EVENT: HERE THERE BE MONSTERS

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: October 24 - October 31
Location: Throughout Exsilium
Characters: ALL; tag yourselves in
Summary: The Transports return from their mission to find the island crawling with monsters.
Warnings: Violence, possibly injuries (notify a mod if there's cause to add a particular warning!)

The Transports return from their mission to Medieval Russia, but the Initiative Hold is eerily deserted. Normally, their would be a number of Initiative personnel prepared to meet the Transports at the end of their mission for debriefing.

Instead, there is only silence.

That is, until a distant thumping sound can be heard. It is growing closer, and suddenly the beast is bursting into the room. It lets out a roar and charges. Within minutes, it is easily defeated, but damage has already been done -- it collided with the Transporter machine, which is now making a low fizzling sound and lets off a couple sparks. The commotion is enough to draw the attention of the few remaining Initiative personnel who still inhabit the Hold, who arrive immediately afterwards. They are able to tell the Transports two things: that the machine is broken and currently unable to sent anyone back in time, and that the island has been overrun with aggressive, mutated beasts sent by the United Earth. They have been under siege for months, with the island's population reduced to a mere fraction of what it had once been.

Comments

[fe_male]

I've never been out here before. We're about as even as we'd ever get, right now.

[ofthegrey]

Alright, then. Perhaps we should look for such shelter as we can find. I'm sure you do know how cold it gets once the sun is fully down.

[No matter how many years he lived in Ferelden, that's one thing he never accustomed to, the cold. His expression says as much.]

[fe_male]

[ He sets JARVIS to scanning the nearby area as he glances around the place himself. ] There's what I'm informed is a 'shelter' about a mile and a half that way. Not far. I'm sure we can insulate it before it's too dark.

[ofthegrey]

[He nods and shifts a strap of his small pack on his shoulder.]

Lead the way. I'll watch our flank.

[fe_male]

[ okie dokie. He'll lead the way, following the route JARVIS is giving him, watching the front, until they get to the shelter. It's actually about as one would expect, yay, pretty decent, good boy, JARVIS. ]

Trumpets, fanfare, here we are, thank god, it's getting chilly out. C'mon, you go in.

[ofthegrey]

Quite handy that...device of yours.

[He's not sure what else to call it. There are no parallels to any such things from home.

He takes a final look around before ducking into the structure. Serviceable indeed.]

It'll keep the wind off of us at least.

[fe_male]

He has feelings too, you know. [ except for where you honestly don't and have legitimately zero frame of reference for it whoops ]

Tomorrow I vote we just fly the rest of the way.

[ofthegrey]

[He blinks and tilts his head slightly, running the conversation back through his head. After a moment, he frowns.]

I'm sorry, who?

[The notion of flying is more than a little disconcerting.]

How, precisely, would we accomplish that? Flight in my world is a one way thing, I'm afraid, in the direction of down and ending unpleasantly abruptly.

[fe_male]

JARVIS. But, I was kidding. Facetious. [ Normally he'd just let people keep thinking maybe they needed to apologise to the AI, but he likes Duncan. ]

Did you think this suit was just because I liked walking around with an extra three to four hundred pounds of weight? [ As he starts to collapse it back down into the assembled components. ]

[ofthegrey]

Ah, I see. [He doesn't, but he thinks he does. It counts.]

He asks the man in plate mail. [A touch dryly.

Now that's something he hasn't seen before. He watches with interest, completely intrigued at the speed and efficiency of the process. For someone who spends about a half hour every day getting dressed or undressed, it's impressive.]

They don't sell those around here, do they? [Arch. He knows better.]

[fe_male]

[ it's okay baby you can watch all you like ]

Don't sell them at all if I have anything to say about it. And I do. I have a lot to say about it. Congressional-hearing-worths to say about it. [ But hey, all packed, and it's a bit cooler here than he was expecting it to be, outside the suit. ]

[ofthegrey]

It's disturbing how quickly I've adapted to being lost in our conversations.

[A touch of wry humor in his voice.

He finds a relatively comfortable spot to lean against and sinks down to a seat. He won't be removing his armor, despite the fact it will make for an uncomfortable night. He'd be far more uncomfortable out of it in strange territory.]

[fe_male]

[ Oh okay cool that's fine. He's just sort of casually going to see how your suit goes together and work on mentally designing something that would, indeed, help getting it on and off a bit easier. It looks like a pain in the ass. ] Yeah, people say that to me a lot.

Where did you say you came from, again?

[ofthegrey]

Thedas. There are several people from my world here, not nearly as many who seem to come from Earth.

[Or various versions of Earth as far as he could tell.]

[fe_male]

It's disproportionately popular, yeah. Kind of weird, but the first few months' worth of scatterplots wound up being just that, so there doesn't seem to be much reason behind it. [ As far as he can tell so far, anyway. ] Maybe we just fight a lot.

[ofthegrey]

Perhaps, or perhaps there are more versions of Earth accessible to our captors.

[Not that he has much understanding of any of this. It just seems that perhaps for one Earth, other Earths and other time periods of Earth would be easier to reach than places more removed.

He digs in his pack and produces a packet of jerky, shaking it at Tony.]

Help yourself if you wish.

[fe_male]

[ don't do that, you'll make him feel bad with how much sense that actually makes ]

Oh, food! You're like, a grown-up boy scout. I totally forgot to pack food. [ Not that he really has anywhere to put it anyway. But he takes a piece. ]

[ofthegrey]

A grown-up boy scout? Would that not just be termed a scout, or if you're being particular, a man scout?

[An eyebrow lifts. Could be he's messing with him.]

I've brought enough for two if we ration a bit.

[He's not much of a big eater. Hauling food all over Thedas or in the Deep Roads was never much of an option.]

[fe_male]

Nope. Grown up boy scout, very specific term. You start blending into man scout and it just sort of sounds like a bounty hunter. [ Doesn't care. He can be flippant either way. ]

You may or may not actually be my favourite person right now.