020: Home Sweet Home [Location: the Northern Island / Visual]

[tothelightshown.livejournal.com]

The Northern Island had been a distinctive feature of the Speares district from the moment that DG had arrived in the city. The palace, frozen in time in a mountain of magically preserved ice, was very different from the artificial buildings that made up most of Taxon. It was real. It was home.

It was gone.

Anger welled up in DG's chest as she stared helplessly at an empty space that had once been hers. It was only when she picked up the tablet to contact Glitch that she spotted a familiar name on the newly configured map. Fury was replaced with confusion and, turning on her heel, DG jumped on her motorbike and hurtled towards Wilde and the shores of the new lake that dominated the area.

A few minutes later, she switched on her tablet.

"It looks like the hamsters decided it was time for a change," she remarked, addressing the camera directly before turning it to show the palace and the icy bridge that connected the small island to the edge of the lake. "The Northern Island really is an island now."

But it was still here. It was still home. She had a lot of gaps in her memories and her knowledge of the O.Z, so it was important for DG to hold on to everything that was familiar. Especially in a city as strange as Taxon. The aliens made it easy to forget where you belonged. She would never forget.

1 [Arrival to Taxon]

[ladyofrohirrum.livejournal.com]

Eowyn woke up slowly. The last she remembered was that she had passed out on a battlefield. She slowly pushed herself up from the cold floor, wincing when she put pressure on her broken arm, which had been tended to, though she couldn’t think of anyone who would have done so. She also noticed that she was no longer in the armor she had worn, but that she was in a long white robe. It was at this moment that she noticed the strange bracelet on her wrist. This would have puzzled her of course, but her attention was soon drawn to her surroundings, and the matter of her tended injuries and new clothes didn’t seem very important.

She stumbled to her feet, frantically looking around at the sterile room she found herself in. This certainly wasn’t a place in Rohan, and while Gondor held many differences from her own realm, she knew that it couldn’t possible contain something like this. The entire room was made of metal, and she couldn’t help but think that this was some sort of devilry concocted by Saruman before his death at Orthanc. “What is this place? Surely it cannot be a dream!” Eowyn ran over to where a sword lay, pulling the belt around her waist and securing it tightly. She brought the blade out of its scabbard with her good hand and approached the middle of the room where a pedestal stood; some sort of devise laying on top of it.

She moved slowly, cautiously, turning her head to look around in case something unfavorable should appear behind her. She did make it to the center of the room, and she lowered the sword in favor of inspecting the strange item sitting on top of it. After returning the sword to its scabbard, she slowly stretched out her hand and touched it, retreating her hand after she felt its smooth surface. Living in the shadow of Saruman and Isengard, she knew better than to mess around with strange objects. It didn’t seem like a dangerous item though, but she remained cautious. She noticed that there was a hinge, and she slowly opened it, revealing the screen and keyboard. She pressed a few keys, but nothing happened. “This is an odd thing.” Eowyn pressed more buttons, eventually turning on the devise, the screen glowing, at which she cried out and dropped the tablet to the floor. “Surely this is the work of a wizard.” Again, she looked around, as if expecting Saruman or even Gandalf to suddenly appear behind her.

She bit her lip. If this was indeed an object from Isengard, she shouldn’t mess around with it. Then again, she didn’t really see a way out of the room she was in either, so perhaps she could use it to her advantage somehow. Eowyn approached the tablet again, sitting herself on the ground as she set it upright on the floor. There were various icons on the touch screen, and she touched one of them, a holographic map suddenly appearing above the screen. It didn’t look familiar to her at all. She frowned, and touched a few more icons, but she couldn’t understand what any of them did. “Perhaps this is a dream. If it is, then when am I going to awaken?” She sighed, but picked herself up while also grabbing the tablet while she walked over the wall. Dream or not, she wanted to find a way out of this room.

002 ━ [ visual ] / [ location: the crashdown ].

[cametolife]

"Hi, Taxon, I, um--" She cuts herself off, looking away, then back at the tablet. And then down, in an abashed kind of way. "I am really bad at this and will obviously never, ever go into the entertainment industry. Anyway! I brought this restaurant you can see behind me," and she holds the tablet out and pans it left, then right, to give the network a good view of the place, "to Taxon and it's a little understaffed by people not me or the natives. Not that they aren't hard workers, they just kind of... creep me out, and aren't much for conversation."

Talking happened, but what they had to see was extremely limited. Questions were answered and directions were followed, but what was missing from them was what had always made the Crashdown worth working at on those days where the customers made her want to throw down her apron and quit. There was nothing holding the staff together, no bond, no laughter that passed between them or smiles offered in times of hardship. She missed that.

"I'd love to take people on, whether it be waiting tables or cooking, cleaning, even a host! Anyone would be great. So, contact me if you'd be interested, I'd really appreciate the help and company."

10 | [ location: the jeffersonian institute gardens ] / [ visual ]

[bonescientist.livejournal.com]

Brennan is seated outside on one of the benches sprinkled throughout the sprawling gardens flanking the Jeffersonian Institute, going over the tablet posts from the other citizens. The museum/research facility she'd brought with her into Taxon upon her arrival had been moved from Shelley to the Central district during their forced stay in the same building, and it appears that's not the only change the city has undergone.

"So, this is why we were confined in the Sanctuary for weeks," she remarks as she scrutinizes the updated map, tilting her head a little in consideration. "Does anybody who has been a captive for longer than ten months know if anything like this has happened before?"

( ooc | tags will be slow from tomorrow to sunday as i'm traveling and have no internet access during this time, so apologies in advance! backtags are awesome, y/y? )