|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:37 am
Quote: The SleepersAccessed via hidden lab entrance, the first thing you'll see is a giant console full of monitors, each holding several video feeds and numeric readouts. This is where the sleepers are kept. Hunter Candidates that are either unable to wake up yet or have yet to make the necessary choices. The feeds contain dozens, possibly hundreds of faces. At first glance, they may appear to be simply sleeping sleeping, but after several minutes of total stillness they are closer to resembling dolls. Behind the monitors lay row after row of pod, each neatly marked with a name, entrance date, and serial number. The instructions that come with this area explain that attempting to wake one of these candidates on your own will likely result in them dying, waking up a vegetable, or waking up insane. Parts have also been known to react badly to the trauma of waking up. If you are in need of personal counseling on this subject, please contact Division Leader H, Division Leader Caelius, or their respective assistants.
While pod babysitting duty was not high up there on Harrison's fun tasks list (and there definitely was a list), it was easy and not too much hassle. Some Hunters came down to look morosely at familiar sleeping faces, but the truth was that before coming here, Harrison knew a lot of people but did not have a lot of friends.
And he sure as hell didn't want to see any of his relatives again. He really didn't want to see any of his exes. The one person he did want to see, he didn't even know what they looked like.
So he monopolized two folding chairs, one to sit on, one to prop his feet up on, and read a Halloween Special Home and Gardens magazine from the library archives. There was not much spooky about it, or not much to research, but Harrison had grabbed it and a couple of others in the hopes that they'd shed some light on Recent Events.
B0nez had wanted him to play video games instead, and told Harrison just where he thought they could stick their beautiful centerpiece ideas.
After reading the tenth thing you could do with pumpkin spice, Harrison threw the magazine down and riffled through the others. "Waste of time," he growled, "Where the hell is the article on giant dead lizards?"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:48 am
Jude supposed one way for him to make up for missing a mission is that he could attend a few different duties that were available. One of them was the duty of watching the people in the pods. At first he thought about avoiding the task for various reasons but them decided to 'man up' so to speak.
Either way Jude got lost as usual and it took him a few minutes for him to finally put in an appearance and upon walking in he saw the familiar form of a Hunter he'd seen back at the House mission. He lifted a hand up to wave, "The Kids sleeping well?" he said trying to interject some levity into the otherwise seemingly morbid task.
"Giant dead lizards?" He asked with a raised eyebrow as Harrison riffled through the other magazines.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:56 am
Harrison looked back over at the rows and rows of pods, and shrugged.
"Looks like. You got to wonder how long they can be in there before they start to atrophy. Like if there's...an expiration date, or something," He paused on an IEEE Magazine, and flipping it open, instantly discovered he didn't understand a damn thing.
"Yeah. At least I think it was a lizard. I didn't get a real good look, there was a lot of fog. But you'd think there'd be something about all those missing people."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:02 am
Jude leaned on the back of the chair that Harrison's feet currently occupied; he didn't seem in a rush to sit down just yet, "I hope not. It'd be upsetting to know I asked her to come with me just to have her 'expire' in a pod," he murmured quietly.
The next set of words made Jude look toward Harrison, "Oh? The last mission or whatever? I'm afraid I was a bit late to attending that one. Wonder what kind of backlash I'll be getting if any," he shrugged a bit, "care to fill me in a bit?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:14 am
"He didn't take attendance or nothing. You're probably okay," Harrison said. "Some of ours died. Before we got there. We were out in the desert, and there were just....lots of dead folks. Bodies everywhere. Not Hunters, I don't think, just regular people. We helped carry some back to the tent to put into bags. They told us it was just clean up duty, but they hadn't found the thing that did it. They just set up base and started sorting. And then a giant...skeleton came out of the ground and started attacking everyone. All the smoke made it tough to see. Somebody killed it. Us, I think. I couldn't see too well. And...it had...some of ours. Eaten. Then Caelius sent us back." He was just holding the magazines now, instead of looking at them.
"Thing I don't understand is, all those bodies got to come from somewhere. Did...did nobody notice?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:27 am
Jude lapsed into attentive silence as Harrison went over what had happened at the latest mission. He let out a small 'hmm' at the end when Harrison put forth the question and honestly he had no answer for it other than to shrug, "You would think there would be something said somewhere...People looking for their loved ones unless the victims were all homeless folk or something."
He shrugged his shoulders, "I guess we just gotta keep doing what we can..."
Though even that felt hopeless.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:36 am
"At first I was thinking, clean ups like this must go on all the time here," He rolled the magazine, seemed to realize what he was doing to library materials, and tried to flatten it again, "But now I'm thinking, it doesn't. Because that lady they put in charge of the bodies, she was freaking out the whole time. And she was a full-fledged Hunter. Not a trainee. So I think something big's going on. But they don't tell us s**t."
He looked at the pods again.
"All of this is weird. I don't know what the point of letting people rot in pods is, either. ...You got...somebody you're waiting on?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:45 am
Jude hummed again in thought and then nodded, "They never do tell us anything and if they do tell us something it's like they expected us to know it already before hand or something similar. Though I guess we should do some research at least as much as we can," he shrugged a bit.
He'd suggest watching the news but that seemed silly considering their current placement.
"..Yeah I don't see it either." Jude froze a bit at the question having not expected it despite his saying such things out loud. He shrugged a bit with the feeling of guilt welling inside him, "Sort of...My girlfriend. Talked her into coming with me and well seems like I doomed her to rot in a pod instead of changing our lives for the better...How about you? You waiting on anyone?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:46 am
"....Nobody. Well. I don't know him, it's just...a guy I knew from the trial. I sorta told him- I don't know. It's stupid. I said I'd wait around for him. Maybe he already woke up and he doesn't want to talk to me."
That was stupid too, Harrison knew. He would say hi, it wasn't like they parted on bad terms or anything. But somehow it was a cheerier thought that he was only being avoided, instead of waiting around for one of the pods that were taped off.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:59 am
"It's not stupid. My girl and I -- well I guess ex girlfriend...We broke up before we went in so that we could just...I guess have an easier time to move on I guess? I dunno. We just made the promise to not forget each other no matter what...So if what you said was stupid then I was stupid, too," he laughed a bit and shrugged.
The thought that Harrison was being avoided caused the youth to shrug a bit, "Dunno, he probably doesn't know you're awake either and he's probably lookin' for you too if he's up."
He uttered a small sigh, "Do you think we're as much of a failure as Caelius think we are?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:16 am
"It'd be kinda crazy to go knocking on everybody's doors," Harrison said. "But maybe he is," he sounded doubtful. Candace had said there hadn't been any other Epislons, and he was there in the hallway when everybody was meeting the new batch of trainees. He raised an eyebrow at the final question.
"...Failures? Nah. Probably just standard newbie hazing stuff. He was bitching us out at the haunted house for not being organized, but where was he? That's not our job, we're all supposed to be following orders and the only orders we got were get out there and do something. Dr. H. is...sadistic, maybe, but he keeps his s**t organized."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:15 pm
"It kinda would. Not saying you should, just saying it is possible...I guess I'd kind of have the advantage? I know what she looks like..." He shrugged a bit and rubbed a little at his jaw. Yes he knew what Susannah looked like and so if she ever appeared there'd be a rather joyous reunion between them but for now he could do nothing but wait.
He chuckled slightly and nodded, "You have a few points there. Very good ones," Jude observed quietly. "It was better than my theory of Caelius just being a bully because mommy and daddy didn't give him enough hugs as a child or some crap."
For all Jude knew it was probably true.
"I just know the insulting and raging at me isn't a good motivator for me. I'm not saying kiss my a** but don't make me feel like scum either," he said with a small shrug.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:37 pm
"Don't let the head guys make you feel shitty," Harrison said, "you aren't shitty."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 7:09 am
The young man blinked a bit and looked over at Harrison, "How do you know?" He laughed a bit with a small shrug of his shoulders, "I could be totally shitty at everything I do."
Granted he probably wouldn't have survived long or even gotten out of a pod if that was the case.
"Thanks though..." Jude was sincere as he said this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:29 am
"Well, okay, all of us are starting out at this. So maybe we've got some leeway in the s**t department. But there's worse ways to be spending your time than using magic weapons to save the world."
Gesturing to the rows of sleepers, he said, "or, you know, podsitting. Pretty difficult to be a shitty podsitter."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
