Stairdweller

ZONES: -system offline-

E.A. "Bobby" Smith

Bobby glared daggers at the big blonde woman who had stabbed Henry with a fork. He moved alongside her and whispered furiously, "Hey, what do you think you're doing? You can't just stab a kid with a fork. Didn't anyone ever teach you to pick on people your own size?" He said that last part completely un-ironically, having apparently forgotten already about the chubby kid's Zone form.

Unbelievably, the blonde looked confused or maybe the slightest bit irritated. "It was a spork, and I already explained myself, didn't I?" she said slowly. Bobby couldn't help but notice that she had her hand on the pocket she had slipped the eating utensil back into. Clearly, this was a dangerously insane individual. He put some space between himself and her. He wasn't running away, just... well, there was no shame in not wanting to be the next one who got sporked, right?

"I'd better come along too," he said, directing his comment to Eli. Everyone he had spoken to earlier had already volunteered, and he kind of had a feeling it wouldn't be a good idea to leave that crazy woman unsupervised. He threw a winning smile around at the other volunteers. "I think I count as a responsible adult in this situation. Assuming we're going to be grading on a curve."

Candlewick [CLOSED]

Observatory

The Egyptian frowned in confusion when the man with his back up against the pillar in the middle of the room knelt and started blathering in Latin. It took her a momnt to mentally change gears from Aramaic to the Roman tongue, and Zosime thought she must have missed something important in what he was saying. Something about debtors?

"Conantes dicere quid?" What are you trying to say? Zosime asked, raising one hand to rub at the side of her head. She was a little surprised to hear the man speak Latin - she'd pegged him for an Israelite. Well, she didn't meet all that many Romans, there were probably some scruffy looking ones from the western edges of the Empire, where the Celts and Gauls and all sorts of other barbarians lived.

He said something else then, which sounded kind of like Latin but well, more like he wasn't saying all the letters, and the vowels were much more nasal than she was used to. She didn't like the sound of it. But, even though the words sounded unfamiliar to her, she was somehow certain that she could understand them. At least she knew his name now.

"Mortui non sumus, Innocent," Zosime said flatly. We aren't dead, Innocent. They couldn't be dead; she could clearly feel herself, physically connected to her body as she should have been. Her ka had not detached; she knew that she was not facing neter-khetet. This was not the underworld through which Amun-Ra sailed each night. The more she interacted with the old man, the more the Egyptian came to believe that far from being her captor, he was a frightened idiot.

Zosime started to open her mouth to try to explain why they couldn't be dead, when one of the remaining sleepers awakened. He spoke an even less comprehensible language, like something she had once heard a captive Teuton shout. Like the pseudo-latin, she felt strangely certain that she could understand this young man's words, even though she knew the sounds coming out of his mouth were unintelligible.

She took a deep, calming breath and shakily forced it back out. It seemed like everyone here was going to be just as confused as she was. The scribe certainly didn't trust them, and she wasn't at all comfortable with the situation, but was suddenly sure that if she didn't stiffen her spine and take charge, no-one was going to.

The man at the shelves picked that time to turn around and introduce himself, somewhat deflating her sense of self importance. He seemed pretty calm. And he seemed to be speaking that Teutonic-sounding language as well; she was increasingly suspicious that this whole abduction was a Roman plot of some kind.

"Salutem, Christopher," Hello, Christopher, she said, deciding to stick with latin. At least one person there seemed to speak it. The Teutonic men might too, for that matter, if they couldn't understand her mysteriously like she could them. "I don't know where we are, or why. It looks like we are all equally confused here. If we are going to get any answers, we will probably need to stick together. My name is Zosime." She looked around the room, taking in the strange furnishings, living wood and unidentifiable metal contrivances. "Does anyone have any idea what any of these things are?"

The Continental - Assassinations, Mercenaries, and Crime Syndicates

There's a thought.

Island in a Sea of Death

Which is kind of reasonable.

It's not going to put an end to hammer time, though.

The Continental - Assassinations, Mercenaries, and Crime Syndicates

That's the one, yeah. Seems like despite all the interest, no-one made the jump to the other thread.

Island in a Sea of Death

Heh. Skin diseases. "Yeah, I can't fight any zombies today, I caught scabies."

ZONES: -system offline-

@Civetta

Your character's surname is one character off from my actual surname.

ZONES: -system offline-

Lenora Puglesivic

Well, Lenora, Mom was right. You didn't say your prayers before bed and now you've been kidnapped by secular humanists, just like she said.

The thought bounced wryly around her head as Lenora returned the spork to her pocket. It had been years since she had spoken to any member of her immediate family. She had a few cousins who had also left the faith, but she didn't have much in common with them. So, unlike most people there, the thought of her family hadn't even occurred to her until Eli brought it up.

Well. What did she have to lose? She only bothered to work so that she could fund her hobbies. The dreams were interesting enough to count as a hobby. If she could get someone to pay her room and board while she was here, then she didn't have a problem with the situation. Much. She still might attempt escape - Nora wasn't super thrilled at the idea of secret compounds - but for now, she was comfortable going along with the project.

"I'll go," she said. "I don't have to be from the red city, right? I mean, dream myself there? Because my dreams are of the maze-factory."

ZONES: -system offline-

@ScarlettWaters16

Nora And/Or Bobby

"There doesn't seem to be any medicine available," Nora answered the newcomer. "I found some flatware, but not much else." She patted the pocket of her black scrubs.

Bobby's smile widened a fraction. He flicked his eyes up and down, assessing the young woman who had excitedly asked him about his dreams. "Hi, Jazz," he said. "I don't know what to call the thing I turn into. Did you ever see that documentary series, Monsters of the Eocene? It kinda looks like one of the one from the Asia episode. I can't remember what they called it, I think it had a dude's name in it?"

He listened politely to the rest of the conversation, until Henry explained what his other form looked like.

"Hell, that was you? I had to run away from you four damn times. Not cool, man."

ZONES: -system offline-

I'm going to be going with bright green. Like what my signature is.

Oh hey, did anyone else want to post before I respond to @ScarlettWaters16? Just so I don't cut anyone off in the conversation. I'm thinking @UrbanEvolution in paticular.