Eventually, they all reached outside of the building, all breathing and panting from the rush and Kallisti wondered what the two Transparent diamonds had done. "We need to get away from this building," Kallisti told the rest of them, looking at it over her shoulder as they moved father away from it. They began to traverse down the road. All roads lead to civilization, right? Surely, if they walked long enough, they would find something.
Kallisti wasn't very inclined to listen to Bernadette, so when two Transparent diamonds appeared, she pulled them, waited for a brief moment, and then followed after. Harley had met back up with them, and then after grabbing Septimus and Madeline, they followed after the German girl and headed for the exit of the building.
{ TUMBLR • ACQUAINTANCES • MOST RECENT • WEARING }{ OOC : . . . } • { LOCATION : UNKNOWN }{ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • DISDAIN } • { MOOD : THOUGHTFUL } She looked around the room. So far, there had been one Blue diamond pulled, one Red, four Black, one White, and one Transparent. Whatever the Blue did, the Black counteracted. The same went for the White. The Transparent counteracted the Red. Red was bad, no matter what. Crestatia spoke in red, she thought. It was just a feeling she had. Black was . . . bad? Then why had they pulled so many. She just . . . had a feeling about them. Upon Bernadette suggesting that they hurry up, Kallisti nodded. She wished there was some sort of text on what these diamonds did. She looked around the room some more, pulling a Black one again, and then a few minutes later, a White one. She looked through things to see if there was any messages on the jewels.
{ TUMBLR • ACQUAINTANCES • MOST RECENT • WEARING }{ OOC : . . . } • { LOCATION : UNKNOWN }{ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • DISDAIN } • { MOOD : HMMM } To be honest, Kallisti did feel a little odd, standing here and pulling at these ( magical? ) diamonds, but they wouldn't be here for no reason, wouldn't they? After pulling the White diamond, a Black one appeared in its place and she frowned; well, that was not in pattern, was it? Kallisti looked at the book again, wanting to read more, but stared at the Black diamond that had appeared in front of her. She walked around it for a moment or two, as if trying to figure out all of the kinks and workings. What had the White diamond done that the Black one would counter? That was what she assumed was happening with them all. One diamond would do one thing, while the one that took its place afterwards would be counter-active. With a shrug and a sigh, Kallisti decided to pull the Black diamond that had appeared in the White diamond's place.
{ TUMBLR • ACQUAINTANCES • MOST RECENT • WEARING }{ OOC : . . . }• { LOCATION : UNKNOWN }{ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • DISDAIN } • { MOOD : CURIOUS } Kallisti finished reading the text and put the book down. Interesting. She turned on the other two, and looked at the diamonds. She wished there was some sort of explanation. Her look turned sharp on Bernadette when a transparent diamond appeared. After setting the book down, she heard footsteps from above. Someone else was here. Who was it? The book had obviously been written by the one named Devyn. She wouldn't be happy when she found that Chester was dead. They needed to hurry. They pulled the Blue, the Black, and now the Red. Kallisti tugged on Transparent diamond, and then the White one. She wondered what would happen if she pulled the Black one again, so she did.
{ TUMBLR • ACQUAINTANCES • MOST RECENT • WEARING }{ OOC : OOCHERE } • { LOCATION : UNKNOWN }{ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • DISDAIN } • { MOOD : THOUGHTFUL } Kallisti read through the table of contents. Twenty-four chapters . . . Each of them as interesting as the last. But they could only choose two, and she didn't know why. It was frustrating. She turned to Bernadette and Septimus and they discussed all of the chapters, but finally settled on two decent ones. 'Cracks In The Gameboard ' and 'Romance, Survival And Rebellion'.
{ TUMBLR • ACQUAINTANCES • MOST RECENT • WEARING }{ OOC : . . . }• { LOCATION : UNKNOWN }{ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • DISDAIN } • { MOOD : CURIOUS } Why were they all different colors? Kallisti was beginning to think that, even though they couldn't see what was going on, these diamonds all did something. They had to. Everything in this game had a reason. Before she suggested pulling one of the other diamonds, she found a large book sitting on a table against the back wall. With a raised eyebrow, she walked over to the book and opened it to the first few pages, beginning to read them aloud. Maybe the book would tell them what the diamonds did, or give them some hint about where they were?
{ TUMBLR • ACQUAINTANCES • MOST RECENT • WEARING }{ OOC : . . . } • { LOCATION : UNKNOWN }{ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • DISDAIN } • { MOOD : ANNOYED } It was slightly frustrating that these diamonds didn't seem to be doing anything, and Kallisti had been sure that something would happen when they pulled on the black diamond again. Kallisti walked around the room some more, looking for others to pull on. Something had to be happening with these things . . .
[ T U M B L R • CURRENTLY OBSERVING : HERE • L A T E S T ][ OOC : . . . ]• [ LOCATION : UNKNOWN ][ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • HATRED ] • [ MOOD : CURIOUS // . . . ] [/url] After enough concentration, Harley jumped when he heard another boy's voice. The door clicked unlock and he turned to the source of the voice, raising an eyebrow. "Won't know until I see what's inside." he replied, twisting the knob and pushing the somewhat heavy door open. Immediately, a putrid smell hit his nose, and Harley backed away from the room, coughing a few times. "Fucking hell," he started, holding his nose and pulling out a flashlight and clicking it on, "Smells like something died in . . . " He moved the light around a little and found torture contraptions with bodies in them. " . . . here." Well, this was ironic. There were a lot of the devices around, but only three of them were filled. God, this was disgusting. He felt like he was going to throw up, but he decided to get a better look. He moved around the one he recognized as the Brazen Bull and to another on the other side of it. It was a girl. Young, too. He flashed the flashlight over the face, and - ". . . Olivia." he breathed, stepping back and feeling his stomach churn. She was ripped apart. Limb from limb. Blood, everywhere. Ugh. He turned in a different direction, to the right, and firstly saw a . . . hole. In someone's flesh. Their stomach. Harley turned from the sight for a moment, and then decided to take a look at the face. He might know them, after all . . . . . . It was the Doc. Theo's friend, right? He remembered the tunnels. What was his name? . . . Elliot. Holy shit, what the hell happened to these kiddos? He took a breath, hoping to god Vanille hadn't been in here, in this godforsaken place. He turned to the final dead-person-inhabited machine. That face. It was Theo. Ugh, this was fucking awful. He looked around the room some more. None of the other devices had people in them, which he was thankful for because he didn't think his stomach could take much more of this. "C'mon, there's nothing here for us." he told the other kid. When he started walking, his hip collided with the side of the Brazen Bull and it tipped over. Something inside it juggled around. Something inside it. Great. Harley looked at the other kid, then bent down to pick at the door. After a few seconds, it opened and the sicking smell of burned flesh reached him. He sat down backwards and took a few heavy breaths. After he stood, he flashed the flashlight inside of the device and saw pretty much nothing but crisped flesh, peeling away. He tried not to think about it. The body was pretty small and he thought of all the others it could be. That was when he caught a glimpse of tattooed skin. " . . . Fuck." he whispered to himself, turning away from the machine, taking breaths, strides away from it. That pattern of tattoo was familiar. Too familiar. Harley tried to talk himself out of the idea. No, it couldn't be. A kid like her? They wouldn't do that. No one was that cruel. He rubbed at his eyes in tiredness. "We're leaving." he told the other boy, and walked out of the room, trying to fill his lungs with as much fresh air as he could. When they were both out of the room, Harley slammed the door with as much force as he could and stocked off in the opposite direction, looking for any sure sign of where to go next. He couldn't believe this shit. Crestatia. Her shit. Baglady Devyn. Her shit. He wanted her dead. He wanted to find her and wring her neck out. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nothing seemed to happen when they pulled the blue diamond, and Kallisti looked cautiously at the other two when a black diamond appeared. Something had to have happened, right? "Well . . . I'll pull this one," she said, shakily reaching up to tug down on it.
[ T U M B L R • CURRENTLY OBSERVING : -- • L A T E S T ][ OOC : . . . ] • [ LOCATION : UNKNOWN ][ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • HATRED ] • [ MOOD : CAUTIOUS ] [/url] Harley watched curiously as the group of three went in and left the door opened. He leaned his head against the wall behind him after sitting Madeline down. He was tired, and kind of only wanted to sleep, but they had to stay on their toes. They weren't really getting anything done by sitting around . . . "What did you say?" Marina asked, and he looked down at her to see that she was glaring at him. He raised an eyebrow as she went on, "Just because I am not hauling around a living corpse does not mean I am pathetic." . . . Okay, that was not completely uncalled for at all. "No one said anything," he replied coolly, standing up. What was her deal? Harley looked over at Temperance to see if she had anything to say, but nothing. He sighed. "Well. Watch over the 'living corpse' while I go scout some other places." he said, starting to walk off. "Be careful, yadda, yadda . . ." As he shoved his hands into the jeans that were dried up, he wondered what was up with Marina. She had just . . . Eh. Best not to think on it. He turned down a hallway and went up another flight of stairs. A weapons room, nice. He wondered what kind of place this was and why it was here, in the middle of nowhere. He looked around for a fresh change of clothing, but only found regular white t-shirt. Shrugging it on, he decided it was better than nothing. Harley grabbed a belt, two handguns, a shoulder strap, and a shotgun. Perfect. He felt better about having weapons with him. He left the room and swore that he heard it lock behind him, but when he opened it again, he shrugged. After walking more, it looked like he was walking into a different sector of the building, and this one had a darker atmosphere and a not-so-great smell to it. The building seemed pretty empty, where was everybody? Eventually, he came up to a sort of . . . steel door that had a grate peek hole. He stood straight and tried to look through it, but it was too dark. Harley jiggled at the knob but found that it was locked. Annoying. in his state, he couldn't kick it open, so he'd have to find lock picks. Thinking back on it, there had been some in that weapons room. He jogged back and filled the back with things he hadn't grabbed before, like ammo. When he was reassured that he had what he needed, he went back to the room and began to pick at the lock. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
{ TUMBLR • ACQUAINTANCES • MOST RECENT • WEARING }{ OOC : . . . }• { LOCATION : UNKNOWN }{ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • DISDAIN } • { MOOD : CAUTIOUS } [/url] xxxx❝. . . xxxxxxxxx Where is the next stop to the chaos . . . ? xxxxxx There is no time to stay around, we must move.❞ "Septimus . . ." The young man began, "Septimus Solo." What a strange name. He didn't lower his gun and neither did Kallisti. She didn't care much for him pointing the gun at her, as she had face other things that were worse than bullets. Vanille had once told her she died before, at the hands of one Altair Geis. If she could take that, then surely she could take a bullet. The young man put his gun away after some thought and she lowered hers. "I can only assume this email has something to do with our . . . gathering, and I see that you've built yourself quite the group . . . " She coughed a laugh. Who built what? They were all just . . . survivors, banning together for the greater good of themselves. "I will admit ignorance to the situation, but nonetheless I wish to join you all." So this boy, this . . . Septimus ( not that she was one to speak for strange names ), was also from the email? Kallisti momentarily wondered if this was all some sort of ploy by Devyn or Crestatia. It wouldn't be the first time, it seemed. She listened to the tale of his origins in the building and then looked at the others with contemplation. "s'Worth checking out." Harley commented, readjusting Madeline over his shoulders. "You should really be more careful." she told him, motioning to the girl. "Worried about me breaking your girlfriend?" he laughed, and she glared, "Don't worry, she probably can't feel a thing." And he patted Madeline's butt, making Kallisti glare. As if that made her feel any better. With a new resolve, she returned her attention to Septimus and told him to lead them to the room he came from. When they found it, Kallisti found she had a bad feeling that they would be in danger if they all went in. "What should we do?" she asked, "I don't think it would be wise for all of us to go in . . . " The words that Marina spoke before they had run into Septimus began to sank in. She had never heard of either Marigold or Hazel, but Cherno . . . He had died? She was . . . surprised, to say the least. For a short moment, she recalled the time she spoke to him at the Lacey's Cafe before it had blown up. Kallisti had considered Cherno a prime candidate to win this game . . . It was hard for her to accept his death. And then there was Temperance. Kallisti carefully looked at the other girl and wondered how she felt, but her facial structure seemed to be mute of emotion. They may not have been friends ( Kallisti could easily say she hated Temperance ), but they had been together this long and they had some semblance of companionship. She made a note to ask her about it later . . . xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
{ TUMBLR • ACQUAINTANCES • MOST RECENT • WEARING }{ OOC : . . . } • { LOCATION : UNKNOWN }{ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • DISDAIN } • { MOOD : ALARMED // CAUTIOUS } [/url] xxxx❝. . . xxxxxxxxx Where is the next stop to the chaos . . . ? xxxxxx There is no time to stay around, we must move.❞ When the others had joined her, she had to admit that it was nice to have some company in such an imposing place . . . What was more, she hadn't want to have been unarmed - it was simply out of the question. The small group spent a generous amount of time exploring the building they were in, and there had been no other traces of life or the fire that Marina spoke of. Kallisti felt absolutely sure that there were other people in this building, dead or alive - and the girl named Devyn, too. Kallisti wanted to find the Bag Woman and confront her about Chester, the note, and her real motives - and then she wanted to kill her. As of late, she found her blood lust to be . . . piling up. "Tell me . . ." An unfamiliar male voice broke her thoughts and immediately had her raising, cocking, and pointing her gun at the source, "Who are you?" It was a young man with short hair that was a mix of dark blue and purple. He stood with his gun pointed at them. "I could ask the same of you," she replied with a serious tone, but stood down since she knew it was more logical for him to be wary, "I am Quintus, and these are my - " What could she call them, friends? It wasn't so. Comrades. Yes. " - comrades." She thought it was better not to give out any of their actual names, "Who are you?" xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[ T U M B L R • CURRENTLY OBSERVING : --• L A T E S T ][ OOC : . . . ] • [ LOCATION : UNKNOWN ][ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • HATRED ] • [ MOOD : CAUTIOUS ] [/url] "Harley?" Goddamn, it was nice to hear her voice again. He slowly lowered his gun and his hands to his sides. He took a quick glance over his shoulder, and then at the gun she held; damn, that thing was big. Before he knew it, Marina was on top of him, wrapping her arms around him tightly, like she was trying to see if he was real. He winced at the contact, but she was here, alive. Okay. "Didn't think I'd actually die that easily, did you?" he asked, resting his arms around her waist as her, "I've been through hell today, what else did you expect? Not all of us can stay beautiful all the time," he told her, kissing her on the forehead. "There is a fire in the cellar. We need to get out of her. We can talk later. We need to go before it spreads." She grabbed his collar and then they kissed. Damn. It was nice to see her again. The both of them moved back to the main group, and Marina went to help Bernie with the out-Madeline, but Harley grabbed the girl and tossed her over his shoulder again, wincing at the pain it brought, but he looked at the others and shrugged. Harley thought that the fire had been in another sector of the building, but if Marina said it was close, then they really should move. "We came in here for a reason," Kallisti said impatiently, "this building is not here for no reason . . . What if the others are here?" "What if the others are dead?" Harley challenged, and she glared at him, "We'll be wasting time, and that's putting us all in danger," "Then you go, and I will stay behind." she complied, playing with the ribbon on her wrist, "Let me have the gun." She held out her hand. "Oooh no, you're coming too." She looked at him firmly, holding out her hand, "Let me have it, Harley. Take Madeline and the others to safety, try to find transportation?" She then looked pointedly at Temperance, "Will you be going with them, or coming with me? I am fine with either way, you have no obligations to me." Harley clicked his tongue, gave her the gun, and began to walk towards the exit of the building. After coming outside, he turned to Marina, "I can't just leave her in there," he said, "She's my . . ." Ahg. He rubbed the back of his neck. ". . . Closest thing I've got to family." He clutched onto Madeline's side a little harder than necessary. Man, this chick really needed to wake up. After discussion, the two went back into the building to find Kallisti turning down another hall. "Hey," he called out, and she stopped, turning around. "We're coming with." After they caught up with her, Kallisti led them farther from the direction Marina came from so that they wouldn't run into the fire. They began to check each room they passed collecting supplies that they could use and slipping them into bags they took. "I wonder why this building is here," Harley said out loud as they opened the door to another hallway, "Marina, who was in your group?" xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I READ 'BILLY BOB' AS 'BILLY BOOB'.
[ T U M B L R • CURRENTLY OBSERVING : -- • L A T E S T ][ OOC : . . . ]• [ LOCATION : BUILDING ][ YOU • ME • NAMES • LINKS • HATRED ] • [ MOOD : CAUTIOUS // TIRED ] [/url] Harley had taken the gun from Kallisti since he was better with it than she was and stood by while Temperance patched up Madeline and Kallisti gave her some painkillers, helping her swallow them. It felt like they were all that was left. He wondered about Marina, about Vanille . . . Were either of them still alive? They'd no doubt been put through trials like Harley's group . . . Kallisti and Temperance seemed pretty unharmed - they'd gone through no trials? He wondered why. The 'Chester' person that Temperance mentioned . . . Harley tried remembering all of the names on the email; he didn't remember seeing a Chester, or anything similar to that name. A previous player, huh . . . "d'You find anything out about the baglady?" he asked. Kallisti took a breath, and then nodded, "She was taking care of the boy named Chester . . . Apparently, she wanted us captured so that she could . . . impress Crestatia, which leads us to believe that she may be some sort of player as well. Oh, yes . . . Her real name is Devyn." Before she could continue, Harley heard footsteps and then saw a figure turn down the hall they were breaking in. He pointed the gun and stepped to be in front of everyone, limping forward. He continued to prowl forward when he saw that he recognized the face, ". . . Marina?" he asked, feeling a wave of emotion and relief sweep over him, "How did you . . . How long have you been here? Are you alright? Where are the others?" xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
►► North: Northern Light
