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An odd smell greeted the Hosts, very suddenly.

It started as a smell of rotten eggs. It was overpowering; even in the clear water of the showers, the smell made Elizabeth choke. The Hosts found themselves coughing, hacking, attempting to maintain balance. Their vision swam; their minds fogged up. It seemed like the oxygen had left; none could breath for a long moment.

Then it was gone, and they snapped back into reality. What passed for reality, around here. It seemed a little... different, though.

Rapidly changing to painfully different.

The walls were bending, twisting. Elizabeth noted that the water was suddenly falling sideways, the showerhead and attached pipe were flailing like an injured snake, and the towels were all flying around the room like a set of very agitated ghosts.

What furniture had been there exploded into impossible fragments, including bones, blood, steel shards, and pieces of glass. None touched anyone. Nothing was touching anyone. The ground had disappeared. The walls began to recede, to fade. The water was suddenly gone. The Hosts were gone to each other. Each was isolated, floating in an infinite abyss.

Panic set in quickly.

Minutes passed; watches were still working, as were cell phones (even though the latter were claiming to receive negative bars). Exactly five minutes after the room disappeared, something shifted. A sound like a boat rubbing against a dock shattered the silence; after a moment, it grew quiet again.

Then there was a little pop, and they all dropped together onto cold, hard concrete. The fall was only a few inches, but none were oriented towards their feet; most fell on their backs, though a few fell face-first.

All were together, in positions precisely related to how they had been before it had all disappeared, in conditions precisely as they had been. It took them only moments to notice that they were not in the the Thief's protection any longer. They now appeared to be... in a basement. A mildly cool basement.

There was nothing to point them in the direction of what had just happened.

Why did this always happen to them?

It seemed with the Hosts that if it wasn't one thing, it was another, but typically it was both.

In this case, not only was not everyone back just yet, but the safety-dimensional-hole-in-the-world-thing seemed to have up and quit on them, spitting all those that had once been safe into a dark and dank basement.

Helena came back to reality on her stomach, chest aching from the short but surprising fall. "Ow!" Was the first thing she said after figuring out what all had happened... or at least trying. Then she rose back to her feet. "If I had to guess, I'd say something's wrong with the Thief because our little pocket in the Universe just exploded."

Clarissa looked to the side to Helena. Out of fear and confusion, she walked over to the older girl and lightly grabbed her hoodie at the elbow. "So where are we?"

Before an answer could be given, Helena stated her rather humorous opinion. "I think I might be in agreement with you," she said with a shy smile.

"The saying about beggars and choosers comes to mind," Elizabeth replied with a faint smile, accepting to hoody and slipping it on. The fabric was uncomfortable against her wet skin, but until she figured out how to use that damn bio-armor to hide the parts of her Finnegan wasn't allowed to see, she didn't have a lot of options. Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea for the moment. She moved to stand, forming her shield to form a screen in front of her.

...

It's going to difficult to put these on with one hand while standing.

"People without vaginas, go stare at a corner," she commanded.

Helena ducked behind Elizabeth and the shield to go through the tedious process of removing two layers of clothing only to replace one. Once the sweatpants were back on- which were much cozier than anticipated, eliciting a swish of the hips from Helena- she handed the panties forward. At the same time she was glancing over her shoulder at the youngest Host. "Staying here won't get us anywhere," she answered, realizing too late the stupidity of her own inane statement. "I mean... well, you know what I mean... Right?"

Clarissa was cherry red. "Y-you should really take my bra. The bouncing can become problematic when we need to run. Or fight." Thank God I don't have to worry about such things. "So umm, just a minute."

Because Elizabeth put away the shield, Clarissa was going to have to take off her bra in front of the girls. And Finnegan. Oh joy. She tried to be brave about it when taking off her shirt but she lost all courage when it came to pulling off the bra. This will probably be a tight fit on Elizabeth. More than likely it's going to push up her boobs and make them seem bigger. So she might have been slightly jealous at the older womens' bigger assets - she was a pretty small teenager. It was going to make her feel bad for being small.

Turning around from the group, she quickly took off the bra and passed it to Elizabeth. Just as quickly, she forced the shirt back on (but that meant bearing her chest for everyone to see and oh God the embarrassment). "SO ANYWAYS," she squeaked, "should we go outside and check around? Or stay here and wait for the Thief?"

Helena did her best to help shield the vulnerable Clarissa from any possible prying eyes. She seemed uncomfortable with herself fully clothed; Grissom could only guess how much courage the young Host had to muster to swap out the bra. In that moment Helena had to admit having smaller breasts would definitely be an asset in their current line of living. She shook her head to get back on track.

"I vote we move. I don't think this is any sort of place we'd like to linger about."