NEW COMERS POST 1

[proximods]

Who: OPEN TO ALL
What: The first wave of newcomers arrive in the hospital.
Where: The Hospital, Center City
When: July 26
Warnings: Please tag any smut or triggers in the comment subject line.

The common room is just as brightly lit and white as the rest of the hospital. There are some scattered seats - large plush chairs and stiff looking couches, as well as wooden chairs at tables - and a TV blaring local soap operas in the corner. A few long tables are set up along the walls, each with a sign dangling down from the front to inform newcomers of what they can find here. Housing, job opportunities, and the Proxima Gamma Information Desk. Minus a few pamphlets about the unique attractions the island has to offer, there isn’t really that much of use on the last table. It’s clearly meant more for tourists than people who have been kidnapped.

Another set of tables hold a variety of snacks; fruits, vegetables, various candies, as well as a table with water, punch, and soda. No alcohol, unfortunately - this is a hospital, after all. You’ll have to leave to go find a bar for something stronger than that.

There’s not much place else to go - so come on in, settle down, and maybe find a familiar face, if you’re lucky.

Comments

[true_noir]

She loved being needlessly dramatic and just a little bit cloak and dagger-y. Literally. It was always fun to be just a little bit spooky. Cloaks were a good part of it. "I am," she said in a soft, tinny little voice. "And, if the cute little device gave us is any indication, we're all brand new around here. You may call me Chloe, if you wish."

She glanced back to the room that he'd come from and snickered. "Were they as useless to you as they were to me?"

[americanclassic]

May he? Well, good, because otherwise, he'd just call her ma'am, and no one really likes that in this day and age, apparently. He hadn't fully looked over his own device yet, mostly because he was still getting a handle on the smartphones from back in his world. Touchy things. Literally. "I'd say it's nice to meet you, Chloe, but considering the circumstances, I think we could both do without. I'm Steve. And they," he jerked his head back towards the room he'd left, "were about as helpful as you'd expect from abductors. I take it we're all just supposed to... figure this out on our own?"

[true_noir]

She actually chuckled some, shaking her head. "Oh, I have a feeling that we're going to be saying that far too much. I do think that they seem to want us to go out and figure this out on our own, yes. I'm not really in a hurry, though. They have left food, after all."

She smirked. "So, do you think we're allowed to leave this little hospital, or is this an actual abduction?"

[americanclassic]

He thought about that, looking around the room. No security. None that he could see, anyway. It was all so... banal. Like some cozy little hospital room in some cozy little city. "Only one way to find out." Trying to leave. Which he planned on doing, but not until he'd gotten as much information out of here as he could. Who knew what fireworks would go off when he walked through the doors?

[true_noir]

"True," she murmured. "But I'm not in a hurry to test that fact. So I suppose we'll find out soon enough. So, I imagine this is the point where we tell each other where we're from and get to know each other over some food the kidnappers conveniently left for us?" She was still smirking, starting to walk toward the table and pick up a peach.

[americanclassic]

"Something like that. We've got the names out of the way already. Guess we're a step ahead." Not that he was entirely thrilled with that thought. A step ahead of what, exactly? What was the point in bringing them here?

[true_noir]

"Perhaps." She stared out towards the others milling about, sharing just about as much as he was already. There was a reedy little chuckle and she glanced back at him, winking. "This isn't going to get any less awkward, sorry to say. No matter what they do to us."

[americanclassic]

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. Funny thing about taking strangers and lumping them together like this. They often find they can come together over a common enemy." That would be their abductors in this case.

[true_noir]

"True." She definitely had seen that in the past, but at the same time... "They can also lose themselves to petty bickering quickly enough. Especially when trust is a luxury they haven't gained."

[americanclassic]

Fair enough. He could see they both had points, but Steve was... well, maybe a little stubborn. (Okay, a lot stubborn) And he always hoped the little guy would step up to the plate. There seemed to be a whole bunch of little guys here and he was hoping they were the type to work together and not against each other. "Guess we'll just have to see which way this blows."

[true_noir]

She was a stubborn girl herself, and sadly deep into the cynical side of things when it came to these types of situations. She smiled a little to herelf and nodded. "It will be interesting to watch, certainly. We'll see soon enough. For now, though, perhaps we should get a bite to eat? Check in on the others?"

[americanclassic]

"Not sure they need checking in on..." And he wasn't entirely up to being camp leader of any sorts. He'd had enough of that, but if it was needed...

Looked like he could at least be lucky the suit hadn't come with him.

[true_noir]

She smirked very slightly. "I... saw a few names on the network when I posted," she said carefully. "There are people here I seem to know, believe it or not. We might want to make sure they don't start a fire burning their collars."

[americanclassic]

"Right. Collars..." Now she was just speaking nonsense. He was starting to think that there was a small possibility he was dreaming. Just a little one, but this was too... too. Too everything. It just didn't make sense.

[true_noir]

"It's something from a place I was trapped in. A friend of mine escaped with me. Let's just say that the shackles of our oppressors? Something we would really enjoy destroying, personally," she explained, sighing to herself. "I know I enjoyed it far too much. You have no idea how free my neck feels right now."

[americanclassic]

"Your neck?" His hand rose to the place he knew the chip was implanted, wondering if that's what she'd meant. Probably not. But, hey, what the hell did he know? He'd just woken up here, after all, and it wasn't like there was a manual on how to deal with being kidnapped.

[true_noir]

"Yes, my neck. I'm talking about a literal collar that used to be there," she said, reaching up to run her fingers over her own throat. There was, in fact, a faint 'tan line' there, where a thin choker had once been. "It was strange and magical, and so long as I was there, it could never be removed. I suppose like these chips they put in us. I'll bet you can't take it out safely."

[americanclassic]

"I'm not a doctor, so self-surgery isn't exactly something I'm too keen on trying." And being as it was in his neck, there was just too big of a margin for error for him to go cutting in with no idea what he was doing. Sure, he healed faster, but he doubted he'd heal fast enough to survive a slashed jugular. "This seems more... science than magic based." He might have scoffed at magic before, but his run in with the Chitari and Thor has changed his view on what was possible in this realm -- or others.

[true_noir]

"It does, doesn't it? I don't know that the difference really matters here, but it certainly feels more like technology than what I last saw." She shrugged. The difference really was meaningless. They were captives either way, though this was tolerable to the alternative for the moment.

"Knowing what it is, though, I suppose might give us an edge eventually. Knowledge is after all power."

[americanclassic]

"Doesn't hurt to keep tabs on what's what around here. If we're lucky, maybe they'll slip up." Or maybe he'll slip them up himself. Either way, he wasn't going to nix the possibility of anything until he'd triple checked it. If there was a way out of here, he planned to find it.

[true_noir]

Chloe considered that, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes. "I don't quite know how I feel just yet, to be honest. Escape from this place will mean returning to death," she explained. "Even if I was just seconds away, I will still be dead. So I'm not sure where I stand with this group of captors just yet. With Atia... eventually the price became too high to forgive her. I'm hoping these won't be that bad."

[americanclassic]

His brow cocked at that, not entirely sure he knew what she meant. "I'm... confused. Why would you be dead if you left here? Do you have a bounty out?" It was the only think he could think of, not being familiar with the way time and dimensional displacement worked.

[true_noir]

She smiled and reached up to tap the spot on her chest where the scar of her killing blow actually hid, underneath the body suit. "A dessert fork, right here between these ribs and straight into the heart. I was bleeding out when Atia stole me away... or dead. I honestly don't know for sure. I'd blacked out. Dead as a doornail, I'm afraid, unless the scientists send me back to that place."

She paused, frowned and then nodded, sure of her next statement. "I'd rather die."

[americanclassic]

"I'm still not sure I understand. You're fine now, aren't you? Why would you die, or go back to almost death just because you found a way home?" Yep, Steve had never dealt with timey-wimey shenanigans. Time was linear. He might sleep through chunks here and there, but he wasn't thrust back to do it all over again.

[true_noir]

She sighed a little sympathetically. She'd had four years of this crap to deal with. It hadn't been as easy for her to start. "Unless this place is very different, they have stolen me from a moment in time. People would come and go from that island. When they returned, they said that they had returned the moment they had been taken and remembered nothing. When I return to my world, it's to the moment of my death."