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 Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:33 pm
Wilson frowned at Otto’s comment about family. He assumed that the other man didn’t have amiable relations with his family, but most people here did, Wilson included. Clearly, the others held similar sentiments. While they voiced their opinions, he found it preferable to keep his words to himself. He didn’t have anything particularly biting to say, anyways. He looked over at the man who had recently woke. “I’m not really sure what this Deus Ex is, too. It looks like we all signed up for something, but I can’t remember what..” Wilson frowned as he attempted to drudge up lost memories, but found none that were useful.
“Um, why don’t we calm down for a bit?” he suggested, looking at Evie and Otto. “It looks like we’re in this together, so I think we should at least be on somewhat okay terms.” Wilson smiled uneasily, but it grew more amiable as people began to introduce themselves. Epsilon, Zeta…They sounded familiar. Wait, he had been on an island before. There was fighting and masks and...He frowned.
He had been sorted into a team as well. What was he called…? “I’m Wilson Hopkins, Delta Twelve.” His expression seemed hopeful as he looked around, wondering if someone from his team would appear.
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:41 pm
"Pleasure to meet you Wash. Everyone else too for that matter. And uh.. I don't think any of us really remember what's going on. Woke up kinda disoriented. Name of the place is Deus Ex but doesn't ring a bell," he explained before looking over towards the one that introduced himself as Wilson. Yes, there was that bit of information as well.
For some reason he couldn't shake the thought of there being a lot of death. It.. didn't feel like he had been playing some gory game either. Thinking too hard on it made his head hurt again, so he just.. didn't dwell on it much.
Everyone had a number it sounded like too. He couldn't remember if he did, himself. Deryk felt a little disjointed there. The fact that most did have numbers though seemed to go along with his original question on experimentation. Oh, he hoped that wasn't the case. But if it was, what the hell did he agree for this to happen?
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:42 pm
Vanessa looked over to Eva as she seemed to have some kind of recollection. Was she remembering the island too? Vanessa remembered one thing above all else about that place. She'd died a few times more than what would've been generally possible. By horse, other person, and the last was a bit foggy, but it might've had to do with Thriller.
Vanessa's eyes brightened slightly as Eva spoke up. "You were Epsilon Four? Ah, a pleasure to make your true aquaintance then." She said amiably, following her once-team-mate's gaze to look at the other Epsilon once again. Vanessa was having some trouble remembering what exactly she'd thought of her team-mates, but she assumed it was good. After all, they were on her side, right?
The others seemed to be realizing their previous selves also, and those around her all seemed to be introducing themselves now.
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:48 pm
"For those of you awake," the man's voice resonated above everyone else's, silencing their temporary barrage of questions, "You are indeed at the facilities known as Deus Ex Machina. You came here out of your own choosing, because you wished to learn something more about who you were." As the figure talked, his voice became distant, dulled and eventually drowned out.
And then the sleepers remembered everything.
Some of them remembered The Island first, being sent as victims to a cruel survival game with their peers. The fights, the endless nightmares and the voice that called to them: become stronger, live, fight, survive. Some remembered their sheltered past lives, thinking they were normal yet always living in fear of themselves. Perhaps they were crazy. Perhaps noone understood them. Perhaps they were chosen.
Because they were: each of the sleepers remembered that moment they had been approached and offered them the chance to fight. The chance to wake up from their years and years of lies and fooling themselves, to learn exactly what it was they feared. They had all accepted, they had all fought to prove themselves through twisted trials...
... And then they had all fallen asleep until now.
"Welcome back sleepers." The words made sense now, the voice to most familiar. This was for many, the voice that called to them to face their own fears. This was the voice who had for many, killed them in their trials.
"You are sleepers for a reason, imprisoned within your own dreams and denial. Not strong enough. Second best." The man paused. "And we are here to retrieve you for personal interest only, the second any and each of you prove to us that you were not the person you promised to be, your conditions with us, with Deux Ex Machina will end." A flashback. Screams, blood, bodies, faces, so many lifeless faces as hooded figure stood over them, scythe raised-" Permanently."
Though for some this awakening had seemed a dream, they could not deny the cold sweat that ran down their backs. Those memories were real. This was real, and they had fought and been tested. Some had died, some had watched others die. Whatever this facility was, it had as many secret as dead ends.
"Now then," the obscured figure took two steps, the edges of their gold-white jacket playing in the light. "Will you come with us and fight your fear, or will you go back to sleep?"OOC -At this point, your character remembers all their trials they took as a candidate. If they were NOT on the island, it is assumed they went through a similar trial IF NOT THE SAME ONE JUST WITH A DIFFERENT GROUP. - All sleepers also remember why they left their past lives (though reasons may be different, they all innately sensed Fear and thus were different from normal people). Please go to the Solo Archives and read the sticky for more information regarding this. - The trials have definately scarred all the sleepers: they are very aware what dying feels like, whether or not they want to repeat this experience again through their actions...
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:03 pm
Band together just because they were in the same room? This all sounded too familiar. Otto felt a foreboding sense that placing trust in strangers for a so called greater good just because they were lumped together meant s**t. Something had happened.. what was it.
Then a voice. That same voice. Soon, Otto's mind exploded with realization. it all flooded back so fast the young man had to fight from gagging, the sheer horror of his experience making him feel ill. Yeah.. he'd tried banding together. The zetas and the alphas. Then some giant horse bribed them with some pendant to kill one of their own. His so called team mates did abide to the freakish creature, and ganged up on one another as Otto watched in horror.
If that was team work... if these were his so called team mates...
Still, his memory flashed back further. His long agonizingly boring days living in a funeral home, a small town in the middle of nowhere. Constantly afraid that the monster under his bed was waiting for him to step onto the floor in the middle of the night, even when he was as old as 17.
Yes. He knew why he was here now. it was clear as day. He wanted to fight back against that which hunted him, that feeling that no one else in town would believe.
Otto's hand pulled away from his mouth, which he'd subconsciously been holding in fear of getting sick. He huffed softly, gaining a hold of himself.
"I think I've slept enough. I'll fight."
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:07 pm
Hearing the voice again, Deryk turned around while he spoke. Before he could say anything, everything hit him all at once. For several moments, he stood there, frozen in place as memories flooded his mind. He might not have been in the same trial as most of the others in this room, but the things he experienced were not for the faint of heart either.
Yes. In was through those trials that he had taken the lives of a few others as well as getting killed himself. Shredded apart really. At least that was what he thought. Obviously, he was not really dead here, despite it having felt so real at the time.
Beads of sweat began to form at his brow and he twitched slightly while recalling all of this. This was what he got into when he accepted the offer long ago after hearing that the monsters were real. When he had been given the chance to actually do something with his life. To do something for others for once.
Did he want to go back to sleep?
He glanced over at Otto briefly, then turned back to the white coated figure.
"Imma fight. Doing nobody good sleeping all day. Including myself. Gotta take action."
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:08 pm
Minerva couldn't help but giggle as Washington spoke up, moving in a very similar, very startled fashion to look his way. She briefly offered Aleister a small smirk in passing when he muttered something low; mostly because she had jumped from surprise as well! She would have settled in her place silently, making her usual mental notes so as not to confuse anyone...when something caught her attention. They were introducing themselves...with numbers and letters? JUST numbers and letters? "E7?" Minnie whispered, looking to Aleister quizzically as he was the closest to her.
And then, she turned her attention to the others with an equally baffled expression. "Uh...I'm sorry but...did I miss something in Orientation?" It was...a poor attempt at a joke. Minnie never claimed to be funny...but it was a valid question! What the hell were they talking about?!
Take good care of yourself...you know...momma has always loved you.
The weight of all her memories came crashing into reality just as soon as the voice, yet again, came through the fog. Minerva could see everything again; her mother, their home, the city she had lived in for so many years, her horrible job...and the night terrors. The insomnia. The constant fear of every dark corner she walked past, every unknown doorway, every gap beneath the bed...all of it, like a wave colliding into a wall; Minerva Di Paola remembered.
She had to shake her head in order to breath, dirty blond curls swinging left and right limply in her disbelief. She could even recall the figure who had approached her, who saw potential within her that for so long felt like a curse. Minerva shivered in her place, leaning toward Aleister as everything came to present.
Minnie knew she had made the right decision then...it was no different now. Not anymore.
Her glistening eyes watched the figure before them fall silent, a question left hanging in the air. "Fight..." She whispered, reaching toward her neck to instinctively clutch a pendant that was no longer there. "I am not afraid..."
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:24 pm
"Likewise, E-3--er, Vanessa." She corrected herself quickly, looking a little sheepish. Despite these fragments of memories floating in her mind, Eva still didn't understand everything that was happening. She recognized these squad names, and had faint recollections of the Epsilons and dying, but she still couldn't grasp the specifics of what was going on. Why had they been fighting? With who? Did she kill anyone, just as she had been killed?
She didn't have to wonder for long when the man's voice suddenly cut through their conversations. At once, Eva fell silent and listened to him speak, but it was not what he said that provided the answers to her questions, but the sudden barrage of images that assaulted her. Grabbing her head, she clenched her eyes shut as everything--everything came flooding back.
The Island memories came first--there had been so much violence, so much killing. Some of her teammates, like Vanessa, had died, killed by other squads and by a large monster--a horse? Eva's hands twitched as she remembered the feel of the stake through the thick gloves that she had been wearing. She remembered driving the stake into the monster horse, and...
And she had attacked people too. Looking back on it now, it made her sick to think that she would raise her hand against another human. At the time, her reasoning was that it was for the good of her team--it was necessary for their survival. However, the reality of the matter was that she had probably been scared to die. It was this fear--and her own selfish desire to live--that drove her to attack others.
But that wasn't all that recalled. She had been living in terror ever since she was a child. When she was thirteen, her concerned parents had gone so far as to bring her to a psychiatrist. She had agreed to their decision, desperate to be "normal", but the doctor wasn't able to help. No matter what he prescribed, the shadows and dark whispers never went away. Eventually, she had to pretend that she was better so that she could stop going.
And then when that offer had come--the offer that she could actually do something about the darkness and that she wasn't alone--Eva took it. She took it without any hesitation. She had been ready to fight back then, no matter what it took, and now...
Now, she was still as ready as ever. Eva squared her shoulders and held her head up, not even a hint of hesitation in her voice as she spoke.
"I'm fighting too."
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:31 pm
When the man suddenly started talking to them, Tedan spun around a bit slowly to stare at him, eyes widening a little. His memories of what had happened before had been vague at best, but now they all came slamming back into his head with perfect and horrible clarity.
Trying not to cry out at the intensity of them, Fiver/Tedan stumbled backward, bumping into the pod he'd so recently woken up from.
"Not strong enough. Second best." Those words seemed to resonate within him, almost mockingly, and Tedan shook his head to banish them. "No way. I'm not going back to sleep now. ******** that."
Taking a step or two away from the pod, he tried to square shoulders, stand tall even though he was still trembling just a bit from the onslaught of memories. "Dunno if anyone remembers me, but I was Fiver ... and I'm Tedan Galloway. And I'm here to fight these damn monsters, even if it does kill me."
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:37 pm
He raised his head, half-expecting to spot an intercom or something of the like, but found none. It baffled Wil at first, but as the voice grew distant, he found himself remembering everything.
Wilson recalled the flaming horse. He remembered diving into the poisonous fog and exchanging blows with masked strangers just like himself, fighting over a silly pendant. Funny how he had actually raised a weapon against someone, but it wasn’t too surprising. He had been training to become a police officer before all of this, after all. The chasm stood out to him the most. A hooded reaper. Crossing a seemingly bottomless pit with only a series of rocks to lead the way. Watching as participants jumped, but never quite made it and leapt to their deaths, falling into the darkness below. He remembered the final test and his quiet, chilling death. He felt himself shudder at the memory.
That was right. He had signed up for that. He had signed up for all of it. Lips formed a tight, thin line as Wilson clearly recalled why. Years of enduring the invisible laughter and the squirming shadows that lived in his closet and inhabited his aunt’s house, enduring until he found it easier to just forget for a while—but only for a while, because it all came back during college. His eyes closed as he envisioned the hooded stranger, offering him a chance to become someone and fight back, to protect people like himself from things that went bump in the night.
He kept swimming through his memories until the mention of ‘second best’ and permanent disposal brought him back. As the voice left them with a lingering question, Wilson mustered a small smile and echoed those that had already answered, “I’ve had enough of sleeping. I’m fighting.”
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:48 pm
Before Wash could even question the nature of this Deus Ex, one of the two strangely garbed figures began to speak. Something more about who you were... Who am I? He asked himself. His memories, suppressed for so long, swept forward with answers.
Wash was at home, holding a screaming Daniel at 4am. Shadows danced around him; shadows he never seemed too tired to notice, despite all the sleepless nights -
He was in high school, watching and cringing as his siblings explained the nature of the beast they all had seen in the locker room, hiding in the shower. Why couldn't they just lie? Why did they insist on -
The warm weight of someone's fingers interlaced with his own was the only thing keeping his shoulders straight, his knees from knocking as something slithered out of the chicken coop and eyed them sinisterly -
He was standing in front of his closet door, watching and quivering in fear as each nail slowly slid out of the boards holding it shut of it's own accord. He was looking up at the door handle - had he really been that small then? But there were answers behind the door this time, instead of the beasts from the real memory. He'd locked them up in his restless slumber, trying to forget. What was so bad that he'd lock it away?
But he needed to know; he needed to remember.
A tiny hand reached out, and slowly turned the doorknob.
...
Wash's head was bowed. He vowed to never again forget that voice, the voice of the man before him. He was dangerous. He was powerful. Perhaps even murderous - but he'd offered Wash the world. He'd offered a way for him to fight, and to protect. Of all the men and women and boys and girls in the room, Wash felt like the least equipped to be some kind of unsung hero. But he was here. That had to mean something, right? After all he'd been through in the weeks since he'd come here - had it been weeks? Days? Months? Years? He had no idea. He had died. He'd faltered. Yet he was alive again, and given a second chance.
Washington Becker believed in redemption.
He raised his head, nodding in assent with all the others. "I'll fight," he stated reverently.
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:40 pm
Aleister was watching everyone he paused looking at her when she questioned the E7, "Epsilon... I don't know why.... but I seem to remember that...."
He paused though when the visions danced back. Everything that happened on the Island, he was trying not to stumble back in fear. Sticking close to Minerva, he was fighting with the demons they had met on the island in the first place. The horse, the other groups.... his own.
There was a frown the sweat of fear he could feel it running down his face as there was a swift and manic blow. Was that another Epsilon? He shook his head bringing him back to the room that he was standing in.
"I'd rather f-fight." He answered with a nod, now eying the shadows. The reason he had signed up in the first place, they were mocking him again. He gave Minerva's hand a small squeeze. "They're just shadows right?" He asked in a nervous whisper... he might've been a little scared but he wanted to be stronger, that's why he came. He was determined he wouldn't fail his family or this Deus Ex place.
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:44 pm
Ryan hissed out a pained breath.
His head hurt now that all of his senses were starting to wake up... His limbs too... They ached as though he hadn't moved them in years... Maybe he hadn't? Or maybe he was just tired? He couldn't tell. He did feel really tired though. Almost like he had been dreaming for a long time. In fact, it was a fight just to keep his eyes open...
Sleep sounded so good right about now...
If there was one thing that prevented him from closing his eyes and giving in, it was the chatter of unfamiliar voices near by.
Voices... It was so strange hearing ones that didn't have that dream like feel to it. Not really a pleasant feeling either... but after listening in on the conversation, he at least now had some idea of where they were and why. Though to be honest, he could do without the recollection of the trials. The mere memories were gruesome and left him feeling cold.
He swore, he could still hear the screaming... even now.
Ryan shivered, as the man continued on. The sounds beginning to form actual words again now that the memories were dying away again.
His words were cruel though. Cruel and harsh, as he offered them all a choice--if one could call it that. Still, the mad was right. They had chosen to come here. What good would it do backing out now?
"I'll fight..." He said, speaking for the first time since waking up.
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 1:35 am
Her head was pounding by the time she came around. It felt like a bad hangover, or something close to one.
Wiping sleep from her eye's, Kat attempted to keep herself from dozing off again, however tempting it was. "5.." she yawned, "more minutes.." reaching for her bed sheets, and froze when realizing she had none. Odd..where..? "Oh--" Sitting up suddenly, she regretted it the moment she did. "Ugh..my head.." If this was a hangover, she was never drinking again. Waking up in strange places with bad headaches, was enough to stick with nonalcoholic beverages.
Others were already up and about...and chatting. Why the chatter? Her head! It was in delicate state, and no amount of coffee would cure this b***h of a headache!
Allowing her eyes to focus before doing anything else; Katherine watched the other people with a dazed expression. What were they calling each other? E7 and..she had the urge to yell out bingo. Whatever it was, she was sure it had some sort of meaning--or at least an explanation behind the odd names. She doubted that their parents were that cruel.
Distracted by her ongoing thoughts, she hardly noticed the death hunter until he spoke out. "Deus Ex.." and then it hit her. If she had the choice, she would have preferred something more..subtle. This was like a slap to the face. The trials..the people..she had.. "I.." Practically choking on her words, she felt a large amount of guilt weigh on her conscience.
How could she have forgotten all of that?
Considering the options given..choosing to fight sounded like the most reasonable choice to go with. The other option..didn't sound at all too healthy..
"I will also fight."
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 2:49 am
Everything hurt. It hurt to move, it hurt to think. When she tried to open her eyes, the room was blurry and even spun. Sherry groaned. Part of her wanted to go back to sleep. But another part of her was conscious enough to know that she was not home and safe in her bed. No, she couldn't go back to sleep until she knew where she was.
She could hear voices. Groggy as she was, it was difficult to make out what they were saying. For a time, she didn't know how long, she lay there listening to voices. She tried to focus on them while she fought the urge to lose herself to sleep again. Slowly, the words were understandable, whole sentences even. How many speakers were there? What exactly were they going on about?
One voice cut through the rest. Just as quickly, everything came back to her. The man at the restaurant, the strange beach, the mask, the room with talk of traitors, the scythe, the blood...Oh, God! The walls! Sherry lurched forward, her senses suddenly about her as she tried not to retch. She had accepted it though...her death. Had that all been...No. It wasn't a dream. She'd signed up to make a difference...and she'd died. She'd failed.
The speaker began to speak again. His words certainly hit home. Not strong enough. No, she hadn't been. If she'd been stronger... She could see it again: that room with it's walls closing in, the 4 bodies standing in the soupy warmth...that feeling as the walls... Sherry swallowed. Her eyes darted around the room. Were they here? Without the masks and uniforms it was impossible to tell who was who.
Her eyes fell back onto the speaker. What was it he said? Was this like a second chance? It was more than she could have ever hoped for. More than she deserved. Her feet, unsteady as they were, found the floor. She rested on hand on her pod to steady her as she stood up straight as she could.
"I'll fight."
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