WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1

[Awaken.

Fifteen strangers have been gathered to the Depths.

When the strangers awaken, they will feel nauseous in their stomachs. No doubt confused. Maybe a little sick, Perhaps, even terrified. And certainly, there is a good reason for it - they are not where they were before. If they had powers back where they came from, they seem to be all gone. And it appears that someone has left...guidelines for them. All of them addressed to a specific Title.

Their Title. Somehow, each person knows, upon seeing this, this is their Title, even if it seems to make no sense whatsoever. And its clear that whoever wrote these things knew it as well. Who was it?

Its uncertain. So far, there seems to be no one else save for them, and those who dare to venture out of their rooms - save, for some reason, the individuals in rooms 1, 8 and 7 - in this hot and stuffy place. No...'intercessor' to be seen yet, certainly. No outward signs that there's anyone else aside from the people with 'Titles'.


So, Titled: welcome.

There are fifteen strangers in this place.]

Comments

[zephyranthe]

Yup. [And she yawns, as if to punctuate this.] Wasn't where I fell asleep, too.

[There's a flicker of worry that passes through her face at the last bit, but it disappears quickly enough.]

[carries_war]

[Stop that, you're gonna make him yawn too! In fact, he might have started too and then cut it off.]

So we're both prisoners. But why? You aren't from the Institute, so this can't be over a battle that used URTVs...

[zephyranthe]

[yawns more She'll just shrug at that.]

Mm, I can think of a reason. [But some underground catacomb like this didn't quite seem like the kind of place she would've expected to have been held if the Noble Alliance had been responsible.]

I dunno what URTVs are, though, and I don't think this was done by the people I know, either.

[carries_war]

We're bioweapons. There's lots of people that might want us gone, but I can't think why any of them would use something this old fashioned to hold prisoners.

[He gives the wall a light kick with his foot, as if trying to emphasize how dumb it is.]

[zephyranthe]

[Bioweapon is another term she's not familiar with, but the name kind of says it all, really. Still, might as well ask for a little bit more of the specifics.]

You know how to fight?

[He looks even younger than her, but it's not like she wasn't handling weapons and such when she was around his age anyways. She just blandly watches him kick the wall before shrugging.]

If it works, it works. Unless they let us blow up the wall or something.

[carries_war]

[He raises an eyebrow, which combines with his perpetual lineface into a truly unimpressed expression.]

I'd be a lousy weapon if I didn't.

We might be able to destroy part of the wall, but we don't know what's on the other side. Have you seen any windows?

[zephyranthe]

Not if you explode.

[...Look she's not sure how literal the whole weapon thing is, okay. But enough about actual tykebombs.]

Not so far. Airflow's gotta be coming from somewhere though, so there's that too. [She's always up for a romp in the ventilation shafts...]

[carries_war]

I could, but unleashing the Red Dragon would kill my allies too, and isn't very practical in a defensive scenario or a retrieval mission.

It might be useful here, but if we're underground or in space, it would be either ineffective or dangerous to destroy one of the walls.

[zephyranthe]

[...Oh. He actually explodes. That's pretty impressive, actually. It doesn't show much on her face, but she's interested!]

Sounds exciting. You don't get hurt doing it, right? [Explosions are good and all, but she doesn't want him dying either.]

[carries_war]

No, my own fire doesn't hurt me. But it's not an easy power to control, so I don't use it much.

[zephyranthe]

I'll tell you if I find somewhere safe to use it, then.

[Wait... is she missing something?

...Oh, right.]

What's your name, anyways?

[carries_war]

It's...I'm URTV Unit #666.

[He stands up a bit stiffer, so much so that a military salute wouldn't look out of place. But she's not a client of the Institute, so he doesn't actually salute.]

[zephyranthe]

[What kind of name is that.]

Too long. Maybe I should just call you Red. [Creativity isn't her strong suit...]

[carries_war]

[The kind of name you give to a tool.]

Most of the scientists just call me #666...but I'm also allowed to call myself Rubedo, if you'd prefer to use that.

['The reddening' isn't much more creative, but...hey, it's his name. And it sounds like he hopes she'll use that instead of his number.]

[zephyranthe]

[She nods at that.]

Mm, Rubedo's fine.

[At least it sounds more like a name than just a number. And while she's at it...]

It's Fie. Fie Claussell.

[carries_war]

It's nice to meet you!

[Still no real expression, but he definitely sounds excited. Someone treating him like a person!]

And I'm sorry about interrogating you. I thought you might have been with the enemy.

[zephyranthe]

Yeah. Same to you.

[She doesn't have much of an expression herself, either, but at least he's excited now? Not that she's really understands why he suddenly seemed to brighten up like that, but Fie's not the type to dwell on that sort of thing anyways. That was usually relegated to her more socially adept classmates. She looks slightly confused at his apology, though.]

Don't really blame you. It's not like we really know each other, anyways. [Better safe than sorry, especially in a situation like this.]

[carries_war]

...Do you think they've just left us down here? If they don't want anything from us, it would make the most sense to not have any of their people where we can reach them.

[zephyranthe]

They bothered setting all of this up, though. It'd be kinda weird if they didn't have something else in mind.

[It'd be less hassle to kill them if they didn't care if they just rotted away, wouldn't it? And there was that one other thing, too...]

There're those rules too. I dunno how they'd enforce anything if there wasn't anyone around.

[carries_war]

They might have cameras hidden somewhere. That way they'd know if we break any rules without staying where we could attack them.

[zephyranthe]

Mmm. I guess they could sic some archaisms on us if that was the case. Wonder if we should check around for some traps, too.

[carries_war]

Without our powers, even basic guard droids might be dangerous. Especially since they took my gun.

[zephyranthe]

They took my grenades, too. Wonder if we could improvise something here.

[carries_war]

It shouldn't be too hard. A lot of common substances are volatile when mixed.

[zephyranthe]

Guess we'll have to see what's around. Time to make use of Xeno and Leo's teachings.