Arrival (1/?)

[blimeyjamwalls]

(ooc: Stuff in green is hallucinatory. Seeing stuff that doesn't exist is sort of an occupational hazard when you're a Frictional Games protagonist.)

If you look on your screens just about... now, you'll see the fifth floor hall comms pick up a young man peering out of a doorway in a state of high alert. He looks like he's dressed for Renn Faire:

Comments

action (ps darken the comment box text a bit would you? ;o;)

[psych0ruin]

[Because things can never be simple here, a floating robot ghost turns the corner at the end of the hall and drifts towards him.]

(ohgodwhatisthis. /disables custom comment pages)

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ He sees her, freezes, makes a shaky noise of horror and then starts to leg it down the corridor. Apparently he forgot that there was an open door pretty much right next to him. Ah well, too late to double back.

It's a highly subtle retreat in every respect except for the 'highly' and 'subtle' parts. ]

(I hate it when nice layouts have shitty comment pages :<)

[psych0ruin]

[She wasn't really chasing him or even trying to follow him, she just happens to be heading in the same direction. She's mildly curious by his sudden urge to run like hell. Is this some sort of weird human thing?

Following him seems slightly less boring than wandering aimlessly, though, so she continues to follow him, keeping up with his pace easily.]

(it always seems a shame to disable them. :c ah well, needs must.)

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ Running down a corridor while being followed by something easily as fast as him? This seems familiar somehow!

But he's been ceaselessly on the move today, and running in terror for a lot of it - there's only so much of that one guy can do, you know? So he's slowing down. And he's horribly aware that he's slowing down. So he veers sideways towards a random door, hoping to find somewhere to hide.

...Unfortunately, he's held up. What. What is this. What is this doorknob madness WHERE IS THE LATCH. ]

[angel_junk]

[ Suddenly a large, white rat runs past Daniel's feet, carrying a small phial filled with orange liquid in its mouth. ]

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ GYAH!

He almost drops the lantern - but it's more because of the suddenness than the rat itself. There are rats around castles. It happens. Even... if they have... glowy things... what was that? ]

Your eyes are playing tricks on you, Daniel.

[ ...now why isn't that so reassuring. ]

[angel_junk]

[ And along comes Mary! And by Mary we mean Doctor Bhamba, practically shooting around the corner, fishing net in his hand. ]

Hold the rat, hold the rat, hold the--

[ His sentence, effort and motion is stopped when he crashes almost straight into Daniel.

After a moment of moaning in pain and another moment of moaning the loss of his rat (which is now entirely out of sight), he gets up, straightens himself and shoots Daniel an accusatory glare. ]

Why didn't you hold the rat?

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ Daniel dropped his lantern there, and he's pretty sure from the jabbing in his hip that he fell on his tinderbox. But you know what's more important than those things? HE'S BEEN TACKLED BY A FREAKING GODHEDOESN'TEVENWANTTOLOOK. Fairly certain that he's going to die, Daniel kicks and flails and tries to claw his way out from underneath -

Oh, the creature's gotten up. And it spoke. And it didn't cleave him in twain with the horrible blade-arm it doesn't have.

'Course, he's halfway down the corridor before any of this really permeates his mind. He slows, turns, but remains on his toes, ready to run if needed. Stares at the man in the clean white coat. A person. There's a person down here. Did a prisoner get out? No, he looks too well to be a prisoner. Is he in league with Alexander?

Daniel tries to speak a couple of times, stumbles over the words and finally comes out with: ]

W-what?

[ocdwebbing]

[Oh hi, there's this little green fairy thing flying down the hallway.]

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ Ohgodwhat. Okay, there's no way that can be real. No way. His head is pounding like crazy - it must just be another vision, another waking dream.

Not that that's exactly a good thing, but...

He freezes in the doorway, watching the fairy with widening eyes. ]

[ocdwebbing]

Aww, Big-thing have not-good arm?

[Yeah, now it's talking to you...]

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ THAT PROVES NOTHING. ]

It's all your imagination, Daniel. [ He raises his free hand to his temple, as though that will get rid of his headache. ] It is only your imagination.

[reckless_eagle]

[Poland is out in the fifth-floor hallway, in a late medieval girl ensemble--it's not going out in public without an observably male chaperon if all he's doing is walking to the tearoom to fetch something, right? He blinks at the freaked-out looking guy.]

Dude. Like, what's your deal? You look mega freaked.

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ Despite the castle and so on, Daniel's early Victorian rather than Medieval himself. But the extra few centuries are gonna be of no help in understanding Poland's 'like's and 'dude's.

He freezes when he spots the country, and only keeps himself from running because... well, he thinks that Poland's a girl. A strangely old-fashioned girl. A strangely old-fashioned girl who's somehow in the Inner Sanctum - and he'd thought there weren't any women in the castle, besides... besides ones whom he'd rather forget.

In conclusion: whaaaaaaaaat. ]

I...

[ He glances up and down the corridor for threats, clutching his lantern, then resumes staring at Poland like he can't quite decide whether he's real. ]

How did you...

[reckless_eagle]

Seriously, you like, look like you've seen a ghost. What's up? Are you hurt or something?

[blimeyjamwalls]

Only a little.

[ Okay, uh... working out who this person is and whether they're likely to call the servants on him. ]

...Forgive me, are you the baroness?

[ If the answer's yes then there will probably be awkward questions about why he doesn't remember that, but awkward questions so do not even make the bottom of his list of fears today. ]

[action]

[defiant_eye]

[ When Elle walks down the stairs whistling she is fashionably dressed in this, although her shoes may be a tad more on the athletic side.

She carries a katana slung over her shoulder and either doesn't notice or doesn't care about Daniel's presence. ]

[action]

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ So what we have here is a woman dressed as a man and armed with a sword...

Daniel is so not even touching that with a ten-foot pole. He scrambles back inside the room and hides himself behind the door, praying that she doesn't see and follow him. ]

[action]

[defiant_eye]

[ And what we have over there, visible in the corner of her eye, is apparently a grown man hiding like a little girl while dressed like a... okay, she's not even going to go into that one.

Yeah, she should definitely stop and make friends.

No, wait. The other one.

Walk away. ]