{ THE DARK COVE } UPDATED SEE PAGE 1

[artificial insomnia]

The sensation of waking was like a riptide.

It yanked her out from under, pulled her into the world of reality with an eager force, every sense breaking from their coma's to scream in her ear that she was alive. The first breath of stale and clammy air was sucked in with vigor, chest heaving as the weight of gravity pressed against the girl, crawling against her skin and reminding her to move. Her bones ached and her muscles protested the sudden movement as she dropped to her knees, the pain of floor meeting bone nothing compared to the realization that she was without a mask, without gear, without anything but herself. Hands fumbled to touch the dark locks around her face, long fingers brushing over the shape of her face, lips, neck, shoulders. It was like she'd forgotten herself, and it was time to map out her own being yet again. Madeline yanked her head up tangling her fingers in the back of her hair, at the nape of her neck. This was reality. And it felt good.

Shoving herself to her feet wasn't as an easy a task as she'd hoped, and Madeline stumbled a bit as her chocolate eyes glimpsed the room she was in. The egg shaped pods all around her screamed thats not good, and she wasn't so eager to be touching any one of them either. Her mind wrangled with clumsily organized thoughts as she brought herself back down from her high, feet tapping over the bare floor as she moved forward, looking towards the only exit that seemed to exist. Where was she? What was out there? So many questions dotted her mind, all answered by half baked assumptions in the back of her head. Madeline knew that the world outside of the room would explain it to her, it was just a matter of walking towards it that seemed to be the problem. After all, something seemed to be missing from her, something, something...

Oh, that.

Madeline glanced down at her hand, the one that had held something in it only a few moments before waking. Had she been dreaming about it? The club had felt so real though. Her heart hammered soundly against her rib cage as she remembered the sensation of the weapon in her hand, the heaviness and the feeling that it was good to have it there. Maybe it was just a dream though. After all, when everything up until the moment she'd rolled so clumsily from the pod had felt like such a dream, Madeline wasn't sure that anything before now could be trusted to have been real. But it had felt that way, hadn't it? The girl closed her eyes and thought back on the memories in her head, the partners she'd made and the island that had been a monster in its own right. She vaguely wondered if any of the ones she'd known had woken up as well, but her mind didn't dwell on it long, for fear of emotions she wasn't quite sure she wanted to tamper with just yet. Her eyes half lidded though, as more and more questions piled in her head, never answered by just sitting around.

So with one last glance towards the room of pods and wires, Madeline turned and padded through the door to the world beyond.

 

[Dragain]

Ever had that feeling where you feel like your heart just jumped forward in your chest after waking up from a nightmare, or from a dream where falling was involved? That was how it felt like to wake up from the darkness; pale hands reached out and grabbed at the air as she gasped, her body moving forward as her eyes opened, the bright light hurting her eyes as she groaned.

Stumbling out of where she had been laying, her heart started racing as she held tightly onto the side of the pod she was just in for support; her legs felt too weak for her to stand properly, much less walk. She was disoriented, confused... And... And... Wasn't she holding onto something before? Something cold, hard and round... With a chain... She frowned, her breathing returning to normal as her legs started to regain strength; raising both hands and staring at them, she flexed her fingers before realizing that she no longer had on gloves. Or a body suit. Or... A gas mask?!

Quickly, her hand went to her bangs to sweep them to a side as she slid over to an unopened pod, using the glass as a mirror to check out her own reflection. She grinned, resisting the urge to laugh her 'signature' laugh, "Why, hello there... I missed you, beautiful."

She wasn't normally this narcissistic, but this is a special occasion.

Looking up, she noticed some people walking out the only exit in the room; she wasn't a follower, no, but... There are two very important people she had been looking forward to seeing again. Actually, there are more than two now, counting those she had... Grown rather fond of while on the island. Gathering her long hair over a shoulder, she idly begun to braid it as she walked towards the door, her expression serious.

Those people... They better possess enough balls to wake up and not let her down.  

[kuropeco]

His head hurt.

Scratch that, everything hurt. There was a shuddering gasp, a jerk, and Gale Gentry opened his eyes.

What the...

Then he promptly rolled over, practically hacking up a lung as he sputtered and coughed, feeling as if he'd just been shoved through a blender (a slightly less than pleasant experience).

It was needlessly bright. Gale reached a hand up, pressing it to his foreh - wait a second, his forehead?

I'm not wearing the gas mask anymore.

Slowly - very slowly, as if he were slightly uncertain what he would see - Gale lowered his arm again. Pale fingers were soon visible, a starkly light color in contrast to the black of the floor. They were somehow smaller than he remembered (he had felt tall wearing the suit and mask, but once they were gone, well...er, he was back to being, er...not...tall...), but they were fingers nonetheless. He flexed them for a few seconds, as if remembering how they worked, then felt a grin break out across his face.

Pushing himself to his feet, Gale staggered somewhat haphazardly towards the nearest...pod. Thing. Whatever it was - and peered into the glass, attempting to see himself. All he got was a blurry and not-so-flattering image of a short, golden haired young man, features too indistinguishable to make out in something other than a mirror, but that was good enough for Gale. Satisfied, he stepped back, twisting his loose hair back into a ponytail.

His hands felt odd. Why was that? Gale looked down at them, frowning slightly as his eyes traced the lines in his palms. Hadn't he been holding...something? It was hazy, like a memory too fragmented to recover, but Gale was certain that at some point he had been holding something long and sleek, something heavy...

A welcome weight in his hands.

There was a door at the end of the room, open and emitting a white light that made it difficult to see just what was beyond it. Gale could see a few others passing through, disappearing beyond, though none had the tell tale color of his own hair.

Leslie. Please tell me you're here somewhere.

He did not know if his sister had been given the same choice as he had, didn't even know if she would have accepted it - but at the same time, he had a feeling...a small, nagging feeling that his twin would say yes if she were given the option to live again.

Man, I hope that brat says yes. Cuz if she doesn't I'm going to go back in time and retroactively slap her upside the head.

Slipping his hands into his pockets, Gale Gentry headed towards the door.  

[demon_pachabel]

Her entire body felt tired; lethargic. It felt like it had been resting for far too long and she wasn't going to have any of that. She opened her eyes, squinting at first, allowing her eyes to adjust, before fully opening them, stepping out of the pod she had been in previously, giving it a long curious look, running her hand along it's surface.

It had been like a protective cocoon, but she was ready to step out of it-

fjal;sdkfh;dlkj!!

Almost immediately, Cass slid on the floor, bumping into one of the other pods, brows furrowing together a bit. "Sorry." she said, patting the surface of the other pod gently, before stepping away from it. She paused for a moment, looking at her hands, flexing them a few times; They felt.... like none of the damage she had done to them previously had mattered; they were unharmed.

On the exact same note, she grabbed and felt her head, running her fingers over it carefully before she realized yes; she did still have a skull. However, once she was sure she was in one piece, Cassandra took a moment to run her fingers through her hair, ruffling it with a sort of relief.

It felt nice to feel human again. She wasn't a monster. She wasn't a monster. She glared at one of the pods that was still sealed shut as she thought this, tempted to kick it, but leaving it be.

Cassandra checked inside of 'her' pod again to make sure that the weapon she'd felt she was holding previously wasn't still in there. She then laid on the floor to check underneath to make sure she hadn't dropped it there either.

Nothing.

She frowned, getting up and walking, carefully, into the adjoining room, a confused look on her face.  

[Enoh Love]

Waking up was a lot more painful than he remembered it.

As his senses eased awake, he became aware of a few things; how heavy his eyelids felt, the odd deadweight of his own body, and more importantly...the little tingle that crawled just under your skin just before the pins-and-needles. He wasn't so sure if he should bother doing the getting-up thing any time soon. Besides, this was probably just another figment, some illusion; without a doubt there would be a Grim Reaper there, taunting him, calling him a Princess or maybe a damsel in distress or---

Wait.

Jeremy sat bolt upright, which made him rather lucky that his pod had recently opened. Where was that...thing?! That sonuvabitch had to---augh! He should have expected this sharp, disorienting pain. Should have. The pins and needles he should have tried to avoid danced across his skin and as soon as he stilled himself enough to make the feeling dim down, he cautiously peered around; an open pod, a few very open pods, even more closed ones...what the hell was all this? So...he wasn't dead?

..
...
....

HE WASN'T DEAD! ******** yes, he was alive! Forgetting his pins and needles he gave a little whoop, followed shortly by a hiss, and then after that a very slow, jagged attempt to make it out of his own pod. The limb disorientation proved to be a bit of a problem as his hand hit the pod a few times, his foot stubbed on themselves and the floor and once - just once - he nearly fell out and onto the tile. Sonuvabitch. Every movement hurt, but all in all he was too excited; he was alive, not in a swanky bar and, opon looking down, not wearing armor. His new life was awesome, everything was awesome, and he was definitely not dead. What more did he need?!

Ah, but there were a few things he needed; his Brother. Ariane. Answers. But mostly the first and third. Ariane was important to him, but Dean and Answers ranked above her. Well, for now. Every awkward step, every near-fall and every stubbed toe soon helped him get the blood circulating properly and before long he was wandering out of the pod-filled, personless room and into a different area, hoping to find one and three on his list of important things. Okay, maybe two as well. Maybe.
 

[Bilious]

The world swam into a dim sort of focus as Jerry Collins took in a sharp breath, lurching with such a force he slammed his head into... something or other... It felt like the top of the door to an airplane. Stumbling out into cold air, he hissed and rubbed his temple before finding his glasses neatly clipped to his sweater. Blinking in the dim light, his first thought was- LIGHT! Yes yes yes safe, blessed light, closer, he had to get closer- but the second thought that quickly raced up behind to bump into the first from the rear was, My goodness, what odd pod things. He flinched back away from the glowing runes on the pod beside him, swallowing thickly as he patted himself down as though brushing off invisible spiders. There had to be a doorway... His head was racing, filled with flying limbs and blood soaked grounds and monstrous equines... but he had a head. And a face, and hair and no gasmask at all and... Reality shifted slightly as the world attempted to assemble itself in more comprehensive ways in his brain.

He was alone here, though, but as he backed away to take in the sight of the massive rows of pods, he could at least peace together the lights and the darks- The lights were off on his pod. Did that mean the others lay in the ones still glowing? Or were some of the dark pods the Dead? Or...

No need to over think it.

Suddenly, he remembered the weapon in question, and scrambled about the pockets of his dirty suit that still stank of that upsetting day what felt like a life time ago... with nothing in the pockets save for a match book and a wad of pocket lint.

A dream maybe?

He turned to hurry away from the pods now, spotting the brightest light that stood apart from the odd runes, a doorway! Sunlight! And hopefully answers.  

[Toshihiko Two]

It was cold, and it was like staring at the sun. Harrison shielded his eyes, touching his face...his face.

He needed a shave.

But it was good to feel his own skin again, and be out of the dark. He clenched his hands. The air smelled clean, laminate, and he could hear the hum of machines. He smelled...well, like he hadn't showered in a while. He forced his legs to work. They felt unsteady, like he'd been at sea. If he had to spend any more time in this carnival video game chair thing, though, he was going to start abusing the upholstery.

He also had a nagging fear the door was going to swing shut again.

The floor was empty of other people staggering awake. Was he the only one that had made it? There was a door...

He'd thought E-8, at least...

No he hadn't. Not really. But he'd hoped. There hadn't been any revelations as far as his teammates were concerned. The people he'd killed, and who had killed him, were strangers. He pulled his shirt to his nose and mouth and took a big whiff.

Yeah, definitely needed a shower.

As far as he knew, though, this was just Part 2 of his continuing misadventures, and a Wake Up Committee was waiting to wrestle him back into an overgrown iPod. But that last time had been a fluke. He wasn't going down without a fight.

He headed for the door.
 

[Zoobey]

The room:

Waking up for the first time always felt painful.

Senses pounding in each directions, noise, light, sounds, and even the air stale, hot, sour. Something hissed as those awakened fought to gain consciousness for the first time: for some it was weeks for others months. And it felt that way, from the way their eyes blurred when they tried to focus, the way their body felt painful, strained, their heart beating sluggishly as if they still slept.

The hardest part was fighting to stay awake.

Dull moments passed, a struggle between consciousness and half-coherency, for some mere seconds, for others minutes ticking to hours until the scene around them cleared.

They were staring at what seemed like strange rounded cylinders, like peas in a pod, hanging from a mess of wires. They were each 8 feet long, aligned neatly in rows, but some of them were open. Some of them had strange, unfamiliar faces staring agape at each other. Others were empty entirely.

"Good morning sleepers." A voice, it wasn't loud, per se, but it was strange to hear something that was not a dream or a dull figment of half-consciousness. The words barely registered at first, and when they finally did, there was a figure standing, just a little against the end of the rows, leaning against the wall. It was hard to see what they looked like in the half-shadows they cast. "Impressive, still awake I see and so many at once. How peculiar."

The voice fell silent, though the figure remained standing. Were there others there waiting for the 'sleepers'? It was hard to tell.



((OOC: PLEASE ONLY POST HERE IF YOU HAVE BEEN PROMPTED BY A GM TO "WAKE UP" (guild invitation) OR pmed by a gm for rp. Your character now LOOKS like the character you have been granted in the solo rp, but they have not yet found their (material) weapon yet - ie: they are currently ICly weaponless, and they are in your choice of "regular" clothing (sans white coat)
- Feel free to rp with your character's reactions and mingle around the room with the other characters/ ask questions as needed. Please do not exit the thread/room until prompted by a GM. ))  

[Blade Kuroda]

There was a low groan before Deryk opened his eyes after who knows how long. His mind felt incredibly foggy and he was having a hard time focusing at the moment. Though, it didn't take him long before he realized that he wasn't in his room. Wait. Where was he? And what the hell was he doing last? Right now, he was having a really hard time figuring that out and it was giving him one hell of a headache.

It took a little longer for him to put together what was before him. There were rows upon rows of these strange pod things. Did he just come out of the Matrix? Were these human batteries? Ow ow.. thinking too hard.

"Morning? Wah?" he mumbled, slurring his words a bit. Deryk was still having trouble staying awake even, making it even harder to piece what was going on here.

"WhereamI? Who are you? What sleepers? Waddyatalkingabout..?" he added. Ugh. So many questions and right now he probably didn't quite have the brainpower to process any answers he received.  

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix was trying to be a good hunter. He had started to train and he'd started to accept small missions and duties. He felt much better about the situation now that he'd managed to schedule his days. Despite his carefree personality, he was a bit OCD about things being just in the right order.

He'd never been on pod duty before and the last time he'd been in this room was for use of a golem. It was strange, the silence and the still faces all blankly looking out. Did he know any of them from his own time in the pod?

The albino hunter was slightly early for his scheduled shift and certainly hadn't expected to find anyone in there. He shuffled awkwardly up to the other person present, opening his mouth to speak but instead choking it back.

He didn't want to be on his superior's bad side, especially not lately. Bix also had no idea that any of these things were going to be opening. Boy what a surprise he would be in for. When the first pod opened with a smokey hiss he jumped almost out of his skin.

"s**t..>" It was a hushed whisper. Don't look like a chicken, Bix!  

[Bittiface]

How long had it been? How much time had passed since Otto was last awake, his adventures on the misty island? It may not have been the first thing that came to mind, but it hung around like a fuzzy whisper as the young man began to stir. One thing he knew for sure, he felt like he'd just knocked back the entirety of his parents booze stash in a night. It was like the worst hangover imaginable and then some. Everything hurt. Even trying to keep his thoughts going was a chore.

Eventually, after a good long while, Otto managed to blink away enough of his drowsiness to get a hold of himself, blurry vision taking in what he could. Where.. was he exactly? Bits and pieces of memory began to come back; misadventures on the island, his last days at home..

His attention snapped to a voice. Well, snapped wasn't the right word. He eventually was aware of a voice. His weary blue eyes softly shifted over to the dark figure, squinting to attempt to make out who was there. Feh, no one familiar.

"Shaddup.." Otto groaned at one of his fellow sleepers, rubbing his temples. "My heaaad..."  

[Kaiyumi]

W-what's...? Ugh, my head, and...why does everything hurt?

The young woman emitted a weak groan, her arm stiff as she reached up her clutch her head. Her eyelashes fluttered as she tried to examine her surroundings, but the light was so bright, burning the eyes that had become accustomed to darkness for so long. It wasn't just the light either--everything was making her head throb. Around her, she could hear noises--shuffling, the hum of machinery, maybe some groans and voices. They all assaulted her at once, and though they should have been quiet, they all sounded far too loud to her.

"What..." Her voice was soft, weak from lack of use, "What is going on? Where...am I?"

Eva faintly made out a voice speaking to her--to them? She wasn't alone, she realized--but she didn't understand. What had happened to them? Slowly, she opened her eyes bit by bit, trying not to cringe at the light. She blinked a couple of times to clear her blurred vision, and then promptly frowned. The first thing she saw were the rounded cylinders, and though she didn't know what they were exactly, the sight of them sent a shiver up her spine.

She was careful to move slowly, weakly pushing herself up into a sitting position and getting her gaze sweep over her surroundings. There were two men who had just woken up and who seemed just as disoriented as she was, and then there was...another in the shadows, perhaps? She thought that she could make out a figure. Eva stared up at the latter--Bix--and frowned. Was he the one who had spoken? She wasn't entirely sure. "...Who...who are you? Why am I...no, why are we here?"

Her knit her brows in confusion, trying to remember what had happened...but no, her memory was foggy. Her body ached, but she tried to stand up, attempting--and mostly failing--to push herself upwards on shaky legs.  

[Syusaki]

Everything was bright. The light stung his eyes at first so he attempted to bring a hand up to his face, but felt a series of sore aches throughout his body. Painful, so painful. His eyelids were heavy, but somehow Wilson managed to blink them a few times. The first couple blinks revealed only colored blurs, but things slowly came into focus. He sucked in a breath of air—stale, hot. It made him cough. His muscles hissed as he reached out to pull himself out of…a pod?

“Waitwha?” Wilson slurred his words together as he ogled the pods lined next to each other, surrounded by numerous wires. He felt like he had landed smack dab in the middle of a science-fiction movie. The odd appearance of the room made Wilson wonder if he had somehow woken up in the future or something.

“Sleepers?” He snapped his head toward the stranger, but flinched at the sores in his neck. “Are you talking to me?” Everything was so confusing. Wilson couldn’t recall signing up for sleeping in a cylinder thing. His body still hurt. Just what the hell had he been doing before this? He’d forgotten. When he looked around he noticed others in a similar state: somewhat groggy, disoriented. So he wasn’t the only one confused. The observation soothed him somewhat.

Hands gripped the edges of his pod as he took a shaky step out. “An explanation would be nice. I’m really confused.”  

[Trira]

Vanessa had been asleep for far, far too long.

She took a deep breath before discovering that the air was much too stale to be really inhaling. She coughed, forcing her body to take another breath. The light was too bright to be a dream. She needed to wake up. Her brain was trying to compute just how long she'd been asleep, but everything was foggy, so completely foggy, which probably meant she'd slept for much longer than she'd expected. She shook her head, commanding her body to continue to breath the sour air, trying to make herself feel real.

She pushed on the front of the pod she'd been encased in with a combat-booted foot. A glance around confirmed that there were more than just herself 'waking up'. Someone spoke, calling those like Vanessa the sleepers. "Good morning, if it truly is a morning." Vanessa said coolly, if not foggily, in return, analysing the area around her. There were a few other awakening around her.

After a moment, she leveled a gaze at the first person who had spoken upon leaving a pod, then the person telling them to be quiet. Her mind was jumbling around and trying to process exactly what had happened, and had some thudding feeling pulsing underneath it all. She had really been asleep for far to long.

She shook her head again, pressing a hand to her forehead before looking to the side, where the person who'd called them the sleepers was. Finally she spoke aloud and asked, "Does this mean...I passed...?" She didn't know what exactly it was she that had passed, but she figured it was probably important. She had a vague feeling that there was more to the story too, so much more that what she could remember (which was actually not a lot), but all that she could sense was that something big had happened. "An explanation would be nice, if you would so kind as to offer one." She stated, looking at the figures who hadn't come from the pods.  

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix watched as the pods opened one by one. He was gaping a bit when the groggy, wobbling young men and women began to take in their surroundings and ask questions.

Awwww little hatchlingssss.. His unseen weapon, Mina, spoke in his mind, to him alone.
Hatchlings. I like that actually. He answered her mentally.

The one girl was looking straight at him, asking him something. s**t. He'd spaced out but he had enough common sense to know that all their questions would be answered and it wasn't going to be by him.

"Just uhh.. catch your breath. Questions will be answered but getting your bearings should be what you worry about right now." Good, noncommital and not overstepping his bounds. Bix was really trying here.