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. ]

[psych0ruin]

[She stops when he does, floating idly just a few feet away from him. Staring blankly. It's kind of spooky.

He seems to be having some trouble! She continues to stare as he fails at opening doors. Eventually, she gets bored with just watching.] What are you doing?

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ It gets through his head, gradually, that he isn't being horribly murdered. Is the ghost thing an hallucination?

He jumps when she speaks, and spins around, back flat to the door. Then he stares at her, trembling. Oh god. Oh god oh man oh god. ]

You're not really there.

[ He presses his palms together, the lantern swinging from his thumb, as if praying for it to be true. ]

You're not really there...

[psych0ruin]

No, I'm really here.

[It still hasn't occurred to her that maybe, possibly, she looks kind of terrifying. But robots and psychics are normal in her world, so why would it be different elsewhere? That, and her social skills are shit.

But it's kind of hard to overlook how distressed this person is. Unfortunately, Aradia is not a empathetic ghost.] You are very strange.

[blimeyjamwalls]

[ ...

He's gone completely mad, hasn't he. ]

No. No.

[ One of the cockroaches hisses fiercely at him, and he treads heavily on it without thinking. It vanishes - all of them vanish in a blink. His eyes flick back up to the ghost metal person, kind of surprised that she didn't vanish too. ]