Confused. That was the first thing he felt. Necro had such a...dark ring to it. Death was not who he was. It was a part of him, but it did not make him. He wanted to go back. He needed to go back. He had a daughter, and if anything were to ever happen to Elvira... He knew that Elvira had left him, had taken his Cordula from him, but he still loved them both. Even if it had been one year, three months, twelve days, and counting... He'd always be there for her if she needed him, for either of them. It hadn't been in his plans to get kidnapped... He had even turned down a tour in the UK to stay close...
A small shudder ran down Necro's spine, but his smile never wavered. He knew what it was like. They all knew what it was like. It was a lot to take in. But they had no other choice. Here, controlled by these people, they had to become their Abilities. That was all the scientists recognized them as.
"Steel is your name," Necro confirmed with a small nod. "And her name," he pointedly glanced in the direction the girl had sulked off in. "Her name is not Ziva, or Z, or whatever you call her. Her name is Physic. In here, we are not who we were before. Many try to forget the Before in hopes of coming to grips with the Now. Think of this lovely pit of Hell as a fresh start."
Necro was a brash, brunt person. He helped in the only way he knew how, the only way his mother really taught him: with honesty.
-
This place was utterly terrifying. Now all Ziva needed was a good ol' debilitating injury or condition or something to really screw her over, she thought. The people with the debilitating injuries or conditions didn't survive any of the horror novels she had dabbled in... And, well, she was fairly certain she wouldn't survive the night here. But hey. Maybe she was just being dramatic.
The good thing about there being an infirmary was that Ziva would have a place to claim. Because of her Ability, she had learned that if she was going to be of any use to society, it would be through her Ability. She was just a tool to help other people. Her own pain had never really mattered. That, of course, didn't make the pain, or anxiety, any less humanizing or insufferable sometimes. But at least, if she worked in the infirmary, she could have a place for her to be the tool her God had designed her to be.
When she stepped into the infirmary, she had been so hung up on it being her place that she hadn't considered it would already be occupied. But, sitting there at a desk, hunched over notes in a position that Ziva was fairly certain she, herself, had been in many times before, was a pale girl with curly, light hair, glasses, and gloves on her hands. All words instantaneously left Ziva's throat, and she had to struggle to swallow, trying to get fluid down the new desert that had formed itself suddenly.
She needed this place. She needed a stable ground in this insane prison place. "I will help," she forced out, staring straight at the pale-faced girl. Her arms were still wrapped around herself and she still maintained a slightly-hunched position, but her face remained resolute.
She hoped the girl would submit and wouldn't put up much of an argument. Ziva really wasn't good in arguments, because a lot of times, she would trip up. If she didn't feel the passion of a moment, she forgot any and all words and reasonings she may have drummed up before. And this girl... This girl was, in a word, terrifying. If only because she was here first, and she seemed quite stressed.
Britters
Level 72
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Posted: 2/3/2019 at 2:32 AM
Post #342
So many notes, so many files, so many facts to check. Honestly, Reach thought, if it weren't for the fact that the people who ran this compound didn't care how much paper and pencils the people here went through she would have lost her mind a long time ago. She supposed the doctors and scientists knew the value in keeping their prisoners at least somewhat content. A riot would probably be pointless anyway, but she imagined there'd be quite a lot of time, money, and paperwork spent in trying to clean it up.
Paperwork...that seemed to be the long and the short of Reach's life these days. She had obviously crossed a line with Wire, and though the dark-skinned woman was covering her feelings well with helping Tox more with keeping things organized, it was obvious to her that they'd reached a point of no return. It felt...like the worst pain she could ever remember experiencing, and that included other people's pain she'd managed to feel through her ability.
Stop it this instant, you ninny, Reach scolded herself crossly, pausing to push her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. She'd been trying to tell herself for days that it was absolutely absurd to feel this way. After all, Wire was someone she had just met six weeks ago, which meant she was still mostly a stranger to her. Of course, every single time she thought that way the nagging voice in the back of her mind (which sounded a lot like Mr. Darcy squawking if she was being honest...) would remind her of her vision and of the fact that it was obvious that Wire meant more to her than a stranger even now.
"Oh my goodness!" she yelped in a most undignified manner, jumping in her seat as the sudden voice in the room startled her. She hadn't even heard the young lady come in.
Peering at the other girl through her spectacles, two things became very clear to Reach. First, that she did not recognize this individual and she felt certain she would have remembered someone so young and vital looking. Second, this young girl was in some manner of distress. She could have recognized the signs of anxo3ty in her sleep. She calmly removed her glasses, gave the lenses a quick swipe with her short and then replaced them on her face.
"I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific, love," she said to the young girl, her voice kind but still clipped and professional (which her accent never helped with), "Also I'm afraid you've caught me without my manners since I'm certain we haven't been introduced yet. I'm Reach." This young lady wasn't Wire, but she was someone and perhaps she was due for some actual personal interaction.
Creativity
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Posted: 2/3/2019 at 10:42 AM
Post #343
English was not Ziva's first language. English was not Ziva's second language. It was her third, and because of that, it was...rusty. Her first language was Hebrew. She had spent fourteen years of her life in Israel, and knew nothing other than Hebrew until that cursed-slash-miraculous mistake in the systems that transferred her all the way to Spain. It didn't make sense. She had known no Spanish before then, but, well, she had to learn. Perhaps it made the bullies even worse at first when she didn't know what they were saying, but she felt the threat.
Even her Spanish could be a little rusty sometimes, when it came to big, fancy words, but she had read enough novels in Spanish and spent quite enough time on Dictionary dot com for her to be rather strong in the language. For four years, she was surrounded by Spanish, and not once did she hear a word of Hebrew that was not spoken from her own mouth or found in an Israeli novel or movie.
But English... English had been taught to her in a classroom. She took three years of it, as her foreign language credits, but learning from a textbook didn't have the same lasting effect as learning from the environment. Unfortunately, everyone here seemed to speak English, Ziva found. So, she supposed she'd be learning from an environment once again...
"I-I just arrived today," Ziva told the girl, trying to fight the fact that her mouth and throat were still dry as cotton. Her heart had begun to speed up in her chest, though, fueled further by the condescending way in which this woman - Reach, what an odd name - spoke to her. "Pero, yo no creo que-" She cut herself off, realizing that she had accidentally slipped back into Spanish. Turning around sharply and pacing a few steps away, she muttered, "Reinicio..."
Turning back to face Reach with as much confidence as she could muster, Ziva forced her chin to lift a little higher. "I don't think it was normal. My name is Z-..." She cut off again, her gaze falling to the floor. She told herself that that probably wasn't her name. That's not what Brain called her. Physic fit the weird theme that these other people's names seemed to fit - Brain, Tox, Reach, Necro, Flora, Wire... "Physic."
She looked around the infirmary, and then down at the paperwork that the girl had seemed so obsessed with just a moment before. "I will help here."
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
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Posted: 2/3/2019 at 10:19 PM
Post #344
There was no doubt that Reach knew how to be compassionate and tender. She had worked as a nurse during the war in Britain, where she'd had to deal with nearly all of her patients having some form of post traumatic stress disorder. Somewhere along the line, after Ronald, she had let her fear of the world and others override her better judgement and her walls had been built tall and sturdy. She still cared, Wire had begun to erode the barriers she had around her, but sometimes she knew she came off as harsh.
It wasn't as though Reach had expected to be the go-to person for the new arrivals to...wait...
"Today?" she inquired suddenly, her voice sharper than she knew it should be, "But that's not..." She shook her head back and forth firmly, her thick, platinum hair tumbling about her shoulders.
This didn't make any sense. As Reach pushed herself away fromnthe desk and stood up to stride across the room, all she could think about was all the information she'd manage to gather about this place since she'd been here. New people arrived every six months, and her group had only been here four months, which she confirmed on the calendar which hung on the wall near the door. She spun around, another question poised on her lips for the young lady, Physic she'd said, but the words never left her mouth.
No matter how hard Reach was trying to ignore it, she could see right away that she and Physic were quite similar in many regards. They had clearly both had the same sort of reaction upon arriving at the compound and if this young lady had indeed been part of an unscheduled drop-off that could mean the experience might have been even more traumatic. She was clearly just trying to find some kind of anchor in the storm, a safe haven, but...Reach wasn't sure she was ready to share with anyone get.
"Look," she said to Physic, practically forcing some more sincere kindness into her voice, "I appreciate the offer, but if you just arrived then you don't know anything about how things work here yet, and besides there isn't much to do around here the majority of the time." That last part was not entirely true, not since she'd started on her file system project, but Physic didn't need to know that.
Creativity
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Posted: 2/3/2019 at 10:42 PM
Post #345
It was almost as if Reach was maintaining a distance. Ziva wasn't super well-versed when it came to reading people's emotions, but she could tell that there was rhyme and reason to Reach's clipped tone, to her professional manner. It was a little surprising when the girl seemed to lose her composure, in response to Ziva's comment about having just arrived. It was the first time Reach had actually kind of lost the professionalism she seemed to wear like a mask.
But Ziva knew that the girl wasn't fully healthy. A fever was really quite an easy thing to identify, even without needing to touch Reach. Other diseases, more obscure ones, those were a tad bit more difficult. Even cancer took her a minute or so to focus on in order to diagnose. But a fever? That was like common sense.
Reach had turned down her offer to help, but the way in which she held her right hand did not go unnoticed - Ziva, herself, had faced carpal tunnel many times from playing her endless computer games for hours on end - nor did the slight, involuntary quivering, or the look of exhaustion the girl hid go unnoticed. Ziva felt as if she could almost see right through the other person, and she was a little annoyed at Reach's condescension in implicitly suggesting she couldn't learn things quickly.
It was in that annoyance that she found a hidden stash of confidence. Ziva knew she was wicked smart. She could learn about the compound quite easily.
Her arms moving a little further up, from her midsection to her chest in an irritated sort of worth, Ziva stared levelly at the other woman. "You have a fever. Probably from overworking. You also have carpal tunnel in your right wrist, probably from writing too much. You haven't slept a good eight hours in at least a week or two. Your hand shakes a little, though you don't really notice."
Then, Ziva smiled a little - an apologetic smile. Yes, she could definitely claim this place. "But, of course, as you said, I don't really know what's going on."
Britters
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Posted: 2/5/2019 at 8:15 PM
Post #346
A dull ache was beginning to form between Reach's eyes as she stared at the young girl standing before her. She was beginning to wish that someone else was here, one of the others more adept at interacting with people, especially new arrivals. If her calendar was to be believed, and she was a bit of a freak when it came to keeping accurate account of time, then Physic should not be here yet anyway. She wasn't sure what was going on, and she had half a mind to go marching out of this office right now to track Tox and Brain down for some answers.
But then there was the way the other girl was looking at Reach, and despite her better judgement she could feel her walls soften ever so slightly.
"Look," she said quietly with a weary sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose over the top of her glasses, "I'm not trying to..." Her words trailed off as Physic moved her arms, and the expression on her face made Reach pause.
Then Physic spoke...and Reach could only stand there and stare at her for a few moments. She said nothing, but her mind was spinning like a top. She'd been here long enough now that she was no longer surprised by the various abilities which everyone here possessed, but she had to admit that this one had caught her off guard. Very briefly she warred with herself...this was her safe place. She didn't want to let this young girl in, but perhaps she was just being selfish. Perhaps...
"You missed my headache," she said blankly, icy blue eyes gazing piercingly at Physic, then she sighed again, "So...how is your handwriting?"
Creativity
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Posted: 2/5/2019 at 11:46 PM
Post #347
(Timeskip to next morning)
It had taken Ziva a while to get to sleep. There was so much to process about this place, that her sleep was limited and shallow for most of the night. Her and Reach had come to a sort of agreement, and Reach had spent a couple hours explaining the filing system she was setting up, and Ziva had spend another hour or so reviewing some of the files, trying to get a general idea of the people here.
The sun had only just barely touched the horizon when she drifted back into consciousness at one point. Letting out a small groan, she rolled over in hopes to find a better position that might bring more sleep. As her hand reached out, though, it brushed against...something. She wasn't really sure, until she opened her eyes.
A rat. There was a rat, staring at her. He was sitting with his legs under him and tail wrapped around, just watching her. Ziva was startled, but only gave a little jump. "Who the hell are you?" she muttered grumpily, and, giving in to the restless night, sat up in her bed. Her head still ached a bit from the kidnapping, and she slipped her glasses onto her face before peering closer at the rat. She had never been particularly squeamish, especially not with pests (they couldn't make her sick anyway!). She tried to nudge the rat off the bed, but he stayed determinedly put, keeping his stoic beady gaze on her.
Figuring she might as well throw him outside, Ziva grabbed the creature by the tail and carried him out of Brain's room and through the dorm building. The air outside was a little cool, but overall quite nice. "Go away," she told the rat sternly as she placed him on the ground and nudged him with her foot.
But, just as before, he seemed to think that wasn't a good idea. Ziva glanced around the compound, feeling a little relieved when she noticed Flora, awake already. She approached the other girl, and it didn't escape her notice that the rat trailed behind her.
"Um, excuse me?" Ziva spoke up, her anxiety telling her just now that maybe this interaction was not the best idea. She leaned over and grabbed the rat again, holding him by the tail. "Do you happen to know why this creature won't leave me alone? Is there a rat problem or something?"
Britters
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Joined: 8/25/2014
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Posted: 2/6/2019 at 2:42 PM
Post #348
Another beautiful morning had dawned and Flora was sitting on top of one of the courtyard tables while she watched the sun breach the horizon. She had risen early as she normally did, even though her troubled thoughts had made it more difficult than usual to fall asleep. No matter how hard she she had tried she couldn't stop thinking about the two young ones who had arrived yesterday: Steel and Physic. They had been so scared, so innocent, but at least they had each other.
"I can't get them out of my head, Pele," she said pensively, he fingers lightly scratching the top of her familiars head as she spoke, "Do you think it's a sign?" The armadillo, of course, didn't answer, but she heard a voice all the same so she turned her head to look.
It was almost comical really, the way that physic was walking towards Flora's table and holding a rat by the tail. She had to cover her mouth with her hand before she laughed out loud. She knew from her own experience that Tox and the leader before him had always left the appearance of their familiars as a surprise for newcomers,and they all played along. Given how unexpected Physic and Steel's arrival had been yesterday, she wasn't even sure they'd gotten the usual dinner speech, which was just further evidence that no one really knew what to think or do with them.
"No, we don't have a rat problem," she told Physic, her tone colored with amusement, "He is your familiar. It's something that the island gives us on our first morning here. They're usually related to our abilities, and I'm afraid you can't get rid of him. " She smiled warmly at the young girl. She felt a connection to Physic in that moment, but she wasn't sure what it meant.
"So...you might want to put him down...he looks disgruntled."
-----
When Diego first woke up, it was so dark that he couldn't see anything. This was because he had placed his pillow over his head. He was an incredibly heavy sleeper, but the previous day had been so overwhelming that sleep hadn't come easily.
It was also hard to ignore the fact that while Diego was grateful to even have a bed to sleep in, Necro's room was...different. He had spent a good hour just staring at the paintings which covered the walls, trying to make sense of the seemingly nonsensical dark, shadowy shapes, but this had only served in making him more uneasy. In the end, he had used the pillow to block out the strange images and sleep had finally found him.
Pushing himself up on his elbows, Diego slowly rolled back over onto his back and sat up, the pillow sliding unceremoniously to the floor. His grey eyes stayed resolutely shut, his mind not ready to deal with Necro's artwork being the first thing to see in the morning. He swiped his hand down the side of his face, his cheek damp with drool, and yawned lazily as he stretched his arms above his head. If it weren't for his desire to check on Ziva, he probably would have e just gone back to bed, but instead he finally forced his eyes to blink blearily open...
There was an alligator on his bed.
After a very brief moment of silence, Diego let out a loud shout as he stumbled out of the bed. This seemed to him to be the appropriate response for such a thing as having and alligator in your bed! His chest heaved, his eyes widened, and in the back of his mind he was thinking absently about how at least he no longer felt like going back to sleep. There was just the alligator to deal with...
"Hey there, little guy," he started to say softly to the reptile, his hands held up in a way that he hoped was nonthreatening, "I promise I'm not going to hurt you." It was indeed one of the smallest gators he had ever seen, and he was pretty sure it wasn't a baby.
The alligator simply stared blankly back at him...it was going to be a long morning.
Edited By Britters on 2/7/2019 at 8:49 AM.
Creativity
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Posted: 2/7/2019 at 1:36 PM
Post #349
Necro had learned many skills over the countless nights when everyone else was asleep. There were some activities that would take most of his nights - like, when he would escape into the Nether and learn the stories and lives of the souls that resided there. But on nights when he had nothing to do, he'd find something. He liked to consider himself an amateur at a great many skills - painting, cooking, knitting, writing, he'd even tried woodworking at one point.
Tonight, he had found himself with nothing to do and had chosen to make a project. He was wrapping up his painting of a deck of cards - it honestly didn't look all that bad! - when he suddenly heard a shout from the building that his room was placed in. Glancing up, Necro got down from on top of the table, which was actually the sixth place he had seated himself in during the duration of the card-making.
"How funny, Grizzy; he's discovered his new friend," he commented to his familiar, who limped behind him and offered a broken meow in response.
Of course, as Necro entered his room, he found Steel, standing tensely with his hands out in front of him. On his bed, a small alligator-looking thing stood. The reptile seemed to be very patient with his new person. Necro couldn't help a laugh, though, at the odd sight of the tough-looking jock of a kid standing defensively away from such a tiny little friend.
"Oh, you've got an alligator as your familiar? A small one," Necro spoke, striding into the room and extending his hand to the gator so it could place its snout in it. Laughing again, Necro scratched him under the chin. "He's cute, you know."
Withdrawing from the bed, Necro leaned down and lifted his Grizabella up into the air, proudly displaying her to Steel. "This is my familiar. Isn't she sweet?"
-
With a frown, Ziva examined the rat that dangled from her hand. He was kind of...ratty. His fur was a mottled brown, and those eyes beady and black. His tail was long and pink. But she felt as if she could almost sense an intelligence in the abysses he had for eyes. He did seem a little irritated, but when he looked at her, somehow it felt as if he knew more about her than she did. The 'familiar' explanation... Regardless of how absurd it kind of seemed, it also made sense, in a way. Well, as much sense as anything in this compound could make.
She had owned a pet, once. It was only a goldfish, though, and it surely didn't last long. One of her foster parents had an aquarium, and simply took one of their goldfish out of it to give to her on her eleventh birthday. The truth was, she really wasn't very good at taking care of anything.
Sometimes, she'd even forget to properly take care of herself if she had free time and a really good video game. She could just get lost in a really good video game... Sometimes, Diego would have to remind her that actual food was a good idea, and not just binge-ing chips, noodles, and frozen pizza.
"I've pretty much bounced between foster homes since I was ten," she revealed suddenly to Flora, placing the rat on a nearby table and letting her arms customarily wrap around her. "I've never had a real pet, you know. O-Only a fish once. I don't think I'd take very good care of him." She looked at the rat, and he soundlessly stared right back at her, waiting for acceptance. "What do you even do with a pet? Name it?" she laughed a little.
Slowly, she reached out a hand towards the rat, placing it on the table before him. He lowered his nose to her skin and sniffed her, his whiskers wiggling in what was actually quite the adorable way. Then, he extended his tongue and gave her fingers a kiss. Ziva couldn't help a small smile at that. "Scabbers. He's a Scabbers, I guess."
Britters
Level 72
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Joined: 8/25/2014
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Posted: 2/7/2019 at 11:10 PM
Post #350
Ever since Flora was very young she had grown accustomed to being the one people told all their troubles to, and she never really minded. It felt good to be so trusted, even by complete strangers, but it did become sort of a burden. She was the keeper of many secrets, the confidante to those who felt like they had no one else. There were times that it felt overwhelming, but she simply reminded herself that whatever way the gods needed her to serve, she was in no position to refuse.
Watching Physic interact with her eat familiar definitely tugged at Flora's heart, and she smiled softly. The young girl made her think of her siblings, and her natural instincts made her want to wrap her arms around the teenager. She restrained herself only because she wasn't sure how Physic might react. She knew she could be slightly overbearing when it came to hugs. Instead she contented herself by pulling Pele, her armadillo, closer to her and stroked her head with renewed vigor.
"They're not exactly pets as such," she explained, her voice warm and kind, scratching Pele absently under the chin, "They seem to be more or less like normal animals but more intelligent, and there is a physical link between us and them. If one half is hurt then the other feels the same pain." She had had a hard time believing that last bit herself, but Pele had gotten a bad cut on her foot once and at the same time she'd felt the pain in her foot just like the armadillo.
The familiars were just another in a long line of unanswered questions about this place, but Flora knew she was not alone in thinking they were really the only upside to all of this. At least none of them had to go through all of this alone. She certainly wasn't sure what she would do without Pele to keep her company. The familiars didn't speak, but they had other ways of communicating.
"I like the name," she said cheerfully, reaching over and letting the rat sniff at her finger, "He's certainly cute. The familiars are special...just like us."
-----
It wasn't that Diego didn't like animals. He in fact quite liked animals. However, he was not accustomed to animals like alligators to suddenly appear in his bed like this. He stood, his clothes from yesterday rumpled and his curly locks thoroughly tousled, and all he could really do was stare at the reptilian creature. The gator seemed eager to get closer to him for it scurried to the edge of the bed and regarded him with an open mouth that could be taken as a smile and the tip of his scaled tale twitching back and forth.
"Oh, thank goodness," he said as soon as Necro entered the room, since he had been locked in a stalemate with the alligator for what felt like forever, "I could some help...with..." He trailed off after the other guy simply smiled and laughed at his predicament.
This place was insane, Diego thought to himself as he watched Necro continue further into the room to introduce himself to the alligator. He put his face in his hands and wished that Ziva were here. At least she would have just as little idea of what was going on as he did. He tried to pay attention to what Necro was saying but the thought of Ziva had distracted him for a moment. Really, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear any of this anyway.
"My familiar?" he asked exasperatedly, heaving a great sigh as he slowly raised his head to look at Necro again, "What does that even mea-OH MY GOD! What is that?!" The creature that his vision was greeted with upon looking up seemed to be a feline, but the thing looked like it had died years ago, and Necro didn't seem bothered in the least. What in the world was this place?
Edited By Britters on 2/8/2019 at 12:18 AM.
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