜͎o̴̦̣̠̦̘̹͞i̯̖d̛̪̬͈̱̦̝͍̕.

Click here to read what characters will experience when arriving in Anchor.

a. bot party.

A few hours after the first arrivals, odd noises start to filter up from the pavilion and park at the base of the city. Limp whistles, the gunfire pop of small fireworks, and music from what sounds like a broken kazoo. It seems as though the still-functioning robots of Anchor are trying to welcome their new human overlords, based on programming that hasn't been exercised in... uh, shall we say "a while"?

Three of them have formed a tiny off-key band playing unfamiliar tunes from crackling speakers. One of the three punctuates the music at odd moments by smashing together a pair of cymbals that seem to have been constructed from a flattened pot and a trash can lid. Two others man the refreshments table. Some of the food looks downright inedible, but there are piles of wild berries from the upper floors. Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries. Apples and cherries. Fruits that shouldn't be in season together but somehow still are. There's a strange and vaguely triangular pastry that tastes like hot cinnamon candy. There are piles of vegetables, too, though the only preparation they've had is to be washed and dumped in baskets.

One of the chef bots has put some work in, though, and there are a couple of stews and soups available for the adventurous. All of them are made with the raw ingredients available to eat on the tables. One of them even has meat in it, though that's best consumed by people with very hardy stomachs.

At the end of the refreshment table is a cluster of fresh-pressed juices and unlabeled alcohol bottles, with uneven stacks of cups stationed around them. (Careful, some of the cups are cracked.) Even the good old bar bot is doing his part, pouring out glasses of orange juice and straight shots of tequila. A very generous compromise in place of his usual tequila sunrises. Right? Right.

The most conspicuous robot is the one setting off fireworks. It’s already blown off one six-fingered hand, but by god that hasn’t stopped it. With every small cluster of colorful explosives, the thing throws back its chunky head and gives a sound that can only be described as a metallic cackle.

Might want to watch that guy.

b. life signs in the wasteland.

In the wee hours of the morning after the robots' attempted welcome, the impacts against the dome overhead start. Meteorites, some of them as large as a person's head, bombard the shield and the area around for miles. The alarms that start throughout the colony are enough to wake anyone up, if the thunderous noise of the cosmic storm wasn't enough to do it.

And the alarms aren't for the meteorites. The red shift is rising up around the colony, that phenomenon that no one from the past had the foresight to give more than vague warnings about. New residents who have done some digging will know exactly what’s going on, but for those who’ve avoided even thinking about what’s happened to them, well. It could be a nasty surprise.

Anyone sensible would stay inside with all of that going on, but there's something else: life signs. The communication devices given to residents on arrival light up, indicating the presence of no less than five flecks of life out there in the wastes. Odds are good that at least a few of them are monsters from other worlds, or twisted radioactive creatures warped by the planet itself. But one of them is very human, and has been here for a very long time.

Should residents venture out to investigate these life signs, they’ll find the farthest one to be a man in protective gear, flickering like a badly received signal. As the red shift starts to fade, he solidifies, and as the shift finally dies away, he wrenches off his helmet with one hand and falls to his knees. He's as twisted as the creatures the planet has corrupted, one eye socket nothing but a depression sealed by flesh. His lips on that side curves sharply upward, barely hiding teeth too sharp and long for a human mouth. It's clear now while he pulled off his helmet with one hand--the other is a wreck, a blackened stony mass sealed to the cuff of his radiation suit.

He can hear you coming, if you're brave enough to approach. He can hear you coming, and will turn his one orange-irised eye to watch you until you speak.

c. hairy repairs.

Welcome to Anchor, where sometimes you're the only thing between you and the catastrophic failure of life support systems. After the red shift ends, the radioactivity warning alarms will at least fall silent. The cosmic storm has passed, and for a little while there's quiet under the dome.

But those exploring the upper reaches of the city might hear new alarms, much softer and less insistent than the radiation alarms. They're coming from one of the survey rooms near the garage and the exits to the surface. It might take a little doing to pull up the screens triggering the alarms, but you'll be glad you put in the work. It turns out, those meteorites damaged several of the exterior sensors and one of the major radiation and light transfer panels that help keep anchor supplied with energy--and help keep the shield dome in good working order.

While the damage is easy to see and isn't too hard to fix for those with some technical know-how, there are life signs moving slowly closer to the colony. It's quite possible to fix the damage and get back inside before those life signs arrive, but there's also the risk of being caught in the open and facing down some of the planet's native creatures.

In this case, they're large, furry millipede-like creatures no less than seven feet long. They're perfectly harmless, if you don't count the fact that they seem intent on trying to eat the protective gear and tools you've brought out onto the surface with you. It's not their fault that your arms are inside those delicious radiation suits.

d. shadows of the past.

A few days of genuine quiet follow the fixing of the exterior damage. Time to explore, to get lost, to drink more than your doctor might recommend at the colony's only serviceable bar. Enough time to feel the weight of Anchor's emptiness.

The next time you walk into the bar, there's a see-through stranger at the pool table, smiling warmly in welcome. "Want a game?"

Get too close, and he disappears. But he was there--he was clearly there. The cue he was holding clatters to the ground and rolls over to rest at your feet.

Down in the pavilion, there are children playing in the park. Throwing balls, playing tag, their laughs echoing somehow in the open air. Invisible parents call for them to be careful or slow down. Now and then one of them will vanish midstep, only to appear again back where they were ten minutes ago and start their run through the park all over again. They can see you. One or two might even invite you to join their games, taking your hand in their own, leading you toward their fellows. And when they do, you can hear their parents' voices exclaiming in shock. A rush of shadows scoop up these phantom children and whisk them away into some invisible world where you can't follow, only hear the children crying in fear.

All around the colony, shades appear and vanish, some solid enough to touch, some just barely visible. Some are inexplicably aggressive, attacking anyone who tries to talk to them or get too close. Just as many run screaming or sobbing at the sight of you.

But there are others, too, who seem to recognize you. One of these is a young woman holding a gun like she has no idea how to use it. When approached, she almost starts to cry. "Oh, thank god. We have to get the kids to quarantine. We have to get them into lockdown. Those bastards-- Those sons of bitches-- The kids should at least have a chance."

She starts to turn, and a laser blast rips through her, lancing across the wall right where a deep score mark still exists, not in the least ghostly or unreal. If you touch it now, it feels warm.

e. ping from the rubble.

As though the presence of past residents sets it off, a persistent signal begins to broadcast from the collapsed library. It turns out there's a section not buried quite as deeply as the rest. A row of broken terminals, ending with the one sending the signal. A warning signal about the structural integrity of the library complex and the need to back up crucial data. Too little, too late, but with time and patience some of the partial files on the terminal could be reconstructed....

For those less versed in computers, there's a mysterious door just past the terminals, partially blocked off by rubble. If that can be cleared, the door leads into a dusty room with more broken terminals, but beyond that, there's a small library of real hardcover and paperback books, with comfortable chairs (some of them needing TLC), low tables, and lights (currently broken). The books are in a variety of languages, both Earth-based and alien. A flickering "skylight" at the top of the room shows a blue sky flanked by swaying trees, or a thunderstorm, or other, stranger but still friendly skies. It blinks off, sometimes, but seems determined to keep playing its peaceful scenes for those below. With some cleaning up, this could be a good retreat from the sometimes oppressive emptiness of Anchor.

Navigation.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[modblob]

Ask any mod questions here!

Re: QUESTIONS

[braveoff]

Is it possible to communicate with/assist the man that was outside in the shift upon reaching him?

[eudorapatch]

How long would it take someone in fairly good shape to reach the human life sign in the wasteland? Would fifteen minutes be enough time, conceivably, or is it further out than that?

[benhargreeves]

Cole and Ben had finally reached Creepy Joe here, would it be possible for him to be added as an NPC to the thread? Thanks!

klaus hargreeves (hadriel crau) 👻 ota 👻 cw: descriptions of injury, possible drug use

[substances]

👻 i. first encounter (locked to ben hargreeves)

The decontamination thing is a trip. A bad, bad trip. It reminds him too much of going to prison, so he basically checks out until he's in the shower room, pulling the bandage off the puncture wound in his shoulder that he'd so stupidly forgotten about after the war with the Null and accidentally waved off the offer of a heal on his way out (saying 'nah thanks' to a god after fighting a war to protect said god was probably a bad idea, but Klaus isn't known for his good ideas).

The bandage is dirty with old blood and dirt when he drops it on the floor of the shower with a heavy splat, and he spends a few minutes under the spray hissing as he lets it soak into the wound, eyes squeezed shut against the pain. The skin around the wound is a little red and warm, but it's hard to tell if it's an infection yet or just angry. Either way, he doesn't have another bandage. So he just snatches Dave's dog tags out of the decontamination chamber as soon as the door opens and slides them over his head, then takes the freshly decontaminated bag of his stuff and pulls on a clean shirt and his leather pants and his boots. Taking the vest out, he investigates it quickly to see that most of the blood stains came out, and slides it on, giving it a little tug at the bottom.

Then he leaves the room, bag slung over his left shoulder, his right arm cradled against his belly to spare the shoulder movement, with no idea where he's going, and nothing really but a sense of dull shock at being in yet another new abandoned place after thinking he was going home to help Five and the rest fix the timeline, avert the apocalypse, and maybe hopefully see Dave again. No such luck. Instead, he's just...alone again. More alone than he had been, because he's here by himself, he doesn't have Drake or Julie or anyone, and he hasn't even seen anyone.

Until he turns a corner after going down a few floors, and sees a familiar form. Breath catching in his throat, he speeds up to a jog.

"Ben? Ben, is that you?" he shouts, voice pitched ridiculously high. He sounds so hopeful.

👻 ii. the wagon

This is probably the stupidest party he's ever been to, but it's been a while since he ate something halfway healthy, so Klaus is standing off to the side (well away from the fireworks robot, thanks, last thing he needs is his face blown off by a malfunctioning pyromaniac) with a tiny plate piled with berries and a glass of orange juice.

It was a close call for a minute there. With the day he's been having, it's really, really tempting to grab one of those unlabeled bottles of vodka and go hide in a corner. There are, of course, the couple of joints he has in his pocket, but he knows he needs to save them for when he really needs them. Then again, this is really starting to feel like a moment he needs one. Maybe the half joint.

He can be found at the party either picking at a plate of blueberries and strawberries and some orange juice, or tucked away in a corner trying to light a stub of a joint with a lighter, hands shaking.

👻 iii. alarm bells and ghosts

Klaus is pretty much useless in this kind of situation. In Hadriel, at least they'd been in familiar terrain fighting a familiar way, but when it comes to radiation shields and damage to said shields and all the screaming alarm bells and bleeping life signs on the sat phone (that was what they called it, right?) he's completely useless. He's gotten used to phones after Hadriel, but his understanding of anything more advanced than a rotary landline or typewriter is kind of stunted due to the fact they hadn't really had that kind of thing back home.

Mostly, while all the alarms go off, Klaus can be found taking shelter under whatever stone ledge he can find, sitting with his knees up, hands over the back of his neck, trying to just ignore the sounds of it all because he can't...really do anything.

It's even worse once the spectres start showing up. Sure, Klaus is used to that kind of thing. He's used to seeing ghosts, weird remnants of the people who used to be around. He'd seen them in Hadriel, the Hosts, like giant nautilus snails with tentacles and whatever else. He'd seen the people that his friends and acquaintances had killed. He sees them here.

He can't tell if it's better or worse that other people can see them, but he knows it's definitely worse that some of them can touch people. Whenever he sees them, he's turning on his heel and immediately leaving the area - feel free to run in him mid-flight.

👻 iv. wildcard

Toss me a starter with your character doing whatever or hit me up on plurk at caffemisto or on discord at coffee #6251 to plot.

I.

[benhargreeves]

[ Ben beat his brother here. Not by long - only a handful of hours - but it has been enough time for him to adjust at least a little to the immediate shock of being alive again, and of being in this place. He had gotten through decontamination in a haze so complete it was honestly probably closer to dissociation. Since then he had wandered around this place, down to the living areas, through any corridors and levels that looked semi-functional and had lights on and people in them.

The strangeness of this place and the people in it - with all their stories of being gathered up from far-flung universes or dimensions that weren't their original homes - had kept him from thinking too much about what all this means for him, personally. It is like a dream, with no connection to his actual life. Or, well, afterlife.

That is, until he hears a familiar voice, turns around to see his brother. ]

Klaus?!

[ Ben's breath catches, and the funny thing is that he feels it in his chest. All these physical sensations - it's going to take some getting used to. But he doesn't focus on that right now, because his brother is here, and he hadn't known how much of a relief that would be until he showed up. Ben quickly closes the distance between them; Klaus is wearing that same vest he'd had on ever since his little time traveling accident, and he looks - pale. Stressed. But then, who could blame him. ]

Klaus, look-

[ Urgently, eagerly, Ben reaches out and rests a hand against Klaus's bare arm. His palm is warm, solid, real, alive. And he can feel Klaus there too, in a way that he hadn't felt any person in so many years. Ben's expression is one of intense confusion, but there's a happiness underneath, waiting to come forth. His heart is hammering away, and the frantic rhythm of it, the rush of blood in his veins - it is all so inexpressibly wonderful. ]

2

[shouldstoptalking]

Alex is walking around the party with the sort of look of disbelief on his face. What the hell was all this? Robots throwing a party? It seems so... wasteful honestly. Like all that work going into the robots would probably be used for something else. He also honestly isn't used to robots like that. His world has plenty of autonomous or semi autonomous machines but none quite like this.

He grabs himself a drink and a plate of food and walks over to a guy he sees watching the fireworks robot from a safe distance. He glances over at the robot, shaking his head. "That seems like a disaster waiting to happen."

IV {Watching you unravel in the hospital

[deadlycurves]

Ben had mentioned Klaus being here. Here and busted up, laid up in a medbay somewhere not far off. The place was easy enough to find with his brother's instructions. Much like everything else in this place, it seemed largely empty. Which made it really easy to spot the one, occupied bed. He knows who's in it, but still approaches cautiously-- always err on the side of caution and suspicion, it's safer-- until he comes to a stop with near-silent steps at the foot of the bed.

Diego feels something sharp and jagged twist somewhere deep in his chest and get between his ribs. This isn't a sight he thinks he can ever really get over. Any of his siblings, unconscious and battered in a hospital bed. The thought of Allison, throat slashed and blood everywhere, months back now, flashes through his mind, quickly on the heels of this very thing-- Klaus, propped back on a bed in a hospital. It was only weeks ago at this point. Looking frail and weak, snapping sharp remarks about how shocked he was to see them there, to know they cared enough to be at all.

This time it's different. This time... he's not even awake to make snide, ruthless comments. He's just small and still, the only movement or sign that he is alive at al, the easy rise and fall of his chest with each breath. He can't stop the stray thought of just... how many times did this happen, how many times had Klaus narrowly dodged death in the last decade and none of them even knew? Diego didn't expect to be greeted with this sight again so soon, and he has no idea how his brother ended up so bruised and beaten.

He doesn't make a sound as he watches Klaus with an acute sense of the seconds that pass. But he doesn't deign to wake him up, instead only silently grabs what had probably been a doctor's stool once upon a time to sit on as he waits.

Kabal || OTA

[kaballin]

A: It's a dead man's party
The raucous noise is enough to have Kabal grouchily stalking over to investigate what the hell is going on. He's in a foul mood, which is different than his normal not caring attitude because he had to fight with a disembodied computer voice in the decontamination room about his mask because he was not about to die taking a shower. Welcome to Beacon, go ahead and suffocate to death naked in a weird communal shower while they sprayed his jacket with something that still vaguely smells clinical and reminds him of hospitals.

Wow that sure is... music he supposes. Or it's trying to be anyway. At least there's food and alcohol. So maybe it's not all bad.

He'll likely be standing near the fireworks bot, waiting for it to shoot off some more hands or start detonating them into the crowd. Either way that's at least something interesting to see.

That mask does actually come off, and he'll be taking it off to shovel food in his mouth because he's been dead for twenty years prior to this and fuck did he miss food. Under there he's just as burnt up as his exposed chest and what can be seen of his arms. At least he still has hair. It'll only be off for a few minutes before it's strapped back on. A man's gotta breathe after all.

D: It's hard to hustle shadows
Kabal is by the pool table standing near ... well he was standing near someone. Someone who keeps kind of flickering in and out mid-game. A game that is getting increasingly frustrating when the guy he's trying to beat keeps straight up disappearing. He's not even cheating right now because it's pretty easy to win when half the other guys shots don't land as he vanishes. But he is very aware of how absolutely insane this is.

"Do me a solid and tell me you see this guy too and I'm not hallucinating. Lie to me. I don't care."

D

[itsnotaonesie]

Peter has absolutely been watching this weird ass pool game, because who the hell wouldn't. Just sitting at the bar, sipping on some orange juice, and wondering just what the shit he's even looking at. Ghost? Hologram? A shared hallucination he's having with this mask dude?

Whatever it is, it's creepy. He's about to just turn around and pretend nothing about this is weird at all, but then mask dude speaks up.

"No, there's definitely a guy there. Sort of. He's not there now- Oh! There he is!" THE GUY'S BACK, Peter points right at him. Hello, pool man.

Julie Grigio (Hadriel CRAU)

[redwinekindofgirl]

a. bot party.

[After all that time in Hadriel, you know what Julie doesn't trust?

Robots.

There's nothing about them, as innocent as they are, that doesn't give her the creeps. She stands far back enough that it's not clear she's simply observing them but it's entirely clear that is exactly what she's doing - her eyes never leave them for a moment. Her attention slides from the musicians, to the chef, to the... whatever you'd call it setting off fireworks and blowing itself up in the process, and she doesn't even think about touching the food.]

Who the fuck do they think they're trying to kid... [She mutters, sliding into a chair at the bar and giving a hard stare at the shot of tequila that's immediately lined up in front of her.

It's probably poison. But you know what...

She's going to knock it back anyway.]

Fucking creeps.

d. shadows of the past.

[Oh, she can deal with the ghosts. The guy who disappears at the pool table. The kids with their parents outside who vanish when she gets too close. She can deal with all of that, with the things she's already seen before, but when that laser blast strikes through the spectres near her, she screams.]

What the fuck!? [The words burst out of her if only to cover the fact she just shrieked loudly enough to draw the attention of anyone near by. With her heart pounding and located somewhere in the middle of her throat she gulps in a few breaths and realises, with a faint touch against it, that the old scorch-mark on the wall is...]

... What the fuck... [She whispers it this time, her fingers twitching away from the warm stone.] What the hell is this place.

e. ping from the rubble.

Hey.

[She waves a hand to catch the attention of someone near to her. Exploring collapsed buildings is something she's been doing since she was a child, and this is no new thing to her.]

That signal, you hear it? It's coming from in there.

[The young woman grins, and there's something wild and dangerous in it.]

Wanna go in?

wildcard!

Wildcard me!

A} {Trust nothing and no one, except your gut

[deadlycurves]

[Diego isn't sure about any of this, his nerves are on edge and he's skeptical about everything that he sees, least of all the food and drinks they're expected to eat. He's really fine, in that regard, for the time being so he won't be touching any of it, thanks. He's standing near the bar, when a blonde slides up and downs a shot of... something. Maybe liquor, maybe cyanide, who could say? He perks a brow in her direction, there's a teasing, amused sound to his voice.] Apparently you, if you're gonna take their offerings.

E

[killedwithlove]

Cole's been exploring and this place... feels peaceful. And not. But maybe?

He comes over in a twist of smoke and reality, right next to her and peering in through the space.

"Better here, no dead to come across us, it's still a tingle in the back of the skull that they might be here. I can go in. I'm only mostly real, so I fit in most places."

E.

[kaballin]

Fuck no.

[Probably not the response she was looking for. Then again she did wave over the masked burn victim with swords on his back.]

But if that shit collapses on you I'll be sure to let someone know. Put out one of those little white crosses like on highways.

Poison (The Box & Hadriel CRAU)

[writtendestiny]

b. life signs in the wasteland.

[She isn't asleep when the bombardment begins. Poison is awake, though her two cats are startled out of their naps by the noise, and she spends the first few minutes gently calming them down. It offers a distraction, at least, from the burning anger that's been smouldering under the surface since she first arrived here.

The red shift comes as no surprise to her. She may be furious about where she is, but experience has taught her to be as well-informed as possible in these situations. How many times has it saved her before?

Poison doesn't go outside, but she moves as close to it as she dares. With an eight-legged Technician experiment purring in her arms and a small black cat winding around her legs she watches the phenomenon rise from the safety of the dome. Her attention strays frequently to the marks of life on her communication device, but she's curious, not utterly stupid.

If she catches they eye of someone approaching, she'll lift her head to comment--]

You're not actually thinking of going out there, are you?

c. hairy repairs.

[Poison explores because it's in her nature. She roams to the furthest edges of the city in her search for information, and as she makes her way to one of the highest point she can find, she hears the faint, gentle alarms. Good sense is overriden by curiosity as she approaches the source, but for all her experience she isn't quite knowledgeable enough to bring up the screens with any kind of haste.

Fifteen minutes of increasingly frustrating attempts later, she finally brings them to life, and she squints at the readings on them.]

Ugh... damaged sensors. [She mutters, pursing her lips and blowing her cheeks out for a moment.] Come on, Poison. You're not going to let this beat you, are you..?

wildcard

Wildcard me!

Repairs

[itsnotaonesie]

[Peter had been off on his own little exploration quest when he heard the alarms. After tracking the sound to one of the survey rooms, he taps on the door frame so he doesn't startle whoever is inside by just barging in.]

This is where that alarm's coming from, right? Find anything?

[Not recognizing Poison from behind, he starts to approach the screens to take a look for himself.]

Peter Parker (Hadriel CRAU) | OTA

[itsnotaonesie]

A: BOT PARTY

[There was once a time where Peter would have been nerding his entire brain out over a robot party on another planet because this is some Star Wars shit okay, but that time was like, a year ago. Before Thanos, before Hadriel, sure, this would have been pretty cool. Now? Shitty wasteland planets and robots were in spots 2 and 3 of his "top five things I never want to deal with again" list. Spot 1 was lasers. Just. No more lasers.

He'd been drawn to the party by the noise and had almost left immediately because, again, noise, but the refreshment table had caught his eye. Scavenging had become second nature during his time in Hadriel, and that's why there's some scruffy looking kid stuffing food into his backpack over at the refreshment table. He hasn't had fresh fruit in months okay, don't judge.]


D: AND THEN SHIT GOT WEIRD

[Okay.

Okay. The transparent guy at the pool table. That was a thing. Peter had played it off as some sort of glitchy hologram. Given the nature of this place so far, it hadn't seemed too far fetched a theory. This place has party robots, why not holograms too? Perfectly reasonable. The kids outside? Totally holograms. Just holograms playing on a loop. The hologram theory seems pretty solid to Peter, that is until the kids start trying to interact with him and suddenly he wants very much to not be here. His theory quickly shifts from holograms to oh my God this entire place is haunted why is my life like this, but before he can retreat, all Hell breaks loose. Ghost kids are getting scooped up, ghost moms are screaming, something about a quarantine, goddamn lasers.

Normally during overwhelming situations, Peter relies on his spider-sense and his instincts to navigate his way out of trouble, but right now none of his senses know how to react to this bullshit. He can't fight whatever's happening, can't help the spooky hologram ghosts, can't do jack shit but try to get out of there and maybe find cover. Which he does, next to YOU. Hi there.]

Oooh my God. Okay. That's happening. Oh my God, what is- what's happening? I'm not losing it, am I? Like, this is happening, right?


WILDCARD:

[wanna do a different prompt or something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT hit me]

A} {Too much trust in the unknown gets you dead, kid

[deadlycurves]

[Diego is wandering the party, checking out the various pieces of the set up. Robots. He doesn't have anything inherently against them, but it isn't like he's had the best experiences with them, either. He's wary, to say the least. The food does nothing to ease his concerns, either. And he can't help stare, incredulous, at the kid shoving handfuls of whatever he could grab into a backpack.]

You really gonna eat that? [Dubious level: 10 thousand. Kid, what are you doing?]

Cole (DriftFleet CRAU) | Dragon Age | For Ben Hargreeves

[killedwithlove]

life signs in the wasteland

Cole is drawn consistently to a single thing. Mortal suffering. He can sense a person in need from amazing distances and while this places fairly screams of the trauma that has happened here, overlapping and difficult to focus on, the real people are bright, flaring pin points of their hurts and needs.

When he feels that spike from outside... well, there's nothing for it, is there? He drifts towards the way out, looking for the things that will make going outside possible. He doesn't really understand what 'radiation' is, but he's been in space and he knows they needed suits to go out of the ships, so he supposes this might be similar.

But... he knows he might need help. And he met Klaus and Klaus knows someone who can help, someone with whom his hurts are so closely entwined that Cole already knows him. Finding him is easy, because Cole knows the pain of being dead and alone and lonely and he knows the suffering of hating your powers.

He appears in a curl of smoke that has no real scent. "Hello, Ben. Would you like to help me find the person out there?"

[benhargreeves]

Ben is aware of the situation before Cole shows up. He is a light sleeper, and the first of the meteorites startle him awake. He lays in bed a few moments, heart thudding, listening to the distant impacts. Then, the sirens start, and that's enough to jar him from his paralysis. There are others congregating in the halls and common areas where most of the residents live, having hushed and huddled conversations about what the sirens mean. Those who have been here longer talk about the redshift; it is something Ben has heard mentioned, but still barely understands.

Then, just as he is beginning to calm down - they are safe for now in the Anchor, so long as no one leaves - comes the alert from their devices. Life signs, outside. People trapped out there, unshielded from the radiation and warping of reality (whatever that means). Helpless, and in need of rescue.

In a haze, Ben changes from his pajamas and heads towards the upper levels, hearing the impacts of the meteorites growing louder underneath the ongoing sirens. It isn't that he's planning on going outside. But there might be things he could do to help from in here. Assist in the effort without being directly involved.

(How familiar it all is. The sudden sirens, people in need of rescue, suiting up and rushing out - how many times had they all done this back at the Academy? There is a nostalgia in the frantic and confused panic of it; Ben doesn't really feel like examining that at the moment.)

He is just making his way towards the exit room section of the Anchor when, out of thin air, there is a movement, and then, a person. Ben is at least mildly more prepared than most to deal with a sudden appearance like this (Five could never just walk places like normal), but he still stops in his tracks. He has never seen this stranger before, solemn-faced and pale. Which is why being addressed by name is, to say the least, unsettling.

"Uh- do I... know you?"

{Something isn't right here » Diego Hargreeves (MoM CRAU) » OTA

[deadlycurves]

A. Bot Party} | {The party ain't dead yet Diego listened to the recording, he went through the decontamination process, and he wandered. He wandered a lot, just to check things out, get his bearings on this new world. This is the second time this has happened in about as many months and he's really not a fan of this at all. At least in the first one, he'd had his family there, however screwed up they all were with each other, it was better than being stuck in a world unknown, utterly alone. Not that he couldn't absolutely handle himself. He can and has done for the better part of more than a decade. Doesn't mean it's favorable, especially considering he had, only some handful of hours earlier, been passed out in the middle of a shift at work. He still hasn't completely worked out what had caused it, if he's honest, and he's a little on edge about it happening again. He stands out in a vibrant kind of way in the middle of this part, dressed in a basic security uniform, though he'd at least had sense enough to ditch the hat because he was in a different world now and definitely didn't have a job to report to anymore. One other distinctly noticeable thing is on the inside of his right wrist, in thick, bold, black letters, the word Unsettled is tattooed. He weaves through the various party hot-spots-- wincing at the slapdash band's attempt at keeping things lively, suspiciously eyeing the food laid out for them (and determinedly not eating any of it, and he makes a wide breadth around the robot with the fireworks, not really looking to get an ear blown off or something worse. Mileage may vary if anyone were to approach him-- and it must be noted that the stoic-stone look he seems to be giving everything at the party probably doesn't make him look easily approachable anyway-- but it's safe to say they'll be met with suspicion until deemed worthy of anything else. B. Life signs in the wasteland} | {Anywhere in any world, I'll fight the good fight Someone with more sense might avoid the world that's suddenly covered in swirls of red, with meteorites raining down overhead against the outer dome surrounding the place. Diego Hargreeves isn't one of those people, especially once he sees the indications of life out there in the mess flashing on the comm device. Maybe it's a trap. It's definitely more likely to be a trap than anything real, but-- what if one of those life signs on the device is someone who needs help? He's too much a product of his raising to let someone innocent be left to-- whatever is going on out there. There isn't much he can do in way of protecting himself from the elements, so he doesn't waste much time in setting out into the mess outside. He's got weapons on his person and is ready to fight if he has to, though his main mission is finding anyone that may be stuck in all this mess and helping them get back to the safety of the indoors. [wildcard] If these aren't your fancy, hit me up with something else!

B

[theweakhavepurpose]

Pratt has also seen the little blips on the radar, standing by the airlock doors to the outside and wondering what he should do. He doesn't really understand this technology and for all he knows these indications of life are giant sandworms ready to eat them.

But what if they're not?

The wolf is obediently sitting by his side, ears perked forward as what looks like a reddish sandstorm starts to rise up. Well that kills any thought of his going out there and -- well maybe not. Looks like someone else is already going to trudge out there and take a look.

"Hey wait!" He trots after him, wolf at his heels. Armed with only a shovel he's not really ready to take on sandworms if that's what's out here, but two people are better than one right?

Ben Hargreeves | OTA

[benhargreeves]

A | BOT PARTY

[ Ben's always had a slightly weird relationship with food, and it had been made no less complex by a decade and a half of being a ghost and not needing to eat. Which is perhaps why he approaches that buffet table with a peculiar, slightly solemn detachment. He avoids the dicier looking options, getting himself some vegetable stew and a few of those warm pastries.

While others are mingling in the park, comparing stories of the worlds they had come from, and of their exploration of this place, theories about how it had come to be so abandoned and empty, Ben settles himself on a broad stone planter. He takes small bites, tentative and wary about the whole process. And he looks at the people around him, curious but not speaking up or introducing himself. He'd also had a slightly weird relationship with socializing, too. Which is a way to say that he has basically no personal experience at it whatsoever. Observing small talk and knowing intellectually the steps he ought to take to meet people and get to know them is not the same thing as being comfortable doing it... ]

D | SHADOWS OF THE PAST

[ The emptiness, and confinement, and obvious long history of the Anchor don't bother Ben, much. He'd grown up in a huge mansion full of attics and narrow hallways and empty echoing wood-paneled rooms. He was glad for the quiet, after the frantic events surrounding his arrival - and the absolutely wild week he had had before that. Things had been nonstop ever since his father died, and now that he needs to breathe again, it is nice to just catch his breath.

Until the shades, or echoes, or whatever they are begin to appear. Ben has the unfortunate luck of not first seeing the children, or the friendly strangers. Instead, the first shade he sees shrieks the moment she lays eyes on him, crying like a girl in a horror movie and racing away, only to vanish 100 yards away, into nothingness. Perturbing on its own; then he had almost bumped into an elderly man a few minutes later. As soon as Ben opened his mouth to apologize, the man had whirled around and tried to grab for his throat as if to strangle him, snarling as if Ben were someone he hated, passionately, beyond reason.

He had only dodged out of pure instinct, and when the man had lunged for him again, Ben ran. He heard the moment when the footsteps pursuing him stopped and he turned, thinking wildly the man might be pulling a gun - only to see nothing there at all.

Was this how Klaus felt? Was this what it was like for him, all the time?

Ben gets close enough to the park to hear the children wailing in fear and crying, even before he can see them, and quickly turns in the opposite direction. He had not seen any real, living children in the Anchor since he arrived. More ghosts, probably. He could tell he was tipping towards panic as he searched for somewhere to hide and wait this out. Was it brave? No. But what could he really do to help, here?

Once he finds somewhere he thinks will be safe, Ben tucks himself away, wary and watchful for any unwelcome quasi-corporeal guests. ]

E | PING FROM THE RUBBLE

[ The library is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Ben's favorite place in the entire Anchor. There is so little of it left, but Ben will take what he can get. He visits there most days; some days he just reads quietly from the handful of books, others he tries to explore the ruins. For a few days now, even before the signal brought others down here, Ben has been working on clearing away some of the rubble. It would be a lot faster with Luther, he thinks, but even someone without super strength can make progress slowly.

He sees that the door is there long before he is able to get close to it; after days of working away by himself, sore-armed and frustrated, he is energized by the presence of people brought down here by the signal from the terminal.

Ben goes up to one of them, tapping their shoulder and asking: ]

Hey, do you think you could help me clear some of this away?

E

[itsnotaonesie]

[Peter is ALL ABOUT these busted computers, and has probably been fiddling with one of them for a while because he's a gigantic goddamn nerd. Also he's bored and he needs something to do with his hands. The tap on his shoulder pulls him out of his computer nerdery and he turns around, glancing first at Ben and then behind him at the rubble.]

Oh dude, there's a door over there? I didn't even see that! Sure man, I'll give you a hand.

[He sets whatever computer chunks he'd been fiddling with aside, time to go lift things.]

annie cresta | hunger games | closed to cole | cw: torture-related trauma, panic attack

[treadswater]

There's a room. She'll be able to rattle off the dimensions later, she's good at spatial awareness. Usually. Except she's opened her eyes and she's looked around and she's in an empty room. There's a video playing on a cracked screen. A video with a man in uniform, all sincere and reasonable; she doesn't recognize the uniform but the tone? Sincere. Reasonable. Apologetic.

"Please don't be alarmed by the secured portal room."

Please don't be alarmed.

Please, Miss Cresta, be reasonable.

She's not where she was. She's not in a hallway in District 13, she's somewhere else. She's -

She's woken up to an empty room. Alone.

The giggle slips out before she can choke it down. She tries except she's in an empty room, alone, and someone is telling her that he's very sorry about all of this. Annie giggles again, only it turns into a sob when she tries to draw breath.

Please don't be alarmed, and the rest of the video is lost as Annie starts up an hysterical, wailing scream of denial.

[killedwithlove]

Annie's horror is an immediate and painful spike through Compassion's being.

It's Cole all over again, a terrified, suffering young mortal, trapped and unable to escape. The pain inside is worse than any pain on the outside and he's moving through reality in flickers and jumps until he's flung himself into the room on the pulse of her frightened heartbeats.

"It's not the Games, Annie, it's nothing like that, you're going to be able to leave any moment, and walk around the city as you want, and there's not many people, but there are other people and no one is hurting each other, no one is being made to fight or hurt, we're all in this together, I promise." He holds out his hands to her, thin, pale, strong. "I'm Cole. And I will only ever try to help you, Annie. No violence between us."

Cho Takahashi (Eudio CRAU) | original character | ota

[tenuefarfalla]

Cho eventually runs out of tears and the panic bleeds away. She manages to find the room she’s been assigned, gets her things settled, opens the carrier to let Marmalade and Twee go exploring. Not that they do much. Marmalade pokes his head out briefly, sniffs at the air, and then retreats again immediately. Twee doesn’t even open its eyes. Cleaning ends up being a little pointless, especially with the lack of supplies, and it’s the music that draws her outside.

option A - BOT PARTY
It's the oddest thing she’s seen in a while, and that’s saying something. The rusty and half broken down robots, so excited to see them. If a robot can be excited. These certainly seem to be giving it their very best efforts. The ones playing music seem functional enough. She wonders what happened to the proper cymbals. The food table is a little more worrying, and there are platters of baked goods that have definitely been made with rotten ingredients. It’s not all bad, though. Some of it looks very fresh. Which means that— what? "They can’t make choices, they’re just going through their programming? Take ingredients from bins, combine it, heat it. The ingredients are bad, the food turns out bad. Pick fresh things from…" She looks around her, as though the trees and bushes will be somewhere in her line of sight. "Plants are growing somewhere, healthy. That’s good." She picks up a berry and tries it, a little hesitantly, just in case. It’s delicious.

"Oh wow. That’s amazing." How can something neglected for so long still be in such good condition somewhere? Maybe the whole place isn’t this run down? The robot closest to her mistakes her relief, though, and begins eagerly trying to put together a chipped plate of fresh fruit for her. Two of its fingers don’t quite function properly, and it drops a fair amount, but its enthusiasm does not waver at all. "Thank you," Cho says when it proffers the plate with a tinny little fanfare. "It looks just wonderful."


option D - SHADOWS OF THE PAST
Cho isn’t expecting the semi-transparent little shoulder she reaches her hand out to touch to actually be solid underneath her fingertips, but it is. The tear streaked face that turns toward her, it sure seems real, even if she’s able to pick out every detail of the access panel behind the little girl crouched on the floor. Small, scared, sobbing - that sure is familiar. She can’t find her mother. She doesn’t know where she went. She doesn’t know what to do. Will Cho help her?

How could she possibly say no? Which is how Cho ends up holding the hand of the shadow of a small child, wandering through the inconsistent chaos, some of it happy, some of it terrifying, looking for a woman who might or might not exist on a plane that lets her interact with this one. Still, Cho isn’t going to abandon the child, even if she's not real, even if she's long dead or never was. So she asks everyone they encounter, shadow and solid: "Excuse me. Have you seen this girl’s mother?" Then, to the child at her side. "Show them the picture, sweetheart."


option E - PING FROM THE RUBBLE
Cho is not having a ton of luck clearing the rubble on her own. It’s heavy, and while she might be strong for her frame, her frame is tiny. Five foot nothing and lean lines, like the swimmer she is. If she were flat-chested, she could easily be mistaken for a child, she’s certain of it. So - small, and largely ineffectual, but determined. Very determined.

She moves the smaller pieces by hand, as carefully as she can. When she gets to a piece too large or heavy for her (which is most of them) she employs a piece of solid industrial pipe as a lever, using whatever bit of rubble is best placed to be her fulcrum, and trying to send it tumbling far enough away to not block access.

Whenever she gets the door cleared, either relatively quickly with some help, or hours later on her own, she’s not at all disappointed with what she finds. "There are books in here," she says, a touch of actual joy in her voice. "Real books. Paper books." She hurried over to a shelf, testing her steps as she goes in case any part of the floor isn’t stable. "Look at this," she says, picking a few up off the ground, reading the titles. "English. This one is in French. This one... I have no idea." It’s not like any alphabet she’s familiar with. Still, actual books. It’s kind of a miracle, the tiniest bit of familiarity.


option ! - WILDCARD
If you have something else in mind, go for it. Once she has housing assigned, she could have interactions with roommates or floor-mates.

NOTE: I don't personally like writing with brackets for anything involved, so while I won't switch to match styles if that's the way you write, I don't mind if our styles don't match.

option e

[treadswater]

Clearing rubble seems... productive. Helpful. Something to contribute to the environment, to explore, and also somewhere to find any particularly sharp bits of rubble or broken pipe that could be used as a weapon for Finnick. Or at least, something for Finnick and clearing out the chances for the other tributes. Captives. Whatever they actually are.

It's easy for Annie to slip down that mode of thought, and slip down she does. Always partially aware of where Finnick is in relation to her, always moving things, but otherwise? Distant. Focused on plots and analysis and memory.

So she jumps, a little, when Cho makes her triumphant discovery. Books? It's enough to get her to shake her head, straighten up, re-focus on the here and now.

Books are.... interesting? Unexpected. Maybe even useful - for fires, for information, for staving off boredom. But that's not what she says.

No, what Annie says is, "What's French?"

Then she stops and looks deeply, profoundly awkward. Maybe it was a stupid question.

Eudora Patch | The Umbrella Academy | ota

[eudorapatch]

Patch has no idea what's going on. She's spoken with a lot of people who've been shot, who have died on the operating table for seconds or minutes. Some of them talk of light, or a feeling of floating, of white noise and loved ones and familiar smells. No one has ever talked about a broken down bio-dome looking thing on a weird red planet. Still, what is she going to do? Just sit here, frozen in her inactivity? So she grabs a phone, suspends her disbelief, and goes exploring.

option A - BOT PARTY
It's the explosions that send her running, gun drawn and held down by her thigh. The sight that greets her, all right, that's just fucking weird. So fucking weird. She's pretty sure that shooting a robot full of fireworks is a truly horrible idea, so she holsters her weapon.

Maybe she should just leave it alone? The thought isn't even fully formed in her mind before a small sparkling rocket flies past her, just inches from her ear. So much for that. "Hey. Hi. Hello." Most of these robots seem to be interacting with people. So maybe this one is meant to, too? She waves her arms, trying to get its attention. "Can you see what's around you? Do you know that you're shooting fireworks at people?" Can it even understand her, or is she just the crazy lady trying to talk to a VCR full of dynamite? "Where is your user manual?"


option B - LIFE SIGNS IN THE WASTELAND
Patch is going to be just as dead if the dome shatters and she's lying in her bed as she will be if she's watching it happen. So she elects to watch. It's terrifying, and kind of beautiful. Mostly terrifying. Then again, she got shot in the heart yesterday, so everything is a little on its head.

The alarms start later, and the intensity of the meteorite shower hasn't changed. So that's odd. Did they only now just kick on? Or is it something else? Which is about when she sees the red. Oh. Right. Awesome.

She's sensible, and she doesn't particularly want to die again, and she's ready to wait it out inside the relative safety of the dome. Until she sees the beacons with life signs. Someone is out there. Someone who might need help. Which makes the choice for her, really, and she's suiting up and preparing to go investigate without a second thought.


option D - SHADOWS OF THE PAST
It becomes pretty clear to Patch very early on that no matter what she does, she can't actually change the outcome of whatever happened to these people. The smoking crater in the wall that she now realizes used to be a young man who barely looked old enough to shave, that's a pretty sobering reality to accept. It doesn't necessarily mean that this situation can't do some good.

When another soldier runs up to her, this one almost solid, talking about quarantine, Patch plays along. "I'm new here. I don't know where quarantine is. Can you show me? Show me where we have to take the children to keep them safe. Show me where the attack is coming from." Show her anything you can, please, before you vanish or die in your own time. She's just trying to gather any information that she can, and anyone along the way who looks like they might be useful will get roped in, whether they're solid or not.


option ! - WILDCARD
If you have something else in mind, go for it. Once she has housing assigned, she could have interactions with roommates or floor-mates.

NOTE: I don't personally like writing with brackets for anything involved, so while I won't switch to match styles if that's the way you write, I don't mind if our styles don't match.

{Seeing you again caught me off guard like a dagger in my heart » D

[deadlycurves]

Diego's set to explore whatever he can of this place, get to know every inch of it that he can find his way into; if he learns as much as he can about Anchor, then maybe he can start figuring out the right questions to ask that might lead to conversations about managing a way back home. He's come across the-- are they ghosts? It's the only thing he knows to call them, and as he wanders through the streets, he can't help be wonder if this is a little bit like how Klaus feels all the time? Every time he tries to get near one of the apparitions, they disappear; some run away, others scream or cry, but no matter what he does, they all slip away like catching smoke between his fingers. As he's moving through the streets, he hears a voice. No, two. The first he doesn't know, and is babbling something about kids and a quarantine. The second though? That one stops him dead in his tracks, mid-step. He blinks and shakes his head because he has to be wrong, it has to be in his head or his ears playing tricks on him somehow. (Except it doesn't. It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't. It could be. He knows it. Ben's here. Alive. It could be her, too, right?) He can't let himself get his hopes up. Maybe it was just a voice that sounded similar; it happens, people sound like other people and it doesn't mean anything. Especially strangers when you're in a weird city on an even weirder planet. Who knew what kind of shit their captors might have managed for them in these first days. So, he stops trying to trust his ears, to blame some figment in his head for the voice he heard, and steps around the corner to let his eyes confirm his doubts. That it isn't, and it can't be, because he isn't ready for that-- The feeling is deep and visceral, in the center of his chest, down into the marrow of his bones, when the very familiar figure in the short distance away from him finally comes into view. The way she holds herself, sure and certain even though he knows she can't be, not in a place like this, none of them can be but she can pretend she is with the best of them just like she always has. The way she stands. The composure of her voice as she tries to get answers. Every single thing about the scene, her, suddenly hits in a wave of emotion he can barely even process. He stands, frozen, nothing but those last seconds in that hotel room curled around her body, broken and apologizing and leaving playing over and over in his head in crystal-perfect clarity. He wants to speak. To say her name. To tell her he's sorry. To get her attention. But he can't. He can't, because he can't even make his mouth move, nevermind try to make words. So instead, he just stands there, everything about him ripped open and raw and frozen.

Finnick Odair | The Hunger Games | 1 x closed, 1 x open

[fishermansweater]

arrival - closed to annie & cole

Finnick's woken up in a strange place being told strange things before. He's woken up after being pulled from the arena twice, once in the Capitol and once in the hovercraft on his way to District Thirteen, and both had been disorienting. But neither was like this, waking up alone when he hadn't expected it.

He'd been on his way to training, the schedule on his forearm says he's due there, and now he's ... where? Somewhere abandoned, half-abandoned, the design and architecture showing indications of once caring about beauty as well as functionality which is unlike anywhere else in District Thirteen. But the video that plays isn't saying anything about Thirteen, it's talking about Anchor, a colony.

"Where is this? Where have you taken me?" he asks, stepping forward towards the screen and addressing it as if there were someone on the other side. He's used to being watched, used to assuming he's being watched, and now ...

"Where's my wife?"

The screen doesn't answer, just keeps talking its way through some sort of orientation.

"WHERE'S ANNIE? TAKE ME TO MY WIFE!"


bot party - ota

Later, after he's found Annie and the two of them have reassured themselves that wherever they are, they're here together, they go exploring. Finnick keeps his trident with him in one hand, and his other is caught in Annie's. A quiet consultation leads to the agreement that they really do need to go investigate the sound of music and explosions; they're hoping it's just fireworks, but Finnick is prepared in case it turns out to be something else, and before they enter the park, he drops Annie's hand and goes in first.

There's a relief in it just being bad fireworks, but only a partial relief, because the thing that's setting them off looks like it could well wind up firing them into the crowd. Finnick eyes it warily as he starts to circle the crowd.

He doesn't know where he is or who these people are, but he knows how to play at parties. So he smiles, and he saunters up to one of the strangers, all apparent ease and charm despite the weapon in his hand.

"Think any of this food is actually edible?"


wildcard - he'll be snooping all over the place, hit me!

The Arrival Exemption as discussed

[killedwithlove]

Finnick's arrival is a flare of bright light and devotion, compassion and love flashing so hard that Cole can taste it, flickers of emotions shared, hurts soothed-

He grabs hold of Finnick's place through the way he feels for Annie and pulls, flickering the short distance from where he had been keeping watch on Annie for her own safety and to her husband. The smoke smells of nothing but the greenish-black curl of it is clearly unnatural. "She's safe! She got here first, she was very scared, I've tried to keep her calm, but you have to let the machines run their routines before you can go to her, okay?"

Drake Holloway | Hadriel CRAU | OTA

[braveoff]

a. bot party

This isn't where Drake is supposed to be, and he hasn't had time to process that yet. Usually he's the type who can roll with anything -- zombification, death, being kidnapped to another universe where alien gods fed off his emotions and asked him to fight in their war -- he's used to crazy shit happening and most of it being unfair, but this case really stings. It's not even that the Door screwed up, or the Portal here intercepted him despite the gods' best efforts, it's that he woke up in Anchor alone. After everything he's been through, everything he's worked and fought for, he'd thought maybe something was finally going to work out. Of course not. Eventually he'll find his center and refocus but right now he's extremely upset about all this.

Luckily he has a great poker face as he wanders the city fresh from decontamination, mostly searching for other people right now. The noise is what draws him to the robots' little welcome party, but they're not like any robots Drake has ever encountered before. They're more like what he'd expect from movies back home than what he's gotten used to, clearly machines rather than people who just happen to be mechanical, which is strangely jarring. He just holds his duffel tight under his arm as he approaches the nearest person... and there aren't many people, which doesn't bode well, but he still manages a calm and pleasant expression.

"Hey. Did you just get here, too?"

b. life signs in the wasteland

Drake Holloway has never, even once in his life, been able to turn away from someone who genuinely needs help he could provide. So yes, anyone sensible would stay inside right now, but there's someone out there and in his wanderings the day before Drake found the gear in the exit room... which is where he is right now, trying to puzzle out how this stuff works. He has no idea what he's doing, or if the gear is still good (some is obviously in better shape than the rest) but he's got to try and get to the poor soul outside. Even if they can't tell him anything, they're a person. This whole endeavor is brave and mostly admirable but it's also extremely ill advised, so feel free to tell him he's being stupid as all hell when he realizes someone's nearby watching the chaos on the other side of the dome.

"I don't know how this seals, can you help me?"

d. shadows of the past

It's only natural for the new inhabitants of Anchor to wonder what happened to the old ones, and Drake is no exception. The place is mostly intact, certainly still capable of supporting life even if it needs maintenance, and while things are quiet he lets himself hope that they just found a way out -- one that maybe the current crowd could use as well. But then, because of course, shit gets weird. Really weird, even by Drake's standards. He's not normally able to see ghosts, and is pretty sure he's not hallucinating after several of the phantoms actually make contact with him. Most are just shadows, fleeting and not particularly communicative, until her. The woman talking about quarantine, about saving the children from... what? Who are the bastards and what did they do?

"What's happening?" he asks her, but he barely gets the words out before the laser blast. It was just an echo, then? In any case it definitely happened, and Drake presses his hand to the mark on the wall and breathes slowly as he puzzles through what these glimpses might mean. Maybe if he goes ghost hunting, he can piece something together?

Instead of hiding or running from the phantoms, Drake can be spotted actively chasing them down, trying to get them to interact with him. Most flee or fade too quickly but seeing as others have attacked, this is possibly also an ill advised life choice... perhaps a pattern is emerging.

x. wildcard!

(( Anything at all, unused prompts or something completely different are all fine. I'm available for plotting at cuddlebug or can be pinged in the game discord! ))

B

[itsnotaonesie]

See the problem here is that Peter Parker is also the kind of person who will be a reckless idiot if it means potentially saving someone else, which is why he's also popping into this room. He doesn't have much time to browse through the equipment before he hears a voice behind him, and upon turning to answer, he realizes that he totally knows this dude. He apparently finds this startling, and drops whatever he'd been holding in favor of pointing and exclaiming "Oh my God, dude!"

Okay that was a weird reaction. Peter stops pointing abruptly and scoops up whatever he'd dropped. "Sorry, I just-- oh my God. How long have you been here?"