001: [holo] Please stand away from the platform edge

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Alexis glanced at her phone as she hurried down the stairs to the subway station. “I'm going to be so late,” she fretted, dodging around an older man with an oversized briefcase as she dialed a number on the phone. She swiped her subway pass and scooted through the turnstile as the phone rang, and rang, until it clicked to voicemail. “Oh hey, Justin! I just wanted to call to let you know that I'm running a little late for our violin lesson toda--”

The rest of her message died in her throat as, between one step and the next, the familiar confines of the New York subway system became something completely different, a seamless expanse of sterile, featureless steel.

Alexis gaped, mouth still slightly open. “Hello?” she finally asked. “My name is Alexis Castle. Can anybody tell me where I am? Or how I got here?”

Her own words echoed back at her, and Alexis chewed her bottom lip as she fumbled with her phone, hitting her dad's number on speed dial without any conscious thought. She didn't wait for him to pick up; if she had, she would have realized the phone wasn't ringing, but finding herself in a strange room when she had two seconds before been in the crowded subway station made Alexis less than rational. “Dad? Are you there? I need you to come get me, I think I'm in trouble,” she said, trying her best to sound calm, though it was hard to hide the edge of hysteria, the rising panic in her voice. “I was on my way home, in the subway station, but now I'm not, I'm in a little round room and there isn't anything here--” A pause, as she notices for the first time a podium with a device resting on it. Her voice quavers as she continues, “Except a podium, and I'm getting scared, Dad. Can you come get me?”

Comments

[holo]

[keepshopealive.livejournal.com]

Seeing a poor young girl in the same situation tugged at Rick's strings, an easy feat in the first place, but missing his own family really pulled him to want to help her. He was a dad without his child now and here she was looking for hers.

He clears his throat, not quite sure how to approach this. Rick decides that there is no easy way so he'll take it gently. "Ms. Castle? This is former deputy Rick Grimes. I'm afraid..."

Rick pauses here to swallow, deciding not to get right into the meat from the get go. "I'll need you to just breathe and take a moment. You're no longer in the subway station, that much is true, but you're also no longer on earth. Your father can't hear you."

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

At the sound of the voice that was definitely not her father and definitely not coming from her cell phone, Alexis stopped talking, fear and curiosity warring on her face as she turned on her heel in a slow circle. "Just Alexis works..." She trailed off as she took the deep breath former deputy Rick Grimes suggested, years of following rules and generally staying out of trouble having conditioned her that when in doubt, doing what law enforcement was a good choice.

The slow breaths didn't really help as the words 'you're also no longer on earth' sunk in, but they gave her something to focus on. "Oh." A bit of an understatement, but it was all her mind could convince her mouth to say. Her eyes finally fell on the tablet and its projection, and she stepped closer to it. On the one hand, she no longer looked on the verge of tears. On the other... well she looked just plain stunned. "Where's my dad? Is he okay?" A pause. "Where am I?"

[keepshopealive.livejournal.com]

Stunned was definitely better than on the verge of tears. Extremely better; and it would make this much more easier, for now. Rick was patient as she got herself together, a learned practice from being a parent, but something that also just came naturally to him as a person.

The round of questions was to be expected--he had quite the same reaction, and understandably so. He waited until she was finished before answering the questions in order that would be easiest to understand. "You're in Taxon, a city. No one here knows why, but we've been taken and put here by aliens."

That enough would be a tough pill to swallow. But he wouldn't ignore her other questions. "I haven't been here long, but I don't think your father is here. From what I've been told those who were left behind are fine and life is as if we've never left." Rick sincerely hoped that piece of information was correct.

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Questions leapt to mind at the name of the city, but Alexis held them back, taking another deep breath, then another, and another, as she waited for him to finish explaining. "City named Taxon," she repeated. It helped a little. "By... aliens?" Her arms wrapped around her stomach reflexively as she remembered watching movies that she probably shouldn't have watched while her dad had been on a book tour. "They're not the kind that burst out of stomachs, are they, Deputy Grimes?"

She relaxed a little, however, at the idea that her dad was still safe back home. Alexis didn't want to think about what would happen when he realized she hadn't come home.

[keepshopealive.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry, Alexis. I've yet to see them lay a hand on anyone." Not that a 'glitch' causing a zombie attack was much better. But she definitely did not need to hear that right now.

Instinctively he'd held a hand up as he explained, even though he wasn't really there. "I haven't been here that long, but as far as I know, they haven't done anything to us. Just keep us here."

[visual]

[hasaheart]

The hologram takes Cain by surprise - like they all do, one way or another - this one hitting a bit too close to home, through no fault of the newcomer.

It's his mind playing tricks with him again (or maybe more accurately, his heart), reminding him of his own family. In so many words, he could relate. It didn't help matters that the girl looked and sounded about as young as his boy would (should) be by now. No more than sixteen, at a guess, and by the looks and sounds of it, more frightened than a kid should ever have to be.

So he switches his tablet to visual transmission, only wanting to help. Hoping, perhaps against hope, that he won't make matters worse. Might seem selfish, but acting welcoming wagon to a new arrival sure beats thinking about the past week.

"Miss? My name is Wyatt Cain; I'm an officer of the law," plain facts, presented as plainly as possible in case of cultural discrepancies (never mind the fact he hasn't been a cop for a long, long time - old habits die hard). Ozma knows that happens a lot in this place.

"Are you okay?"

[holo forever, at least until someone tells her how to change that]

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

"No." The little whimper slipped out before Alexis realized it, but she clapped a hand over her mouth and nodded, trying to pull herself together. She'd been sitting on the bottom step of the little stage area but, at the sound of the new voice, she craned her neck to look up at the tablet only to find that there was no projection. She stood up again, leaning over the tablet, and gave the man peering up from it a watery smile.

"It's... just a lot to take in, Officer Cain," she answered. Alexis still sounded uncertain, but she remained polite. She tried to remember what the other officer, Deputy Grimes, had told her. "Aliens and cities and stuff." She looked at Officer Cain earnestly, with all the trust a young woman her age had for adults. "Is it true? I'm not imagining it all?"

[visual - and Cain's just the guy for that sort of info sharing]

[hasaheart]

Wyatt's shoulders slumped at the dejected sound of her voice, heart positively aching - and what good would it do to dwell on his own past when he had a chance to actually help someone, instead of griping about the place with what few friends he had?

"I'm sorry. It's all real... But the place is nicer once you're out of that room. And," he paused, wondering how to put words to something even he was struggling with, after months of escalating weirdness and unnameable horrors.

"And it's not all bad," he said, trying to keep a lighter attitude than normal. No need to scare the kid with his rampant depression, after all. "We're all in this together."

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Taking another deep breath, Alexis tried to pull herself together. People were trying to help her, which meant she really needed to not sit around moping. Her grandma had always said that acting was about confidence, about believing what one was saying, and Alexis tried to take that advice now. Another deep breath, mentally thinking to herself that things were going to be okay.

It made her feel better, at least. Whether the officer believed her was a different story, but that for the moment wasn't Alexis' chief concern. "That's better than being here all alone," she agreed, peering at the tablet with growing curiosity despite everything. "So, you're one of the city's police?"

[visual]

[numbersnfigures.livejournal.com]

The name "Castle" catches Spencer's attention. He's heard that name before.

"You're... in a place called Taxon.."

He didn't have the heart yet to tell her that she was on an entirely different planet.

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Alexis looked surprised when another voice comes through the tablet, which she's placed on the floor by now, and she peered at it. "But why am I here?" she asked. "I had a violin lesson..."

It was warmer in the little room than it had been in the middle of the city in the winter, and Alexis pulled up the sleeves of her sweater. A glint of silver caught her eye and she jumped, raising her wrist to the tablet. "And why am I wearing half a handcuff?!"

[visual]

[numbersnfigures.livejournal.com]

Spencer sighed. The aliens doing this to adults was one thing, but it just wasn't right in his eyes to do it to teenagers.

"I can try to explain all of that, but before I continue... do you know a Kate Beckett?"

[visual]

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

The mention of a familiar name made hope rise in Alexis' chest, and it showed on her face as an uncertain but genuine smile. It also took her mind momentarily off the silver bracelet that seemed to be stuck to her skin. "You know Detective Beckett? How? Is she here?"

Okay, so maybe hope and a little panic.

[Visual]

[noheatnikki.livejournal.com]

Kate's head snapped up at the sound of the familiar voice, and she strode quickly to her tablet, snatching it up and turning it on. As many times as she had wondered about a familiar face coming to Taxon, she hadn't ever really considered Alexis. Castle yes, but not his daughter.

"Alexis?"

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

At the familiar voice, Alexis practically dove for the tablet. She picked it up, ignoring the way the door to the room dutifully opened again. She wasn't quite ready to leave and explore a brand new city knowing her dad wasn't going to be there.

There was a quiet, tentative hope in her voice as she peered at the tablet's face, hoping she hadn't heard wrong. "Detective Beckett?"

[Visual]

[noheatnikki.livejournal.com]

"Yes, it's me."

Kate couldn't believe the aliens could be so cruel as to bring a kid to the godforsaken place.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt? I'll come get you, okay?"

[Visual]

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Nodding at the screen, Alexis answered in what could only be described as a relieved babble. "I'm fine, I'm not hurt. I'm just confused." Breathe, Alexis, breathe. "And someone said they were your friend, Dr. Reid. He said he'd come get me if I wanted."

Alexis bit her lip. "I was kind of hoping if I stayed in here I would wake up back in the subway station."

[visual]

[garg-elisa.livejournal.com]

At first surprised by the appearance of a kid on the broadcast, Elisa has to fight down a wave of anger. She didn't much like the aliens here in the first place, but the girl couldn't have been much older than fifteen.

It led her own thoughts back to Angela and the others she'd left behind.

"I'm... afraid I've got some bad news, kiddo."

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Her new surroundings were finally starting to sink in for Alexis, and the discovery of a familiar voice from home helped, so when she picked up the tablet to answer (ignoring the door once again), she looked almost normal. Not quite on the verge of tears anymore, at least. "Am I dead?" She tried to smile at her little joke. It didn't work.

[garg-elisa.livejournal.com]

Elisa shook her head. "Probably not. The current explanation seems to be "alien abduction."

She hastened to amend that with, "Of which I am not one."

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Alexis blinked and looked at the tablet again. What she had initially thought of as a quirk of the tablet's display or a play of shadows... no, still there. Her expression turned sheepish. "Is it rude to ask what, I mean who, you are?"

[ visual ]

[gotcouplings.livejournal.com]

It took Kaylee a few minutes to get untangled from the mess of wires that belonged to the drill, and by the time she was able to reach for the tablet it was clear that most had already explained to the poor girl that her dad wasn't around. She was young, but Kaylee didn't imagine she was much younger than River. Old enough to take care of herself, just scared. At least she had missed the zombies, that had to mean something.

Kaylee smiled, doing her best to look somewhat comforting, and brushed a spare wire off of her arm and flashing a glimpse of her own bracelet. "You got somebody comin' to get you yet, sweetie? It's a lot easier to take in once you're outta that room, let me tell ya."

[ visual ]

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Having had things explained helped, but a little part of Alexis still hoped against hope that she had just slipped and fallen in the subway station and this was all a particularly weird and detailed hallucination. Once she walked out of the room she was going to have to admit it was all true. So she stayed for the moment. Even if the room was starting to get a little creepy and the door kept opening whenever she touched the tablet.

But the woman who asked the question couldn't have been that much older than herself, and that helped a little. She was less intimidating than the adults. "No, not yet," she answered, sounding a little sheepish. She really should have, by now, shouldn't she? Alexis held up the phone that had come with her into this place, now no longer able to dial out but still seeming to work. "I just keep hoping my phone would work and I could call Dad."

[ visual ]

[gotcouplings.livejournal.com]

The mechanic knew that feeling more than she cared to admit. There were some days when she had to force herself to leave the Ranch, to admit that Kowlonshi wasn't waiting outside the gates, but more of the mismatched city that was Taxon. Uncomfortable, yes, but sometimes uncomfortable things were necessary.

"Not so easy to get transmissions of any kind outta here, unfortunately." She would know, after spending so much time trying to rig the radio to broadcast further. Either they were farther out than she could imagine, or the hamsters had something blocking those transmissions. Gorram aliens. "If you like, though, I could at least come sit with ya for a bit 'til you figure out what you wanna do? That room ain't exactly friendly."

[ visual ]

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

The woman's answer about transmissions wasn't exactly surprising, not given everything everyone'd already said, but it still made Alexis' heart sink a little. She tried to smile again, a little quavery, but she nodded. "I'd like that," she replied. "I'm Alexis, by the way."