One minute he was dragging Finn. Then he was tasting the floor. Then there was sand blowing up his nose.
And Nevada threatening some sweet nothing in his ear.
The sand burned his bare torso, which was a quick way of waking him up, even though his vision blurred and the world spun for a bit more. "The hell--" He couldn't move; something was binding him. Somethings. Belts. The ********? Great, someone thought that was a funny practical joke for the two guys who got tranq'd. Awesome.
With great effort and some wincing Jack managed to force both him and Finn to sit up, fiddling with the nearest belt as his arms were rather constricted. "Where the hell are we?" he asked in a groggy voice, though his fingers moved remarkably fast; he was separated from Finn within a minute and quickly tossing on his clothes so he wouldn't get sunburnt. Or, well, sunburnt so badly.
- - -
As Nevada was leaving the cafeteria, Stormy was on her way in for some light lunch. She'd forgotten to eat (again), and her stomach was grumbling. Her hand was on an apple, and she was just about to wave to her bestie, when the vortex dragged them all in.
At least she didn't stumble face first into the sand.
Stormy blinked rapidly in the blinding sun, though rather than warm up she felt chills down her spine. This wasn't . . . Oh please don't say it was. Bad juju, bad juju. Who made Caelius angry enough to send them to a desert at all??
"Mr. Lance?" she called as she made her way over, untying her scarf from her neck. Okay, just gotta keep it cool. In a desert. Right. Her next question about the sunscreen died when she spotted the rotting limbs, and the trainee paled considerably. Maybe it was good she hadn't eaten yet.
Stormy listened to Candace's explanation with a queasy look before turning back to the division assistant. "M-Mr. Lance, d'you know if there was a squad sent here for something? A mission?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 11:22 pm
Nevada stood up, drawing her coat up as much as she could and tying her scarf around her had to keep her hair from sticking to her.
To Jack, she made a small snort sound before bending down again.
"Sahara. Look, there's a bunch of bodies, this place is infested with FEAR, Horseman pretty much rule this area. Best option is to stick together." She looked over to Finn's form and again had to quell the urge to ditch the boys to their own devices.
But even the hunter in her recognized the mission values of having a moon and life around.
Her gaze wandered over the sands, narrowing as it landed on the form of Stormy's and wondered when the girl had been dragged in. Luckily it seemed her best friend had found their assistant lead. She made sure to catch the girl's eyes, giving the girl a few signs they had developed after the aria incident so that they didn't have to talk.
In short, she pretty much said. 'With Jack and Finn, Stay with Lance. If trouble, I'll come to you.' Then there was a short motion, 'Keep on the lookout Stormy, Horseman or Halloween. Remember to watch out for anything concerning Aria too.'
It was a lot to say with just hand signals, but Stormy and her had been around each long enough to understand the simple gestures.
"Are you gonna be alright to get up Jack? Or do you need my help?" She held out an offered hand.
Ol-j-Man
The sand tasted terrible, and with Dakota's open call to Candace, he had forgotten to turban his scarf around his head to keep it from getting in. In which case, he did now, moving through the sand to the female huntress and praying that the bodies that were around were just...not anyone he knew.
He didn't bother saying too much as he came over to Candace.
"What's the plan of action?" He looked over at the trainee's and then to the amount of full hunters. Thankfully, it was hunters who had more exprience with the Sahara then anybody around. Otto, Was that Lance? Poor dude...Leon, Candace...Him.
So Death, Moon, Life, and Two mist...
Yeah they we're in deep s**t if they were suppose to lead.
"If you see a horseman, do not engage by yourself either." He made sure to state after Candace. "We are on their turf, that means we are on the defense. And no. A great offense is not a great defense in this area." He quickly added, growing more somber and serious by the moment. "If there is any moon trainee's, we need you front and center." If this was going to be corralling the troops, he wanted to make sure any moons we're nearby for defense.
"I told you, America," could quite possibly have been Pandora's last words, as the bright blue glow began to blow out the last few of her candid Caelius photos, "I told you he was hot-"
Her back to the table barricade, she didn't initially feel the bursts of sand, just the bitter cold. But she could smell the stench of rot all around them, uncomfortably familiar. All around them in the dark were large shapes, some moving (and cursing), others oddly still. Her eyes were slow to adjust thanks to the small square of blue light in front of her face, her screen still plastered with one last terrible picture of Caelius hidden by a magical lens flare.
She made the mistake of turning the phone around.
Bodies, everywhere. Most of them clearly dead, some of them nauseatingly so. She was a little more prepared, this time, but couldn't help but let out something of a squeak of surprise and horror.
"Um, Candace?" she spoke, curious but confused. Hesitantly, she crawled a foot or so forward to gently begin to pry the phone from the cold, dead hands of the hunter. She glanced in Candace's direction. "What is a horseman?"
Lizbot
Eight
Zoobey
IDK IF I NEED TO DO THE RED TEXT QUOTE THING BUT JUST IN CASE ROFL I am interacting with the lovely scenery
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 11:34 pm
Once the lotion had been thoroughly applied and rubbed in, Lance removed the coat from over his legs and spun it around, sliding it on and over his arms. He fussed with his scarf for a bit until he was satisfied with it, looking up towards Stormy as she approached him and asked her question.
"Yeah." He was quiet, mirth gone from his face as he gripped his wheels. Slowly he managed to forge his way across the sand towards a half-buried corpse. He leaned forward and hauled on what he could. Sand quietly hissed as the Hunter's remnants were pulled free, then shaken as the coat ripped and tore.
Lance slowly shook his head as he set the corpse back down, looking back towards the trainee. "This used to be an outpost. It doesn't look too old -- I can recognize Brendan here." Great, now the Division Assistant just named one of the corpses. It wasn't an object anymore; he was Brendan with a missing head and Life coat with a pale blue trim. What remained of his arm had a decorative dark line on it which at some point must have been a tattoo.
Lance looked at Stormy sideways, as if attempting to find something in her. He then looked past her at Nevada as the other trainee seemed to be flailing abou- waving? He shook his head, oblivious to the meaning behind her gestures before focusing on Stormy once again. "Deus Ex may be our main headquarters," he began, "But the world is a very big place. We have outposts to help out and minimize potential Fear hotspots. This outpost..." He looked towards the tattered tent, "This outpost was one of the more successful ones. We're in the middle of Horseman territory. It seems they didn't take too kindly to our success."
Lucky had been hoping that the commotion over to one side of the cafeteria would stay in that corner. He sank a little lower in his seat and stared dejectedly at his MRE, waiting for the danger to pass by.
Fortunately, the danger did pass by, dragging their scythe.
Unfortunately, the danger passed by on the wrong side of him.
Even before he could see again in the sudden darkness, Lucky slowly dragged himself underneath his half-sunken table, not far from Lance, and mumbled something in Polish into his hands.
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 11:54 pm
The phone continued to beep. Only those of full Hunter clearance or higher would be able to access the emergency code, which was a series of four digits that was assigned biweekly to everyone who was of any sort of information-gathering importance really.
Contrary to popular desert mentality (though to be fair, a bunch of sand didn't have to equal the Sahara, maybe this was just a very elaborate ruse set up in the more northern side of the Island where the isolate beaches were), it wasn't very warm at all but cold and growing chillier by the second. There was a strange moisture building in the air that made everything seem a little foggy, a haze that lingered around the corners of everyone's vision.
There were a series of five poles in the distance, each hanging a half-blackened corpse. Or had been, about a minute ago. Now there were only four.
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Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 11:54 pm
Bugs. Okay, that kind of got Milo to his feet. Not that he had a fear of them or anything, but Candace was making them seem like pretty bad news. "Woah, the Sahara?" No, the trainee did not really... also know the extent that the portals could go, since his time being on the island was with them being down. Despite the condition they had found themselves in, really, he was thinking that was pretty damn cool.
And educational and blahblahblah. "So, horsemen, ya?" Since information was just being passed around right now. He looked between those who were passing it out so freely, or tried. Wind and sand after all. Milo found himself scooting a little closer to the tent, even with the smell and began to resituate his scarf around his head. Now Pandora seemed to be going after some loot, and raised an interesting question. Okay, couldn't think of a reference right now besides that show his sister kind of liked, not to any of his. "So, what do they look like?" Because, his imagination could go wild with those now. Like this or this or even this. So far he'd only seen a giant titan creature and a pumpkin. Besides.. that other world thing, place. "So, we can avoid them, ya?"
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 11:59 pm
Stormy caught her roommate's eye and interpreted the gestures. Oh-- Why did it have to be the Sahara. Why was Jack here. Seriously? She'd seen the booth and the products and could assume (especially after scanning Twitter) what had happened, but come on. She'd trust Nevada's instincts for now and simply nodded before following Lance, carefully stepping in the sand like it was made of something fragile.
She was wrapping her scarf around her head with shaking hands when Lance pulled out the corpse--Brendan (why, why did he name it?)--and held her breath as the wind shifted.
< < Look into the face of death, hatchling. There is nothing to fear from a corpse. > >
So she did, but she focused on what Lance was saying. An outpost, in the middle of horseman territory? That took some guts . . . "If they were holding out so well, something must've changed," she said with a thoughtful frown. "Thet had to have a power source for their equipment, right? Maybe the barriers went down 'cause've some malfunction."
A familiar voice mumbled nearby, and she saw the flash of green that was Lucky joining the party. She waved briefly, but her attention was arrested by the glint of something in Pandora's hand. "Got something there?" she asked, though almost as soon as she had, the strange and vague fog shifted. What was in the distance?
Not good things judging by the missing corpse.
"Something's moving out there, sir." The totem ring flared with warning as she stepped back. For the moment, Stormy began to try and search for other salvageable pieces of evidence amongst the corpses. There had to be a clue, some sort of hint of what to prepare for.
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Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:02 am
The question - and the lecture that followed - was met only with a cold stare and a twitch of an exasperated smile from Mimsy. All the times he interrupted her work for frivolous endeavors, all the instances when he wasted her time, the moment he stole twenty years of work and waiting paled in comparison to the accusations he made, as far as she was concerned. But if he needed to scold and complain to feel as if the balance of power and understanding was restored, that was fine.
What was substantially less fine was the tantrum that followed, leaving her somewhere with a bunch of deodorant-covered men, and a panel of women who somehow felt capable of judging physical appearances.
She chewed her lip, thinking, and remained silent as she unbuttoned her coat sleeves to roll them up past her elbows. Explanations began to spring up as the others apparently recognized this place, which all seemed less than promising. Horsemen, outposts, corpses with names. The hunter he knew was gone, as was this outpost, and she ventured to guess that she would not have to wonder about the current relevance of the horsemen for long.
As long as there were others attempting to formulate a plan, she felt that there was no harm in taking a closer look at one of the bodies. No real reason. Just for fun. She knelt on the cooling sand, fished a pen from her pocket, and began to do exactly that.
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:08 am
Dakota's weapon was summoned the instant there was a change in weather. And brought up when there was a sudden disappearance of a pole from the stands of poles out in the distance.
"Horseman look pretty damn close to humans. They have distinct features for each clan." Dakota spoke to Milo mostly, "War has wings on their a**, have a lot of feathers. They kind of look like a native american clan. Death are more nordic looking...s**t Famine are desert nomads type. They also have more skeletal features and...Conquest are more...noble looking...have horns." Dakota hissed, "Famine and War are the ones mostly out here, they love a good fear hunting."
"s**t, Candace...we have movement out in the distance."
"You're shitting me, right." Even drugged his mind was processing the stream of information relatively quickly: what Nevada gave him, what his body told him (cold, somewhat humid, fog?), and what his instincts told him (you shouldn't ******** be here). Thanks, instincts.
Jack caught a confusing exchange between the girls as he rubbed at his head and groaned, but whatever. Chilly desert, horsemen, and a crazy ******** leader. Crash course into Deus missions it was. Someone was helpfully explaining what horsemen looked like, which he committed to a mental box for later. For now, though, they might not be alone.
So Jack did what his instincts told him to. Summoning his zweihander, he grasped the long handle with both hands and threw his weapon out towards the poles. Maybe the green runes or that weird fog its lock kept making would give a bit of illumination.
Or hit something. He'd like to hit something personally.
(Blame the tranquilizer.)
"Oy! Frosty, show yourself!"
Zoobey
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:12 am
Lance smirked openly at Stormy's observation. "You don't think?" He gestured towards the tent. "I reckon if the place hasn't been looted too badly then there should be a minor power source there. Whatever happened here might still be around, so be wary." As if he even needed to say that.
As someone mumbled beside him, Lance reached out and quietly patted Lucky on the shoulder. In the other hand he summoned his weapon, looking grim as he squinted towards the distance.
As expected, just poking at a body with a pen didn't really uncover the kind of visual information that Mimsy hoped to see. She sat back on her heels and glanced to one side - as if by some incredible stroke of luck, she saw someone familiar, hiding under a table.
"Luuuckyyy," she called, uncharacteristically pleasant. "Did we disturb your meal? More importantly, do you have a knife?"
Her weapon definitely couldn't be a viable substitute for this task. Definitely not.
"No shitting Handsome." Nevada pulled him up then moved to survey the area, Leroy summoned instantly.
She hadn't been paying close enough attention to Jack though, thinking he would take his time to settle the information and change in climate with the danger all at once.
Instead she turned her head just in time to see him ******** throw his sword out towards the poles like a ******** retard.
Now she understood why Caelius cussed as he did.
"Jack..." She said as sweetly as possible. "Are you mentally challenged or did you have too much tranq before you woke up?" Who the ******** throws their sword out there.
Who also ask for the enemy to show themselves?
She was going to really regret staying with Jack, she moved to watch his form carefully, should anything pop out. Personally though, maybe he'd learn a lesson from throwing his WEAPON OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE.
Defending Jack: 5 (BECAUSE I KNOW s**t IS GOING DOWN)
Way to burst his bubble, Dakota. Because now he was setting himself for a little disappointment in the design elements of these guys, his imagination seemed a lot cooler than what he was being told. Though, hard to judge now without actually seeing one. Didn't seem like he should be aiming to, with how everyone seemed to be acting.
< Glad you didn't puss out with the corpses, > Koume drawled on, but even she sounded a little tense. < But I hope you noticed the shift in the air > Oh yeah. The fog, huh? Noticing the other drawn weapons, Milo soon found Koume in his hands with one end resting on his shoulder. Not.. going to throw it like that one guy....
