[PRP] Artifacts 101 (Lucky, Gale, Rep, Mark, Carl)

[WE ARE HALLOWEEN]

lighthouse

"It didn't?" Rep was now confusing Carl who was doing his best to play a game of Where's Lucky. So far no luck(y). "What colour was the jar then?"

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

LIGHTHOUSE

"Black." he said. "He said it was a jar of death or something, I couldn't see any butterflies in it, it just looked like bad ******** news."

 

[WE ARE HALLOWEEN]

Lighthouse

That brought about five blinks of confusion. "I think I'm colourblind," he finally said, which would have made more sense if black was a colour. "Wait what colour is this?" He pointed to an old bloodstain on Gale's coat that was maroon at best.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

LIGHTHOUSE

Rep looked surprise at this information. "Really? What kind of colourblind? That's like, that's a reddy-brown colour. If you were normal colourblind it'd look like, the same colour as a tree or some grass. Red-green's pretty usual."

He couldn't account for black looking red though.

 

[WE ARE HALLOWEEN]

Lighthouse:

Carl looked relieved. "Yes, like that but brighter." A pause. "The jar I mean, well I think they're sleeping but Lucky shouldn't open it. It happened once and I almost died."

Well, he wasn't wrong. A loud whisper. "We should follow him."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

LIGHTHOUSE

Rep gave Carl a weary sort of look. "All right." he said. "Lets go stalk Lucky, nothing bad will ever ******** come of that. And when did you almost die?"

 

[Zoobey]

Lighthouse

"About three times," he said, misinterpreting the sentence. Carl had finally noticed the caterpillar now that it was chewing at the scalp of his hair and not the tips, wincing a bit as he pulled it out and just stared at the overly bright orange-yellow thing that began to gnaw on his finger. It was a shame he hadn't been able to come to the conclusion that caterpillars turned into butterflies and possibly red ones, but it was kind of difficult to tell if he couldn't even notice the difference between black and not black.

"Okay but um, don't go too close to the jar, it's bad. Or touch it. And - and if anyone comes out of it you should tell them to go away." He anxiously hid behind Rep and when he thought the other wasn't looking, stuck the caterpillar on their coat.

Lucky didn't appear to be in the Lighthouse but Mark definitely was and he was most definitely fast asleep.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

LIGHTHOUSE

Rep gave the boy a concerned look. He'd been doing that a lot lately, to the point he'd begun noticing his eyebrows got tired from being tense and furrowed all of the time. He couldn't remember the last time he'd relaxed the tension out of his shoulders and told himself there'd be a spa in it for him at some point after this.

"I don't want to get close to it." he said with a shrug. "Why can't I touch it though? Everyone else seems like they can touch it just fine. No that I ******** want to, no if its got death or some s**t in it."

He paused as something else Carl had said rung strange, long enough to gain one caterpillar. "Anyone comes out of it?" This especially concerned him.

Still, Mark was there and he made his way over and put both his hands on the man's shoulders. "MARK." he said. "Mark what way did Lucky go?"

 

[Zoobey]

Lighthouse:

Carl frowned rather deeply, thinking a little more carefully. "Lucky shouldn't be touching the jar either. They're all things, I think, they like to-"

- It was at that point that Mark nearly fell off his chair, the computer in front of him still scanning for two missing signals. "What - what I'm not sleeping." He darted his head around, confused for a second, before focusing on Rep. "Yeah um, your bros, I don't uh, think they uh, you know, made it."

He meant Gale and Sam but his sleep deprived mind was just doing whatever it wanted at this point. Mark yawned, twice, and didn't seem too broken up about it. "I'll keep an eye out on their signals, see if they pop up again. Night."

As Mark fell asleep there was a very obvious SOS signal coming from the computer.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Lighthouse

Rep wanted to ask Carl what he meant, but it was really easy to get distracted by Mark. "Aye okay man." he said, still a bit irritated at the other man for various things lately. Still, he couldn't get overly mad at him given the innately ******** endearing quality of the overworked hunter. "Made it?" he said, concerned.

He moved into Mark's personal space to look at the computer. "Dude, what's this?" he asked. "If you ******** tell me, I'll try and cover for you."

 

[kuropeco]

ARCTIC BASE - GALE


"I'm not gonna bloody - throw up in your bag," Gale mumbled, though it was doubtful this was actually true.

It was even less true approximately thirty seconds later. The ringing and the flashes of red were only heightening Gale's nausea, and he clamped his jaw shut, willing himself to stay calm, to stay focused. His fingers closed automatically around the object Samuel was shoving into his hand, and though his mind still felt sluggish and sick, he had enough presence to raise the grappling hook gun, squinting up at the ladder.

It missed. Gale swore, loudly and uncharacteristically, his fingers shaking a little.

"This is - damn it - "

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - GALE

"Here just-"

It was unclear how Sam had suddenly snuck up in front Gale but he was there and pushed up Gale's arms and fired-

- Unlike Lucky, it didn't miss and then he was all but carrying Gale as they ascended and then they were moving, running, and there were more ladders going up. The nausea had faded now, enough for Gale to stand on his own and they were running and the green kept on following.

"This is an emergency," Samuel was shouting now to the headset, "we need a portal at the dropoff location. Now."

The green was calling to Gale again, making it impossible for him not to turn back. It was fading into murk again-

- Until sudden pain and Sam was slapping his face a second time. "Fight it. If you don't we aren't going to make it. Think of anything else, it will work."

kuropeco

 

[Zoobey]

LIGHTHOUSE:

Mark snoring heavily was the only response Rep got, and then Rep would hear someone shouting over one of the headsets-

-"emegency- portal - dropoff - now."

The signal was coming from the unmarked location.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

He knew the co-ordinates and leaned over to Mark's PC to try and at least start initialising the portals.

"Carl you don't remember any of this s**t do you? You used to be a dab hand with portals."

 

[Zoobey]

Lighthouse

Carl diligently walked over and then stared at the computer, not really knowing what he was looking at. "How do you start one of these portals?" He was genuinely curious, which was really not a great time for theoretical portal physics.

Mark peeled one eye open at Rep's escalating panic. "Yep, no sexy dream threesome, and can still hear you." He closed his eyes, burying his forehead into the table again while managing to still navigate his keyboard and type a few letters. The screen immediately lit up with PORTAL INITIATED - LOADING.

Five seconds and only ten-percent in-

LOADING FAILED. UNSTABLE LOCATION DETECTED.

Baneful