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 Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 3:41 pm
Research
Rep has been experiencing strange dreams. Blue Kingdom dreams are not unusual for him on the whole, snippets of the Kings incident often play over during sleep. What is unusual is the highly specific and repetitive nature of the dreams themselves, constantly directing him towards one specific place under a neon blue sign. The Kingdom the words spell out every night, and every night he remembers them. And in the dream there are strange twisted creatures, creatures which do not belong in the Blue Kingdom, creatures he does not recognise.
Eventually, unsettled by these dreams, and aware that strange dreams can be a severe warning sign of negative influences on Deus, he seeks out books in the library on the subject, looking for mention of Halloween in and around Vegas and the strip.
One document in particular catches his eye, an old ring-bound binder of reports, most of which appear irrelevant bar one.Quote: Item #: NEVADA-Vega-56b-4Location: Radial Vicinity of - Nevada 593 & E Tropicana Ave, Las Vegas, NV Threat Level: UnknownReports: Several police reports of calls regarding a casino which appears to be a font for fraudulent organisations. Field personnel ████ and ████ dispatched on routine external assignments in the area reported FEAR infiltration of various amenities by known and tracked FEAR entities. Homeless and drug networks, including local forums also confirm the existence of a local urban legend regarding this location henceforth referred to as Vega-56b. One witness was recorded as displaying physical injuries consistent with an animal attack, filed as a dog bite on official documentation. Eyewitness testimonies were retrieved by field personnel, previously disregarded by the authorities as inebriation or hallucination. "So like, I was down to my last few hundred and I was looking for a decent Casino to visit. I'd only had a few drinks, like I told the police, I wasn't even tipsy at the time. I found a place, some royal name, the King, the Kingdom, something like that. The drinks were cheap and strong but I started to feel really sick, everything was weird and I started freaking out. I left but I am sure I was followed home. When I went back the next day to get my coat I'd forgotten it was nowhere to be found." - ████ "They attacked me! I'm not making it up! I told them. I got attacked by some b***h with claws. Claws! And it wasn't there. I went back and it wasn't there." - ████ Containment Precautions Vega-56b is of unknown location but presumed to be visible only to those with potential, all recorded witnesses were in possession of an upper percentile degree of Fear sensitivity. Description:Factors deduced about Vega-56b are that it is a front for a FEAR organisation, most likely demonic in nature, appearing as a casino to those with sensitivity. Addendum:Location shows significant artifact readings. Suggested dispatch of personnel to investigate if Vega-56b is an artifact location.
It was exactly what he had been looking for. He would find this place and see if the dreams were anything more than just the result of a bad diet and erratic hours, and he could do it under a legitimate guise. He just needed to speak to the guys.
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 3:46 pm
"So like." Rep brought up out of nowhere one day, turning to Harrison and Jordan while he was making a sandwich, a legitimate, non-innuendo one.
"I found a thing. I want to check it out. It's probably ******** stupid. But I keep like.. having dreams." He licked some peanut butter off a finger. "I think its about Blue Kingdom."
He shrugged. "Want to go back to Vegas?"
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2014 8:25 am
"Blue Kingdom in this world?" Jordan folded a shirt and put it on top of a pile of shirts. "Huh. Might be interesting to check out. Find any details?" Rep would have checked into whatever it was before suggesting it. Wild as Rep's ideas sometimes were, he usually had some kind of reasoning or factual basis in place before he actually suggested doing something.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 7:53 am
That Vegas was special to Harrison was no secret. And even if it was the summer and 110 degrees over there, their weapons had weathered worse. He didn't draw the same conclusion as Jordan- he just figured the recent talk about Blue meant Rep wanted to take another (non-business) trip. He thought about it too, sometimes, and had been in a similar mood. But he'd wait for Rep to answer.
Harrison chewed on some rolled up bologna, talking through the mouthful.
"Sure. You know I'm up for it."
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 8:09 am
"Aye, like, I'd been dreaming about the place a lot more. Cept it was different, it wasn't the casino." Our casino, he found himself amending. "Was some other place. I looked up some s**t in the library." He put down his sandwich and wandered over to check behind a bookcase - because it was clearly too simple to just put it on the shelf - and fished out a folder which he handed to the other man.
Returning to his sandwich, he took a bite before continuing. "It was too much of a coincidence. And even if we don't find anything, I kind of miss that ******** place, we can make a day of it, a non-leave official day of it if you get my drift." Even if it was like hell's frying pan out there in the desert, it was dear to his heart and most of all to the heart of the other him who wasn't really gone.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 8:16 am
Jordan flipped through the folder, his eyebrows going up. "That definitely looks like some kind of parallel," he agreed. "Not ... ours, but similarities." He handed the folder to Harrison. "Anyway, I've kind of got a soft spot by now. If we were going to live anywhere else, I think that'd be where I'd like."
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 10:35 am
Harrison took longer to read the file, slowly going over each word. B0nez, who read it almost instantly, bounced around inside his head impatiently.
"b***h with claws," Harrison repeated off the report, some part of him stirring with concern. He'd go to Vegas anytime to relax or have a good time, but...it was hard to explain the relationship between him and Him, the King from that other place. It'd been lost on him until he and B0nez had had that dream, met both of them, and now...
"He's here, isn't he. With you? I thought..." he trailed off, then shook his head. He'd been sure, for some reason. That Rep and Jordan and he all had that same inexpliciality. But he couldn't be sure. B0nez was the only one with a leftover from the crown. "You're right. We got to see what's going on."
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 11:04 am
Rep nodded to Jordan. He didn't say it out loud. But he'd already decided rather staunchly that if they got away from Deus he would want to live in Vegas, that nowhere else had the same draw to him. Even the temperature didn't put him off, it just meant he'd have to be rich enough to be able to afford some mean AC and to keep a fancy swimming pool.
"And he's here all right." Rep stated, his every waking hour underpinned by that nagging and persistent duality of self. It had made him more capable and able to handle insults from other people. Slights against his sexuality and inclinations no longer gained the same traction they formerly had. But at the same time, it wasn't like Tracey - who had memories of his own -, there were no words exchanged between the two versions of him, simply a sense when paths diverged or when decisions had to be made of what Blue would do in comparison to him.
"He wouldn't mind being called a b***h, but no one would walk away from him." he offered to clarify why it certainly wasn't the Queen in the description.
He grinned. "Suit up though, I'll go book the portals." He grabbed his sandwich, and without actually worrying if anyone else wanted to go that very second.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 12:16 pm
Jordan blinked. It hadn't even occurred to him that the description could be applied to the Blue Queen; he'd been solidly, silently, inexplicably certain that that other Rep had come home like his own other had, not quite a separate self but a transparent overlay, another way of seeing the world. "They're here," he said, because this was the first outright confirmation he'd had that Harrison and Rep had let those other selves back in, and the sense of relief was startlingly strong.
He quirked half a smile and went to grab his mission bag, leaving the rest of the laundry for later. Some things were more important.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 2:28 pm
"Says it happens at night, right? So we got some hours to kill."
Harrison geared up, familiar with the routine by now, and packed a few extras. Even though they were technically going on mission, he put on some rattier civilian clothes. They didn't need to draw attention (although it was hard to do in that city, uniforms would probably get overlooked).
The portal put them inside the skeleton of the abandoned Fontainebleauwere. The upper floors were full of unfurnitured offices where the only lighting was the daylight from the windows, entire walls made of plexiglass overlooking the strip.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 2:45 pm
Rep dressed what was for him tidily. He put on the shirt he'd been bought for their trip to Vegas many moons before and a pair of his usual denims, he wanted to wear his coat but experience told him that the desert probably wasn't the place to be wearing a fur lined and very heavy coat if he valued his hydration.
When he stepped out of the portal, it was with curiosity, not certain where they even were. He didn't remember hearing about any major construction sites in Vegas, but he figured maybe he hadn't done enough reading.
He made his way over the discarded heaps of debris, or at least the remnants of construction towards one of the tall windows that were the only source of light in the plaster-dusted dimness. The heat was already stifling even in the shade, a stark contrast to the lighthouse. He was at least pretty sure they were in sight of the strip, the roofs and buildings familiar to him but also, more critically to that other vein of memory.
"How the ******** do we get down?" he asked, looking concerned, while Tracey muttered.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 3:05 pm
They were on mission, technically, but in a heavily populated area and in the desert; Jordan had left his coat behind and worn a casual shirt with a pair of jeans, tourist attire rather than anything more stylish. Anyway, being overdressed compared to the people he was with was a sure way to draw attention.
He stepped through the portal and into what appeared to be an abandoned building, into a wave of dry daytime heat that felt overwhelming even in the indoor shade. "Could really use some air conditioning in here," he remarked, and moved over toward the windows, peering out to get his bearings. It looked like they were near the Strip, at least, and he found himself orienting by a mental map that didn't quite match what was outside. Familiar and not familiar. But if the location they were hunting had any resonance with that other world, the echoes of their others' memories could be useful in finding the place. If not, they wouldn't be any worse off than they would otherwise have been.
"This is weird," he stated, mostly to himself, and, louder, "We could try the elevators. Bet they aren't working, but no harm trying, right?"
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 4:33 pm
Harrison tested a pile of lumber with his boot heel. Boxes of who-knows-what were stacked in random piles. It didn't smell like raw, fresh wood. Instead it was musty and still. A spider scurried out from under the pile.
The ceiling tiles weren't placed, and guts of wiring and insulation hung out of them.
"Construction guys had to get in here somehow," Harrison acknowledged.
It took some wandering to find them. There were no signs, and it meant going further away from the windows. Further into the dark.
"This is some haunted house s**t," He grumbled.
When they finally found the elevators, the up and down buttons were missing...along with the elevator. What was left was a long, deep shaft. Thick wires disappeared into the black.
Harrison dropped to a squat, digging out his binoculars and switching them over to night mode. He peered into the deep.
"Should probably figure out what floor we're on so we can get back..."
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 4:56 pm
Rep didn't notice the darkness beyond the windows, wherever he personally was seemed to be perfectly well lit, other people stumbling or squinting puzzled him, the dark was always beyond his range of vision, even when it was perfectly dark all around it was like walking in a fog. When they reached the shaft he peered down it but could only see a few meters beyond.
"It's no too bad." Rep mused. "Its no rotted and s**t, there's a lot of ******** cement here, cement disnae rot." He made a face. "Hot as ********, is my main ******** complaint."
He hadn't expected there to be an elevator, not with the building such a hollowed out shell. "There'll be stairs. They build the fire escape shafts first, along with the lifts." If there wasn't, he wasn't exactly worried, he'd shimmied up cathedrals like the ******** hunchback of notre dame, he wasn't intimidated at the idea of climbing down some ******** building either.
"By the time we get out of here, it'll probably be night time anyway." he grouched.
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 12:51 am
"Wonder why it's empty? Looks pretty close to done," Jordan mused. (An echo in the back of his mind was disgusted by the colossal waste.) He shook his head. "Guess it doesn't matter. We can leave a mark in the stairwell or wherever we go down to tell us what floor to come back to."
He paced along the hot, musty hallway, checking doors as he went. An unlit EXIT sign marked a heavy steel door with a push bar, and he called back, "Think I found it," and pushed on the door. It stuck for a moment, then groaned open to reveal an unlit but solidly constructed stairwell. "Want to grab a board or something to prop this open?"
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