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

Entry tags:

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

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?”

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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."

Spencer smiled back. He knew his intuition had been right.

"Yes, she's here. She's my.... she's a friend of mine."

He decided that it probably wasn't a good idea to drop the fact that he and Kate were together on Alexis quite yet.

"You're her writer friend's daughter, yes?"

Alexis nodded, the momentary relief that someone knew her overwhelming her and leaving her to not catch the little pause in the man's answer. "Yes, I'm Alexis. Dad and Detective Beckett work together," she answered. She latched on to that and the panic about the bracelet remained at bay. "But I don't think I know you."

"No, I met Kate here. My name's Spencer Reid. I work for the FBI."

Spencer wondered if knowing someone here when you arrived made it any easier. He surmised that it didn't based on the panic that he could still see in Alexis's eyes.

"If you lift the tablet, the doors to the room will open and you'll be able to leave."

The idea of a familiar face would probably have helped at the very beginning, but a familiar face could only do so much for the idea of aliens and new planets. "The FBI knows we're here?" Alexis wasn't quite sure how to feel about that idea.

She pushed a strand of hair back over her ear and nodded at the instructions. She picked up the tablet again, and the doors opened as promised. She could see a hallway beyond, but if she left, it would be accepting that this wasn't some sort of hallucination caused by a concussion. "Thank you, Mr. Reid. I just need to..." Alexis gave him a sheepish smile. "Process? I guess?"

"Dr. Reid. And uh, no... they don't. I have no way of communicating with my team, unfortunately."

Spencer could see the hesitance in her eyes and he swallowed hard. He had always had an affinity for children and was angered at the unfairness of an adolescent being ripped from her normal life and brought to this place.

"I can um... come get you... when you're ready.."

That wasn't a question that he'd been expecting. The first and only thought that had come to his mind was to get out of that horribly claustrophobic room. But at the same time, he could understand. The more he moved on from that room the more he had to take in and try to accept.

"I...wouldn't recommend it, but there's no rush." He tried to say as gently as he could. He watched the holo projection as she set downt he tablet--wondering what she was going to do. But when she explained, he nodded. Rick wondered if his son, Carl, would be handling this as well as she was. "Of course. Like I said, there's no rush."

Elisa managed a small smile. It seemed to be high on the newbie question list. Got it out of the way, at least.

"Definitely not," she said. "I'm a Gargoyle. Kinda of like the statues. My name's Elisa."

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."

At his offer, Alexis looks surprised but also relieved. As responsible and independent as she could be, the idea of wandering alone in a strange city did not appeal in the slightest, and... well, her dad trusted Detective Beckett. Which meant that anyone Beckett trusted could be trusted, right? Especially if Beckett had told them about her dad. "You would?" Her voice went quiet. "I'd like that, Dr. Reid."

*****

About half an hour later (at least according to Alexis' phone's counting), Alexis appears back on the screen, looking calmer, even if her eyes were red and her cheeks damp. She'd poked around every bit of the room, and the only things that had been in it were herself, her backpack full of homework, and her cell phone, all of which were now safely tucked away on her person. "Dr. Reid? Should I meet you somewhere?"

At Elisa's reassurance, Alexis seemed to relax, and with that relaxation came the curiosity she'd learned from her dad. "I'm Alexis. It's nice to meet you." 'I wish it wasn't because we'd been kidnapped by aliens' hung unspoken. Alexis peered at the screen again, curious. "So were the statues named after you?"

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."

"Likewise," Elisa replied. "But yeah, more or less. The statues were based on the real thing. Not me specifically."

"I'm guessing you've been given the lowdown?"

Spencer thought that she might not call back. After all, just because a strange man talks to you over a phone device doesn't mean that you should agree to meet him, even if he claims to know someone you trust. That was Safety 101, something all children were taught in elementary school.

He was relieved when she appeared again on his tablet, however. Spencer noticed her reddened eyes but did not let on to the fact. He could understand wanting to cry in peace.

"Yes.. ah.. if you draw up the map on your tablet, you should be able to see everyone's location including your own. It's probably best if I meet you right outside the place where you are, which is called The Sanctuary."

Somehow, after processing 'aliens', the idea of 'stone gargoyles named after real ones' wasn't so hard to digest. Alexis nodded. "Everyone's been very helpful. They told me about the aliens, how to get out, how to use the tablet..."

A glance down at her hands reminded Alexis of a question that hadn't been answered. "Except nobody mentioned this bracelet."

When the choice was between wandering a strange new city alone and wandering it with a stranger (who could potentially be dangerous), Alexis was a little more inclined to go with the stranger, if only because she had heard that Detective Beckett was in the city. Alexis frowned in mild concentration as she poked at the tablet, eventually pulling up the map and finding the little dot labeled "Alexis Castle". She chewed on her lip, trying to find the corresponding label for Spencer Reid. "Okay, I see it."

Alexis was nearly at the door when she hesitated and looked around the room. The moment she left, this was all going to be real. That she was going to be all alone, that her dad wasn't going to be the one waiting for her at home. Or that there was a home to go back to at all. "I love you, Dad. Don't worry," she whispered, before taking a deep breath and glancing back down at the tablet.

"Okay. I'll wait outside. Thank you, Dr. Reid."

"Okay, now that I can handle."

Elisa put her thoughts in order, then went on. "Bracelet's got a few uses, but one of the major ones is identifying you as a real person, instead of an Extra."

The mention of extras immediately put into Alexis' mind her dad complaining about the casting of the Nikki Heat movie, but she had a feeling that wasn't quite what it meant. "Extras? What do you mean 'real person'?"

Okay, so maybe it wasn't all as easy to process as easily as 'aliens'.

"It's... well," Elisa begins, "complicated. But anyone who has a bracelet is someone who's been brought here. The Extras, well, they do things, they'll communicate a little, but they're more like living dolls than anything."

She didn't mean to put the poor girl off any more than she had to, but some things couldn't be avoided. New arrivals, no matter their age, deserved as much truth as could be given.

"On my way, then." Kaylee put her tablet down on the table while she gathered up her tool bag, giving Alexis a nice shot of the shop's high ceiling and the ship parts hanging from it, then grabbed it again as she headed for the door.

"Alexis? Pretty name. 'M Kaylee."

It took Spencer about 10 minutes on the tram from his apartment in Shelley to arrive in Central. He hadn't been out in a while, and was pleased to see the the bodies of the zombies were finally gone, though many of the buildings needed some repair. He found Alexis standing on the steps of The Sanctuary.

"Alexis?"

"Oh." The answer seemed simple enough, even if it made Alexis' brow furrow as she thought through the implications. "That sounds really creepy, actually."

The temporary view Alexis got of Kaylee's surroundings was surprisingly normal, even if she didn't recognize any of the things that were hanging from the ceiling. But it was pretty recognizable as some sort of workshop, unlike the little steel room Alexis was still curled up in.

"Thanks. Dad picked it out," she answered. Her stomach flipped a little at the thought of her dad, and Alexis picked up her phone again, paging through it, hoping it would work even though she was pretty sure it wouldn't. "It's nice to meet you, Kaylee."

Waiting for Dr. Reid outside the Sanctuary gave Alexis some time to look over her tablet, to stare at the little dots moving around as people moved around. She may have spent a couple of minutes walking back and forth in front of the Sanctuary, trying to figure out how far she had to walk to make the dot move.

At the sound of her name, though, Alexis stopped poking at the alien device and looked up. She pushed an errant strand of hair away from her ear, for the first time thinking maybe wandering around alone was better than with a stranger even if Dr. Spencer Reid in no way looked like a dangerous person, and nodded hesitantly. "That'd be me. Are you Dr. Reid?"

"Yes... It's nice to meet you, Alexis."

Reid gave her a sort of wave, then shoved his hands in his pockets. He didn't shake hands, so putting them in his pockets was a way to bypass the awkward moment when someone stuck their hand out him and he did not want to take it.

"It's unfortunate that we had to meet... in this place."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 2 of 4

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

[ visual ]

[visual]

[visual]

[visual]

[visual]

[visual]

no subject

no subject

[ visual ]

[visual]

no subject

[ visual ]

no subject

[visual]

no subject

[visual]

no subject

no subject

no subject

[ visual ]

[location: the sanctuary]

no subject

[ visual ]

no subject

[location: the sanctuary]