Meet & Greet [open]

[apropergent]

CHARACTERS: aproper_gent and all others
DATE: ( August 25th (Day 7) )
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: A meet and greet of... island proportions?

Comments

[distinctive_guy]

After the morning's excitement, Eliot had considered skipping the afternoon meet. That it was the first of its kind made him reconsider though, so after a thorough clean up, he decided to attend if merely to keep an eye on the proceedings. A moment of deliberation had the hitter leaving most of his fake police gear -real gear, fake police- in his room to avoid giving the illusion of being armed

[distinctive_guy]

"That's the last thing you need to worry about," Eliot told her reluctantly. He gave the hallway a look around, and after ensuring their privacy, he reached up and palmed his earbud.. He didn't want Hardison to hear the next part of their conversation.

"To be honest with you," he said in all seriousness, "I think we're either trapped in a large facility and this whole fake island is a testin' ground to a very sick but competent group, or we're not on Earth anymore." Those were his two working theories, but one thing was for sure, this wasn't a game.

[besttoshootit]

Rather liking her tan, she made a sound that was the monosyllabic version of a noncommittal shrug. Lifting an eyebrow as he cupped his hand over his ear, her expression grew quizzical, the brow lifting higher when he spoke of not being on earth.

There was a long, long beat before she responded, and when she did, why yes there was hint of mocking in both gaze and tone, and maybe even in the smile that began to spread across her face. "So we're being held captive by little green men." The smile grew. "Is that who you're talking to?" She asked, tapping her own ear, before giving his cheek a pat that was only a little harder than it should have been. "I think all the darkness is getting to you, Eliot. Never would have figured you for the type to believe in E.T."

[distinctive_guy]

Eliot snarled when Fiona's mocking tone reflected his own doubts on the matter. This was precisely why he didn't want Hardison overhearing the conversation, Eliot would never hear the end of it. As it was, he wasn't sure Fiona was the best choice for this revelation, after all, their short relationship was, like he pointed out, over five years ago.

"You think I don't know how that sounds?" He growled, more at himself than the mocking he received. "I'm just tellin' you the facts! Seven to one darl to light ratio! And that's not one hour to seven, it's half a day to three days." He turned from her and walked a few steps down the empty hallway, then turned and paced his way back, scowling as he did so. "Have you looked at the stars lately? They're nothin' I recognize, and I've spent more than one night navigatin' by them."

[besttoshootit]

She studied him a moment, and though it was fairly obvious that she was indeed still amused, she was doing a decent job of holding it in check. Though she found the idea ridiculous, she turned it over in her head, having learned long ago that even the most obviously innocuous stones should be overturned.

Dropping the smile, she gave a long-suffering sigh, and butted her shoulder up against the nearest wall, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Say you're right--and I'm definitely not saying that," she said, lifting one still neatly manicured finger as emphasis. "But, for the sake of argument, say we are not on earth. Then what is all of this? Some secret government experiment? A mass alien abduction? What?" Both brows shot up in a quick, expectant arch. Sure, she was no stranger to conspiracy theories, hell she was a conspiracy theory back in Ireland, but this was pushing the envelope just a tad much.

[distinctive_guy]

"Hell if I know," Eliot ground out, rolling his eyes. He stopped his pacing to prop his back against the wall, and almost automatically, his arms crossed.

"Like I said, the other way could be true too. A large holdin' facility in an off the grid location, and everythin' about here is false." His eyebrows rose and he gave Fiona a dubious glance. That would mean they were caught by the same people and deposited in this holding facility together, a holding facility simulating an island several miles wide and images of endless horizons on either side.

He grimaced, not liking that theory much either. "Don't forget a lot actors with special effects." His eyes rolled again.

[besttoshootit]

"Well that's helpful," she replied, only mildly sarcastic as she matched his eye roll with one of her own.

Out of the two scenarios he spun, it couldn't be said she had an actual preference. She hoped neither was true, though, if pushed, the latter seemed the least problematic. Escaping a hidden containment camp or what-have-you was far easier than she presumed escaping a foreign planet.

"I still think the dark may have had too much of an effect on your imagination," she said, glancing leisurely down the hall. "But I suppose that doesn't really matter, does it? The point is we're stuck here until we can figure a way out." She swung her gaze back around. "And speaking of escape, three weeks in this place, how're you doing on that?"

[distinctive_guy]

"I'm still here," was his grim and rather self explanatory reply.

Frustration fully present now, Eliot furrowed his brows and glanced down the still empty hall. On the other end, noises were making its way through the double doors to imply the meeting was going on in full swing. A meeting he was missing, but he trusted his teammate to fill him in if something happened, and there was his other communicator still on if set to mute.

"I've checked the place out, or as thoroughly as I can." He sighed with how little that really amounted to. "They want us alive and survivin', I'll say that much. Haven't been to the forest in the center, and there's somethin' seriously wrong in those office buildings, but short of makin' a boat and sailin' myself off, I can't see another way to escape yet."

And he will try that too, in due time.

[besttoshootit]

The sounds of the ongoing meeting filled the silence that stretched after Eliot's final words, and she listened with half an ear to people making plans that, from what she was hearing, wouldn't turn out to be all that helpful.

"Or maybe you just haven't looked hard enough," she said, finally breaking the semi-silence. For once, she wasn't being antagonistic, or at least not entirely. She merely refused to accept that there was no way out. It simply wasn't in her nature.

"What more can you tell me about those buildings that are rubbing you the wrong way? And this 'center forest'?"

[distinctive_guy]

Eliot shot her a glare, or at least, until he realized she wasn't being challenging, to then which the linoleum floor was suddenly treated to a heavy look of annoyance. "There's not that many ways to get off a piece of land surrounded by water," he pointed out, still not looking up even after he trailed off to uncomfortable silence.

When he started again, his voice was soft and utterly serious. "The office building's full of decomposed corpses-" He took a breath and tried again, "People who used to be on this island. Somebody, something, out there tore them to bloody bits and left them in those offices to rot." He shook his head and released a low rumble, "They've hid it so well those offices look perfect on the outside."

He wasn't even going to start on the monsters in the forest.

[besttoshootit]

She decided to ignore the glare and shrugged, conceding his point about the inherent limitations to their actual escape. That would be a bridge she crossed when she got to it.

Both brows lifted as he went on, describing the office buildings. If she didn't know Eliot, even if their original acquaintance had been fairly short, she wouldn't have believed a word he said.

She took a moment to mull over the new information and it's likely implications, neither of which were the most pleasant of thoughts, sounding as if she were simply thinking aloud as she spoke because she was. "You have to wonder, though, why it is that the maniacs in charge would leave the bodies and hide them, instead of getting rid of them entirely." She looked expectantly up at Eliot. "And I am right in assuming you saw these bodies yourself? No hearsay or island lore?"

[distinctive_guy]

"Most of the island don't know about'em." Eliot lifted his gaze only to give her a pointed, meaningful look. And that's the way it'll remain until it can be sure it is safe to reveal otherwise. Read between the lines.

"Not that anyone could tell, any breach was fixed back to perfection soon after." He took back to glaring at the ground again, and his brows furrowed deeply in remembered anger. "Fuckin' perfect picture."

[besttoshootit]

Catching the look, she nodded. Message received, though she still wondered whose brilliant idea it was to leave the bodies in the office space. From a tactical standpoint, it didn't make any sense. But then, not much did right now.

There was another short silence as she watched him glare at the floor. "How did you manage to get in in the first place? If they're going to all the trouble of making it look as though nothing's wrong, they would have taken precautionary measures." She was half asking, half thinking aloud, her gaze traveling once again to the end of the hall and then back to Eliot.

[distinctive_guy]

Eliot lifted his head and regarded Fiona with an incredulous Really? You had to ask? look. "I improvised," he answered, not wanting to go into the details of blowing through locks with gunpowder and a lot of muscular force.

"And they did. Windows were bullet proof, system can't be hacked from outside. Ducts are welded shut, no way in or out except through their doors." Except even the most impenetrable entrances have their weak spots. He attacked those.

"What worries me is how they fixed the damage in that short amount of time."

[besttoshootit]

She rolled her eyes. Improvised her ass. Though things became a little clearer when he detailed the security. Not bad, but not the worst she had ever come across. After his little 'improvisation', though, they had probably boosted security a little. If they were smart, anyway.

"People are being brought here against, en masse against their will and with no recollection of how and that's what worries you?" She arched a brow. "If they can manage mass kidnappings, repairing a few locks is probably a walk in the park."

[distinctive_guy]

Eliot shrugged, "Amongst a few other things," he corrected, admitting Fiona had a point. He looked down the empty hall again, then gave Fiona an interested glance.

"If we stay here much longer, we'll miss the whole meeting. Dunno 'bout you, but I wanna hear what they've got plannin' in there." Might not help them find a way off this island, but Eliot wanted to know what are some of the things people have in mind, or 'abilities' others might have.

[[OOC: Oh dang! I forgot that Eliot wouldn't know they're fixed yet. He just broke in that morning. *backtag fail*]]