[Lecture hall]
"Heh. Yeah," said Jeremiah, nodding. "Not much happens in Vermilion beyond the college. Generally easy work. Although some tourists could get a bit... rowdy at times."
He paused. "You've got a point, there. The bit I remember the most is the worst. And one of my first assignments, to boot. It was..." His voice trailed off. "Well, you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you.
"So what's your home like? Where do you live? Doesn't sound the greatest, if police there get into firefights as often as I think they do."
[Lecture Hall]
Linna smiled briefly. "Tokyo. Which has gone downhill in the last seven years or so. It's a major city; never quiet, never boring. In both the good and the bad ways. It's not a bad place to be, really. During the day it's safe, everyone knows if you make too much ruckus during business hours it's in the economic best interest of the city to stomp you flat, so no expense will be spared to do it. At night, though, it's best to be off the streets. And move the other way fast if the cops call in the heavies to deal with things."
Linna crossed her arms briefly. "That's not entirely fair to the...I guess you'd call them SWAT, but becoming known as the people who deal with the really bad things is becoming associated with the really bad things. It's something they've had to fight at various points."
edited 23rd Jun '12 12:13:59 AM by Night
Nous restons ici.[Lecture hall]
Jeremiah blinked and cocked his head slightly. He wasn't the sort to keep up-to-the-minute with the news, but he didn't ignore it, either, and he hadn't heard anything about Tokyo declining. Maybe Linna was from a different Earth? Or this was her Earth and Jeremiah was the one from a different world. That might make getting back home a little difficult.
He could ignore that for now, though. He didn't need to leave just yet. "I know the feeling. That sounds a bit like the state of New York — City, I mean — shortly after the housing riots. At least that died down pretty quickly. I guess Tokyo's condition is more permanent, since it's lasted several years already."
[Lecture Hall]
Linna offered the slightest of shrugs. "Things get better. Or people get better at coping. Still, the city is changing again. If you don't like the neighborhood, just wait a few hours. It'll be different."
She gestured at the classroom. "I don't suppose you know where we are? College classrooms have a certain...sameness, to the them. For all I know I'm in Pakistan."
edited 23rd Jun '12 5:49:59 AM by Night
Nous restons ici.[Lecture hall]
"I wish," said Jeremiah. "Haven't seen much beyond this room." He glanced around it. "You know, I don't even see any signs in here. Too bad; if I did, the language on them might give us a bit of a clue."
He pushed himself to his feet. "Do you want to have a look around? Maybe find a map of the school? At least then, we can know where we are within the building." He frowned. "I just hope the campus isn't too large, or else we could easily get lost."
Courtyard -> Library
Rachel paused for a moment outside the library door for yet another session of plant removal from her legs, as well as giving Doltur and Nathan a chance to catch up. While waiting, she watched the other group converse some more, and noticed that they had been joined by what looked like a humanoid with a pair of very large horns.
Great. It seems the legions of hell are starting to show up.
Of course, the supposed "demon" could very well be a normal human in a fancy outfit, but given who else was here she wouldn't be surprised if it was an actual demon. Apparently, dimensional fluxes knew no boundaries when it came to who got transported by them.
After all of the plant matter was removed, she stood back up, casting glances alternatively at the "demon," and at Doltur and Nathan.
Icon by Civvi the Civilian![Lecture Hall]
Linna managed an actual laugh this time. "We're already lost, remember? I suppose it's possible to make it worse, but in terms of a university I'm not sure how unless they're doing sinister zombie research here." She hoisted her gym bag again and stood up, the headband clashing with the much less colorful work formal clothes, and started moving towards the exit, paying careful attention for anything like a bulletin board or paper that might have been left about.
No such luck. The room was really quite unnaturally neat for a lecture hall, she thought frowningly. Unnaturally neat for a campus in general. Didn't anyone go to classes here? It was too clean to be abandoned, but too clean to be actively used...
"This place is just weird."
edited 23rd Jun '12 10:39:01 AM by Night
Nous restons ici.[Lecture hall]
"To put it mildly," said Jeremiah dryly. He got out of his seat and headed for the door. Before he left, he checked the outside of the door to get a look at the number of the room. That way, if they found a map, they could orient themselves. However, there was nothing there. Puzzled, he looked at the frame of the door. There was no number up there, either.
"Apparently, this room isn't numbered," he said to Linna. "Weirder and weirder. Why would we come here in the first place, anyway?" He thought for a moment. "You didn't piss anyone really powerful off, did you? Crime lords, politicians, corrupt CEOs, supernaturals, or otherwise? I don't think I did, but maybe something like that has something to do with it."
[Courtyard] A man rushed in, wearing patchwork leather clothes, a facefull of scars and the queerest expression on his face. He had a daze about him and two dull unmovable eyes. Despite this he seemed a perfectly normal 20 something man. Above average height, indistinguishable brown hair and sparse fields of stubble where his lower face wasn't half peeled off.
And so Daniel Tell rushed into the courtyard panting and closing the door behind him securely.
"Sorry, for interrupting whatever is going on in this fine institution but I'm kind of on the run." he said to whoever would listen.
Out of Mind[Courtyard]
Ozzy, who had been in deep thought about his now seemingly twisted perspective on the world — and experiencing the uneasy sensation of being observed — was suddenly torn away from his quiet musings by what looked to be the most inelegantly scarred face he had ever seen. Of course, this face belonged to a man who looked quite demented, and thus, he suddenly had Ozzy's full attention.
Ozzy held up a gloved hand and called out, "Ho, sir! On the run? What do you mean? From what? Who?"
They'll turn your world around[Courtyard]
Horatio looked toward the man who had suddenly appeared, shocked by his strange appearance, "My name is Horatio, and who or what you might be running from?" He analyzed the new comer's appearance, he must have been through a lot, but Horatio decided not to ask.
Note to self: Pick less edgy username next time.[Courtyard]
Daniel had been fidgeting with the door and finally overcome by his first sense of calm in a while sat down to the nearest table urging the man, this Ozzy bloke, and the Horatio guy too, to a nearby table and started a rapid pace rant.
"Man I've got a helluva story to tell, man a helluva story.
I volunteered for basically... hypersleep, all at the urgings of some girl, needed a test subject for her a-hole boss. And I'm supposed to wake up showered and shaved, a few months later. I have nothing to look fowards to, I'm down on my luck so I pop in and something went wrong, must have been the bullet holes and dead bodies around the pod because I woke up centuries later, my mind was still running the entire time. The machine ran out of stuff to keep me knocked out and I'm biding my time for centuries, talking to characters I made up in my head and losing memories as they're overtaken by acid trips, untill I reach singularity and forget everything.
When I wake up I am infantile- my senses are assaulted on all sides, I'm showered with rancid water and shaved with a green rusty knife untill I look like this. Some villagers in what is basically the post-apocolypse take me in, urge me to my memories and the choice of word singularity, seems to imply I'm a messiah so, there I am expected to lead these people.
Now I could pass for a messiah as I was at the time "stoically dismissive" it turns out I'm just cynically dismissive, they said I had supernatural knowledge, the only knowledge I gained from staring at my soul for 5 centuries is that my perception will be messed up and I should accept fate. Which seems pretty plausable, everything seems a blur and all sound slurs together for me.
But eventually they find out I have nothing to offer and at the urges of the rival messiahs in this hellhole they hunt me down, because hell, they crucified jesus.
So yeah how's your day been?"
And then he sat, waiting for Ozzy and Horatio's reaction followed by more than a few moments of uncomfortable silence.
edited 23rd Jun '12 3:12:56 PM by sonofkong
Out of Mind[Courtyard]
Ozzy placed a hand on his heavily facewrapped chin, staring at the man with half-visible perplexity. After holding this stare for what seemed like several minutes, he finally spoke.
"So... I didn't catch your name. Oh- forgive me, I haven't even introduced myself. I am Oswald Prosper Leonard Orozco, and... I'm not sure if I fully understand your story. Especially the beginning part and everything that came after that."
They'll turn your world aroundLoyce is with that group too, I just hadn't posted until now, so can we assume that he was there too, but just didn't say anything yet.
[Courtyard]
Loyce, on the other hand, thought he understood, but waited for an explanation just in case. If he was right... he'd thought the things that happened back home were bad, but what this man had gone through was... far worse than that.
edited 23rd Jun '12 3:33:28 PM by YsaSlayerOfSporks
This is a signature. It is not interesting. Please continue whatever you were doing, it is surely more fascinating.[Courtyard]
And Daniel calmed down and went over the tale slowly, he was not under stern pressure for the first time in a great while.
"My name's Daniel. Daniel Tell. After being in a poorly constructed prototype of cryogenic sleep I was trapped for 5 centuries with my brain still running.
I went a little crazy with just me and my lonesome and eventually I reached singularity. Imagine going over your entire life in memories, over and over and over again. Imagine your mind is going and your POV is becoming more distorted everytime you do this until it all fades to white noise.
So I wake up and the villagers in this post-apocolypse I find myself in hear my story, and see me as some form of god. The word singularity is quite provocative. So I lead them for a bit, try to protect them from malevolent bigger nations, and they eventually realise I have no great supernatural knowledge beyond nihilism and cast me out. Now there's a few hundred of them wandering around the woods trying to kill me and I've had to go geurilla on them.
Example: Last night I killed my third man and hollowed out a tree to hide his body. More were coming so I had to go in and sleep in the same tree trunk.
So can I please make a bit of a shelter here? It's safer than outside."
Said Daniel Tell
"By the way, Loyce, or Mr. Slayer of Sporks, nice signature, it sums up my life perfectly."
edited 23rd Jun '12 4:07:36 PM by sonofkong
Out of Mind[Lecture Hall...uh...Hall?]
Linna paused, considered her answer. Well, yes, she probably had, but they were much more pragmatic sorts than this. Besides, not that she could say aloud. "Not that they know. The problem-solving methods most of them use are more direct. And permanent."
She traveled down the hallway a short distance, to another door, and opened it. Another generic lecture hall, no paper, no writing, no... "Where are the bulletin boards? Every school I've ever been in there were bulletin boards with notices up, everywhere you went, with all their little boilerplate warnings and such. And these are college kids, right? They post their little papers about tutoring and that really awesome concert and their lost pet they weren't supposed to have in the dormitories."
Nous restons ici.[Courtyard]
And Daniel, finding his predicament understood (right?) settled on a bench. For a second he thought about collapsing on it, maybe ask for a dorm room to crash into and stay that way. He instead composed himself and asked calmly "So what's going on this... I don't know, I suppose it's a college? I've been spying for a while so I think I'm up to date on Ozzy's story, but how about the rest of you who've been here longer? What's the big mystery on this campus and where can I explore? I've spent too long cooped up and quite frankly have no problem with doing some favors."
edited 23rd Jun '12 5:09:02 PM by sonofkong
Out of Mind[Courtyard]
"The place was abandoned before we came here, as far as I know." Loyce said. "So I suppose you can go anywhere. As for the 'big mystery'... I haven't noticed one, other than the fact that so many people show up at this place, some even from other worlds, although that might just be coincidence." He shrugged. "Unless someone else has anything to add?"
This is a signature. It is not interesting. Please continue whatever you were doing, it is surely more fascinating.[Courtyard]
"Cryogenic sleep? That sounds familiar. I think I saw it in a movie once... but... I never thought it was a real thing. Huh."
Ozzy turned away for a moment as he considered Daniel's story. Post apocalyptic... how strange. The world Ozzy knew was certainly in some disarray—as he was told—but could it be possible that there were parts of it as wretched as what this man described? Perhaps not... the man did seem a little off kilter, and Ozzy wasn't sure if there was real weight behind his words.
Turning back, he spoke, somewhat more leisurely than before, "Well, somehow I don't think you'll have to hide while you're here. No one seems to know quite where we are, or how we got here."
edited 23rd Jun '12 5:34:41 PM by Ryuhza
They'll turn your world aroundDaniel seemed taken aback by how casual everyone was. How strange it is with people popping up in one location, looking for clues to why they're there but considering it to be no mystery. He'd been through some stuff but this seemed too out there, at least he saw consistent reactions in his upside sci-fi world.
And even then people with contradictory backgrounds, Loyce and Ozzy barely considered this to be the remnants of civilization like he had, they seemed to clean to boot. And he would wager everyone else saw the earth differently.
Could it be possible this is some malicious cage, this reminded him of No Exit; that damned book he couldn't stop thinking about from high school more than any amount of purgatory could. Might it be possible this university is some Sartrean hell? Some portal to our own individual realms?
Daniel panicked for a bit, but swallowed his apparent fear, kept his thoughts to himself and promised to investigate. He acted casual and voiced utter contentment. "That's great" he said "I'll go and crash in the dorms."
edited 23rd Jun '12 5:47:26 PM by sonofkong
Out of Mind-Outside the University-
A car rides up to the University, and stops. "Thanks again, man!" a young teen male stepping out of the car says. He is outfitted with a hawaiian shirt over a t-shirt that says Hidamari Sketch on it. He is also wearing blue jeans, sandals, and a hat with a green clover pin on it. His name was Maxwell, Tina's friend from childhood. As the car speeds off, Maxwell takes out his umbrella. "Okay, Tina said to meet her somewhere." Maxwell said. "Maybe these guys in the courtyard could provide some answers."
Just floating around...[Courtyard]
When the door to the gate opened Daniel Tell, survivor of a demented manhunt was jumping for a second there. His heart skippped a beat only to be greeted in reasurance when a young boy came in wearing some hawaiian t-shirt with anime references on it. He doubted the backwards yokels chasing him were into manga. Even stranger, a car, a 21st century sedan by the looks of it. There was something strange going on.
He bursted up to him, and found a solution to the quandary he had earlier. He exclaimed quickly, rudely, and unapologetically. "You, at the front door. I'm really sorry, but I'm going a bit crazy. Noone in here has an agreeing story on what exists outside these gates. What do you know of the world? I bet the clothes on my back they won't agree with what I know."
edited 23rd Jun '12 6:08:08 PM by sonofkong
Out of Mind

[Lecture Hall]
Linna almost broke into laughter. Almost. "Sounds nice and relatively peaceful. Not much like home." She shook her head. "I was about to describe our police as managing to keep a lid on things, but it struck me that's really relative. Most people probably wouldn't scan 'winning the firefights' as keeping a lid on things for policework."
She frowned. "I probably exaggerate. The bad bits tend to stick in people's minds."
Nous restons ici.