exsiliumlogs | lights out!

( There's this thing. This thing about cockroaches. In addition to being gross and the nightmare of apartment livers everywhere, they're very tuned in to vibrations.

Which means Allen has just played percussion through all of Collette's body, to the point where she's fallen down and skittered madly around the bottom, dodging falling debris, until she's parked under one of her own wheels. She keeps her mental calls to herself, figuring AAAAAH and WHAT WAS THAT and THIS IS NOT A LOCK PICKING, IT'S A DEMOLITION, MAN! wouldn't be appreciated by Allen.

She has trouble calming down what worked as her heart, but she mostly recognizes when he's talking to her and not sending her senses into overdrive. )

< Gee, is there any lock left, Al? >

[Meanwhile, he's poking his head out through the hole he'd carved, entirely oblivious to her distress. Alas, the elevator shaft is pitch black as well.]

Er. Probably... not.

The Initiative might be cross with me, but it's more important that we make it out!

( Collette shakes her little body off, antennae waving around as she moved along the course of her wheel. )

< Okay, okay! Think you can do that again once we're up the shaft, 'cause I'm not so sure the doors are going to be open. Wait... say, Allen, are you afraid of heights? >

( That's sure be awkward between floors. He had to get to the doors of the floor above and cut through them with whatever crazy weapon or moves he had used on the ceiling here! )

Heights aren't a problem.

[But before he moves,] Oh, but your wheelchair! I can bring that with me. [Might be slightly unwieldy, but they can't leave that behind, can they?]

< Or you could carry me out in morph. Really, we can't have the whole place be down forever, and then what'll I do? We're not on the first floor. Are you going to carry it all the way downstairs? What about when I want to come back up? I live on the fourth floor! >

( She sounds amused as she asks her questions. None of it seems all that practical to her! Preferable, in a big way, but not practical, and she could do practical when it was better suited to the situation. )

[Nonplussed,] I can carry you and the wheelchair out, it won't be a problem. Otherwise, it might be stuck in here for a while.

And I could take it wherever you'd like.

[IT SEEMS IMPORTANT! He crawls out through the ceiling entirely, and then pokes his head back down, holding out his right arm and slinging white ribbons down into the elevator cab, trying to latch onto the chair. In the dark like this, it takes a few tries before he catches it, the Innocence winding itself tight around an armrest.

And he starts hauling it up! Hoping that it fits through the ceiling...]

< Woah! Woah! Hang on, I've gotta catch my ride! >

( Collette propelled her little body like the tiny, demonic vessel it was oof the ground into the spokes of the wheel itself. Clinging and supporting herself through tension, she told herself to trust whatever Allen was doing would get them all out of this okay.

The guy ripped through a ceiling, he was like Rambo, RoboCop, and and... and James Bond all in one!

Only more awkward, and less tech savy. )

Just keep telling me what you're doing before you do it! I'm back in one of the wheels of the chair. The right one? No, maybe the other right. >

[RIGHT, SHE'S an easily squishable bug...]

Oh-! I'm sorry! I'm lifting it up now!

[So he starts yaaaaanking the chair up towards the hole he'd made, bracing himself with his claws digging into the wall of the elevator shaft. Once it's within reach, he grabs one of the handles properly with his right hand and tries to angle the chair in such a way that he can wrench it up all the way. Takes some grappling and jockeying, but he finally does negotiate it through, without breaking the poor thing.]

Okay... [Deep breath.] Are you still all right?

( It's been jarring, far more than she has words for, but her tone of mental voice is still cheery and chipper when she replies to his inquiry. )

< Hanging on a moment here with you! >

( Which was one hell of a jumbled way of saying she was still doing okay. )

< Maybe leave the chair here when you look for the nearest door? Pry them open, less tearing through steel and stuff? >

[That's encouraging!

Once he's sure the chair is on solid ground, he releases it and steps back.] Mm. I'll go look for it now.

[He deactivates his arm and begins feeling along the walls with both hands, less-than-surefooted as he stumbles over the sharp-edged metal bars and machinery bits crisscrossing the top of the elevator. Ow. He's making a mental note to carry a torch with him at all times from now on!!

And all he can feel is solid wall, as he makes his way around the perimeter. Drat.]

The door must be higher up.

[But that's okay. HE CAN DO THIS.]

( Collette holds her place, feeling through the wheel parts of his progress across the top of the elevator. The hole couldn't be large enough to eat the entirety of the free space he has on the roof, which gives her a sense of how wide it is.

She hears his ultimate conclusion, adjusting her sig legged grip. )

< I think there should be something like a basic ladder built in to one of the walls. Have you run into anything like that? It'd be on the side with the doors, if they have it at all! >

[He starts muttering 'ladder' to himself, carefully moving back around the edges of the elevator. Fortunately, the hole's further in, so he isn't in much danger of falling through.

Although he also can't remember which side the doors were on, he does eventually grab hold of... something metal. He gives it a tug, finds it's sturdy enough, and starts pulling himself up.]

I may have found it.

< May have? Have you tried climbing it? >

( She really wished she had a monkey morph. No, wait, gorilla!

... Chimpanzee. Gorilla was mostly Marco's thing, and one of the other Auxiliaries. It'd just... feel wrong.

Nonetheless, it would be really convenient at times like these! )

< Try to find the door, then come back for us? >

[Climbing up, climbing up! The ladder clatters and creaks as he ascends, and he presses a hand to the wall every foot or so, to check, but it only feels like a mess of tubing and cables and he's sure he's as lost as ever.

Soon enough, he decides he must have passed the door at some point and if he wants to find out then he needs to be able to see. So once again, he activates his weapon, forcing himself to keep his eyes open as his arm provides a another brief burst of light.]

--There! [HE SAW IT!

Holding on so tightly to the image of the door left in his mind's eye after the light fades, he launches himself off the ladder and towards the door, slinging ribbons of Innocence at the bars lying parallel to the top.

There's a loud smack, a metallic clang and an "oomph!".

And then eventually, the sound of someone trying to pry elevator doors open single-handedly. Give him a moment here.]

( Collette's mostly filling in the blanks with mental imagery, so by the time Allen seems to have found the door he morphed into a strange version of Donkey Kong in her head. Punch through the doors, Allen Kong! Get to that banana on the other side!

Thankfully, she keeps these particular thoughts to herself. )

< Do you mind if I sing while you're working on that? I'm usually on key if it's all in our heads! >

( She is, however, dealing with the absurdity of this situation by following certain whims that never could have been applied to while back home in the war against hte Yeerks. )

Edited 2013-05-12 15:18 (UTC)

[BLISSFULLY UNAWARE of whatever is going on in her head, Allen continues pulling at the door, which is awkward, hanging from a ribbon, with a hand full of blades.

He glances downwards, when he 'hears' her again.]

Eh? [WHAT A BIZARRE REQUEST.] I don't mind-!

[But fortunately, once he's got a good grip and applied enough brute force, the doors do budge-- and with a delighted gasp, he sees it. LIGHT!]

I've got it!

[Not much light, mind you, but a little ambient lighting is better than none at all. It's almost painful to be able to see again, and he squints into the hallway (feeling rather fortunate that it seems to be deserted at the moment.)

But he can't enjoy his freedom until he's gotten Collette up here.]

( She actually finds not one song comes to mind after asking, and is saved from having to invent something other than the song that never ends by a rumbling noise like bottled thunder, followed by Allen's announcement. )

< Yay! You managed to get the doors open? You're amazing! Are you bringing the chair up now? I'm still in the spokes, but I'm doing pretty good here. >

( She detects a change in the immediate air pressure, somewhere up, but it's such a general sense to a cockroach that little more accompanies the impulses she read as thoughts and instinct while she waited.

Geez, she really didn't like all this waiting, but it was an inevitability without expending energy she doesn't exactly have to lose. )

[HA HA. He swings himself through the doorway and onto the the blessed solid ground. He shouts back down,]

I'm bringing the chair up now!

[He repeats the same process as before, until he manages to catch the chair in ribbons once again, and reels it on up. It's a shaky ride, but the trip is a little easier this time, as the elevator entrance is a fair bit wider. More convenient for pulling chairs through.

It only takes a minute or so before he's rolling the wheelchair away from the open elevator shaft and into the hall.]

I've got it. Are you still doing pretty good?

( If asked to recount what her rise through the air on the jerky, discombobulating ride in the spokes of her own wheelchair, Collette mostly would have "really weird, but kind of fun" to share as commentary. Thus: )

< I'm doing really weird, but that was kind of fun! Does it seem safe enough for me to go back to normal here? I mean, the power went out, not because of something... right? >

[Yes, he'd assume she's doing 'weird', considering she's a bug and all.

He steps away from the chair, deactivating his arm as he glances down one end of the hall, then tries the other. There's no one around that he can see, and no signs of any damage.]

Everything looks fine from here. It's... dark, is all.

( His "looks fine" is good enough by her. )

< Then I guess I don't need to warn you about watching! >

( Which is all well and good, as she starts the demorphing. She has it down to a minute exactly these days, from perfect other to perfect self. Her return back this time has her llying on her stomach, so she rolls over and works on sitting upright. Chair... chair... moving her arm in a slow arc, she feels her wrist touch one wheel. )

Got it! Wow, that was -- crazier than usual. First time I've been stuck in the elevator with the generators out, too! Thanks for helping me out of there.

[. . . this has been a strange day.

Like a true gentleman!! he doesn't peek, and continues not peeking after she's spoken out loud. DOES SHE HAVE ANY CLOTHES ON he dare not look.]

Y-you're welcome. Um- will you need help, getting to your room...? Or anyplace.

Uh... any idea what floor we're on?

( She takes this time to check her brakes, moving herself around to get in position and pull herself back up into her wheelchair. )

[Still facing the other way,]

...I'm afraid not. I could check the room numbers. I was heading up to the tenth floor...

lights out!

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im so sorry pol

what are you sorry for!!

terrible song references, that's all!

LMAO I totally didn't catch that, how IC of me

i'm just that bad it's okay we can admit it together

no it's wonderful

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