[IC] Jurassic World

[Chenzor]

Late summer. The time of year when the island was at it's maximum capacity of attenders every day for several weeks. The time of year when most people took their vacations. The most dangerous kind of year. The resort was throbbing with life, people of all ages having fun on different kind of attractions. The closer to the island center, the safer the attraction. Like baby-dino riding. Further out however, you can ride the spheres into the grazing lands of bigger dinosaurs up-close and personal. Somewhere out there, you could watch the velociraptor show or the tyranosaurus rex eat a goat. Why goats? The easiest lifestock to come by out here.



For one reason or another, more or less obvious, you are all attending the T-rex attraction, where visitors stand behind a one-way thick pane of armored glass to watch the t-rex eat it's meal. The giant cannot see you thanks to the one-way glass, and the fact that the tube is disguised as a giant tree log. The t-rex is nowhere to be found, however.

Among the visitors was miss Tatsumi, first name Marie. She wasn't usually out attending attractions, but the park overseer wanted someone experienced from the ACU do a routine inspection of the T-Rex attraction, due to complaints of strange noises from the tube by attraction-visitors. To Marie, however, it was all the same. They did these checks once a week, and with her training she could quickly point everyone to the safest direction while she reported to ACU and overwatch on her communicator. Simple as that.

With her was veteran caretaker and raptor-trainer Eliza Marks, who had also been sent to investigate the attraction while her raptors were taking a break from the constant visitors over at the pens. Marie and Eliza may or may not have met before, it didn't factor in to them both being assigned to this task. The instructions were clear: keep an eye out for anomalies in the containment or other unpredictable events. In other words: look for unseen things. Easier said than done.

At the same attraction, just a few feet apart from one another, stood two ordinary guests. One was Theo James, a very unsuspicious young adult who was just enjoying his vacation and the awesome sights. The other was Jaxon Romilly, a semi-popular youtube celebrity that had managed to avoid most awkward confrontations with fans so far. He was filming the goat patiently, awaiting the arrival of the T-rex. He may or may not even be talking to his "audience" while he waits, but that would surely blow his cover.

-

Among the guests were a few others worth mentioning, but they'll have plenty of time to introduce themselves. For now, most of the visitors stand silently, hugging the glass, vigilantly spying for the arrival of the t-rex. But where was it?

[PerseusArchean]

Jaxon Junior Romilly

Jaxon was in fact not talking for once, as a dominantly gaming channel his content required constant commentary, as such even in videos outside of games he tended to ramble. However, when he started doing that just after getting off the boat he was ambushed by fans and hadn't been able to escape until the teens' parents had finally dragged them all away. After that he resolved to only commentate when he was alone, surrounded by only adults or elderly who were unlikely to have heard of him, or if he met anyone else famous, because that would probably be fun and his viewers would enjoy it. Instead he'd just have to go over recordings of the attractions later and commentate then, it wouldn't be as genuine of commentary as he'd have preferred, but it was better than being mobbed.

He knew he wasn't actually that famous, he wasn't in need of bodyguards or anything like that, and his 'mobs' weren't exactly huge crowds, but here where most of the audience was of the younger generation, the mobs could be anywhere from 10 to 25 individuals or more, especially since he had foolishly announced he'd be coming here for the week and now everyone who watched his videos knew to lookout for him.

It was kind of annoying, he wished he could record properly like he wanted to do, but he would get over it. He'd been in a similar situation when he was in Coventry for Insomnia, there were just such massive crowds it was impossible to be heard without drawing attention. At least at Insomnia more of the bigger name YouTubers had been around to distract fans, here he wasn't sure how many celebrity visitors were in the park.

He was shaken from his musings when his camera flashed red in the corner of the screen. He quickly changed the battery and went back to filming, he didn't want to miss anything after all. He was excited honestly, it was the T-rex, a titan of ages past. He couldn't stop the giddy feeling welling up in his chest at the thought.

[Obscene Symphony]

Eliza shifted restlessly from one foot to the other, looking long and hard for anything possibly going wrong with the tube, or the T-rex enclosure. Facility inspections (well, the ones used by humans, anyway) weren’t her forte, and certainly not her field of expertise, but she’d been available while a particularly busy day at the park had most other staff occupied. She’d worked her raptors hard that day, watching wave after wave of crowds gawk and cheer at the simple manoeuvres they’d been coming close to mastering. Now, she was letting them rest with a reward for their cooperation - a fully grown cow had been released into their pen while the attraction was closed down.

While examining the structure of the T-rex viewing tube was not something she’d be particularly helpful with, Liza was watching out the windows like a hawk. It wasn’t unusual for the T-rex (which she’d jokingly named Rudy, not expecting it to stick among staff members the way it had) to hesitate before going for its meal; it was a hunter after all, and it liked to track its prey. But as she waited, and waited, and waited along with the anxious crowd, this particular occasion was growing a little too eerie for Liza’s taste.

Rocking side to side and letting the springing force of her prosthetic move her, Eliza brought her radio up to her mouth. The crackle as she pressed the ‘Speak’ button resounded through an earpiece, as did any communication from the radio. This was to keep the chatter as quiet as possible, as well as a method of panic control should anything go wrong.

“Hey Tatsumi,” she muttered, a barely-there New York accent tinting her words, “You seeing anything in here? Looks alright to me, I’m more focused on the asset.” She spoke in reference to the condition of the tube; her expertise did not fall in containment structure, but rather the ‘assets’ inside.

She crossed through the crowd rather easily on her way to the next viewing window. The crowd let her through pretty smoothly - her equipment belt and radio, not to mention the sporty garb, and the Jurassic World I.D. clipped to her belt made her easily stand out as a staff member. From the next, less crowded window, she examined the area immediately around the tube. The area had been long-since worn into somewhat of a clearing, with the only obstacles aside from hulking trees around the edge being large ferns and other inconsequential ground cover. The area was well-used by the T-rex for obvious reasons, but the foliage looked different. It sprang up higher than normal, as it normally looked in the mornings, before the feeding shows began. At this time of day, the clearing was generally beaten down from the monster’s repeated pounding feet. It seemed as if it hadn’t shown up at all that day, or at least not for the past few shows.

Liza raised her radio once more. “Hey CS,” she murmured, referring to Customer Service, “Have we gotten any complaints today about the T-rex shows, other than the noises in the tube?" The noises were another thing; she hadn't heard anything odd since her arrival, though she listened carefully in case that changed.

[Chronothesis]

---

Theo yawned, he had a whole week to stay at Jurrasic world and he didn't know what to exactly do. Used to being in solitude within his apartment he couldn't figure out a plan. His mother constantly calling him to see what he was doing and if he was having fun. The sun was slowly rising and the park was slightly full, hearing a male Youtuber had come by to the park he had hope that fans didn't clog up most of the park to see one man.

After finishing his morning routine, he had grabbed the backpack off his bed and began to walk out of the hotel. On the 2nd floor, he was happy that he didn't have to go down a flight of stairs nor did he have to deal with those pesky elevators...still doesn't know how others can put up with such death machines. Theo awkwardly walked out of the entrance, the skies were orange and reddish and the park was...empty, almost.

[ Time Skip! ]

Theo was just in time to go to the T-Rex show. One of the most known relics within the Mesozoic Era! Outstanding how such...terrifying beauty can come to life and play out its normal T-Rex life. Though, he wondered why the park would host a relic killing modern-relics...sadistic, much? Sipping the last of his Coca-Cola, he threw away the cup into the trash as he walked by. Entering the large log that protected the visitors from the T-Rex, he saw a guard nearby and also a large crowd, crowding the window near. Sighing he trudged towards the back and...waiting for the show to begin. Whilst he waited, he watched a few videos about Black-Desert, a current trending game among most MMO-Players.

Theo became oblivious to the fact that the show was starting and forgot he was there until the crowd suddenly began making 'perplexed' sounds. Turning off his phone he noticed one of the greatest relics that ever lived...maybe slightly overrated. He stood and shoved his hands into his pockets and watched the show from the back, not minding that most of the show was covered by a crowd.

---

[RainbowReindeer]

Animals were her thing. Dinosaurs? The herbivore ones that didn't have sharp teeth, yes. Definitely not the meat-eating monsters. Despite Sylvia's deep-seated fright to most of the carnivorous dinosaurs at Jurassic World, she found herself mingling with the horde of tourists for the T-Rex attraction. Perhaps it was curiosity for the dangerous unknown or because her younger adorable cousins begged her to take a few pictures. Either way, Sylvia was determined to take a few pictures of the T-Rex before going back to her sweet-natured Apatosauruses.

She was still dressed in her work clothes and equipment, save for her own personal camera decorated with animal stickers in her hands. Though it was clear that the brunette was a staff member, no one went up to her to question the T-Rex's apparent absence. "Thank god," she thought, fiddling the electronic. After all, she wasn't one of those cool dinosaur whisperers. She would like to call herself one, however. Or at least 'Apatosaurus Whisperer'.

But her skill communicating with dinosaurs paled in comparison to admirable raptor-trainer Marks. With her height, Sylvia easily spotted the woman, obviously present to investigate the missing T-Rex problem. She resisted the urge to push her way towards the trainer and proclaim her everlasting respect. It wouldn't be professional! She lifted her camera to sneak a few pictures of the woman to sate her fan-girl needs before directing her attention to the one-way window. Still no signs of the monstrous thing. The atmosphere singed with impatience and exasperation, but all Sylvia could feel was anxiety.

"Where is it?"

[PerseusArchean]

Jaxon Junior Romilly

Eventually Jaxon sighed, clicking off the camera, whatever was taking the T-rex so long was eating through his footage. He couldn't just have hours and hours of a goat standing there! There were millions of videos of the T-rex on the internet by now, his viewers wouldn't be that upset if he missed this one, besides who actually wants to see a giant lizard violently rip a goat into a mess of gore anyway? He decided he'd cut the camera back on if it came out, by the time the camera actually started recording he'd probably have missed the feeding part of the show, which was fine with him, but at least he'd get footage of the thing for a few seconds at least, longer if it decided to hang around. Game plan now in mind, and no longer needing to have a clear unobstructed view of the glass, Jaxon was free to shimmy out of the way and sit against a nearby wall. He thought about just leaving, but he'd already spent so much time waiting, he might as well keep waiting, right?

[Chenzor]

The click was heard as Eliza finished radioing customer service. It took a few seconds before thy responded. "Yeah." a familiar voice said finally. "We've had complaints that sometimes the t-rex doesnt show up. Asset vets are looking into it to see if its a health issue but ACU wants you guys to focus on the tube and the asset itself." The voice was Fred Burns, a hilarious name that his coworkers harassed him for occasionally. He was usually the first to respond to staff related CS errands and was Eliza, Syliva and Marie's go-to guy when it came to CS or park related things. A click was heard, but this time not from the radio. It was from the tube itself, like a metal wire or spring when stretched too far and snapped back. It wasn't loud but it was distinct enough in the silence that everyone heard it. One of the tourist children adressed the sound. "Dad, heard that?" He said with the blissfull ignorance of a child. His dad just nodded along, "Yes yes, its nothing."
But there it was again. Louder this time. Eliza and Marie probably exchanged glances, but before they could radio it in another familiar sound was heard. The footsteps of the giant. And much to the glee and joy of the tourist, there it finally appeared out of the treeline, slowly heading straight for them. Or te goat, obviously. But... the goat was scared too, and began shouting in fear in its bahtones. The tourists cheered on, thinking it was going to devour the goat in one fell swoop, but something unexpected happened. The goat ran away! "What the..." didnt even begin to describe it. The safety rope that was supposed to keep the goat in place wasn't attached to the platform underneath it! The goat bah'd and ran under the tube in fear as the t-rex came at it in speed, opening ita massive jaws to catch the runaway goat before it escaped under the tubee to the other side. But the t-rex wasn't fast enough. The goat made it under the tube- and torists screamed in horror as the t-rex slammed into the tube's glass with force. The entire walkway rocket, causing some to loose balance. There it was again... the metal sound of snapping wires - and this time it sounded like damage was done. Had there been a faulty wire in the tube somewhere?!
The t-rex roared as it smashed into the tube, the thick glass not breaking but getting severely damaged with breaking lines all across. It stood with it's head partially under the tube, but violently tried to stand up when it realized it had failed tocatch the goat. Again it smashed into the tube, but this time it was worse.
The tube was put togheter much like plumbing - small sections of tubes welded together to make a longer and more flexible walkway. It was internally reinforced with metal wires that would help in this kind of situation, but as most of the screaming tourists now had realized - the wires might have been faulty.
The tube broke off at one side, which caused it to become a massive slide more than a tube. The tourists - along with the staff - slid downdwards straight onto the griund. Straight into the lair of the beast. Some where knocked out from the impact of suddenly falling to the floor, while others passed out from fear and terror alone, but the main characters soon found their footing. Fred Burns' voice could be heard on the radio. "MARKS! I'm getting mad errors on my end what the hell is going on?!" He said, barely audible over the terrored screams of the tourists who tried to claw their eay back up to no avail. The tube was leaning at a 45 degree angle straight down on the ground.
But the t-rex was nowhere in sight. He had run off to find the goat. Timing was inpecable here - in a moments this could turn into a slaughter. Marie, Eliza and Sylcia must act quickly. The only way out is the main containment door - on the other side of the containment unit they were cuerently in. Luckily it could be seen from here. The problem was that the door - when open - was wide enough for the t-rex to go trough if it wanted. They had to act quickly.
Theo and Jaxon rose to their feet with each others' help, as thy had slid right on top of one another.

What will you do?

[PerseusArchean]

Jaxon J. Romilly

Jaxon had immediately turned the camera back on when the T-rex appeared, cursing himself for his impatience all the while. Thus he was distracted when the cheers turned into screams, causing him to look up and see the monster barreling towards them with no intention of stopping and the goat nowhere to be seen. Then he was thrown from his feet, landing flat on his bum as the T-rex slammed into the fallen tree. Before he could stand again the tree snapped audibly, the various parts failing and wires snapping. He slid down with the rest of the crowd, the recordings first new bit of footage was filled with screaming and falling bodies. The camera had a strap around his hand, keeping it in place thankfully, though with how tight his grip was it was unlikely the camera would escape his grasp.

Jaxon quickly scrambled to his feet, realizing he'd landed on someone and he needed to get off them. It was a guy around his age, maybe a little younger, he was about to offer his hand to help him up when he realized it was bleeding, he inspected his hand critically, but it seemed to only be a shallow wound, a simple horizontal cut across his hand. Now he had a hand full of camera and a hand that was slippery and achy, neither of which would be helpful to his survival... But they'd get them out right? They would distract the T-rex and lead them through an emergency hatch somewhere, right? He'd seen some employees earlier, were they still here? He tried to look around but all he could see were tourists bunching together tightly and screaming children burying into their parents legs as they cried.

They were being obscenely noisy, it was a wonder the T-rex hadn't already come back to eat them all.

[RainbowReindeer]

Excited shouts and shrieks signaled that the famed T-Rex was finally approaching. It was good that it came right then, because Sylvia was already walking away from the crowd. She stopped mid-way, getting jostled here and there by mini-demons. Trying not to crash into any of them and apologizing for bumping, Sylvia didn't notice the dinosaur charging towards the 'tree trunk'. Before she could even process anything, the whole tube started to come apart. On instinct, she clutched the camera before losing her balance.

One minute, she and the others were in a very safe tube. Now? They were out in the open like sitting ducks. Screams of terror and cries distracted the young brunette. "Oh my fucking god," she muttered, a string of curses escaping her lips as she sat on the ground in shock. She was going to get torn apart into pieces and eaten by a T-Rex. "I am not going to be dino-food," she gasped out. "Knew it - Should have never gone to see some dumb T-Rex attraction and now - Oh my fucking god."

Sylvia clumsily got to her feet, pretty much hyperventilating as she stumbled around. However, she felt her jacket getting pulled so she turned around to whack the offending hand before freezing. It was a child, snot and tears running down his face. "I dunno where my mom is!" The kid hiccuped, attaching himself onto Sylvia's leg. "Help me find my mom."

And like that, something clicked in her brain. She snapped out of her panic attack, bending down to easily swoop the kid. "Hey, it's okay. We'll find your mom," she softly assured as she assessed the situation. Some people were already running around and there was no T-Rex in sight. She couldn't find her idol so she glanced to her left, catching the sight of the containment door. "We're so getting out of here." Sylvia began running towards the door, stopping every so often to help people up.

"Get up!" She hollered. "Run!" She frantically pointed towards the containment door. As Sylvia hauled a man up to his feet, a sobbing woman ran towards her with her arms outstretched. It was pretty obvious that the woman was the kid's mother. The boy scrambled down from her arms to meet his mother. It really was a touching moment - kind of like in the movies. Except this was no movie. This was happening. This was real. Once the woman was holding her son's hands, Sylvia pushed her towards the general direction of the door. "Go." The woman nodded her thanks and left.

There were still a few people on the ground. Most were making there way towards the door. Sylvia didn't know whether or not she should run full-speed towards the door to open it. Biting her lower lip, she made the decision to sling an unconscious teen over her shoulder and drag her to the door. She felt bad - there were several others passed out but she was only one person. And Sylvia wasn't ready to become dino-snack yet. She only hoped that Marks or any other staff members was already at the door, punching in the code.

[Obscene Symphony]

Many things happened in very quick succession. One moment, Fred Burns from CS was telling her about vets and complaints, and the next, history’s greatest monster was on its way to its ‘stage,’ accompanied by repeated metallic clicking from inside the tube. Marks assumed it was a child hitting the metal wall with a toy, but something was wrong. The goat ran off, which was definitely not in the game plan, and led the T-rex right into the tube.

What happened after that was chaos. The tube pitched down, dumping its contents haphazardly to the containment floor, the occupants screaming and shouting and tripping over each other. Marks recovered quickly, jumping to her feet and wincing from the jarring of having landed on her hip and the sting of Fred yelling in her ear.

“MARKS! I’m getting mad errors on my end what’s going on?!”

She searched the ground for her radio - nearly kicking some children with her prosthetic as she went - and scooped it up, holding it to her mouth.

“Fred! Jesus Christ, the whole tube is busted! Rudy slammed right into it, after the damn goat got free! God damn that maintenance guy, he’s gonna get an ass full of- fuck!”

Her sentence was interrupted as she was nearly run down by a mother, running to retrieve her child from a tall woman. If it wouldn’t have been for the earpiece and the staff lanyard, Marks would have mistaken the girl for a visitor. She vaguely recognized her as a handler, as the handlers tended to share some warehouse space, but couldn’t quite place her. It didn’t matter, she along with some stragglers were running for the exit, and that was a bigger problem. The T-rex may have been the ultimate predator, but it wasn’t all-powerful. It wasn’t meant to hunt large groups, instead preferring to hunt solitary animals or dinosaurs that had been separated from their herds. As strange as it may seem, the people running to the door were in more danger there than here, with a group deeper inside the containment.

She tried to yell at them to stop, but above the din, it was hopeless. Panic hadn’t quite set in to her yet; her mind was running a mile a minute, thinking over all of the things this group was doing wrong and how she could possibly fix the issue. Pulling up her radio, she ran to a high point (a comparatively small fallen log) and climbed up onto it, shouting, “Tatsumi! Yet over here, I’ll need your crowd control skills.”

Turning to the crowd, Marks put two fingers into her mouth and whistled, a piercing sound loud enough to cut through the din and quiet the crowd. Some of the runners stopped in their tracks, perfectly willing to give their trust to professionals.

“Alright, listen up people! Stay together! Rudy here isn’t a herd hunter - if you’re alone, you’ll be dead!”

Marks had never been known for her social tact. Some children began screaming.

“And another thing! We have to be quiet! A T-rex relies heavily on its other senses; it may not be able to see you very well, but it can sure as hell hear you! It smells us enough already-don’t give it anything more to go by!”

After a moment, during which the crowd packed closer together (safety in numbers, of course) Marks spoke again. Her voice was lower, little more than a speaking tone, but the crowd had fallen silent. Searching through the crowd for the other staff member she’d seen, she caught her eye and waved her up to stand with her and Tatsumi.

“We will get you to the exit. Remain calm and follow our instructions to a T.” To comfort the people further, she introduced herself and the other staff. “You can trust us; You may recognize me, I’m the one-legged raptor trainer from across the park.” A few in the crowd chuckled, but silenced themselves immediately. “I’ve worked with carnivores for many years, I know what I’m doing."

Marks gestured to Tatsumi. “Tatsumi here is with Asset Containment. She’s specially trained to handle the dinosaurs in the unlikely-“ she emphasized the word, “-event of an altercation.”

Looking over to the other girl, she gestured to her, trying to tell her to tell the crowd who and what she was. This crowd management crap was a waste of precious time, as the group of terrified humans had been stinking up the containment with their pungent, warm-blooded scent for long enough already, but it was necessary. Frightened people were like sheep; they needed to be led and follow their leader, or they’d simply mull about and get themselves killed. Still, the time ticking away was killing her.