Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
"Broke into your garage? Did the police show up?"
[The Grid] Chatper 1: Hardwired
- Thread starter Persell
- Start date
Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
"Because, according to this -" she slaps the pile of papers down on the hood, "- they're scheduled to be turned over to a 'sterilization team'. Like, today." She looks up at the others. "It's all in there, gentlemen -- the reason we were targeted, why we were all drawn to Nag's Head. I don't pretend to understand all of it: I'm a paralegal, not a scientist. But the word 'sterilization' sort of leaps out at you."
The Bushranger
Member
Patrick
"Broke in, actually stole the car, cops showed up, car chase, car in dunes," Patrick explains. "Was having it repaired by Lace when..."
The former racer trails off as Erin's words register.
"Wait, 'sterilization'? I mean, I can see how you might not want those dunderheads to breed, but...somehow I get the feeling that isn't exactly what they had in mind."
"Broke in, actually stole the car, cops showed up, car chase, car in dunes," Patrick explains. "Was having it repaired by Lace when..."
The former racer trails off as Erin's words register.
"Wait, 'sterilization'? I mean, I can see how you might not want those dunderheads to breed, but...somehow I get the feeling that isn't exactly what they had in mind."
Blackadder
Inquisitor Ordo Hereticus
"Sorry," Malcolm broke in, shaking his head, "but someone start from the beginning. Arguably I've stumbled onto whatever is going on by trying to help you folks, but I know nothing really."
Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
Erin
"I moved here a few months back because I recieved a job offer out of the blue. Everything seemed on the up and up until --" she pauses, can it really have only been yesterday? "--I started receiving weird messages on my computer. Then I went to deliver some papers to a client who was wheelchair-bound, only she wasn't in a wheelchair at all. In fact, she claimed to--well, never mind that. Immediately after that, a bunch of guys in a van opened fire on me, and it took a miracle to get rid of them.
"I ditched the car and started packing my bags, but before I could leave town the police showed up and took me into custody. The invi--the ghost in the computer promised to arrange another miracle, and lo and behold, the police car crashed and I was the only survivor. A guy calling himself the Rooster popped up and set about faking my death in the crash as if this had all been planned for, and gave me that dossier on Stephanie Whitfield, the woman I met earlier...who, according to the paperwork, was dead.
"I studied her files at the library. According to this --" she brandishes the folder, "--we represent a type of human that someone powerful is attempting to cull from the general population, and which reasserts itself again and again every time they try to get rid of it. So do those guys who broke into your garage, and who are, if I'm not mistaken, marked for death this afternoon. There was a lot of talk about "SW phenotypes" and "the Great Sterilization Event" that I didn't completely understand. Missing context, I suppose.
"So much for the scientific. On top of all that, I've been getting threatening phone calls from someone called 'the Thousand Singing Voices' who's been trying to bully me into compliance. They seem to have a vendetta against the in...the ghost in the computer, who they refer to as 'the Castle'. They kept referring to me as a book. It sounds insane, but they talked about something called 'the Working' re-creating books more than once, which sounds like what Stephanie Whitfield wrote about the SW phenotype returning over and over. And..."
Erin looks briefly uncomfortable, then forges on. "I seem to be in possession of...information I never actually learned. Like memories, but of nothing I ever experienced, in this life at any rate. When I...access them, the sensations are so powerful they...overwhelm my awareness of who I am here and now. I've been really sick a few times, sick enough to land in the hospital, sick enough to see things that weren't there. I know what it's like. But never, never have I had an experience so vivid that it makes this--" and she pounds her fist on the hood-- "feel like the hallucination instead of the reality." She stares moodily at the fist and the car. "Ever since it started, I keep expecting to walk through things like a ghost -- because I was somewhere so much more real and solid than physical reality."
Her voice drops. "The--country--I don't know where it was. It burns my eyes, trying to see it now. The edges on everything were as sharp and clear as...as shadows in outer space. Not...fuzzy like here. Colors were...almost a torment. The stars are pastel by comparison. It was a terrible place!" She looks up at the others then, wonder and fear in her face. "And I'd give anything I can think of to get back there again."
"I moved here a few months back because I recieved a job offer out of the blue. Everything seemed on the up and up until --" she pauses, can it really have only been yesterday? "--I started receiving weird messages on my computer. Then I went to deliver some papers to a client who was wheelchair-bound, only she wasn't in a wheelchair at all. In fact, she claimed to--well, never mind that. Immediately after that, a bunch of guys in a van opened fire on me, and it took a miracle to get rid of them.
"I ditched the car and started packing my bags, but before I could leave town the police showed up and took me into custody. The invi--the ghost in the computer promised to arrange another miracle, and lo and behold, the police car crashed and I was the only survivor. A guy calling himself the Rooster popped up and set about faking my death in the crash as if this had all been planned for, and gave me that dossier on Stephanie Whitfield, the woman I met earlier...who, according to the paperwork, was dead.
"I studied her files at the library. According to this --" she brandishes the folder, "--we represent a type of human that someone powerful is attempting to cull from the general population, and which reasserts itself again and again every time they try to get rid of it. So do those guys who broke into your garage, and who are, if I'm not mistaken, marked for death this afternoon. There was a lot of talk about "SW phenotypes" and "the Great Sterilization Event" that I didn't completely understand. Missing context, I suppose.
"So much for the scientific. On top of all that, I've been getting threatening phone calls from someone called 'the Thousand Singing Voices' who's been trying to bully me into compliance. They seem to have a vendetta against the in...the ghost in the computer, who they refer to as 'the Castle'. They kept referring to me as a book. It sounds insane, but they talked about something called 'the Working' re-creating books more than once, which sounds like what Stephanie Whitfield wrote about the SW phenotype returning over and over. And..."
Erin looks briefly uncomfortable, then forges on. "I seem to be in possession of...information I never actually learned. Like memories, but of nothing I ever experienced, in this life at any rate. When I...access them, the sensations are so powerful they...overwhelm my awareness of who I am here and now. I've been really sick a few times, sick enough to land in the hospital, sick enough to see things that weren't there. I know what it's like. But never, never have I had an experience so vivid that it makes this--" and she pounds her fist on the hood-- "feel like the hallucination instead of the reality." She stares moodily at the fist and the car. "Ever since it started, I keep expecting to walk through things like a ghost -- because I was somewhere so much more real and solid than physical reality."
Her voice drops. "The--country--I don't know where it was. It burns my eyes, trying to see it now. The edges on everything were as sharp and clear as...as shadows in outer space. Not...fuzzy like here. Colors were...almost a torment. The stars are pastel by comparison. It was a terrible place!" She looks up at the others then, wonder and fear in her face. "And I'd give anything I can think of to get back there again."
magnificentmomo
That Guy
"I've been seeing things too. At first it was a dream; I saw God and he told me to come here. Once I got here, funny little things kept happening, until funny big things started happening. First it just seemed like little coincidences: billboards seemingly written just for me, my saintly figurine giving me winks, but then it got weird. That garbage just started floating around me, then I got sucked in by the crazy car."
The open, welcoming eyes take a sad tone behind his gruff skin,
"Then I was with God. We stood against incredible odds in a war that seemed hopeless, even with God on our side. The fighting was beyond all comprehension. We lost much, but we won, and God told me never to forget."
Hank is lost in thoughts of lost friends he never had for just a moment more, then sucks it up,
"So, as you can probably imagine, I'm just a little out of it."
The open, welcoming eyes take a sad tone behind his gruff skin,
"Then I was with God. We stood against incredible odds in a war that seemed hopeless, even with God on our side. The fighting was beyond all comprehension. We lost much, but we won, and God told me never to forget."
Hank is lost in thoughts of lost friends he never had for just a moment more, then sucks it up,
"So, as you can probably imagine, I'm just a little out of it."
Blackadder
Inquisitor Ordo Hereticus
Malcolm nodded. "Here's where I came in. I tried to help out you and him-" indicating Kase, "before they tossed me through the wall and into Patrick's car. Then some suited goons come up, and I wasn't sure what they had to do with those other two after you. Anyway, the key thing is they tried to smash my head in with a car door-" Malcolm stopped and paused. "Somehow it didn't do anything but shatter. And after that, for a short bit, I had that same kind of vision, my being someone else, fighting some monster that didn't obey reality... like the movies I acted in, except it felt like there was so much life there, and this world looking a wasteland by comparison. If we knew what they MEANT, so much the better."
lordofthestorm
A Great Big Goose, Clad in Orange
"Well, I really have nothing to add to the overall scheme of things," Kase said. "Except this one instance where I imagined I was writing some kind of musical score, but that's probably because of the concussion you supplied me with earlier," Kase added while shifting a sideways glance at Erin. "But, I may as well tell you how I got involved in all this.
"I'm actually from southern California, I won't say where for obvious reasons. I was brought here because, due to the craziest chain of events, I ended up on the ground with a poisonous fish attached to my leg. I was flown to the local hospital in this area because the one back home couldn't treat this particular variation of venom. I was on morphine the whole trip over, so my perception of time is a little wonky up to earlier today, but then I met a couple I'll only refer to as Athena and Bob. Next thing I know, a Slav with a nine-mil shows up and we're running for our lives.
"Now, we...well, Pat and I, anyway, were sent to give Miss Erin here a proper explanation. However, I think your presences here," Kase said, indicating Malcom and Hank. "Is not just blind fate."
"I'm actually from southern California, I won't say where for obvious reasons. I was brought here because, due to the craziest chain of events, I ended up on the ground with a poisonous fish attached to my leg. I was flown to the local hospital in this area because the one back home couldn't treat this particular variation of venom. I was on morphine the whole trip over, so my perception of time is a little wonky up to earlier today, but then I met a couple I'll only refer to as Athena and Bob. Next thing I know, a Slav with a nine-mil shows up and we're running for our lives.
"Now, we...well, Pat and I, anyway, were sent to give Miss Erin here a proper explanation. However, I think your presences here," Kase said, indicating Malcom and Hank. "Is not just blind fate."
The Bushranger
Member
"Poisonous fish? There aren't any poisonous fish that are that bad up here. At least," Patrick adds, "There aren't supposed to be...
And I haven't really had any visions, but I have had...well, the odd flashback or two, I guess. Particulaly when Mr. Bulletproof was trying to bash in my car. So I think it's safe to say that yeah, Richard Bach was right, nothing by chance. Right now though we need to figure out how to get out of this mess and back somewhere safe without leaving anything to chance..."
And I haven't really had any visions, but I have had...well, the odd flashback or two, I guess. Particulaly when Mr. Bulletproof was trying to bash in my car. So I think it's safe to say that yeah, Richard Bach was right, nothing by chance. Right now though we need to figure out how to get out of this mess and back somewhere safe without leaving anything to chance..."
Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
Erin
"Well, what's the plan, then?" She pauses. "I mean, I'm assuming you guys have some kind of plan. Or Tink does."
"Well, what's the plan, then?" She pauses. "I mean, I'm assuming you guys have some kind of plan. Or Tink does."
lordofthestorm
A Great Big Goose, Clad in Orange
"Lace mentioned something about an extraction team incoming," said Kase.
Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
Erin
"When? Where? And how?"
"When? Where? And how?"
lordofthestorm
A Great Big Goose, Clad in Orange
"Sorry...there was a lack of specifics," Kase said, scratching his head.
Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
Erin Hagens
"Well, how does that help?" says Erin in annoyance. "Look, when you came barging in, I was arranging to meet with somebody. Did she send you guys, or were you sent by yet another faction that I'll need to keep track of? Because, frankly, I'm beginning to feel like I've wandered into a Coen Brothers movie here."
"Well, how does that help?" says Erin in annoyance. "Look, when you came barging in, I was arranging to meet with somebody. Did she send you guys, or were you sent by yet another faction that I'll need to keep track of? Because, frankly, I'm beginning to feel like I've wandered into a Coen Brothers movie here."
The Bushranger
Member
Patrick
"I'm pretty sure who you were arranging to meet was is who sent us. The problem is we have to avoid the cops picking us up on our way back in, and since they know what my car looks like, well..."
Patrick rubs the back of his head a bit sheepishly, and for a moment worries about the lady cop back in town dealing with the Incredible Bulk - she hadn't seemed too bad, and not everybody on the other side has to be a horrible monster...right?
"...of course, Lace wasn't driving that Frankenvette when we left," he muses, casting a curious glance at the Challenger.
"I'm pretty sure who you were arranging to meet was is who sent us. The problem is we have to avoid the cops picking us up on our way back in, and since they know what my car looks like, well..."
Patrick rubs the back of his head a bit sheepishly, and for a moment worries about the lady cop back in town dealing with the Incredible Bulk - she hadn't seemed too bad, and not everybody on the other side has to be a horrible monster...right?
"...of course, Lace wasn't driving that Frankenvette when we left," he muses, casting a curious glance at the Challenger.
magnificentmomo
That Guy
Hank was doing his damndest to keep up, some of the finer points of what exactly was going on eluded him, but this he understood,
"Bertha, my truck, should be ready by about now. But I'd reckon that's on the other side of town, judging by how much ass we were just hauling."
"Bertha, my truck, should be ready by about now. But I'd reckon that's on the other side of town, judging by how much ass we were just hauling."
Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
Erin Hagens
Erin raises her eyebrows. "Can't we just...walk?"
Erin raises her eyebrows. "Can't we just...walk?"
Blackadder
Inquisitor Ordo Hereticus
"To where?" Malcolm asked dryly? "We don't know if, where, when or how these folks are showing up. Furthermore, there's limits to walking if someone recognize us once a police report goes out with our description. I suppose someone has a plan, or can make our rescuers pop out of thin air?"
Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
Erin
"The last time I spoke with Tink -- before Rerun Van Pelt over there started tossing marbles at me -- we were going to meet up at the gym. If none of you has any better suggestions, then that's where I'm headed."
"The last time I spoke with Tink -- before Rerun Van Pelt over there started tossing marbles at me -- we were going to meet up at the gym. If none of you has any better suggestions, then that's where I'm headed."
lordofthestorm
A Great Big Goose, Clad in Orange
Kase gave her a dull glare. "You're a piece of work. But it's a good place to start as any."Arynne said:
magnificentmomo
That Guy
Hank scrtatched at his beard before his gravelly baritone could be heard,
"I think Issaiah 55:9 is appropriate, 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' or for laymens, 'mysterious fucking ways.'"
He then adjusts the waist of his jeans, slings his pack which miraculously made the journey over his shoulder, and takes a deep breath,
"Let's get hoofin'."
"I think Issaiah 55:9 is appropriate, 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' or for laymens, 'mysterious fucking ways.'"
He then adjusts the waist of his jeans, slings his pack which miraculously made the journey over his shoulder, and takes a deep breath,
"Let's get hoofin'."
The walk to the gym is uneventful. It takes a few hours to get back into town, but you walk along the beach to avoid the police. No one stops you, nor even seems to notice. There are a few fishermen out, but their attention is caught on other things. By the time you get back to the city, the sun is gone, and the fading sunset is washed out by the streetlights. The city isn't nearly as well lit as during peak tourist season, but there are still a few lights. Most businesses are closing down by now, and you've got the beaches to yourselves. After that you hop over the dunes and get back on Croatan. With some concealment via darkness, no looks twice at you if they're even looking for you at all. Cops roll by, and at some point a police chopped flits overhead. Nothing interesting comes of it.
You move faster alongside the road, but it also means you pass the police station on the southern side of town. You do so on the far side of the street. When you pass it there are a couple odd things. Kase and Patrick notice that there's dung of some nature, possibly bovine or equestrian, in the parking lot. As Nags Head doesn't have mounted cops, that's a little unusual. Everybody but Hank notices the sudden proliferation of spiders though. There are swarms of them in the cacti ridden grass around the station, and several of the patrol cars are being slowly cocooned. A couple of the personal vehicles around back are too. The chainlink fence around the parking lot is turning white, and even the windows of the building are getting frosted over with webbing. None of the spiders bother you. Patrick notices a few of the types, and doesn't think any of them are poisonous.
There is a dark Marauder parked on the grass out front. It is the only thing completely untouched by the webbing.
You move faster alongside the road, but it also means you pass the police station on the southern side of town. You do so on the far side of the street. When you pass it there are a couple odd things. Kase and Patrick notice that there's dung of some nature, possibly bovine or equestrian, in the parking lot. As Nags Head doesn't have mounted cops, that's a little unusual. Everybody but Hank notices the sudden proliferation of spiders though. There are swarms of them in the cacti ridden grass around the station, and several of the patrol cars are being slowly cocooned. A couple of the personal vehicles around back are too. The chainlink fence around the parking lot is turning white, and even the windows of the building are getting frosted over with webbing. None of the spiders bother you. Patrick notices a few of the types, and doesn't think any of them are poisonous.
There is a dark Marauder parked on the grass out front. It is the only thing completely untouched by the webbing.
Go on or investigate? If you want to do anything along the way, just mention that you've done it.
Arynne
Salmon of Doubt
Erin Hagens
Observing her companions' blank expressions as they merely gaze at the spiderweb-encrusted police station, Erin wonders if she is the only person present who ever takes the initiative.
"Spiderwebs' dusting," she mutters, and then aloud, "alright, we have yet another obvious, weird phenomenon practically begging us to investigate it. So are we going to? Or is it too dangerous and we should just hurry past?"
She pauses. "That was very clumsily phrased. And it's moot, anyway. Because now that I think about it, I'm going to go check it out anyway. You can come or stay." She walks closer to the police station, whistling softly.
Spider crawling, I crawl with him
We go everywhere, we see everything
We are falling, we are falling, falling to nowhere...
Observing her companions' blank expressions as they merely gaze at the spiderweb-encrusted police station, Erin wonders if she is the only person present who ever takes the initiative.
"Spiderwebs' dusting," she mutters, and then aloud, "alright, we have yet another obvious, weird phenomenon practically begging us to investigate it. So are we going to? Or is it too dangerous and we should just hurry past?"
She pauses. "That was very clumsily phrased. And it's moot, anyway. Because now that I think about it, I'm going to go check it out anyway. You can come or stay." She walks closer to the police station, whistling softly.
Spider crawling, I crawl with him
We go everywhere, we see everything
We are falling, we are falling, falling to nowhere...
The Bushranger
Member
Patrick
Patrick
"Well, I certainly think we should investigate," Patrick says with a shrug. "I don't think these are harmful spiders, but if they're building these webs so quickly, well..."
Suddenly, Patrick freezes, and turns. Looking to see if anywhere else but the police station is being spider-ized.
Perception+Awareness, 3-dice roll...Invisible Castle seems to be down. ST roll?
Patrick
"Well, I certainly think we should investigate," Patrick says with a shrug. "I don't think these are harmful spiders, but if they're building these webs so quickly, well..."
Suddenly, Patrick freezes, and turns. Looking to see if anywhere else but the police station is being spider-ized.
Perception+Awareness, 3-dice roll...Invisible Castle seems to be down. ST roll?
