snowblindrpg | (log) Day 006, Night (closed)

Entry tags:

(log) Day 006, Night (closed)

Characters: Helen Magnus, Jay Merrick, Tim Wright, Lancer
Location Sports Shed (Lot 29)
Date: Day 006, Night
Summary: Four (mostly) strangers get locked in a storage shed. Discomfort is expected.
Warnings: TBD (will update as necessary)

"I hope no one minds sharing for the night."

It was getting late, her tablet was already warning her to find shelter, but Helen wanted to push it just a little bit further. Unsurprising, really, something that was bound to happen eventually. Fortunately for her, this time it wouldn't be her undoing. There was shelter to be found nearby.

And that was how, with no more than fifteen or twenty minutes to spare, just a short time after her brief conversation over the network, Helen found her way into the small sports shed that set alongside the school. Unfortunately for her, it was already occupied, and it was far too late to seek shelter elswhere.

She tilted her head just a fraction to the side in what could have easily been amusement, her tone mild, "I hope no one minds sharing for the night."

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Considering the day's events, it probably wasn't all that surprising that Tim practically jumped out of his skin at the intrusion. It was, after all, a perfectly reasonable reaction.

Pulling a steak knife and pointing it at the newcomer was perhaps less reasonable.

"Who--?"

Fortunately, Tim isn't completely clueless. As he took in the stranger's appearance and realised that she looked about as threatening as a damp sheet of paper, he shamefacedly put the knife away again.

"Uh, I - I mean. Uh." He glanced sideways towards Jay. "Sorry. We don't mind if you don't, so..."

He shuffled backwards a little to make room, kicking his bag of supplies behind him as he did so. Just in case.

Tim wasn't the only one to jump. Jay had been browsing the network on his tablet and nearly dropped it at the sound of Helen's entrance.

Having to share the small space with a stranger was a little irritating, especially with the likelihood that Lancer would also be showing up, but it wasn't like they could just turn people out into the cold.

He just shrugged in what he hoped was a sufficiently nonchalant way and then discreetly switched the tablet to its video function. He wasn't about to take the risk of falling asleep in the presence of strangers without recording it.

Edited 2015-06-20 22:36 (UTC)

Helen's gaze flickered instinctively to the knife, but there was nothing in her expression to suggest she felt threatened. Perhaps she was just very good at hiding it. She did, however, hold up both hands in a typical gesture of innocence, showing them she wasn't carrying any weapons, at least not in her hands.

She took note of the way the first man kicked his bag behind him as he moved, the tiniest bit of humor in her eyes, like she might find it somewhat amusing that she'd so managed to startle them.

Stepping further in the tiny shack, she picked a spot amongst the sports equipment as far from the rooms other two occupants as possible, for everyone's comfort. "It doesn't seem we have much choice, does it?" She could have left it at that, but she apparently felt compelled to add, "Unless, of course, you'd care to decide which of us gets to freeze to death."

And that was when Lancer arrived, a metaphorical fifteen minutes late with an equally metaphorical cup of Starbucks. (Fortunately not literally: if it was the former they'd be treated to the dulcet sounds of a guy quietly freezing to death outside, and if it was the latter that meant that Starbucks had somehow managed to infiltrate even the bowels of a dystopian snowy wasteland.) Even if he wouldn't admit why to anyone else, even himself, he was glad at the prospect of being with people that night. The corridors echoed and the shadows whispered. And what drove spirits away quite like having a bunch of people to banter with?

"I didn't find a portal to hell-" It was the most nonchalant of greetings, given that he was cutting it close, hadn't met the other two men in person (but they were acquaintances, so why worry?), and even- even if there was someone he didn't know. A woman. She got a glance. Neutral. Amicable. A slight nod indicating that he saw her there, but...he'd get back to her in a second. "But I found the cafeteria before I got out."

"Uhhh..."

Horribly aware that he wasn't really being the most eloquent person in the universe, Tim shuffled back even further. Two thoughts crossed his mind in quick succession:

1) This was going to be one hell of a squeeze.
2) He'd totally make a comment about balls pressing into his back (because balls. And sports sheds. And guys in close proximity. Eh? Ehhhh?) if one of his new shedmates wasn't a woman who looked more-or-less old enough to be his mom.

But right. He decided that now was probably the time to start using actual words instead of awkward noises.

"That's, uh. Hi. That's great." Awkward, awkward. "I hope you brought enough for four, 'cause, uh..."

And he gestured vaguely in the woman's direction.

It took him a second, but when the woman spoke more, Jay recognised her as the one he'd been talking with earlier. Made sense that she'd be here if she'd been investigating the school, now that he thought about it.

And now Lancer was here too. Great. It was like a really shitty party.

He held up the tablet for a moment, making sure to get everyone's faces on camera. Even though it had been almost a week, it still felt awkward not having a proper camera to use for that, but he needed to keep records. You never know when you're going to lose hours or days or months worth of memories!

"So... I guess neither of you ran into any trouble in there?" That was a nice and casual way to dig for any information they might have gained, right?

"Nah." It was drawn out, slightly, almost a borderline naaah in the way he said it but not quite. "There was nothing. No shadows besides the ones that would be normally there. No magic circles. No signs of a cult. Nothing." He was, as he spoke, trying to settle in, taking a spot that...okay, granted, the place was small, but if something burst open the door and immediately tried to kill them he could (hypothetically) tackle that something before it struck.

Which he'd probably fail at, because, well, limited space, but hope was the gift that kept on giving. "The only things of interest I found are you three."

Helen was beginning to get the feeling she was the intruder here. Each of the other three seemed to be at least somewhat acquainted, whereas she'd had a conversation that couldn't have amounted to more than a few minutes with only one of the men, who she'd easily identified once he'd spoken. Of course, MarbleHornets wasn't much of a name, but for the moment it would suffice.

As for their newest arrival, he got a slight nod of acknowledgement in return, even as she gave him a quick once over. "Good to know." Especially given she had every intention of further exploring the school the next day. She'd rather not have to contend with portals to hell.

Mr. MarbleHornets earned a side glance when he held up the tablet, but she refrained from comment, turning her attention back to the other man as he answered the question before answering it herself. "I'm afraid I didn't have time to run into much of anything, but there's always tomorrow."

Clearly, she hadn't changed her mind about that.

Edited (mixed tenses) 2015-06-22 02:14 (UTC)

"Tomorrow. Meaning you're going back in there? After seeing the footage?"

Tim somehow managed to communicate a vast amount of incredulity with only the tiniest rise of his eyebrows. He coughed slightly, covering his mouth with a hand, then continued.

"Well. Good luck with that." He wasn't sneering or mocking her, but simply speaking with the resigned acceptance of someone who knows it's useless to even try arguing against the idea. There were some people you just didn't attempt reasoning with, and those people were the kind of people who went charging into dangerous places to satisfy their need for information. Tim had plenty of experience with such things, after all.

Mentioning no names, Jay Merrick.

Jay just shrugged again. He still didn't think going back to the school was a good idea, but he'd said his piece already. There really wasn't any point in arguing about it more.

And who knew, maybe she really would find something useful in there. Maybe if she managed to search there safely, Jay could do the same. All kinds of intriguing possibilities!

For the time being, though, he didn't want to let his optimism get too far ahead of things. All signs pointed to the school being the worst kind of dangerous he could think of: weird and spooky and mysterious as shit.

"I'd offer to come with you," he said, because they knew each other for all of a few minutes, but...it seemed legit. Genuinely legit. He had no idea who the hell she was but she seemed like she could use the help. "But I've a body I need to find."

Which- actually, no, he probably had to elaborate. "One of the poor bastards that got caught outside. I said I'd take word back to his family if we ever find a way out of this place. Thought I'd see if there was anything I could take back to them. Assuming the guy's still there."

Which- oh. "I'm Lancer." This was to the woman, because she probably didn't know who he was or what he was going by. It was one of the things he'd gotten a little lazy about the second time around: introducing himself. Pretty much everyone relevant to his interests took five seconds to identify his class, and he blew his secret identity about...five days in, maybe? Which was more than fine by him, but it meant that he forgot sometimes that people didn't immediately recognize him.

It was an unexpected fringe benefit of the war. Show up. People go oh shit, it's Lancer! They cut to the chase. Here, not so much.

At least Stranger #1 wasn't so keen on trying to talk her out of it as his companion had been earlier. Still, she somehow managed to convey how ridiculous she thought it was that he would have to ask in just one simple word, "Absolutely."

Perhaps a more reasonable person would have seen the footage and sensibly chosen to back off, but Helen wasn't that sort of person. She was the sort of person to charge into dangerous situations in search of answers, with little regard for the consequences, at least as far as they applied to herself. A hazard of being in her line of work, she'd always thought, but it might in fact have been more a product of her advanced age than anything else. And she had always been of an adventurous nature.

"Whatever was here then, I very much doubt it's here now. We've been here nearly a week, and the most we've seen of them is this video from a time before any of us were here. Don't you think someone would have noticed by now if they were still wandering the halls?" Personally, she felt it was only logical to assume that if they were in the school, they were likely elsewhere. Surely, they would have realized. She was, of course, choosing to ignore every strange feeling she'd had in this place.

Nodding toward Lancer to indicate her understanding, she asked, "And if he isn't, will you continue to search for him?"

If there was room to bristle, Tim would have done so. In the confined space, he had to settle for exchanging A Look with Jay and shrugging. Clearly, this woman had absolutely no experience with weird supernatural bullshit whatsoever. None. Not even a little.

"Just 'cause you can't see something doesn't mean it's not there." He briefly paused to lower his head as he coughed again. Gross. "All it means is that it doesn't want you to see it."

He gave the shed door an uneasy glance, trying not to entertain the thought that the school could be teeming with the shadows even as they spoke. Urgh.

"You, uh." He looked back at Jay again. "You wanna tell her about the piano, or...?"

Damn it, Tim, Jay hadn't even considered the possibility of the shadows being invisible. That just made him feel even more paranoid. He unconsciously mimicked Tim's uneasy look, sweeping the tablet along to get a good shot of the entire shed. Maybe it would catch something bare eyes couldn't.

As for the piano... he did not really want to tell people about it, to be honest. It was weird and he had no idea what to even think about it yet, and he was fairly certain that talking about it would just make him sound crazy. But now that it had been mentioned, they'd want to know about it anyway, wouldn't they?

"When we were looking around on the second floor, we heard a piano playing on the first." He glanced around nervously again, unsettled by the memory. "But, uh, when we went to look, there was nobody there and the piano didn't even have any strings in it."

"It could just be whoever grabbed us wanting to get a reaction out of you by hiding a recording of a piano somewhere and playing it when you walked past."

Which had ominous implications of its own, really, thinking about it. Because that would mean they were being watched. But...of course they were being watched. If they weren't being watched they wouldn't have all gotten shots when they did. (Anyone who stared at him in regards to his suggestion would receive a casual shrug for their troubles.)

"There would be signs." Said with such patience, that same unwavering calm. She clearly seemed to believe she was the more experienced party here. Just because one chose to hide didn't make them invisible.

Helen appeared to consider that new piece of information a moment, then she nodded, gaze sweeping the small shed once more before landing again on Lancer. "I agree."

At least someone was being sensible. She thought it much more likely that whoever had brought them here, whoever was watching them, and of course someone was watching them, was responsible for the majority of what they saw and heard while in this place. She believed in a lot of things, but ghosts in the literal physical sense? Consider her skeptical. Not that she would ever deny the possibility the creatures in video truly existed. She simply didn't believe they were ghosts or demons or anything else of the sort.

Lancer and the woman both got the requisite incredulous stare for their comments. Signs. Tim considered bringing up the horrible, thick atmosphere that made it hard to breathe in there. Or the white mist that coated his video of the piano, among other things.

But what would be the point? He knew from experience that arguing with someone against checking out spooky school-esque buildings would probably be futile. He didn't want to cause anyone any more worry, either, and since Jay was already looking pretty wigged out...

"Okay. Whatever."

It probably came across more petulantly than it was meant. Self-conscious of that fact, Tim turned his head away to cough into his hands. Awkwardness? What awkwardness? There was only coughing now. Yeah.

"Well, I mean... yeah, it could've been a recording. But that means they were able to move around in there without either of us noticing anything at all."

To be honest, Jay didn't think it was ghosts or whatever either. It was probably something much more menacing than that.

Taking a glance at Tim, though, he reluctantly reached the same conclusion - trying to argue about this wouldn't have much point. He never liked giving up on something when he felt like he was in the right, but he was far too tired and stressed for this right now.

Especially with all the coughing Tim was doing. Some degree of coughing was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was starting to get a little too frequent for Jay's liking. He hoped Tim wouldn't mind taking his medication in front of these people if he needed to.

"Hey. You okay?" He lowered his voice a little, not that it did much to give any sense of privacy in the small space.

Edited 2015-06-28 15:39 (UTC)

"Of course. There's ways of making something that could walk around unseen. There could be some...I don't know, homonculi."

He thought. Maybe. Last he knew you didn't need prana to spew out genetic abominations of that kind, although he wasn't an expert so for all he knew he was wrong about that and was willing to admit it. But. Hypotheticals.

"Would explain why I haven't seen any animals around."

But then there was the lack of privacy because they were in very tight quarters and...

"Hey." This was to the woman. Inclined his head towards a device, because-

"You know who Clayton is?" Because guess who was texting the network.

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(log) Day 006, Night (closed)

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