EVENT; LIFTS & CORRIDORS

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: The Corridors.
WARNINGS: Space crazy, violence, etc.
SUMMARY: You may have simply been taking the lift with passerbys, but now you're hopelessly lost.
NOTES: Notes on the corridors.

Those on their way to meet a friend at dinner, or heading to their department, may never reach their intended destination. Instead, characters will find themselves in an unfamiliar part of the ship, abruptly stranded. All attempts to access the elevator will prove fruitless, as the doors cannot be pried open and the lift will not respond when called. It looks like you have no where to go but forward. Hallways will connect only to other hallways, giving you the impression that you're always on your way somewhere- but can't quite manage to arrive. Time spent in the hallways will seem endless, but with luck you may find a break in the monotony. It is possible for characters to find one another, which would be preferable, as it's probably safer traveling in groups. Those that spend an excessive amount of time in their own company will find themselves feeling increasingly hostile and paranoid, until even the walls seem to be watching. That may not be such an exaggeration, with those murals that continually appear...

Comments

[slipperysoul]

[ Oh JFC, his life, he didn't even think it was that blatant of an offering for 'sharing is caring' time. Not that he's completely distraught about it considering it's not so deathly quiet but man, he was not expecting to have to have feelings about things.

As long as he doesn't have to do any sharing with the group. ]

Have you tried getting to know her all over again? [ Not that that's a big pain in the ass or anything, nooo, but it is the reasonable solution. If any of them ever actually lived reasonable lives or anything and considering he has a billion things he should tell Buffy but... won't because he doesn't think the TQ would survive that conversation. It's still the obvious suggestion though, and he can still contribute something. Who knows if it's worthwhile. ] Might be worth it in the long run.

[staytofight]

Not always.

[He grins, as-a-matter-of-factly.]

Sometimes, it's just fun to just take the short route.

[Being slow for people's... never really been much of a thought to him, before. He's a selfish man in plenty of aspects of his life, and of course... we all know how far his graciousness has extended to his meals. Or just humans in particular. How strange it is, to casually mistreat the very thing you were. The very thing you were born as. And how strange it is, to realize how callous it is, and yet not care at all about that fact.

It's complicated. He drops his hands to his side.]

Though if I went around like that too long around here I'd probably go crazier.

[oh that sounds bad now that he's said it

because, y'know, vampires.

telling people they're crazy (which he half is).]

... Exaggeratedly. In that harmlessly crazy sort of way people get.

[justdumbluck]

If you count the human kind, then yeah, there's plenty. But nothin' like those messed up things runnin' around here. They don't even look like normal animals.

[They look a lot tougher than an angry old immortal or your average street thug, that's for sure. At this point, Firo'd even welcome the latter if they'd replace the Tranquility's monsters.]

What about you?

[tg]

[ That's understandable. There's safety in the familiar, even when the familiar happens to be thuggish churls trying to stick you in the squishy bits. ]

Yeah, we had monsters, sure, but they burst into stylized video game spoils when you killed them, so I dunno if they count.

[ Dave has killed things with flesh and blood. He cut the head right off some guy before after he shoved a spear into Dave's dream-dream self and manslaughtered another into bloody pieces. Doesn't mean he's proud of it. Doesn't mean he wants to do it again, even if it's a hellbest he's mauling. ]

[ironsights]

[ stupid. fucking stupid. that knife could have easily inflicted a fatal wound in that one instant he hesitated. kazama reflexively jerks his arm back when he sees the knife slash forward, but even that's not fast enough to completely dodge the blow. the knife blade slices through his forearm, drawing a bright flourish of blood, and kazama hisses under his breath. ignores the pain sparking up his arm and moves to shoot this asshole --

brian's knee slams into his gut the next moment. all the breath escapes his lungs in a sharp wheeze, and kazama stumbles heavily, dropping the gun -- it skitters loudly across the floor, ending up several feet away. and in that brief, breathless moment, kazama's instincts tell him that there's something horribly familiar about this masked assailant. something in that fierce, focused stare.

he doesn't have the time to think about that, though. just makes a grab at brian's knife arm to keep that blade at bay, fingers fisting against the fabric of his shirt. kazama's been knocked off balance, but he isn't planning on leaving himself vulnerable for another stab wound -- he makes to drag brian down with him as he hits the ground. even winded and disoriented, kazama is still wiry and stubborn, and there's a surprising strength when he grabs at brian's throat with his free hand, trying to pin him down to the ground -- there's blood seeping down his arm though, making his fingers slippery, loosening his grip. ]

[andblockbuster]

I had a cabinet to hide in then. [Topher stumbles forward a bit at Dave's shove and shoots him a pained look before taking the next several steps towards Davesprite on his own.] They were confined to that one freakin' lab. And sickly! Why are they running around like Olympic gymnasts now?

[andblockbuster]

[Welcome to HELL, Angel.

Topher runs his hands through his hair.] It's... harder than it looks. I mean, she was a much different person when I knew her. Like... dead-arm-in-a-sling, kinda cooky but in a really sexy way different. And now she's like an... adorable librarian with both arms and her crazy's got a lid on it, which should be better, but... [He waves his hands.] Every time I try to get to know her again, it just... blows up in my face. I suck at this. Us getting together at all before was sort of a circumstantial thing and the circumstances involved now are a lot less... appropriate for it, I guess. I don't know.

[killarevolution]

[He snorts.] I can't say this is the worst the ship has hit me with. [He glances down at her.] Were you were here when the fog hit?

[mathematically]

[ Her eyes dart away for a moment before she looks back up at him. ] It was my first month here. [ And that's the funny thing, isn't it? Little Lydia Martin has horrors follow her wherever she goes. ] You were too.

[ It's not a question, because Lydia knows he wouldn't have asked if he hadn't have been there. ]

[justdumbluck]

...Video game spoils?

[If he had any idea what that meant, he'd think it was a joke. As it is, he spends a few moments desperately trying to break down the phrase into something that makes sense. The only things his poor 1930s brain can picture a monster bursting into are monster bits.]

What's that mean?

[killarevolution]

[He nods.] Put me right back in the Games. Funny how more people are willing to believe me when they've been there.

[bloodplay]

He rolls his eyes at the latter statement, but the fact that he starts to walk in the indicated direction anyway speaks volumes. He moves with brisk, casual strides, and for a few seconds gets far enough ahead of Deb to almost completely obscure his face. The expression he makes stays unspecified, so everyone can fill in the unflattering muppety blanks.

"First name basis?" And just like that he's casual again, talkative and apparently unconcerned by the possibility of getting birdmurdered by the turkey, which is keeping pace admirably. The dark translucence behind his voice has once again gone maddeningly opaque. "You can't just go changing things up on me, Morgan."

[tg]

Like, you know. Load up a video game, and for some reason, every single thing you hack into experience points drops fistfuls of cash and Kevlar vests, even the squirrels. Only in my world, you knock something around enough, it bursts into elongated hexagonal bipyramids worth of building materials.

[ Sometimes Dave's manner of speech isn't very forgiving towards people not up to speed with modernity. Fortunately?, they arrive at the second mural right around now; in fact, Dave steps on the outer smears of red.

He backs up once he notices. ]

And here it is.

[mathematically]

Trust me when I say you wouldn't have wanted to see where I went. What I saw. [ It's then that she looks away again. ] You get pulled out?

[bloodplay]

[fucking ghosts, man. fuckin' ghosts.

brian casts aside the impulse to clutch the bag tighter when the girl rounds the corner, does it again when she looks it over, notes the pipe in her hand with the same kind of detached interest. he's used to treating the inside of his mind as some highly-classified secret, letting its shadow color his actions with just enough honesty and keeping the rest to himself. like the monster you don't see, it's most effective when nobody else can get an eyeful.]

You got it, [he says, calm if a little sardonic. this is the kind of situation where a responsible adult -- which he, of course, is trying to look like -- would try and put on a brave front, make themselves a sturdier pillar for whoever else to lean on. but this is the tranquility, where everything's made up and the points don't matter, and if he remembers the times right she's got the seniority that really matters. candor should probably take precedence.] I mean, this is just a guess, but a psychotic break probably tends to compromise the buddy system.

[justdumbluck]

[He doesn't know half of those phrases and resorts to staring in stunned silence for a moment before trying to explain his confusion.]

No, wait, I meant--

[Firo steps off to the side so Dave doesn't back into him, getting a close up view of the mural. It's enough to shut him up immediately.]

Whoa... Is that an eye?

[differentsideofmyself]

[Following him] Hell if I know how birds decay. Don't want to know either. That's disgusting.

[realslimstrider]

Yeah, let's skip that. Bad enough that the manticores supposedly patrol any of the unknown sectors. [He thinks about that and frowns.] I can let you borrow one of my swords if you know how to use'em. If not, I got enough strength to distract them in case we run into any.

[tg]

[ Dave shrugs, closing the distance between himself and the other two, approaching the mural with all the look of a thoughtful art critic, but when he talks, it's not about the wall art. ]

Maybe these were locked somewhere else. Like, down this hallway we just got abducted to. [ Back on the topic of murals! ] Maybe it's some kinda demonic space rave.

[tg]

[ Staring down, making eye contact with the damn thing is disconcerting as fuck. It's almost like looking into his own eyes, what with the color, but the sheer amount of hate in the paint job just—

Dave unconsciously steps back farther than is strictly necessary, glancing up at Firo instead of continuing to look down at the mural near his feet. ]

Looks like it. Like the huge evil Lord of the Rings one, right?

[justdumbluck]

[There's another reference flying right over his head. He tears his eyes away from the mural to respond to Dave.]

I don't know what that means, but "evil" is a good word for that thing. They coulda' picked a better color...

[It's cliche, but the red does make the whole thing more creepy, especially since that doesn't look like normal paint.

Having that thing looming in his peripheral vision is even more unsettling than looking at it straight on, so Firo turns back to the painting.]

Is that supposed to be a person behind it?

[oikodomae]

Guess I'll have to live with that, then.

[ She might not know Lydia, even with their few interactions, but she knows her well enough to know that she's not going to get a straight answer out of her. Not like that one, at least. So Annabeth can be happy with a maybe, giving a slight shrug.

And maybe that's just the difference between them - Lydia was trying to work within a community, Annabeth just had camp, and then the rest of the world to save. Who didn't know her, would never know her, and she grew up in that. Worked within that.

Still, it confused her to a point.

But Annabeth just looks over to her, deciding not to bite at the challenge, focusing on the second part of her comment. ]

And just how good is really good?

[tg]

Behind it? Nah, that eye's going through the person. Notice how off-set the torso is from the ass and legs?

[ Because that's a much better, more reassuring explanation. ]

[realslimstrider]

Or maybe they're all over the ship in different areas. That batch just happened to be in that place. [It seems a lot more likely and right in line with Dave's theory. Davesprite had decided to let the paintings commentary drop. He shakes his head and keeps moving.]

[justdumbluck]

[Another look at the picture confirms what Dave just told him. How lovely.]

...Great. Out of all the ways I thought I might die, gettin' cleaved in half by a huge eye wasn't one of 'em. If that's even what this thing is supposed to mean.

[With an uncomfortable twinge in his stomach, he remembers the eye he plucked from Huey. There's one thing he's glad didn't follow him to the Tranquility.]