pglogs | Let's Blow a Hole in This Town

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Let's Blow a Hole in This Town

WHO: Allie Stoklasa, OPEN!
WHAT: There's a new arrival in the hospital. She scrams before they can stick her with the bill ~~even though there isn't one~~. Then she wanders around town in an agitated fashion. She might meet people in either place.
WHEN: August 25, 2015 - Early Evening
WHERE: Hospital -> Central City
WARNINGS: None. Will label if any crop up.

Beep.

Allie grunted, grimacing as she rolled sleepily onto her side. It was too early. If one teammate wanted to set the alarm to wake up early, guess what? Everyone else had to wake up early too. That was the worst downside to sharing a common sleeping area, in Allie's opinion.

Beep.

She sucked in a deep breath through flared nostrils, pulling her hand up to her brow. The scent of freshly brewing coffee would soon be swimming through headquarters, Kit and Monty would be bustling around the room, and Jevon...dear preeeeecious Jevon...would be moving the alarm closer and closer to her face and risking grave bodily harm in an attempt to wake the stubborn redhead.

Beep.

"M'up," she groused, cracking one eye open.

But there was no Jevon. No peeling painted walls. No water-stained fiberglass ceiling tiles. Allie blinked hard, once, before jerking herself upright. A hospital?! When did that happen? She flung off the blankets, dragging her legs over the side of the bed. She was astonished to see her bare calves beneath the long hem of a white gown, and her head whipped up to frantically search the room for her clothes.

To be honest, she didn't expect them to be there, but the chair situated near her bedside held her clothes neatly folded, the old brown leather jacket hanging on the back. She rubbed at her arms briskly, for the room grew a lot chillier without a blanket, and all but launched herself toward the chair. She shot a quick glance at the door, just to make sure there weren't any doctors or nurses coming to check on her, before she quickly peeled off the thin gown and flung it away.

She dressed quickly, tugging her jeans up to her hips with a quick shimmy before zipping them up. Then she yanked the olive green tank top over her head and jammed the flannel overshirt under her arm along with the jacket. She unrolled her socks and pulled them on, then mashed her feet into her worn sneakers without bothering to untie them. Finally she stuffed the long green hair scarf into her back pocket, the tails brushing to the back of her knees.

The screen behind her had come to life, featuring a man who started prattling at her as if she were a guest at some fancy resort. She glowered at him warily, but the message seemed to be recorded. He wasn't speaking to her directly. It did give her the presence of mind to pick up the tablet and bank card at least. She could sell the former, and if they were giving her free money, she couldn't turn it down.

With that, she was darting out the door as quickly as she dared. Once she was in the hallway, she slowed her pace to appear casual and nonchalant, as if she were just dropping by to visit a friend.

There was no chance they were going to stick her with an expensive hospital bill -- not on the meager salary she made.

Pushing through the entrance, Allie jogged down the steps, not stopping until both feet were firmly planted on the sidewalk. It wasn't often that she gaped at anything, but this city was worthy of a good, long gawk. It wasn't Portland. It wasn't Los Angeles. It wasn't New York. Allie hadn't visited every major city in the U.S. but she was willing to bet that this one wasn't on any map.

She looked back at the hospital, then at the streets, sucking on her bottom lip. Maybe if she hadn't been in such a rush to dodge a pricy fee, she might have actually learned more about this place. But instinct told her that she'd been right to get out of the hospital before any authorities chanced upon her. She could learn a lot more just by observation and exploration.

Her steps were slow as she struggled to school her expression into one of numb indifference, even though she wanted nothing more than to rubberneck at every strange sight she passed. The sky was rosy and purple, temperatures softening with the setting of the sun. She pulled on her flannel as she walked, then the jacket. Allie used the scarf to tie back her matted mane of crimson curls, then changed her pace from languid to brisk.

A woman was walking her way, so Allie veered in her direction, making eye contact as she spoke up. "'Scuse me, there a payphone around here?"

"No."

And the woman kept walking, leaving a perplexed woman in her wake. What kind of weird, emotionless response was that? She'd barely even glanced at Allie. So she tried again, angling for an older man. The response was the same. 'No.' A third try yielded the same results, and the frustration boiling in her gut was mounting.

She swerved into a convenience store, regarding the man standing stiffly at the counter. "Hey, can I use your phone?"

"No phone."

No phone? Allie furrowed her brow. "You mean you don't have a phone, or you aren't gonna let me use it?"

"No phone."

She steeled her jaw. There was something really weird about this place, and its people. And for the life of her, she couldn't remember how she got here to begin with.

Resisting the urge to tip over the magazine stand, just to see if she could provoke some sort of emotional response, she shoved her way outside again. She was seething. Her fists were tightly clenched as she fought the instinct to turn unease into anger. She shouldered past one person, who gave no response, and another.

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A cloaked and clearly non-robotic figure emerged around the corner as Allie shoved her way out. she cocked her head, short-cut purple locks trailing down while she simply watched the girl shouldering past faceless AIs until she came up close to her, and smiled, giggling.

"New here, are we?"

Because that kind of frustration? That screamed newcomer to her, especially with how few were on this island so far.

Allie stopped short. This person seemed organic, or at the very least, someone who would at least make and maintain eye contact. The purple hair was a good sign that she might be dealing with someone on her level, but she wasn't so sure about the cloak. That wasn't the sort of garment an ordinary person would wear unless they were trying to hide something. Was it an unfair assumption? Probably. But Allie was in survival mode and fully prepared to cast all kinds of worst-case-scenario judgments on people until she knew what was going on.

But it did bother her that she stood out that much as a newcomer.

Still, this was a person who might be able to answer her questions, and Allie had a fat sack of them. Who was this person? Why did she want to know if Allie was new? Where was this place, and why was she here?

"What's with the cloak?" she said point blank with a faint jerk of her chin.

Clearly that was the most important right now.

"Hides the knives more easily so people don't know where I'm throwing them from," Chloe said, a hand flicking out and revealing a pulled throwing knife. It was short, thin and had a small hole in the top of the hilt, letting her flick it around with a bemused grin. Admittedly, this girl wasn't obviously new because she stood out that much so much as she was one of maybe thirty on an island full of a few locals and lots of robots, but why say that? This was more fun.

"Chloe. And you?"

Allie squinted at the knife.

Then grunted in quiet approval. She would have been more unnerved if Chloe had kept it a secret, but she preferred it when people were straightforward. She also approved of the ability to defend herself. Good job, Chloe, Allie wasn't easy to get along with, especially when she was in a prickly mood.

"Allie," she returned. "What's going on here?"

At the very least, she trusted Chloe to give a more forthright answer than she did a computer screen.

Chloe did like to live rather openly as what she was. Another flick and the knife disappeared back into her cloak with a smile. She motioned and started walking out across the street and towards one of the city's many parks.

"You've been kidnapped to another world by a group of perverted scientists, bent on doing sex-experiments on you. And no, I am not high." She said with a plain, faintly amused deadpan right over her shoulder, winking as she did.

"...Uh..."

Chloe stole the question right out of Allie's mouth. Of course, she could see pretty plainly that the purple-haired woman wasn't currently using. Her reflexes with the knife had demonstrated that much, and her eyes seemed sharp and aware. Her brow beetled and she frowned, deciding she might as well follow her to the park bench.

"How? And why?" Allie couldn't imagine herself to be a prime sexual specimen for any sort of experiment. She was neither virginal, nor experienced. She was just angry.

That was a question she got asked a whole lot. It was why she tacked the answer on without even thinking about it sometimes. She smirked and shook her head. "Why? Do we ever really know, I wonder. I'm sure they gave us some lie, but I have no clue how or why, other than that they have a lot of power to steal me away from Atia, the last person to steal me away from my world." She shrugged. "I've only been here a month, so I can't help you past the basics yet."

Allie pulled her head back, her expression bordering on skeptical. "So you're saying this is fairly common. For you."

On the other hand, there wasn't a whole lot of evidence to say Chloe wasn't telling the truth either. So where did that leave them? She didn't have much choice but to listen, and then find out if what Chloe said matched up with Allie's own observations.

Her hand stole to the side of her neck. It had been aching ever since she woke up. At first she thought it was a cramp from sleeping wrong, but it didn't feel quite right.

"We gonna end up like those...?" Allie wasn't sure what to call them. She waved vaguely at the robots that breezed smoothly along.

"Well, I've had a few years experience breaking bad news like this to people. Though... not here," she admitted, turning to regard the robots and raise her eyebrow. Her head cocked and then shook. "No, those are just robots. It's almost creepy how many there are. It's like they're trying to mimic a human town for us to live in... but mussed it up somehow."

"So they're smart enough to use robots, but not smart enough to run sex experiments in places where there are a lot more people around to have sex with." Allie snorted, glowering at once of the robots. She could swear it was the first woman she asked about a phone. "Makes sense."

She continued to eye the automatons, as another question swam quickly to the surface of her consciousness.

"They breakable?"

Because she felt like breaking their stuff.

"Smart, but idiots," Chloe confirmed, nodding with a bemused look in her eyes. "And yes, they're infinitely breakable, though they are robots, so it'd be better to hit the weak spots like joints. No point busting your hands up, now is there?"

Nope, not judging the urge that was written all over that set of statements. Not at all.

"Gotcha." That was more than Allie had hoped to know; a robot's weak spot wasn't something she'd even considered, and that a flaw. It was always hard to think straight when she was angry, and though she was doing her best to keep her emotions under control, well...

There were just some situations that warranted a little anger, and being spirited away to another world for sexual experimentation qualified in her book.

"Anything else?" Because now she was itching to go find something heavy and metal.

She considered for a minute. After that consideration, though, she nodded and grinned. "Two things. One, you'll want a job and two, a place to stay. There's apartments around, and you should have gotten a card with a bank account attached to it, along with your phone."

"Two, want a little help breaking things, or in the mood to vent alone?"

"Wait, that's a phone?" Reluctantly, Allie pulled the tablet out of her back pocket and stared at it, turning it over in her hands. She was a mechanic, but technology like this wasn't really her forte. How did it even work? There wasn't a number pad or anything. "I was just going to sell the stupid thing."

While she wouldn't object to having a roof over her head, she wasn't about to labor for her captors. The attached bank account made her leery too. People could be tracked easily every time they ran a credit card; she'd be better off if she could withdraw all the funds as cash and use that.

"Yes, that's a phone," she said, giggling a little and walking over towards Allie with her hand out. "Why don't you let me see it. I can show you how it works. We had something like it where I was last. It's not too complicated once you get used to it." This one was going to have a bit of a time acclimating. She could see it now.

[OOC: Apparently the robots are really hard to destroy, so Allie is in for a rude surprise. :D]

Allie handed over the tablet, not particularly worried about its fate. If Chloe chose to stole it, Allie would be annoyed, but probably nothing more than that. She slid her thumbs into the belt loops of her jeans, watching with mild interest. Using the thing could turn out to be useful, but she wasn't too sure she trusted any technology handed to them by their kidnappers. What if it could be used to track their positions? What if it had explosives planted in it? What if it had malware?

"You sure it's okay to carry these around with us?" she asked, beetling her brow as she tilted her head to better see the screen.

[Gotta go the clever route there!)

Chloe had no reason to steal it, having been stuck with one of her own. Tapping the thing where she could show Allie how to work with it, she started to show how to turn the thing on and run a few of the most basic functions.

"Probably, though you never know. But, I figure they probably have the chips in our necks to do real harm if they need to," she murmured. "Those are more effective than this will be."

[Cl...ever...? o_O]

Allie's head snapped up, her mildly confused expression turning hard. "The what in our necks?" She'd felt the bruise, but hadn't thought much of it once she became engrossed in flipping out over being in a hospital?

Immediately her hand jerked toward the small spot, blunt nails dimpling the skin as she tried to feel the thing out. Would she have to dig it out herself? Not a prospect she looked forward to, but if the alternative was worse...

(OOC: Yeah, like finding ways to put a stick of dynamite in the cracks... once we find dynamite.)

"The microchip in your neck. Don't try to remove it. It'll just hurt like hell and you won't actually get it out," she said, shaking her head. "I think it's wedged in too close to the spine at some point, so it's better not to even try anything crazy like removing it from where it is."

[Allie will keep her eyes open for dynamite. Absolutely.]

Allie paused, her nails already leaving little white marks that began to fade as the applies pressure eases up. She regarded Chloe uneasily for a moment with a suspicious sideglance, but that too faded as she accepted the statement as truth.

"That's all kinds of messed up," she growled sulkily under her breath. "Has anyone else tried gettin' it out?"

"Not that I know of, but we haven't been here that long. Truth, this isn't the first time I've been kidnapped like this. I know better than to try. Let someone else make that fool mistake. If it works, I'll hear them out." She shook her head firmly, quite certain how bad an idea it was. "It's how they control you here. Not something the'll let you get rid of easily."

Allie grumbled under her breath. Her hands worked into fists, relaxed, and tensed again and again as she struggled with her frustration. If she had a steady hand and a decent knowledge of human anatomy, she might try it. But she was a mechanic, and 'careful' wasn't a word anyone ever used to describe her.

"...S'messed up," she muttered again, and turned away to take a few angry steps to the right, pivoted, and came back. She wasn't afraid, but she definitely disliked the situation as a whole. She couldn't accept this.

"How? How d'we contact our friends? Do the phones even work here?"

"The phones work on this island, and you can call anyone here, so if your friends are trapped here like us, then you can reach them," she said, choosing not to argue about or disagree with the 'messed up' comment. She definitely wasn't one to dwell or to feel she was wrong. It was pretty damned messed up.

"But if they're not here... you won't be able to reach them at all. I don't know if your world's better or worse, but it's usually good if you can't reach them."

"I guess, if you wanna look at it that way. 'Cept one of 'em was kind of a genius, figured she woulda had a way to mess around with all this tech stuff."

Allie, on the other hand, was not a genius. She was the muscle. Now she kind of wished she'd paid more attention to Kit's excited ramblings about the Ghost Drive and whatever else she'd rigged up for their ghost hunting business.

"Guess it doesn't matter. I'm here, she's not." She slipped her hands into her back pockets and looked around, biting the inside of her cheek. "They don't do anythin' if we just...y'know...pick up food and eat it without payin' for it, do they?" Because she was all up for getting a free, decent meal as a down payment for the humiliation they were putting her through.

"It depends on if this place is run better or worse than the last prison I got myself stuck in," she said, shrugging. "If it's like the last place, I knew a lot of geniuses that were trapped there like the rest of us. But we can always hope for the best."

A little chuckle and she looked back at one of the shops. "They do have cops here, so if you're going to try that, I'd be sneaky or fast. You never know how fast those are, after all." Nope, she wasn't going to mention that she'd be donning the uniform as a clerk soon.

She was a terrible cop. She really was.

"Pft. Like cops are real scary..." Allie muttered under her breath. She looked thoughtful, trying to measure the risks and the consequences in her head. She knew she should probably find somewhere to cool down and catch her breath, because she was acting off of old instincts that weren't going to do her much good.

"Awright, guess I'd better start lookin' around. Thanks for fillin' me in and showin' me how to use this thing," she said, pulling out the tablet and waving it vaguely in front of her. "You mind if I give you a call if I get anymore questions?"

She smirked at her and winked. "Feel free. Just look for Chloe. I should be the only one on there so far. Try not to get yourself into too much trouble in the meantime." A little wave and she started to walk along, casting a last look over her shoulder before disappearing down the nearest alleyway.

“Pod people.” Gabe is on a bus stop bench. More accurately, Gabe is laying down on a street bench, his tan shoulder bag acting as a pillow. His legs are crossed at the ankle, and really, he shouldn't be but he's giving the stranger a grin. She looks irritated and huffy and a bit like Natalie when their mom ignores her. That's probably why he's so amused, especially as he notices her fists. Maybe not.

She looks like she could kick Gabe's ass, honestly. It's interesting. Gabe makes no sign to move, but he does extend his arm to point at her. “That's my theory,” He explains. The truth is that he has no idea what's going on and didn't quite care. It's hard to notice about this stuff when he can feel things, now. Sun on his arms. The metal of the bench. He's not even waiting for a bus, though he would hop on and go nowhere just for the sake of it.

It's odd, not being with his mother. Strange. It's like a part of him is gone, now. He's half of a whole. It's liberating, being out here, but foreign. People acknowledge him. He can acknowledge people. Like the redhead.

He lifts is brow.

“I don't get it, either.”

Allie was already three steps past the bench before she stilled at the sound of a human voice. What the... She turned her head to look back over her shoulder, peering at Gabe. Did he just talk? To her?

"'Pod people,'" she repeated, slowly turning in place to look at him. Both brows climbed a fraction of an inch. "That's it, huh?" She'd say something about watching too many science fiction movies, but his posture and tone indicated he didn't fervently invest his faith in his crazy explanation.

All right. She could talk to this...kid?...for a little while, at least. It was better than nothing.

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us," she said, pushing the tablet into her back pocket (if it fit, otherwise it was going to the inside of her jacket after she zipped it up). Once her hands were free, she folded her arms. "Where did you come from? You a native?"

Gabe considers, very briefly, messing with her just because he can. Lying for the sake of lying, or generally just being a bit of a nuisance. It's his normal forte. He thinks it is, anyway--it's a bit confusing when it's your first time away from your family. He's not sheltered, but he's certainly something.

"Nope," He says after a split second pause, arm still outstretched. He points to the redhead, still all confidence and charisma, lounging at the bus stop like nothing really mattered. "Not a native. From suburbia, actually--suburbia's terrifying, but not quite Twilight Zone levels like this is."

His hands shake--spirit fingers--and Gabe shakes his head. "You, though, you're the first person I've talked to." The first person he's spoken to since his dad. He offers a smile. "What's your name?"

Suburbia was terrifying? He'd never been in any other setting, had he? Allie blew out her breath, rocking onto her heels as she dropped her head for a moment.

"Allie," she answered, arms still folded. At the back of her mind, she was vaguely aware of some supernatural presence. It made her skin tingle, but only slightly. Ghosts could be found in any place, so she wasn't too surprised that one might be hanging around here. She ignored it. Without her equipment, all she could do to a ghost is point and stare. That likely wouldn't end well for Allie. "You?"

"Allie," Gabe repeats. It's a nice name. It's a normal name. It's oddly comforting and he wasn't even aware that he needed that--some brief moment of sanity. He's not one for normalcy, at the very least not in the traditional sense.

"I'm Gabe. Gabriel," he elaborates, hefting himself from his spot on the bus bench, sitting up and haphazardly tossing his messenger bag off of it. "I don't suppose you were lucky enough to wake up in the hospital and zip out, too?"

You have his interest, Allie.

"Dunno if I'd call it 'lucky,' bein' as we wound up here in the first place. But yeah." Her shoulders hitched. "Didn't feel like stickin' around and waitin' to see whoever managed to put me there."

The whole thing stank, in so many ways. Like a trash can full of used baby diapers.

"You did the same, huh? Good instincts." Allie wasn't above handing out a compliment when she felt it was deserved. "How long you been out? And do you prefer Gabe or Gabriel?"

"Pod people," Gabe repeats, and can't help the small grin as he jerks a thumb at a passer-by. That's exactly why he left, didn't really want to stick around. Not when he can't get a hold on people's feelings, or people's intents. It almost felt like he was in a weird sort of void.

Allie, though. This girl is at least human, or at least not the pod people. That's all that mattered. His smile widens, not quite predatory, but he makes it a point to be charming. "Gabe is fine, Allie," He tests the name out, trying it for himself. He decides he likes the way it sounds.

"All my instincts right now are telling me I should regret not listening, but screw that. Right?"

"I guess," she shrugged, her response nonchalant while her gaze roved slowly all around her. This place made her nervous, and she didn't want to let down her guard for a second as far as the 'pod people' were concerned. "My instincts just told me to get out."

Now her instincts told her to go back and trash the place, after learning a little more about the situation from Chloe. But even she knew that would be monumentally stupid. If these people were capable of dragging captives from different worlds and planes, what else could they do?

"What's your plan? Tryin' to catch a bus outta here?"

"Good instincts," Gabe states, and it's not quite a drawl but the entire sentence is pulled out lazily, like Gabe's testing this. He is.

He's talking to people. People that aren't his family. It's strange and exciting and Gabe is very, very glad he's very well versed in keeping his true feelings and intentions hidden under that winning smile.

"Honestly? I was just people watching. I figure sooner or later, someone normal has to show up, because--" Because he can't be here if no one else is "--there were other, empty hospital beds. Lucky me someone like you walked by, too."

"Yeah. Lucky us." Allie sighed, her shoulders slumping a little as she blew out a long, steady breath. When she was finished, she circled the bench and took a seat next to Gabe, as he'd been good enough to sit up and clear a spot. She didn't mind striking out on her own; she'd done it often enough in the past. But as she'd learned as of late, it was always better with someone else to watch her back. Her slim, calloused fingers curled around the edge of the bench as she leaned forward, not quite comfortable enough to slouch back and relax.

"Well, who knows? A bus might come." Whether he wanted to board it or not, she was willing to give it a go. "I'll wait it out with ya for a little while, anyway."

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Let's Blow a Hole in This Town

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